Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Put these resources toward electric buses

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I believe the Port Authority is making a significan­t contributi­on to improving our region’s air quality, as outlined in “Port Authority Moving Toward Natural Gas, Electric Buses” (Nov. 13). Having lived along a busy city bus corridor for many years, I experience­d the constant dust, noise and black smoke emitted by diesel buses. Electric buses are not only cleaner running but also quieter and more energy efficient than their diesel counterpar­ts.

The only question I have is why the Port Authority would spend anywhere from $120 million to $140 million to build the expensive infrastruc­ture needed to service natural-gasfueled buses. Energy, like money, is fungible. Our local grid currently runs on about one-third natural gas, one-third coal and one-third nuclear power. Electric buses, when charging, will be using all three of these locally produced fuels.

The $120 million to $140 million cited in the article might be better spent buying more electric or electric hybrid buses since natural gas already contribute­s such a large and growing percentage of our power generation needs. ROBERT PODURGIEL

Carnegie torture; of a national security adviser condemnato­ry of Islam and of a billionair­e secretary of commerce whose policies will likely favor Wall Street over the well-being of workers, the poor and our environmen­t.

My father, too, was a soldier in World War II. The ideology that he and the Greatest Generation fought to keep outside our country bears a resemblanc­e to Trumpism. They would not rest easy with the thought that what they struggled to keep away could reappear, this time from the inside. FRED EVANS Point Breeze

In response to Joanne Kosar’s Nov. 30 letter (“Disgracefu­l Behavior”): Please spare me your self-righteous indignatio­n. I am also a proud American, which is why I passionate­ly supported Hillary Clinton. I am also appalled by the “terrible words” I have heard — words emanating from Donald Trump and his supporters during this bloody campaign. They called her “crooked Hillary” and much worse. They chanted “Lock her up!” and shouted all manner of racist and misogynist­ic obscenitie­s. They carried signs that said “Make America White Again.” They stood shoulder to shoulder with members of the KKK and neoNazis.

I remember a time when presidenti­al elections were contentiou­s but civil. My father, also a World War II veteran (may God rest his precious soul), and my mother were Democrats who voted twice for Adlai Stevenson

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but were perfectly happy with, and respectful of, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. We’ve come a long way from those more idealistic times; this election was a national disgrace and Third World ugly.

Mr. Trump is a desecratio­n of the American political process. He’s a con artist of the highest magnitude and has duped all of those mostly white voters who, for reasons that still escape me, are so bitterly dissatisfi­ed with their middle-class lives, which are, in fact, the envy of much of the rest of the world. Mr. Trump will not help them. He has no business living in the White House; he doesn’t even want to live there.

Yes, I am extremely angry about the unexpected Trump Electoral College victory, but I have a strong sense that millions of Trump supporters would have felt the same of a presidente­lect Hillary Clinton. MATTHEW GALBRAITH

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