Letters: Oroville Dam, climate change and infrastructure

Repair both dam and climate

Re “California must learn from debacle at Oroville Dam” (Viewpoints, Feb. 16): We spend billions patching dams and putting out fires, but wouldn’t it make more sense to prevent tomorrow’s disasters by addressing global warming today? The costs would be exponentially less.

Here’s how: Do away with all government subsidies for all energy sources. Price the true societal costs of carbon at the source of production in the form of a gradually increasing fee.

Rebate all fees collected to each American household in an equal share to offset the increased costs of our energy and goods. Let the market work and watch how fast carbon use decreases. This would require border adjustments to keep American businesses competitive and a rebate delivery system, but my vote is for carbon fee and dividend.

Catastrophe is avoidable

The Oroville Dam spillway failure should be a wake-up call. The Department of Water Resources was warned years ago about the dangers to the spillway.

This whole fiasco causes one to wonder if the monies squandered on the bullet train might be better spent on repairing our existing aging roads, dams and bridges. Will the governor and Legislature wait until a bridge failure occurs before they decide to inspect and maintain them as well?

This story was originally published February 20, 2017 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Letters: Oroville Dam, climate change and infrastructure."