letters
TO THE EDITOR
The old way of thinking is that we
should destroy the forest to save the
trees. Or in this case, the counties. A new
vision would see the value of our state’s
forest lands in clean air and water, wildlife
habitat, carbon storage to help mitigate
climate change, and the intrinsic beauty
that beckons us to live here.
Other viable county funding options
exist beyond clear-cutting public forest
lands, such as an equitable timber tax on
industrial forest lands, an export tax on raw
logs, consolidating BLM with the Forest
Service, and fi xing the broken property tax
system in Oregon. Congressman DeFazio
should take a breath, drop his present plan,
and begin anew with a better vision.
Benton Elliott
Eugene
SMART METERS
EW has covered the $50 million EWEB
smart meter project with one feature
story and two opposing points of view
articles. Barely covered though is a subject
very important to customers: cost.
The savings professed by Roger Gray,
the head of EWEB, includes 15,000
gallons of gas the re-trained meter readers
will not use. But by my calculations that
means they have been driving over 100
miles a day to read meters. Unlikely.
The high estimate range of the project
will probably be low. That is, the project
will cost us more, not less, than $50 million
dollars, and each residence will pay at least
$500 for the meter installation.
EWEB recently offered to reduce the
burden on customers by “paying for them
itself.” This is very strange, but the offer
is to fi nance them, use bonds or reserve
funds. I do hope the offi cers at EWEB un-
derstand that all of these methods involve
using our money. There is no cash cow or
secret source of money. These methods
hide the cost from us.
This will be a huge outlay and that is
why we need to continue to ask just what
we are getting for our money. Retrained
workers? Usage information? These little
lies cover up the fact we are all going to
pay more for something we do not need.
Benefi ts will trickle down? Only in the
sense that we are being pissed on and only
get the trickle of that. That’s what it feels
like to be governed by your utility, not the
other way around.
Michael Lee
Eugene
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EUGENE WEEKLY DECEMBER 15, 2011
7