Letters to the editor: Plastic, clean energy, salmon
Plastic
We face a problem in many up and coming cities today, the influx of single-use plastic trashing our environment. Boise was pronounced as the fastest growing city in the United States in 2019. As Boise’s population continues to grow, many coffee shops, restaurants, and stores continue using single-use plastic, including cups, bottles, utensils, bags, etc. Right now, eight states have a ban on plastic grocery bags, with California being the first to ban in 2014. If Idaho could pass a similar law, I believe it would significantly change our waste. As a local from Boise, I see firsthand the amount of plastic waste contributing to our public trash cans. Especially during a pandemic, where there are new reliance’s and high volumes of take out containers. Many of these plastic products can only be recycled once, and about half of them do not make it to the recycling process. As a community, we need to advocate for better solutions: more compostable products, a plastic ban, or a petition for more public recycling bins around our town. As Boise becomes a more progressive city, I hope many local companies would be willing to make the change to become more sustainable.
Gabriela Werner, Boise
Clean energy
While life as we know it has changed due to the COVID-19 crisis, we believe in our communities’ resiliency and we are committed to getting back on track, particularly the clean energy industry. Before the COVID-19 crisis, over 3 million Americans worked in clean energy — almost three times as many workers as the fossil fuel industry. Since the pandemic began, nearly half a million clean energy workers have lost their jobs. In Idaho, the clean energy workforce has lost nearly 11% of its workforce.
Senator Crapo and Congress need to work across the aisle to pass commonsense solutions that get our clean energy workers back on the job and build on America’s leadership reducing carbon emissions. I’ve benefitted as an employee of the clean energy industry and strongly feel we will all benefit from a plan that supports clean energy and provides returns through economic prosperity, jobs, innovation, and environmental sustainability.
As elected officials address the COVID-19 pandemic and get America back to work post-election, the decisions they make must create a more resilient economy built for growth. Together, our investment to rebuild the economy can restore America’s economic health and optimism — without sacrificing America’s commitment to drive down carbon emissions.
Brian Lee, Meridian
Salmon
Don’t rely on politicians to save salmon, despite the overwhelming support to breach dams among conservation and sportsman organizations, tribes and individuals. Sadly, Idaho continues to fall behind in taking action to remove inefficient and costly hydroelectric dams. These dams also impede the salmon from returning to their native spawning grounds and inhibit smolt from their journey to the Columbia River and the Pacific ocean. A November 19 AP article highlighted the revived plan for the demolition of four dams along the Oregon-California border on the lower Klamath River.
Conversely, when Gov. Little established the salmon work group, he said don’t consider the removal of the lower Snake River dams because that is just not going to happen. A Sept. 30 Statesman article reported that the ACOE, BOR and BPA joined the resistance to dam removal. That sounds like hiring the fox to guard the hen house.
There have been attempts to replace wild fish with weaker hatchery fish. Following years of study, the conclusion was wild salmon must be restored. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on maintaining these antiquated dams, which includes channel dredging to enable barging from Lewiston to Portland. There are more economically feasible options available.
Bill Belknap, Boise