In letters: Trump’s war on windmills; Diablo Canyon; ‘free and fair’ voting | Opinion

In praise of windmills

President Trump does not like windmills. In December, his Interior Department issued stop-work orders for five offshore windfarms along the Atlantic Coast, putting thousands of workers out of their jobs just days before Christmas.

Thankfully, in a little over a month, federal judges ordered all the projects to move forward, putting workers back on the job and keeping the projects on track to power more than 2.5 million homes and businesses.

Right now, families across the country are shouldering the strain of unaffordable energy bills. Offshore wind is a clean, reliable and ready-to-go solution. These five projects are already creating thousands of local jobs and helping to transition states away from fossil fuels.

This has been an intensely cold winter. Large portions of the country have been blanketed in snow and thousands of homes have lost power. While fossil fuel power plants struggle to stay on during winter storms, offshore wind is a reliable energy source that helps communities save money and keep the lights on. In fact, offshore wind is strongest in the winter and at night, when we need it most.

I am calling on President Trump to stop his senseless attacks on offshore wind. Let the workers finish the job.

Stephen Van Domelen

Paso Robles

Remember Fukushima

As we approach the 15th anniversary of the triple meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, local residents should be thinking about what the seemingly inevitable 20-year extension of Diablo Canyon operations means to us. Approximately 20,000 workers at the Fukushima plant were exposed to radiation, over 164,000 residents were evacuated and thousands are still displaced. Elevated levels of cesium-137 persist in soil, trees, streams and wildlife. Citizens will bear the costs, through taxes, utility bills and healthcare.

Carole Hisasue

Los Osos

Keep elections ‘free and fair’

It is now clear based on many polls and recent elections that the Trump regime is unpopular and will likely lose control of Congress in November if the elections are free and fair. Since Trump has made no visible effort to expand his support base, his plan for the elections is to make sure they are not free and fair. At a minimum we can expect:

• Gerrymandering districts to favor Republican candidates (vide Texas);

• Disenfranchising voters who don’t usually vote Republican with voter suppression legislation (the “Save Act”);

• Creating doubt about the validity of election results (the Georgia investigation);

• Surrounding polling places with ICE agents to intimidate people of color and prevent them from voting;

• Urging MAGA fans to create disturbances around polling places to justify seizing voting machines or other interference with local election processes;

• Launching criminal investigations of local election officials; and

• Refusing to seat newly elected Representatives and Senators based on alleged election irregularities (remember Adelita Grijalva?).

It is incumbent on each of us to do whatever is necessary to prevent Trump and rigging the elections – we know what is coming, and history is counting on us.

Christopher Toews

San Luis Obispo