Letter Policy

Letters Policy

 

taylorvilledailynews.com welcomes letters to the editor, as a way we can let our readers and listeners sound off on the issues most important to them. If you wish to submit a letter, please note the following guidelines:

 

  • All letters should be no more than 500 words in length, and should include the writer's name, address and phone number. We will not publish street address, e-mail address or phone number; rather, we reserve the right to contact writers to determine their validity.
  • Letters must be submitted electronically in Word doc or text format; no hand-written letters are accepted.
  • If the editor comments about a letter, the reader may respond with at least as many words as were used by the editor. We would like to stimulate a sincere dialogue.
  • All letters become property of Miller Communications, Inc., and are subject to editing for length, content, grammar, punctuation at the editor's discretion.
  • Material that may libel or slander an individual or group will neither be accepted nor posted.
  • All letters must be e-mail'ed to editorial@randyradio.com to ensure your message is received, please include "Letter to the Editor" in the subject line.


                                                                   We look forward to hearing from you.

Letters Archives for 2022-06

Letter to the Editor on Proposed CO2 Wells and Pipeline in Christian County

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Posted June 29, 2022

 

Dear Editor:

 

Once up a time Illinois became the Prairie State (1818) but it made me wonder where the prairie went.  The commercial steel plow was invented (1837) and then produced so modern agriculture to reap the benefit of turning the prairie-grasses over (literally) into very productive croplands.  Now we have generations of green dreamers (post 1960s) who declare carbon dioxide is going to destroy our planet. Do they not realize how much the plant kingdom on Earth depends on natural CO2? Crop production has benefitted from variable levels of the infamous ‘greenhouse gas’. Illinois and neighbor states have become targets for CCS; Carbon Capture & Sequestration.  Why threaten productive croplands and even residential acres with a project to save the planet? 

 

Our Earth is a very big globe but congested cities and concentrated agriculture lands risk over loading the air, water and land with excess chemicals.  Why add excess CO2 into the ground hundreds or thousands a feet deep for permanent disposal? Carbon and CO2 companies already exist to transport and store greenhouse gases for industrial use. Boring holes through residential and commercial property should have some benefit for owners beyond a financial contract. Burying CO2 deep into layers of natural Earth to save the planet is not logical.

 

Here are some reasons why CCS is such a misplaced project of ingenuity and expenses. First, less than 1% of Earth’s atmosphere contains the trace gases which includes the awful terrible CO2. Second most of the CO2 on our planet is dissolved in the oceans or permeated into the ground. Third liquefied CO2 is a very unnatural process which requires high pressures and specific temperature levels. This is the major risk of CCS and a very expensive process to vacuum CO2 out of chimneys to rescue planet Earth. Fourth a generous amount of excavated soil, dirt and earth layers is either piled up somewhere or dumped back into a hole as part of a plug or seal. Fifth, the diameter of such holes or wells determines how much natural material is wasted or recycled. 

 

The well hole for sequestration could become a giant muzzle loader cannon. Under pressure and temperature constraints the awful terrible liquefied CO2 is pumped into the well hole. When it returns to natural CO2 gas under compression could it not explode and blast the contents of the well back out, like a man made geyser or eruption? 

 

While CO2 is a minimal greenhouse gas, water vapor is far more abundant and the major natural greenhouse gas, which does regulate air temperatures. Certainly no one would attempt to rescue the oceans, rivers and lakes in the name of climate change mitigation, Right? So vacuuming exhaust chimneys to cool the whole planet is an exaggerated project, comparable to inhaling the exhaust pipe on your automobile to reduce emissions in the air. Both processes harbor extreme concentrations of hazardous gases that would otherwise not affect the whole planet. CCS is not a practical or responsible project for citizens in America. Meanwhile CO2 Wells are not welcome in rural Illinois.



Sincerely,
Ernie & Ruth Poani
Edinburg, IL 62531
 

Station Editorial: No One is Willing to Meet in the Middle

STATION EDITORIAL

Posted June 26, 2022

 

This is a station editorial, I'm Randal J. Miller, station president.

 

Rulings by the U-S Supreme Court on June 23rd and 24th on 2 emotional issues, has re-charged discussions on gun control and abortion.

 

On June 23rd, the Court ruled that New York State's restrictive conceal-carry gun law was unconstitutional.   

 

The Court announced 2 rulings on June 24th.  The first centered on a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The State of Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to strike down a lower court ruling that stopped the 15-week abortion ban from taking place.   The Court voted 6 to 3 to uphold the Mississippi ban.

 

The second ruling the Court announced June 24th, was the pivotal one.  Voting 5 to 4, the Court said that a right to an abortion is not a constitutional right, and moving the issue to states to decide individually.  This overturned the Court's 1973 ruling of Roe versus Wade.

 

Those on both sides of both rulings, vowed that they would carry their fight into the mid-term elections.

 

Here's my fear.   On these and many other issues on the federal, state, and even local levels, the way the Founding Fathers set up our republic over 200 years ago, will begin to unravel.  As I've said in editorials for over 2 years, the answer to any issue—controversial or not—is in the middle, but in this emotionally-charged, politically-charged time we're living in, no one is willing to compromise. 

 

The sad part of all this, is that the segregation civil rights leaders fought to stop in the last century, is re-emerging as what I'm calling political segregation.  If you believe what a red state believes in, you may decide to make that state your new residence, and ditto if you believe in policies of a blue state.   People still vote with their pocketbooks.  But, the furthering of what I'm calling the political segregation of our country, may be a result.

 

All this will further divide an already-divided country.  No one is willing to meet in the middle.  

 

That's our opinion, we welcome yours.  Our e-mail address is editorial@randyradio.com.

Letter to the Editor: More Info on Heartland Greenway Project

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Posted June 17, 2022

 

Dear Editor:


Heartland Greenway has spared no expense in mass mailings, and radio and print ads to attempt to convince the residents of Christian County that the proposed CO2 pipeline and dump site is entirely safe.  They claim the CO2 will remain 6,000 feet underground.


Well, it’s time for the people to hear more of the story, the part Heartland doesn’t want them to hear.  Using underground rock formations to store gases has been done in other places in Illinois and has had some dire consequences.  Let’s look at the fiasco closest to Christian County, just miles down the road in Champaign County.  


People’s Gas Company, a Chicago utility company, pumped natural gas 4000 feet under the Mahomet Aquifer for storage.  Of course, they claimed it was entirely safe and wouldn’t move.  They assured residents that the rock cap would keep the gas in place underground. 

 

In 2017, it was discovered that methane gas had indeed leaked into and contaminated the aquifer.  Initially, five homes were identified as having wells contaminated, some to the extent that tap water could be set on fire as it came from the tap.  The number of affected wells has now risen to 30 homes and that number continues to increase.


People’s Gas has provided gas and water separators and bottled water for these homes but has largely ignored any responsibility beyond that.  The Attorney General of Illinois filed a suit against People’s Gas but even that has provided no relief for affected families and methane gas continues to leak into the Mahomet Aquifer. 

 
Of course, there really isn’t a way to get the methane out of the water and the only remedy is to look for other water sources. In 2020, the Illinois legislature approved $3.8 million dollars to initiate a $10 million dollar project to bring water to these homes via the Sangamon Valley Public Water District but that money has never been released and these homes continue without safe water. 


These families need safe water and it should be financed by the company that created the problem.  The taxpayers of Illinois shouldn’t be on the hook for the damages caused by a company pocketing the profits and not cleaning up their own mess. 


The Heartland Greenway project can’t “ensure” (as they repeatedly claim) that the CO2 will stay under a rock cap 6000 feet underground.  If undetected fractures already exist in the rock cap or develop over the next 100 years, the CO2 will rise and may contaminate our aquifer and ground water as well as damage soils.  When CO2 mixes with water, it doesn’t just become the bubbles in your soda.  It forms carbonic acid which can leach heavy metals from the rocks in the aquifer; heavy metals that contaminate drinking water. 


The Mahomet Aquifer contamination is by no means an isolated incident; but that’s a conversation for another day. 


Karen Brockelsby
Edinburg, IL 

 

Letter to the Editor on CO2 Pipeline and Wells

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Posted June 15, 2022

 

Dear Editor:

 

My invitation came in October 2021 and was unexpected. A Landowner Open House was planned for Thursday November 04 at Taylorville High School facilities. The subject was carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline and carbon storage project, heading for Central Illinois! No kidding, another exotic industry is developing to remove excess CO2 from Earth’s atmosphere.  I had to check this out. After walking the room and viewing information and posters, I talked to a few associates. Why this CO2 project I asked; they told me “climate change”. 

Quite an ambitious project but not very surprised since each generation has to leave a legacy. The idea that a Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) industry can save the planet Earth is about as arrogant as possible.  Here is why; those awful and terrible elements Carbon and Carbon Dioxide are destined to destroy our planet and if you believe it then you have until 2031 AD to fix the atmosphere!  How audacious! CO2 exists on our planet deliberately by Creation. It is in our atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, you know the globe we call Earth. We breathe CO2 and exhale more of it.  Check a chemistry book (pre-1960s) and learn that we humans are composed of over 50% Carbon!  

So why vacuum Carbon & CO2 out of industrial chimneys, produce an unnatural and dangerous composition of liquefied CO2, pump it through exotic pipelines through three States, drill through private properties a mile or so deep to pump the adventure recipe and hope the hay it stays there a couple generations?  Remember the answer was “climate change”.  Actually the climate changes four times every year and used to be called seasons. CO2 is a unique gas and has many normal uses plus it keeps the plant kingdom busy producing oxygen.  

CO2 is so unique that it only exists as a gas and solid. CO2 is a refrigerant and propulsive vapor. Remember dry-ice, that is frozen CO2.  It does NOT exist as a liquid like water does. Only through scientific industry can a liquefied CO2 by temporarily produced, by 75 psi bare minimum pressure and special temperatures.  Makes you wonder what happens when a CO2 pipeline or storage well leaks.  The good news is CO2 is NOT flammable, no kaboom and fire. In fact CO2 is an efficient fire suppressor.

By now readers may even wonder what is gained by all the haste to push another expensive and exotic dream upon American Citizens and taxpayers.  Perhaps the real green benefit of CCS is paper legal tender!  Agriculture may take another economical hit but the rural American Citizens will for sure.  No CO2 Wells out here, please and thank you!


Sincerely Two Rural Citizens
Ernie & Ruth Poani
Edinburg, IL 62531
 

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