TO THE EDITOR:
Reader Bret Collier’s far right fantasies RE: the US oil companies needs to be subjected to a dose of reality and common sense. According to a recent report by business website Bloomberg.com “exports of US crude and petroleum products surged to a weekly record of 10.6 million barrels a day during the week ending April 15th”. So an obvious step toward ensuring that Americans have enough energy for their homes, businesses and cars is to ban the export of American oil to other countries. The conservative Center For American Progress reported that five major oil companies “brought in more than 300% more in profits” in the first quarter of 2022 compared to a year earlier. “A total of more than $35 billion in profits in just three months”. The best response to that would be to impose a Windfall Profits tax on US oil companies. The US oil companies must not be allowed to profiteer during this energy crisis at the expense of the American people.Another important step to alleviating the energy crisis would be to remove tariffs on solar panels imported from China. And nuclear power generation, as Sen. Kiffmeyer has pointed out, also needs to be rejuvenated and expanded. I hope that politicians will ignore the ideological prescriptions of Mr. Collier and others and instead devote themselves to practical solutions to real-world problems.
Anthony Thompson
Big Lake, MN
TO THE EDITOR:
MN State Statute 206.58 AUTHORIZATION FOR USE (subd. 1)… The governing body of a municipality… *may provide for the use of an electronic voting system…. The governing body *shall disseminate information to the public about the use of a new voting system at least 60 days prior to the election and *shall provide for instruction of voters with a demonstration voting system in a public place for the six weeks immediately prior to the first election at which the new voting system will be used… [Municipality: City, Town, or School District.] Even with a questionable amount of time, the County has plowed ahead and purchased the new Dominion system while denying citizens the right to have a Public Hearing regarding the issues with the system. Each town has the choice to use the Dominion system or NOT to use it, yet I doubt the elected officials realize it. If your town did not follow the statutes, please ask your governing body not to use the Dominion system. Let’s return to hand-counting our ballots! Voting begins on June 24th.
Teri Dickinson
Big Lake, MN
