George Lobman is not swayed by the thoughts of the New Jersey Sierra Club's chief.
To the Editor:
This concerns the recent letter "Don't raise a Stein to this enabler of Trump win," from Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey Sierra Club. Tittel blames Green Party candidate Jill Stein for Donald Trump's presidential victory, which the writer claims is bad for the environment.
When you read Tittel's letter, you get more of the tired, old "The sky is falling, the sky is falling."
The election result does not mean that the people of the country are interested in poisoning anyone or polluting the environment by any method. We are interested in maintaining the current economic thresholds that are sustainable at this time.
The wind and solar energy industries are not ready for prime time. The bankruptcy of a company that received federal loans under President Barack Obama's solar investment initiative should have pointed that out immediately.
Alternate energy has not been perfected, so pumping billions of dollars into these sources is just wasting money on not-ready-for prime-time strategies. If we continue to use traditional energy sources, with tremendous improvements in the methods we use, we can get to the cheaper and better energy sources in due time.
Acting like Henny Penny crying about the sky falling will help no one but Tittel and his crazy-for-taxation friends. Use what we have as best we can, until research and development delivers something else reasonable.
We will not, and cannot, go back to campfires and burying our meat products in the ground while traveling by horseback -- much to Tittel's apparent dismay.
George Lobman
Toms River
Laud Sweeney on N.J.-Pa. tax pact
To the Editor:
Ending the tax reciprocity deal between New Jersey and Pennsylvania would have been an economic killer for many families who are struggling to make ends meet, especially if the change had gone into effect right after the holiday season. Some wage earners who commute between the states would have owed considerably more in state income taxes starting in 2017.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie was ready to balance the New Jersey budget on the backs of affected South Jersey residents, since ending the two-state agreement would have brought an estimated $180 million into the state treasury.
Thankfully, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), and our other legislative representatives in Trenton didn't allow Christie's cancelation to happen.
Sweeney deserves a lot of credit because he was instrumental in convincing the governor to change his mind, which I'm sure was not easy. The Senate president also sponsored legislation to provide replacement revenue for the $180 million.
Keeping the agreement in effect is going to save people a lot of money on their taxes, not just this year, but every year going forward. This is a great example of working across party lines to get positive results for South Jersey.
MacKenzie Belling
Deptford Township
Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com