Thursday, July 02, 2015

The Ely Times Wouldn't Even Post My Comment

I live near a small town out in the middle of Rural Nevada. Our local newspaper was purchased by a company called Battle Born Media, which also owns four other small newspapers in Rural Nevada. I often disagree with a regular Ely Times Opinion writer (and possibly the owner), Thomas Mitchell. But I haven't said anything in public - until now. I recently made a comment on his most recent Opinion "Be Careful What You Ask For - You Just Might Get It - Good And Hard." I feel I was respectful. I made salient points. And my comment was NOT posted. This was my comment:


In case you hadn't noticed, Mr. Mitchell has presented a very one-sided argument. His Editorial really could have used a counterpoint from a different perspective. And actually, I think they had one – that I sent as a Letter to the Editor – that didn't get published – not even online.

You can find my unpublished (by the Ely Times) LTE at NoShootFoot.blogspot.com

My LTE presented our energy issues looking forward to what we can do – unlike Mr. Mitchell's Editorial, which looks backwards at what we should have done. And by the way; renewables haven't cost three to four times as much as gas or coal-fired power in 30 years! I'm reading that renewables are on par or even cheaper in some places.


And I was reading in Motley Fool that the real reason Las Vegas casinos are leaving NVEnergy is; “that Nevada has plenty of sunshine and lots of land to build solar fields to provide energy that is cheaper than buying power from the utility.”


But what the naysayers to renewable energy so often leave out is that eventually the private owner of say, solar panels, will eventually generate the equivalent power to pay for their system – and from then on their power is effectively free. And solar panels last a long time. There are solar cells built in the 1950's still working.

The Ely Times has been very accommodating to me in the past, and has published every LTE I have sent them in the past 10 years. I thank them for that, and hope that readers' opinions continue to be important to the newspaper.