I-1631 has business owner backer

In a recent letter to the editor, the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce “took a pass” on a cleaner, healthier future for Washington by declining to support Initiative 1631, saying the costs would be too high. But climate change is already costing our businesses and our community here in Bellevue.

We pay for health care for our children and elders with asthma exacerbated by wildfire smoke and other pollutants. We pay for flood insurance in this new, riskier era of extreme storms and changes in snowpack. We pay for cleanup from these worsening natural disasters, and we need to get ahead of them.

Voting yes on I-1631 is our chance to do something constructive about pollution and climate change right now — in our own communities. I-1631 will invest in solutions to these problems, supporting projects to clean up our air and water, and helping us all weather the changes that are already here.

As a small business owner with a store in downtown Bellevue, I am proud to support implementing a fee to reduce carbon pollution and invest in a cleaner future. My business, Soaring Heart Natural Beds, is committed to the health of our customers and their families, and we’re committed to a healthier future for our community and our world.

I’m voting “Yes” on I-1631 as an important step toward a better Washington. I hope my fellow business owners will see that it’s in all our best interest to invest in a future with less pollution and healthier natural systems. We must vote “Yes” on 1631. We can’t afford not to.

Mike Schaefer

Bellevue

No facility in park

This is in response to Evan Pappas’s great article in the Oct. 12 issue of the Reporter, regarding the disappearing tree canopy in Bellevue (“Bellevue completes citywide tree canopy assessment”).

At this time, the Bellevue Parks Department in partnership with The Bellevue Boys & Girls Club is considering building a gargantuan 30,000- to 40,000-square-foot indoor field house within Wilburton Hill Park. This heavily wooded park has beautiful, well-maintained trails and is home to an amazing number of wildlife species — deer, great horned owls, coyotes and a bobcat, just to name a few. It’s truly a gem so close to a large city.

The destruction of so much of the tree canopy will forever change the nature of this park. At this time, the city council has left it up to the parks department to decide whether to proceed with this project. I feel there is no way the city is concerned with “the disappearing tree canopy” if this project is allowed to go forward. Our tax dollars have paid for a park and the maintenance, not a huge sports structure. This facility should be built elsewhere, not in Wilburton Hill Park.

Sue Thomas

Bellevue

Mobs or jobs?

The election is upon us, and no doubt we are all glad the commercials will soon be over. We do, however, have important decisions to make now. And as we do so, we should all remember that not one despicable Democrat voted for our federal income tax cuts, not a single one of them.

We should consider the “service” that has been provided by the Democrats at every level — Sen. Maria Cantwell helped bring us the trillion-dollar stimulus from former President Barack Obama that did not stimulate anything, the resist, obstruct, riot and mob rule house Democrats, the vile processes of the senate Democrats and their conspirators disrupting the hearings. President Donald Trump noted just the other day, our choice is just this: Do we want mobs or jobs?

Vote for Republicans at every level. They are actually doing good things for our country and our state.

David Jones

Bellevue

Cutting trees unnecessary

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) plans to cut down 300 trees along Bellevue’s 148th Avenue and Northeast 8th Street to build a new power line. An obsolete and unnecessary power line is contrary to our community values.

PSE knows there are better solutions for a reliable grid — they’re using them in 22 other neighborhoods. Instead of new power lines, PSE has improved reliability in 22 neighborhoods with “smart grid” technology called “distribution automation.” This is a better solution for Lake Hills.

I would like to urge Kimberly Harris, CEO of PSE, to halt PSE’s plan to cut down 300 trees along two of East Bellevue’s most beautiful urban boulevards.

Prashanth Adhikari

Bellevue

I-1631 is practical first step

I’m writing to urge a “Yes” vote for Initiative 1631.

I-1631 would give us the tools to limit the effects of fossil fuel emissions, and it is a key to supporting clean energy and protecting our state’s health.

Climate change is a huge challenge and can seem overwhelming, but I-1631 gives us a practical first step that will make our lives better here in Washington. By putting a fee on the largest emitters of carbon pollution and investing that money in our state, we will spur innovation in clean energy as well as investments in proven technology. One simple example — if we could electrify our school bus fleet, we’d protect our children from diesel emissions and save the school district money at the same time.

With clean energy comes clean air and sustainable jobs that benefit us all. We can spur our economy, and take care of our forests, rivers, lakes and Puget Sound, protecting them from the effects of pollution and climate change.

This is a practical first step to addressing pollution. It’s an important opportunity we need to take right now. Vote “Yes” on I-1631, and help make a future in which our communities prosper from clean energy.

Arul Menezes

Sammamish

Very worried about climate change

I am very worried about climate change, particularly given the recent report that was released indicating we could see major problems by 2040.

I believe the United States needs to be a leader in focusing on renewable energy and putting policies in place to cut fossil fuel emissions. Industry in the United States needs to make a fundamental change in how goods are manufactured and transported, even if it ultimately costs more.

I want my members of Congress to fight for policies that aren’t window dressing but will really make a difference.

I look at my 6-year-old and 2-year-old and pray that we will leave a habitable, healthy world for them.

Tiffany Sparks-Keeney

Bellevue

Can’t wait

We need action, now. The Earth is struggling to survive, largely due to man-made pollution, and humans are going to suffer the consequences.

Initiative 1631 is an attempt to address the air pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels, by imposing a fee on the biggest producers, mostly the oil industry.

Yes, we all use gas, and yes there are some exceptions to the fees. But the opposition would ask you to do nothing, for longer, so that the profits keep rolling in.

Perfect is the enemy of good. This bill is not perfect, but we cannot wait for a perfect law — it will never come.

This is a really good first stab at regulation, one that can be copied and improved by other states, other countries, even by our future selves. it’s not the final shot, it’s the first salvo. But we have to start somewhere. Please vote “Yes” on ballot initiative 1631.

Steve Coffing

Bellevue

Another option

Puget Sound Energy is required to manage public electricity without playing entrepreneur for foreign investors and multinationals. Energize Eastside is not vital. Then wait. Is there a hedge fund in the background? And is it going to destroy 8,500 trees for money? Big canopy trees for extra security is deceptive when power could go down on the Snoqualmie slope, weak as a solar wind, weak everywhere else but in the Eastside, temples of power reign.

PSE should do the one option they mention but do not actively present. PSE states:

“PSE would continue to manage its maintenance programs to reduce the likelihood of equipment failure, and would continue to stockpile additional equipment so that repairs could be made quickly. PSE would also continue its energy conservation program systemwide and for the Eastside.1 As appropriate, conductor replacement on existing lines would occur.”

The promise of modernity is failing us. Humanity has serious problems ahead, and people are sick of corporations playing on fears with ignorant money-making solutions decrying local identity, individuality, consciousness and ethics. The Quickening is upon us, accelerated extinction: consciousness stuck in bad materialism: So bleak and apathetic, people can’t even deal with PSE; locked in sports, porn, drugs and shopping.

Julian von Will

Bellevue