Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

To the Editor: One major media expert after another ridiculed the idea and said it would take a miracle for President Trump to produce Covid-19 vaccines and begin protecting people in 2020. Trump worked that miracle and now almost one-third of the American people are fully vaccinated. Getting the vaccine produced and into peoples’ arms was a Herculean effort that had to overcome many technical, business, bureaucratic, and political obstacles. It required not just creating and beginning to produce nearly a billion vaccine doses but producing a billion vials, syringes, swabs, and other equipment, plus arrangements for refrigeration, transportation, tracking systems, distribution centers, and about …

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By Ian Hancock and Mark Reynolds Imagine getting to zero emissions by 2050, without big government spending and no new regulations. Not a fantasy—over 3,500 U.S. economists endorsed such a plan, according to the Wall Street Journal (January 17, 2019). On April 1st, Congressman Ted Deutch introduced HR 2307, the “Energy Innovation & Carbon Dividend Act” (EICDA), following the recommendations of those economists. How would the EICDA work? A “carbon fee” is charged on all carbon-emitting fuels when they are extracted from the ground. All collected fees are then handed back to every household as a “carbon cash-back” payment. The program pays for itself, and …

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To the Editor: Do you know what the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) does? During this pandemic, many customers had difficulty keeping up with heat and electric bills. NHPUC worked with residents and our fuel and electric companies to protect the needs of both. A little extra insulation could save you dollars on your energy bill. NHPUC oversees energy efficiency programs. From their website: “It is the NHPUC’s mission to ensure that customers of regulated utilities receive safe, adequate and reliable service at just and reasonable rates.” Governor Sununu recently nominated a commissioner to the PUC, Daniel Goldner, a Texas Instruments executive. But is he a …

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Dear Editor, This list represents how New Hampshire Democrat [sic] Representatives scattered throughout the state have been voting in the New Hampshire General Court in Concord through April 9, 2021. On all of these votes, more than 90 percent—in most cases 97 percent—of Republicans voted the other way. Taxes & Fees 97 percent AGAINST prohibiting an income tax on earned personal income. (CACR1) 97 percent AGAINST prohibiting any broad-based sales tax. (CACR2) 100 percent FOR requiring state taxpayers to make up for poor investments by the Retirement Board. (HB274) 98 percent AGAINST reducing the cost of electricity. (HB614) 99 percent AGAINST reducing the cost of …

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To the editor, In order to help meet our obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement, the United States should invest public funds into cultured-meat research. For those who don’t know, cultured meat is grown from cells, without slaughter. This revolutionary protein will have a dramatically smaller environmental impact than conventional meat. “Industrial livestock agriculture—raising cows, pigs and chickens—generates as much greenhouse gas emissions as all cars, trucks and automobiles combined,” Greenpeace states. “Cattle ranchers have clear cut millions of acres of forests for grazing pastures, inhibiting the landscape’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.” Furthermore, as the environmental group notes, factory farms create huge …

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