Printed letters, Aug. 15

By Staff
Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Four-minute flap stifles job creation

Are we seriously willing to hijack a process supporting the potential creation of tens of thousands of jobs and development of a critical energy source for the nation over four minutes?

I am referring to The Daily Sentinel story on Friday, Aug. 3, that reported that Uintah County officials have voided their resolution strongly opposing the obstructionism of the Obama administration in regards to oil shale development in the West, only because they were sued over posting the notice for the meeting “four minutes fewer than the 24 hours’ notice required by Utah law.”

The first question is probably who, in this economy, has the time to waste to watch the clock closely enough to document to the second when such a notice is posted. The more important question is “why?” Why would anyone in his or her right mind waste time and money suing over four minutes? Does anybody, anywhere, honestly think that the four-minute deviance was part of a wider conspiracy? That posting the notice at 10:04 a.m. instead of exactly 10:00:00 a.m. as confirmed by the International Atomic Clock is the smoking gun indicating criminal intent to rival Watergate?

What this is really about is diverting attention from the fact that the Obama administration is running roughshod over the economic futures of thousands of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah residents by placing trillions of barrels of oil off limits to development, complicit with the wishes of the radical environmentalist lobby.

As soon as the duly elected representatives of those residents took a proper stance against this federal intrusion, that same environmental lobby had to step in and do the only thing it knows how to: bully the locals with legal technicalities.

Exactly how much more of this abuse-disguised–as-environmentalism are the people of the West going to take?

ERIC THOMPSON
Grand Junction

Lawsuit a bid to help 
every voter in Ohio

It is important to set the record straight on the lawsuit and military voting controversy in Ohio. A letter from Juanita R. Williams published Thursday, Aug. 9, was a complete hoax in attempting to pretend that President Obama was suing to restrict military voting.

In the last presidential election, early voting regulations in Ohio allowed residents, military and non-military alike, to cast their votes in person up to and including the Monday before Election Day.

In 2011 Ohio’s GOP-controlled legislature modified these early voter regulations to restrict the voting period for nonmilitary residents to end at 6 p.m. on the Friday before the election. There was no change to the early voting period for voters in the military.

The lawsuit is attempting to reinstate the early voting period for everyone in Ohio to what it had been in prior years. Attempts by Romney and conservative blogs to falsely incorporate this lawsuit into their scripted political campaign lies should be protested by all who support equal voting rights.

BARBARA GALLISATH
Grand Junction

BLM, Forest Service 
misusing power

Am I the only one who sees the power being abused by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service? In the Sentinel published Sunday, Aug. 5, the front-page story about endangered wild flowers in DeBeque/Parachute was interesting.

What was not mentioned in the article is that the BLM planted the endangered flowers in the vicinity last spring, according to another Sentinel article. I find it interesting that the flowers were planted in an area where gas leases either had been sold, or were eligible.

Since there are endangered species there now, no motorized traffic is allowed. Wow.

In the paper published Monday, Aug. 6, there were two articles concerning more USFS/BLM interference in public lands. An alabaster mine is to remain closed near Redstone in order to protect bighorn sheep. On the same page, the BLM has approved a water pipeline project in western Utah, along with the water from the Goshute reservations. The water is to be sent to Las Vegas. I guess the Goshutes aren’t as important as the bighorn sheep.

Finally, the Mesa County commissioners allowed a road closing near Glade Park, which was rubber-stamped by the USFS. This road has been in use since the 1880s. Private property owners adjacent to the road didn’t like the frequent recreational use of the road, which is lawful, and were able to convince the commissioners to close it. I never heard of any invitations to the public by the commissioners before the road was closed. Did you?

Should we relinquish the rest of our rights to public lands now, or wait until after the election? Hooray for the state of Utah for bringing suit against the federal government concerning road closures. Maybe Colorado could take a lesson … nah … we’re true “blue.”

CARROLL QUARLES
Palisade