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Management issue
Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review. I started a little tempest in a teapot last week when I posted a photo of my new solar panels on Facebook. Here’s slightly abridged version of one of the responses. It’s by my friend Bob Tregilus of the podcast “This Week in Energy” and other green energy groups. “Because you installed solar, with the intent of zeroing out your electric bill, that shifts all of the utility’s overhead and enormous fixed costs onto other ratepayers. Because you are compensated for the solar you generate at retail rates, on the consumer’s side of the meter, NV Energy lost a customer and someone has to make up the difference. “However, if we had a feedin tariff program, like we got through the state Senate in 2011, but [which] died in the Assembly, you could have connected your system to the utility’s side of the meter. Then NVE retains you as a customer, and they would have gained a resource, you as a generator. “Being on the wholesale side of the meter, then, the energy you generated could be used to displace more expensive energies on the grid, in particular, costly sources such as energy from peaker plants which can cost the utility as much as a $1 kWh [kilowatt hour]. So the $0.14 kWh NVE pays you for the solar you generate would be displacing $1 kWh peak energy saving the utility $0.86 kWh, a savings which, theoretically, they would pass on to ratepayers.” I agree wholeheartedly with Bob. I am now my own utility. I should be able to sell the energy I produce anywhere I want, maybe to those very neighbors Bob is talking about. I should be able to install as many solar panels as I want, without the monopoly being able to prevent it. This is anti-competitive, pro-dirty energy, and anti-American, and it artificially increases rates for everyone, including me, because I paid for the hardware. This screwed system was bought and paid for by NV Energy. Until Nevada legislators get a dog in the fight—maybe by installing solar modules on state buildings and selling back to the “utility”—we’ll all continue paying more for dirty energy we don’t want.
Re “13 Songs” (Arts & Culture, Jan. 9): It would be nice to have some local music on the list, or at least a separate list for local bands. Dah well. Maybe next year. Austin Anderson Reno
Re “A new battle over public lands” (Let Freedom Ring, Jan. 9): Another Nevada “land grab”? Every paragraph of this opinion piece omits or obscures the facts, and is mainly a thinly-veiled privatization scheme. While most agencies could use a lot of improvement, these lands belong to all the people of the U.S., not just Nevadans. I mean, Nevada has one national park, one of the least-visited; the state’s and counties’ legacy isn’t very good when it comes to sustainability. By having federal oversight, a more diverse workforce and consistent programs are more available than piecemeal “local” control. Federal overseers also include Department of Energy and Department of Defense, and Tribal/BIA lands. The feds granted lands to the railroads in order to promote westward expansion; the railroads used primarily immigrant labor, by the way. The Tea Party rhetoric about “earmarks” is ironic, in that U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has resisted any effort to collect meaningful revenues from federal mining leases in Nevada. The “shovel brigade” was an ill-conceived grandstanding that ignored the diminishment of the habitat of so-called bull trout, proving that “locals” value driving over fishing. This goes against the “multiple-use, sustained yield” motto of the Forest Service. Renegade ranchers, plinking four-wheelers, rock art thieves, are any of these on states’ rights advocates’ radar? I think not. What this would result in is: coal-fired power plants, water transfers to cities, and continued irresponsible resource extraction. A better approach would be along the lines of the land transfers from Las Vegas Burea of Land Management, which benefit Lake Tahoe, and the Lyon County proposal for an expanded copper mine. But recall this ore has a boomand-bust history, like most so-called “rebellions.” Steve Klutter Sun Valley
Re “A new battle over public lands” (Let Freedom Ring, Jan. 9): The terms “reclaim” and “recover” are bandied about like the federal government somehow took the lands from the state of Nevada. The state never owned these lands. The federal government obtained what would become the Territory of Nevada from Mexico in 1848 via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and by marginalizing the native Americans already living therein. When Nevada became a state in 1864, it was awarded 3.9 million acres of School Grant Lands, and as a condition of statehood, gave up all claims to the remaining unappropriated (federal) lands forever. In 1880, Nevada not being happy with the set formula of the state getting all the lands in sections 16 and 36 across the state, the U.S. Congress allowed the state to exchange those 3.9 million acres of mostly arid, desert land for 2 million acres of the state’s choosing. Nevada selected the most valuable land, mostly those with water and in the river bottoms, that had not been already been settled by homesteaders and miners. The state then sold off essentially all of these lands, leaving only 3,000 acres of the original 3.9 million acres it received at statehood. That is how the state of Nevada manages its land. Ron Rogers Redding, Calif.
Cruel service I am disgusted by the uncaring and heartless display of Eldorado HotelCasino Reno Security New Year’s Eve. At 10:30 p.m. my friend and I noticed a bird stuffed into a party hat just inside the doors of the casino. Upon investigation, I found the pigeon to be alive, but perhaps injured and in discomfort. I notified two security guards and suggested they call a supervisor, who in turn could call the SPCA or a wildlife recovery agency. A female supervisor arrived, but to my astonishment, unsympathetically and coldly told the two junior officers to just dump the pigeon outside and don’t bother wasting her time. Another officer even rudely joked to call a man who feeds pigeons to an eagle. Two junior security guards complied with the supervisor’s barking commands and put the bird on the sidewalk. I followed alongside, picked up the bird, and carried it to a treed area a few blocks away where I removed a branch which some idiot had stuck in its rectum. After that, the pigeon began to clean itself and began to perk-up. The bird could not obviously remove the large and horrible object by itself. All it took was a few minutes and a little caring to help save the discomfort—and probably life—of this bird. It will no-doubt take a lot longer for Eldorado Hotel-Casino security staff to learn more caring skills when it comes to wildlife—maybe humans, too—and not be as heartless as I observed. These cruel and insensitive employees should be chastised and reprimanded for their disgusting behavior and lack of humanity. Kevan Shaw Nanaimo, B.C., Canada
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a history, when the facts of the case leave any doubt or flexibility at all, of defaulting to the voters’ judgment and allowing the widest possible choice.” The people of Reno voted overwhelmingly for term limits in 1996. There is nothing unclear or the least ambiguous about the Reno City Charter where it clearly states the mayor is a member of the City Council. Section 3.010 states that: 1. The Mayor: (a) Shall serve as a member of the City Council and preside over its meetings. Why media lapdogs on the Left want to say any of this “has flexibility” is beyond me. Eddie Lorton didn’t file suit to “keep some of his prospective opponents—term limited City Council members—from running.” He filed suit so more people could be on the ticket; because the political hacks who are term-limited out would have sucked up all the oxygen and kept the “regular” people from even joining the race. Benjamin Gaul Reno
Too tipos Re “The Bobbit” (Feature story, Jan. 9): After weeks of resisting the urge to jump on the anti-Bob Grimm bandwagon, I’m finally joining the rally. Here we have a man who expects us to value his pompous opinions on film, yet, ironically, in one review (12 Years a Slave), he admits he’ll never be able to spell the leading actor’s name “without looking it up,” then carelessly misspells Carey Mulligan’s name not once, but twice, as Carrie. Please, I beg you, give us someone we can take seriously. Mary McGlothlen Reno Editor’s note: Having misspelled Miley Cyrus’ name as Sirus in the same issue, myself, sometimes we journalists have to admit that honest errors occasionally happen, fix them, and try to be more vigilant. While we don’t have a copy editor, we have four staffers who read every word, but we still miss stuff.
The people’s court Re “Fields of dreams” (News, Jan. 9): This is a complete misrepresentation of Eddie Lorton and the reason he filed suit. It also seems to be a slap in the face to the Nevada Supreme Court. Dennis Myers, the author of all this spin, seems to feel it is “surprising” that the Nevada Supreme Court accepted Lorton’s case. As if there ever was a question of the validity. This case, stopping career-minded politicians from flagrantly disregarding established—voted on by the people— term limit law, will set national precedent. Myers then follows up with this little gem: “In similar electoral cases, the Nevada Supreme Court has
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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS
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THIS WEEK
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MISCELLANY
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JANUARY 16, 2014
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