Bee readers respond to Sacramento councilman’s residency mystery, carbon capture, drought

Dodgy councilman

“A Sacramento councilman says he lives in his district. His neighbors disagree,” (sacbee.com, June 17)

Councilman Sean Loloee’s responses to questions regarding his real place of residence have been evasive at best. The guy has been caught! I especially enjoyed the drone photo of a junkyard in front of the residence Loloee claims to be his. The whole situation stinks. Who sponsored Loloee to sit on the council and torpedo homelessness sites in District 2 or affordable housing citywide? As I watched early meetings of the City Council, it was clear Loloee did not have the necessary experience. Now we know why — he was phoning it in from another county.

Travis Silcox

Sacramento

Drought habits

“California has a drought and 4 million acres of lawns. Should state ban grass to save water?” (sacbee.com, June 19)

As California endures sustained drought, we must evaluate what is appropriate in our urban landscapes. The article references the California Urban Water Conservation Council, calling it “defunct.” The organization is still around, having adopted a new name in 2017. The California Water Efficiency Partnership consists of over 220 member organizations, primarily urban water providers, working toward maximizing water efficiency in California. As we make water conservation a way of life, coverage of successful programs helps normalize and encourage water saving practices.

Tia Fleming

Sacramento

Remove obstacle

“California’s universities face a student housing crisis. Could this bill help?” (sacbee.com, June 15)

The California Environmental Quality Act needs substantial reforms that extend beyond exemptions for politically powerful entities like public universities. So far, lawmakers have carved out over 70 exemptions to CEQA. These exceptions may help move mega-projects along, but they do little to mitigate CEQA’s negative impact on much-needed construction. CEQA-related lawsuits have added costly delays to critical infrastructure in our state. Policymakers should place a moratorium on narrow CEQA exemptions and instead devise measures that remove unnecessary obstacles.

Chris Carr

San Francisco

Not the solution

“Don’t be fooled, California. Why the fossil fuel industry promotes carbon capture policies,” (sacbee.com, June 21)

The fossil fuel industry and California Air Resources Board (CARB) are making long-term plans to capture carbon from the air. Can they also find solutions to keep carbon from getting into the atmosphere in the first place? They want us to believe they can really get to zero emissions by 2050 by waiting for the infrastructure to make it happen and, at the same time, continuing to release tons of carbon into the air. Carbon capture is just in the planning stages, while climate catastrophe is here. Let’s not give the fossil fuel industry and CARB a sabbatical on halting polluting and planning for the future.

Billie Hamilton

Sacramento

Keep forests intact

“California environmental group’s Yosemite tree-clearing lawsuit increases wildfire dangers.” (sacbee.com, June 15)

I was shocked to read about the huge logging project underway in Yosemite — logging so intensive it’s described as “clear-cutting.” The park describes it as thinning to mitigate fire danger, but officials haven’t conducted the proper analysis or been transparent about the plan. Fortunately, environmentalists have filed a federal lawsuit to halt the logging — for now. Forests help stabilize the climate, storing massive amounts of carbon. In clear-cutting operations, that carbon is released into the atmosphere. Clear-cutting releases more carbon dioxide than any other form of logging. Forests like those in Yosemite must be protected. They regulate the ecosystem, protect biodiversity and play a critical role in the carbon cycle. Keeping forests intact should be a top priority in the fight against climate change.

Casey Cameron

San Jose

GOP delusion

“What top Republicans are telling us about the Jan. 6 insurrection — and about themselves,” (sacbee.com, June 19)

Clinicians ask a common question to ascertain whether a patient is fully oriented: “Who is the president of the United States?” This inquiry helps determine lapses in time and memory. But as the Jan. 6 hearings have shown, a considerable number of Americans willfully ignore reality by supporting a nonsensical notion that the former president won the 2020 election. Republican legislators and candidates protect this farce by either clinging to lies or using deflection, as Kevin Kiley did in a recently televised event. Every reporter should use every opportunity to ask this question of Republicans. A non-answer is likely, but that doesn’t make the repetition of the question less important. Voters deserve to know whether they are electing representatives who will honor their oath to the Constitution.

Barbara Smith

Auburn

Voting fix

“CA lawmaker introduces bill to kill the ‘jungle primary’,” (sacbee.com, June 22)

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s Assembly Constitutional Amendment 16, which proposes to eliminate the top-two primary system and replace it with the old partisan primary system, is not the answer to fixing the disenfranchisement of independent voters. The solution is either ranked-choice voting (which our governor vetoed as being too confusing for voters) or approval voting — a very easy system in which you vote for all of the candidates you like, and the one with the most votes wins. I suggest we give it a try instead of going back to a system that was rejected 10 years ago.

Dawn Wolfson

Cameron Park