Comments about ‘Letters: Thank you to President Barack Obama’

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lost in DC
West Jordan, UT

yeah, Kirsten, he is SO brave standing up to the chinese and indians who are pumping out much more pollution than we ever dreamed of and whose pollution levels are INCREASING while ours are DECREASING.

of wait, he is not.

Thank you, Governor Herbert, for working to ensure Utahans have employment so we can put food in our bellies, clothes on our backs, and shelter over our heads; unlike BO, who is more concerned about protecting his political cronnies' investments in ill-designed "green" companies.

Pleasant Grove, UT



Mike Richards
South Jordan, Utah

Sorry, but Obama doesn't give a hoot about climate change. He wants to impose Al Gore's "carbon tax" on us. If you think that you're paying excessive amounts of your personal budget for gas and electricity, just wait until the government imposes a "carbon tax". Your bills will double.

Look at Social Security. It was just another tax levied on us. The revenue from SS was to be used to pay us a modest retirement. Regular insurance companies would have invested that money so that it would have grown sufficiently to pay the policy holder when promised. The federal government mixed SS funds with the general fund. All that is left is an I.O.U.

Obamacare is just a tax. We pay about 18% of our income for health care. Obama wants that 18%. He will mix it into the general fund where it won't be available for health care.

A "carbon tax" will not stop "pollution".

Since we don't sit in the dark, deep inside a cave, we need heat and light in our lives. Gas, oil and coil produce that heat and light. A "carbon tax" would take away our heat and light.

Tooele, UT

Re: "Thank you to President Barack Obama for courageously unveiling a bold Climate Action Plan . . . ."

It'll be interesting to see what you think in a year or two, when gasoline is $10-15 a gallon, electricity has "necessarily skyrocketed" to quadruple its current, and you'll only be running your furnace an hour or two a day in the winter to keep pipes from freezing, since that's all the natural gas you can afford.

And your job, of course, has been outsourced to China, India, or Russia, where there are no looney artificial government limits on energy use.

We'll see how bold and courageous you think Obama is then.

Hayden, ID

Be sure and thank Obama for the billions of wasted and squandered taxpayer monies on failed green energy projects and especially for killing the Keystone Pipeline which guarantees high gasoline prices to the poorest Americans who can afford it the least! In the meantime, the earth has not warmed for 16 years!

Ernest T. Bass
Bountiful, UT

Agreed! Well said Kristen.

Tyler D
Meridian, ID

@lost in DC – “…chinese and indians who are pumping out much more pollution than we ever dreamed of and whose pollution levels are INCREASING while ours are DECREASING.”

@Mike Richards – “Sorry, but Obama doesn't give a hoot about climate change.”

Glad to see you guys are finally on board!

Now if we can just convince the Chinese and Indians maybe we can begin to make real progress in reducing pollution and mitigate whatever effects it is having on the planet.

Curious what changed your minds? Did you finally make peace with science (i.e., are you guys good with the whole “evolution” thing now too)?

CHS 85
Sandy, UT


How much of the oil from the Keystone Pipeline do you think will actually be used to lower gas prices to the poorest Americans vs. how much of the oil is to be shipped overseas to a bidder who will pay more?

2 bits
Cottonwood Heights, UT

I am actually disappointed in how little President Obama has done to change Global Warming in his first term.

I mean really... what has he done? Especially after blaming President Bush and Republicans for causing Global Warming and then claiming he was the only candidate who could solve the problem.

And the Governor Herbert angle?? Now we're blaming Global Warming on Utah and Governor Herbert?

We need to give this partisan hero worship a rest. In truth Governor Herbert didn't cause Global Warming... and President Barack Obama has done almost nothing to fix it.

Both Herbert and Obama are just "politicians"... doing what politicians do (basically nothing unless it's good for PR and may get their party re-elected).

I expected President Obama to do MUCH more to change Global Warming in his first term (especially after all his grandiose promises). I expected Gov Herbert to do about what he did (he is in no position to fix global warming, he didn't promise to solve global warming if elected, the Gov of Utah should focus on the Utah economy and Utah jobs, which involves energy exploration in Utah. Yes, even the evil tar sands)

Salt Lake City, UT



You're just pulling random numbers out of thin air...

Kent C. DeForrest
Provo, UT


Again you are ill informed. Climate-change naysayers like to cherry pick the 16 year figure. Why 16 years? Why not 20 or 15 or 25 or 10 or 30? Because all those numbers would show an average increase in global temperature. The 16-year figure works because 16 years ago we had a very atypical spike in temperatures. It was the hottest year ever. It was an anomaly, but so if you use that as a starting point, then yes, the average since then has not increased. But if you look at the overall trend, the earth is getting hotter. And it's getting a lot hotter than air temperatures indicate. Much of the increased heat is being trapped in the oceans. In time, that heat will be released, and then the fun begins. So go ahead, conservatives, keep your heads in the sand. When you finally pull them out, you'll find that the earth is a lot hotter than you thought.

Tooele, UT

Re: "You're just pulling random numbers out of thin air..."

Yeah, but unfortunately, they're some of the same numbers being suggested by economists and commodities investors that are not wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Obama regime.

And, if your own random numbers [which we'd love to hear] suggest that energy prices are NOT going to "necessarily skyrocket," -- as even your anointed one admits -- you're bound to be seriously disappointed over the next couple years.

Durham, NC

Mike - I agree with you about the usage of SS funds being mixed, it is wrong and needs to be stopped.... but, not a single person has not been denied benefits yet. The fund is solvent. What insurance companies have done isn't the answer.... see what AIG managed to do with their policy holders funds.... and how the government had to bail them out.... and now the leader of AIG during its crash is suing the government because he lost money. Pretending the private markets have our interest more in mind than the governments is just totally misguided.

Meanwhile - lost in DC would have us believe that the private markets haven't wasted billions of people dollars. In one corner we have the pro-green crowd.... in the other.... we have traditional energy crowd as represented by Enron. Lets ring the bell and see which one is the biggest failure.

lost in DC- exactly how many jobs across multiple states has green energy wiped out in one of their mistakes? You want to start adding up the cost of Exxon-Valdize and BP Deep Sea Horizon? Lets try to be a little balanced here...

Salt Lake City, UT

This discussion would be more germane if the worst case scenario for climate change would be a couple of degrees of warming or just a couple of bucks more at the pump when the rest of the world has paid that and more for years. If it was really just an issue in need of political horse trading we could give some here give some there, but is it? If the science is correct the result could well be that Richards boogie man ("sit in the dark, deep inside a cave") could become reality.

Can we "afford" to do nothing?

Bountiful, UT


Here is a not-so-unique concept for you to seriously consider the next time you have an urge to write an opinion letter about anthropometric global warming:

Until you get India, Russia, and especially China to sign-up to reducing their CO2 emissions, then anything we do here in the U.S.A. to decrease our emissions will be the equivalent of "spitting into the wind."

Salt Lake City, UT

The price attached to the tax or to cap and trade hasn't been determined so I have no interest in pulling out a number that isn't yet determined. For all we know it could be like the gasoline tax and amount to a quarter a gallon, not 6-9 dollars as you suggest.

Besides, if it's like a carbon tax used in Denmark then the money collected would be turned around and mostly refunded to the taxpayers as a form of redistribution from heavy energy users to those who use less in order to encourage efficiency.

lost in DC
West Jordan, UT

Tyler D,
where do you get the idea I have climbed on board? I spoke of pollution, not carbon dioxide, which the doomsayers like BO are trying to limit.

BO has promised to kill the domestic coal industry. It's not a question of how many jobs has his failed green companies killed, but how many jobs are his overall policies killing? why do you think we have such a weak recovery and why unemployment is stuck so high? The only job growth we have is in part-time employment.

BO's EPA and Obamacare are killing real jobs growth and prosperity in this country.

Mike Richards
South Jordan, Utah


As a former insurance agent, I know that any insurance company in Utah is obligated to "buy out" a failing insurance company. NO policy holder will ever be denied the benefits promised unless ALL insurance companies fail.

There is no possible way, given the revenue going into Washington, that Congress can ever honor all future demands on SS. You can easily do the math. Open a spreadsheet and get to work. The only way that Congress can handle the coming influx of "baby-boomers" is to inflate the money by printing by the ton, or by denying benefits.

The carbon tax is one way that devious liberals want to use to increase revenue. Obamacare is another tax that devious liberals plan on using to let Peter pay Paul.

It's a Ponzi scheme. It won't work. It only takes more money from the private sector. It only decreases the ability of businesses to hire employees. It only decreases SS payments and income tax revenues.

Never take accept the "obvious" when a politician is speaking. Follow the money. Always follow the money.

Tyler D
Meridian, ID

@lost in DC – “where do you get the idea I have climbed on board? I spoke of pollution, not carbon dioxide…”

My comment was ironic (i.e., a joke)… figured the “evolution” thing would have given that away.

Regarding pollution, that’s what I spoke of too, however, carbon dioxide is simply a subset of pollution as a whole.

But you might want to be careful with the term “pollution” because the minute the President starts to talk about limiting pollution in general, you guys will have to be against it… it’s on the card they give you at the meetings, or it might be written inside the foil hat (fyi - more irony).

2 bits
Cottonwood Heights, UT

Yes... Thank you, THANK YOU oh thow great Obama! What would we have done without you... and what will we do after you are gone?

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