New BLM fees at Red Rock make no sense

To the editor:

I was not surprised to see that the Bureau of Land Management plans to charge a $3 entry fee for a pedestrian or a bike rider at Red Rock Canyon (Review-Journal, Saturday). But the BLM proposal sheds light on why it’s a bad idea to continue to give over our lives to government management.

A noisy and air-polluting four-seat passenger auto will be admitted for $1.75 per seat, and a six-passenger car at $1.17 per seat. I’ll pay $3 a seat to pedal myself into the national conservation area.

Nationally, the government is wringing is collective hands about our health. Obesity and lack of exercise are supposed to be big problems. Yet the BLM is applying a surcharge to exercisers.

Polluting autos drive the government to want to punish us with cap-and-trade taxes, yet the BLM taxes bike riders and pedestrians for not using polluting cars. Go figure.

Ed Dornlas

Las Vegas

Glue factory

To the editor:

In his Saturday letter, Donald Dahlheimer criticized previous writer George Parman for taking on the “radical animal rights people” on the wild horse issue. Seems that Mr. Dahlheimer is more intent on slamming Mr. Parman and the cattle industry than coming up with a solution to this problem.

And a gigantic problem it is. He either forgets or chooses to ignore the fact that these animals are not native – and, more importantly, they are not a part of our economy. Yet they have achieved a unwarranted super-protected status.

Domestic livestock ranching contributes to our economy in a giant way. Native game animals and hunting contribute to our economy in a giant way. Uncontrolled wild horses have a very negative impact on both of these revenue generators.

Mr. Parman did offer a solution that would put these non-native parasites back into our economy. There is a market for horse meat throughout the world. We should be taking advantage of it.

James W. Lucey

North Las Vegas

Going to waste

To the editor:

The Sunday letter from Bruce Breslow, the executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, is representative of the lack of technical literacy, honesty, vision, leadership and political courage that has put Nevada in the economic position we find ourselves in today.

Mr. Breslow misleads readers by referring to the entire World War II and Cold War era nuclear weapons program when discussing current reprocessing technology and future technology, while making so many incorrect and misleading assertions about the technology that it is difficult to know where to start in response. This is akin to comparing the integrity of 1920s mob-controlled gambling to today’s highly regulated gaming.

France, Japan and the United Kingdom all successfully and safely reprocess nuclear fuel. France directly employs more than 6,000 well-compensated and trained people reprocessing used fuel, creating new energy that equates to billions of barrels of oil in energy value.

While this technology could be deployed safely today at many locations, including the Nevada Test Site, the United States has been focused on employing more advanced technology that addresses the nuclear proliferation concerns of past technology.

Multiple new technologies are currently under development, but are not yet available on a commercial scale. The pros and cons of these new technologies will be carefully evaluated in determining what path the United States should follow.

There is tremendous opportunity for Nevada in just conducting the up-front research associated with reprocessing. This is why states and communities around the country are actively working to position themselves to fully take advantage of the research and development opportunities associated with reprocessing.

The truth is that Nevada is poorly positioned for this industry as well as many other energy-related industries due to leaders such as Mr. Breslow, who have followed the path of political expediency instead of doing the hard work of laying the foundation for attracting a diverse array of technology-based industries.

Paul Seidler

Henderson

The writer is a former senior director at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Student protest

To the editor:

I hope the Clark County School Board invited Desert Oasis High School Principal Emil Wozniak to seek another form of employment following the orchestrated student walkout he approved Thursday (Review-Journal, Friday) – particularly because the walkout was directed toward “possible” as opposed to actual budget cuts, and current events that “could” but have not yet impacted students to date.

Mr. Wozniak is apparently too busy to give his students a simple civics class explaining the legislative process, an English class to learn how they can respectfully express their opinions, or a finance class to explain how to balance a checkbook.

Or maybe he could explain to his students how certain teachers who are totally incompetent can keep their jobs year after year thanks to powerful teacher unions.

As a parent and taxpayer, I am outraged at Mr. Wozniak’s behavior. What remains to be seen is whether the Clark County School Board actually shares that outrage.

Mark Bierhaalder

North Las Vegas