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Direct refinery funds
to renewable energy
Re: “Refiners say they’ve gone green” (Page A1, Feb. 4).
If communities plagued by oil refineries’ toxic emissions that result in unhealthy air and advisories not to eat produce from their gardens expect biofuel refining to be a safer option, they will be disappointed. Last November, two serious fires broke out at Marathon, with the more severe one resulting in a worker sustaining third-degree burns over 80% of his body. That fire also released more than 200,000 pounds of renewable diesel fuel, prompting an hours-long health advisory from the county health department.
United Steelworkers Local 5 and plant employees have expressed concerns about deficient training and understaffing. Perhaps with proper training, the plant will be no more dangerous than conventional refineries. In that case, we can expect recurring toxic emissions.
Redirecting funds to renewable energy would clean up both our communities and our planet.
Illana Weisman
Walnut Creek
Cabaldon most qualified
for state Senate seat
As two retired California public school teachers, we believe that Christopher Cabaldon is the most qualified candidate running for state Senate.
He knows California government extremely well having served as mayor of West Sacramento from 1998-2020 and serves as a professor of public policy and administration at Cal State Sacramento.
He has actively pursued an agenda to address the problems of homelessness and also shares our concern regarding the threat of climate change.
He is a strong advocate for people from all walks of life and is especially a strong supporter of women’s reproductive rights as reflected by his endorsement from various organizations including Planned Parenthood Northern California Action Fund.
He can work with large developers, but with the goal of always putting average citizens’ needs first.
Please vote for Christopher Cabaldon for state Senate on March 5.
Connie Hoban and Mona Whitney Jacoves
Brentwood
Vote yes for Prop. 1’s
homeless solutions
I was opposed to Proposition 1. Now I plan to vote yes.
Proposition 1 will reallocate funds toward programs that treat people who our current system leaves behind; many with serious psychotic or substance abuse disorders that keep them on the streets or in jail. My main objection was the unintended consequence of losing current programs that work. This doesn’t have to happen. Many of these programs can be replaced with Medi-Cal-funded peer programs; others with reallocation of funds saved through the passage of Proposition 1.
Proposition 1 will not cure our desperate and cruel lack of resources. Increasing the availability of acute care beds will reduce the “revolving door” through locked facilities and jail. The creation of housing with treatment promises to give people the dignity of becoming productive citizens.
Vote yes.
Jane Sheehan
Fremont
Trump will always
put himself first
Increasingly all indications are that “Trump First,” rather than “America First,” has come to drive our former president’s political ideology and operating strategy.
It’s hard to conclude otherwise given our former president’s stated preference for scoring political points campaigning about the immigration challenges on our Southern border rather than supporting a bipartisan effort to begin to effectively address our immigration challenges. And “Trump First” makes crystal clear why the former president continues to oppose aid to Ukraine: namely, retribution for President Zelensky’s refusal to participate in a Biden family witch hunt.
Sadly, once one begins to examine our former president’s behavior and positions through this narcissistic framework the motivations for many more of his positions and points of view become transparent. Or perhaps that is the way it has always been in our former president’s eyes: What’s good for Trump is good for America.
Larry Sirowy
Martinez