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Letters to the Editor

We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here

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Market Selection Will Reduce Greenhouse Emissions

Dear Bay Weekly:

I think Carrie Madren wrote a very fair and balanced story in “A Tale of Two Businesses” [Vol. vxi, No. 10: March 6].

I’m sure that the concrete company would like the state to enact laws that would benefit its company over their competition. This is similar to federal legislation forcing consumers to use fluorescent light bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs.

I don’t think it is in our best long-term interests to have the government enact laws that favor one business over another. Instead, the marketplace should decide. Did the concrete company decide to use fly ash as an effort to reduce greenhouse gasses or to save money by replacing more expensive Portland cement? If the company reduces its costs and at the same time reduces emissions, then the marketplace worked, and Maryland does not have to enact a potentially devastating law.

Voluntary energy saving actions and incentives will reduce greenhouse emissions faster than any legislated mandates. The rising cost of energy will force all companies to make changes and invest heavily in energy-reducing technology. The reason we modernized our Rocky Ridge (Thurmont) plant was because we would not be profitable if we continued to run our old brick kilns. Instead, we now have one of our industry’s most energy efficient kilns.

Please understand that I am not picking a fight with the concrete company. I’m only making a point that government regulations should not provide an economic windfall to companies in favor.

–J.L. Miles, President: Redland Brick Inc.

Did You Hear the One about the Developer?

Dear Bay Weekly:

Your March 6 editorial “A March Must: Fixing Maryland’s Broken Critical Area Law” [Vol. xvi, No. 10] gives me the opportunity to retell a joke.

One of the fellows from the moving company helping us move from a rental house on Turkey Point Island near Mayo (waterview) to a townhouse (non-waterview) near Cape St. Claire commented that “when you build near the water, you have to jump through a lot of loopholes.”

The sad part is that no one gets the joke. The expression as I know it is jump through a lot of hoops. But the common understanding is such that the hoops have become loopholes and that if people are clever enough they can get away with just about anything.

When people see laws and their enforcement as favoring those who are rich, connected or in the know, government itself is called into question. Your editorial on strengthening the critical area law is right on point.

–Ben Miller, Annapolis

Shame on Brezsny

Dear Bay Weekly:

I picked up the Bay Weekly’s March 6 issue [Vol. xvi, No. 6] and was disappointed with the Astrology section by Rob Brezsny. Especially the Libra write-up. I thought the section was distastefully written.

I’m sure you are aware that anyone, young and old, picks up the Bay Weekly and reads.

I did not find this to be appropriate.

–Bundie Snodgrass, Upper Marlboro

Editor’s note: You won’t find the offending horoscope online; Rob Brezsny’s Real Astrology has already moved to the current week. Another reason to save your newspaper. If you find it, let us know your reaction. Your opinions help us clarify readers’ standards.

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