Letters for June 12, 2023

Clean out the bike lines

While it is nice to have painted bike lanes on some arterials, they are of little or no use when they are full of gravel, glass and other debris. Trying to dodge things in the bike lane is like trying to avoid potholes when driving a car around town. Both are accidents waiting to happen. How about the city getting the trucks out there and give the bike lanes a quick wash?

Randy Peterschick

Spokane

Transmission permitting reform

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, with its $386 billion allocation for clean energy, is a major breakthrough in our nation’s struggle to address climate change. The IRA can decrease our carbon emissions 40% by 2030, putting us within general range of our targeted 50-52% emissions reduction by then. But unless we speed up the permitting process for the transmission lines needed to convey the clean energy, we’ll realize only about 20% of the projected reduction, according to a Princeton REPEAT Project study. It now takes 4.3 years on average to authorize a new transmission line, the Progressive Policy Institute reports. As the demand for clean energy escalates, proposed projects such as solar and wind farms are piling up, held back by the snail-paced permitting process.

Congress is working across party lines on the issue. However, some of the suggested permit reform bills include measures that also expedite fossil fuel projects. Our input is needed to ensure that any permitting reform package doesn’t compromise the IRA’s full potential for reducing carbon emissions. Call your members of Congress today at (202) 225-3121 and urge them to continue the bipartisan discussion on transmission permit reform while prioritizing clean energy infrastructure.

William Engels

Pullman