Clean power plan can benefit state

We live in a desert, which should be an obvious incentive to protect our water resources.

Low snow pack, evaporation and climate change further stress our water tables and lakes.

Then there’s the issue of water quality too, not just quantity. Some of the water resources in our state have been polluted from mining and runoff. Some is just too salinated to be used for drinking or agriculture.

Being conscientious of our water use is a huge step. Looking into new ways to reduce evaporation is another. Increasing our use of clean renewable energies that don’t further pollute our air and water sources is another.

Our state has the perfect blend of sunshine, wind, and geothermal resources to be 100 percent clean, sustainable and renewable in the ways we generate power for our state, and we can protect our precious water resources simultaneously. Nevada will benefit in multiple ways from a strong and aggressive clean power plan.

North Las Vegas

Citing federal tax cuts as the driving factor, Ely-based Prospector Hotel and Gambling Hall recently gave its employees a $500 bonus and raised starting wages to $12 per hour.

Plain and simple, tax cuts are working and helping the economy in ways that Nevadans have never seen before. They are bringing new life to our state’s business owners, who now have more resources with which to reward their employees.

Ranging from bonuses to wage increases, more than four million U.S. workers have already seen the benefits of tax cuts. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., infamously called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “the worst bill in the history of the United States Congress.” I guess she forgot about Obamacare and “Cash for Clunkers.” Either of those are far more deserving of the “worst bill ever” title. The reality is that the Republican tax cuts are helping Americans, Nevadans and businesses more than anything Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ever proposed.

Las Vegas

The writer is a Republican in the Nevada Assembly.

President Donald Trump wants to charge you and your family $70 to visit your national parks for a day. Then he wants to cut funding for national parks and the rest of the agency that manages your public lands by 17 percent.

This funding protects your iconic endangered and threatened species like wolves, sea otters and grizzly bears and will be cut by nearly half. He wants to cut $1 billion from research that would protect us from rising sea levels and other effects of climate change. He wants to cut funding that protects your clean air and water by nearly a third.

Does that sound like a president who is putting America first? Sen. Dean Heller and the rest of Congress need to stand up and tell Trump to start over and propose a budget that truly puts America first.

Reno