Letters: Carbon cashback would address fossil fuels; Don’t become reliant on foreign shippers; Kahanamoku deserves name on HNL airport

The recent commentaries about the problems with our consumption of fossil fuels highlight today’s market failures around fossil-fuel prices (“Climate change wreaks havoc on the environment and our wallets” and “Oil fuels violence and dictators like Russia’s Putin worldwide,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, April 28).

Both articles call out the damage, costs and dangers of our overconsumption of fossil fuels, from climate change to international conflict.

Carol Cam and Madeleine Para identify the perfect policy, carbon cashback, which puts a fee on fossil fuels to correct their prices so they would account for the negative environmental and economic impacts of those fuels.

This policy returns the revenues from the fee placed on carbon, which directly addresses Jeff Mikulina’s excellent point that currently “[w]hen the price of oil jumps $10 per barrel, we export an additional half-billion dollars per year — with nothing new to show for it.”

With carbon cashback, the fossil-fuel companies pay the fee, and we receive the benefit.

Paul Bernstein

Aina Haina

Don’t become reliant on foreign shippers

John Witeck’s comments were on the mark (“Jones Act waiver would hurt workers, consumers,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, April 15).

It was Jonathan Helton’s criticism that runs aground (“Jones Act waiver has many pros, few cons,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, April 20). Where Helton suggested that we should outsource our domestic shipping industry, he failed to share that the Hawaii Refinery Task Force report stated, “Finally, the ability to use foreign flag vessels from domestic ports does not guarantee Hawaii access to fuel at cheaper freight cost. Foreign flag vessel owners may find that Hawaii is a more costly destination to deliver products to, as there would be minimal backhaul opportunities from Hawaii and higher rates may have to be charged.”

Let us not be fooled into believing that other countries will have our best interests in mind if left alone in the world economy. Let’s not ship out our domestic shipping industry like we did to our manufacturing industry by sending them all overseas.

Sergio Alcubilla

Pauoa Valley

Marjorie Taylor Greene an embarrassment

Poor Marjorie Taylor Greene is not well. Possibly she should consult a neurologist about her memory loss, and a psychiatrist about her childishly fundamental need to lie.

As a member of Congress, she is an embarrassment to us all.

Thomas Luna

McCully

Kahanamoku deserves name on HNL airport

Regarding the Honolulu International Airport’s name: I wholeheartedly agree with Richard Marshall (“Duke Kahanamoku truly embodied aloha spirit,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, April 15). His assessment of both Daniel K. Inouye and Duke Paoa Kahanamoku is correct, and I, too, wish the Duke would have been awarded the honor of the airport name.

However, what is a real travesty is the fact that the glorious word “Aloha” in script was taken off the tower that contains the airport’s name. Both men demonstrated aloha in so much of their work, and the word reminds all of us — residents and visitors alike — that Hawaii is the “Aloha State” and that no place else can claim that reputation.

It’s a sad and bad omission by those who made that decision.

John Votsis

Kaimuki

Russia, Ukraine deal could stop war quickly

I don’t know that Russia is militarily the strongest nation on Earth, but it is probably in the top three.

Ukraine, since it needs outside funds and weaponry, is not even close. My educated guess is that prolonging the war with military aid that Russia will just blow up will only get more people killed.

If the warring parties abide by the Minsk agreements and not make Ukraine a NATO nation with nukes on the Russian border, the war would be over in five minutes. Unless of course, famine, war and depopulation are the true agenda.

Art Simpson

Wilhelmina Rise

>> Contact: 529-4831 (phone), 529-4750 (fax), letters@staradvertiser.com, staradvertiser.com/editorial/submit-letter