Published: September 29, 2009 10:29 pm      

In Your View — 09/30/09

Carbon taxes are better alternative

While it is imperative that we do something to deal with rising carbon levels in the atmosphere, we also need to pass responsible, enforceable and effective legislation.

The cap-and-trade bill currently in the U.S. Senate will create a commodity market for carbon credits, which will be bought and sold by companies to account for their carbon emission levels. Cap-and-trade will create an unwieldy and difficult to control financial instrument that will open up environmental regulation to the same sort of problems we saw with Enron in energy markets and Bernie Madoff in the financial markets. In addition, there are too many credits being issued and too many of them are being given away for free for the plan to have any real impact on the environment.

Congress needs to take another look at carbon taxes as an alternative solution. A carbon tax would be easy to set up and enforce, while having a real impact on climate change. In addition, rather than having to follow markets and commodity prices to see how much to pay in taxes, carbon taxes are completely transparent, making it easier for businesses to take action to decrease their own carbon emissions and save themselves money.

Before Congress rushes to pass climate change legislation that may not work, I hope they will consider all the alternatives, including the carbon tax.

Jennifer Hilinski, Lexington



Glenn Beck needs to stay on the air

In response to the Sunday “In Your View” letter wanting Glenn Beck off of Fox News, I ask, “Why?”

First let me just say, Van Jones and ACORN. Mr. Beck was the first TV commentator to expose these two embarrassments to our country. A few days into the ACORN corruption discovery, Charlie Gibson of ABC news was asked about it and he did not know anything about ACORN. His head must have been in the sand, or was he just playing dumb? Whichever the reason, this is why we need people like Glenn Beck on TV.

Yes, Glenn Beck has some pretty bizarre ideas. However, he is entertaining and enlightening, to say the least. His way of doing things makes me more comfortable knowing that someone out there is looking for corruption in all aspects of our country. He leans more right than left in my opinion, but he will slam anyone on the right just as easy as he would someone on the left.

My point is that it does not matter with him. Unlike some of the mainstream media who continues to brush aside any anti-liberal news stories, such as Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. Olbermann’s shows are 100 percent slamming the right. He never has any member on the right on his show to defend themselves, either. The media’s job is to report news stories to the people of America with a fair and balanced agenda.

Glenn Beck is the guy who asks why God was taken out of our schools. Glenn Beck is the guy who questions our school kids singing Hm-Hm-Hm Barack Husein Obama (what is that?)

It is Glenn Beck who is Hm Hm Hm good!!! If you don't like him, don’t watch him — but don't take him off the air.

R.J. Bradley, Ashland