Blame government for high electric bills

John Tobin’s Dec. 29 letter “Going green sends power bills even higher” was spot on. If you remember — I can’t blame you if you didn’t, it didn’t get much national media attention — in 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama said, “Under my cap and trade system electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” He also said, “So if someone wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all the greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

Is it any wonder why we just learned the EPA has put in place new regulations that will cause 32 power plants — with capacity to generate enough power for 22 million homes — to close?

Here in Nevada as air conditioning becomes unaffordable, blackouts become the norm and our electricity bills skyrocket, I can already hear the president: “We have to raise taxes on the 1-percenters to pay the electricity bills of the 99-percenters.”

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I guess General Motors will have to retro-fit all those wonderful Chevy Volts with rooftop solar panels.

Robert Gardner

Henderson

No big deal

To the editor:

I don’t condone at all the adolescent behavior of Family Court Judge Steven Jones and his girlfriend. But they did not kill anybody. For crying out loud, why are we spending all the money and time on that issue when it could be used by the courts to speed up and solve more important cases?

Get over with it: A good reprimand by the Judicial Discipline Commission, a suspension and a ban on further conflicts will do.

Paulina Roth

Henderson

Officer deaths

To the editor:

With all the attention the Review-Journal has given to the use of deadly force by local police departments, I find it curious that the editors declined running a recent Associated Press article documenting police officer deaths being up 13 percent over the past year. But, heck, there’s no Pulitzer in that, is there?

RAY DOWNING

HENDERSON

Better value

To the editor:

Every day I read how much home prices continue to go down, including in Las Vegas. But the taxable value of my home according to the Clark County assessor’s notice has increased from $53,931 to $67,423. I have made no improvements to my house. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe I should just be suspicious?

That means my property taxes will go up in 2012. Is it possible that this is a sneaky way of increasing taxes in Nevada?

Dusty Burrows

Las Vegas