Guadalajarans worked hard
I am against Joe Biden’s illegal immigration. But I lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, for four years.
They worked for very little money. They worked from sunup until sundown. I was there before the cartels. The people treated me so well.
Ernest Liedkie
Clarkston
Pull the plug on dams
Eric Barker’s recent article (Tribune Dec. 5) regarding potential changes in efforts to save Snake River salmon misses the point. While it would be nice to help salmon, it would be better to help ourselves.
These days, it’s hard to make ends meet. Electricity costs are a big part of that. The Bonneville Power Administration’s electricity rates are unnecessarily expensive and continue to go up.
Electricity from the lower Snake River dams is expensive. BPA claims its average cost to produce a megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity is $24. BPA admits the cost of electricity from the four Snake River dams is 50% higher: $36/MWh. If that high-cost electricity was eliminated, electricity costs would go down.
Hydropower was great when the dams were new, but now the dams are old. They’re expensive to maintain. All of the turbines in the four lower Snake River dams are worn out and will cost over $1 billion to replace.
And their power would not be missed. They produce energy mostly in the spring when power demand is low, usually creating a surplus ... .
Even so, BPA can replace the power generated by the lower Snake River dams with cheaper electricity by building solar and wind farms. The cost to produce solar electricity dropped dramatically over the last 15 years and is now just $18-$22/MWh. The price of wind power has declined similarly.
Tell your elected officials to “pull the plug” on the four lower Snake River dams and bring down your electric bills.
Chris Ode
Boise
