LETTERS: NV Energy making a kilowatt killing

In an article on NV Energy and net metering, Review-Journal reporter Steve Tetreault noted that NV Energy said, “The current 11.6 cents per kilowatt hour rate paid to customers who send unused solar power to the company should be reduced to 5.5 cents as a more realistic value” (“GOP dares Hillary to talk net metering in Las Vegas,” Aug. 16 Review-Journal). In no column or article have I seen anyone mention that such customers generate solar power only during daylight hours.

How does NV Energy value power during daylight hours? If you are a time-of-use residential customer in Southern Nevada, you pay 57.6 cents per kilowatt hour under Option B, or 37 cents per kilowatt hour under Option A during summer on-peak hours (1 to 7 p.m.). Buying the power for 11.6 cents, NV Energy is making an almost 500 percent profit under Option A and a 300 percent profit under Option B. That would increase to 1,000 percent and 600 percent, respectively, if the PUC approves NV Energy’s requested reduction.

Other residential customers are charged 12 cents per kilowatt hour; thus, NV Energy is making a profit on those sales as well.

These numbers show that, contrary to another assertion NV Energy often makes, homeowners who use solar power are not being subsidized by other customers. If NV Energy is able to persuade the PUC to make the reduction, then NV Energy’s owner — Berkshire Hathaway multibillionaire Warren Buffett — will get richer and the citizens of Nevada will be poorer.

Steve Demaree

Las Vegas

Background checks

I noticed a disturbing trend in the Nevada Briefs published in the Aug. 20 Review-Journal. One headline read, “Maintenance worker finds body of man at house,” with the report stating that “police referred to the slaying as an ‘apparent stabbing.'” Another headline read, “Las Vegas police discover man stabbed to death on the street,” and another headline stated, “Man wounded in stabbing at apartment complex.”

What these stories all have in common is the illegal use of knives. Somebody ought to do something about these weapons. We need a background check before anyone is allowed to buy a knife, and we have to eliminate the “restaurant loophole,” through which you or anyone else can go into a steakhouse, and employees just let you have this dangerous weapon without a thorough background check.

John M. McGrail

Las Vegas

Driving hazards

Nancy McRight’s letter was absolutely correct (“Planning roadwork,” Aug. 19 Review-Journal). Navigating surface streets in Clark County has become an adventure.

In the past month, I have made several trips from southwest Las Vegas to the VA hospital using surface streets. What used to be a 35-minute trip now takes well over an hour. That I don’t mind, but the dangerous last-minute lane changes, detour arrows that point to nowhere, ruts in the roadway made by workers (with no warning to motorists), and workmen walking out in front of the cars without looking all make a dangerous situation for everyone.

Add that to an array of jaywalkers, bike riders who think they’re immortal and drivers who ignore speed limits, and one wonders if the trip is survivable. At several intersections, there are signs that read “Right lane must turn right.” Those signs are at the intersection itself, not back far enough to allow drivers to make a safe lane change. At one point, there is a detour sign pointing left for no reason; I saw several cars turn there, and then make U-turns in order to get back on the proper roadway.

I counted a total of one police car on these many trips, though it was parked and empty. Even if there were an active police presence, there is no place to pull anyone over.

All in all, it’s a field day for idiots. I’ve asked on several occasions why all this work is being done. The answers range from widening the streets to digging a tunnel. A tunnel? Between what, and to where? Perhaps whoever is responsible for this chaos should erect big signs throughout the area that read, “You can’t get there from here.” Why is this work being done all at once? Being that I’m paying for it, I have a right to know.

I saw only three workers. One man was in a hole being watched by another guy, and the third guy was asleep in a county truck. It seems to me that this work could be done in a way that would make driving safe. As it stands, this roadwork is a hazard and more than a small inconvenience.

Jim Armbrust

Las Vegas