Letters to the editor

Natural gas ban worsens unreliable energy supply

It didn’t seem possible to make California’s unreliable energy even worse, but the San Jose City Council has succeeded by passing a ban on natural gas for new construction (“San Jose adopts historic natural gas ban — but with a controversial exception,” Dec. 2). Despite ongoing blackouts every year, the San Jose City Council has banned the only backup source of energy for homes and businesses to heat, cool, cook and power natural gas generators in an emergency.

But fear not for our leaders. They can have city supplied generators brought to their homes, decamp to their $300,000 RVs, move to their second homes or buy $100,000 worth of lithium batteries to ensure their pools are heated. No wonder another iconic Silicon Valley company, Hewlett Packard, is moving to Houston, and reducing the state’s tax base. — Ed Kahl, Woodside

Reusing natural gas pipes for hydrogen a bad idea

A major premise of the oped by Rob Lapsley and Linda Moore in the Dec. 1 Mercury News (“How San Jose can ensure reliable, resilient clean energy”) is that the pipes currently providing the infrastructure to distribute natural gas can be easily repurposed for hydrogen in the future.

Unfortunately, there is a natural phenomenon that makes this extremely questionable and potentially very dangerous — hydrogen gas causes embrittlement in a wide variety of iron alloys, from cast iron to steel, leaving them susceptible to cracking.

Future hydrogen distribution cannot be done safely in old pipes. Do not take my word for it — there are many articles online about this subject.

— Campbell Scott, Los Gatos

Leaders’ bad examples make COVID fight harder

I am really disappointed with Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose and Mayor London Breed of San Francisco. All three of these “leaders” exercised lousy judgment at a time when their constituents were asked/ warned/told to stay home and observe the rules where group gatherings were concerned.

Needless to say, it’s scary to think how many will now not cooperate with stay-at-home safety requirements, citing the behavior of these three leaders.— Lynda Martinez, San Jose

Officials’ actions will be recalled at ballot box

On Dec. 1, I had to cancel plans to attend my best friend’s daughters’ birthday party because of the spike in coronavirus cases in the Bay Area. Although we would have been acting within county protocols, I did not feel comfortable mixing any other family under the circumstances. I am devastated to have to miss it.

After this anguishing decision, I tuned into the news, where I heard that both Mayor London Breed and Mayor Sam Liccardo had each attended events that breached Bay Area COVID-19 protocols. This is after the news of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s earlier breach. It is this type of entitled behavior that has led to our current COVID numbers and the reason that I now have to sacrifice what would have been a joyous celebration with my goddaughters. Thanks a lot. I’ll remember this next time I vote.

— Keri Williams, Sunnyvale

Spanish flu lessons helpful in COVID efforts

As a student studying at Dominican University of California, I have researched and come across some historical precedent that we can learn from. Similar to COVID-19, the 1918 influenza epidemic took no mercy in regard to infecting its victims. In the beginning, a lack of quarantining allowed the flu to spread across the United States. Approximately 675,000 Americans died from the flu in 1918 (the total U.S. population at the time was around 106 million) over a much shorter time period.

If the same percentage of people died in 2020 from coronavirus, we would have more than 2 million dead Americans. I believe we have learned from the past and are now enforcing new quarantine rules, such as curfews, shutting down or limiting access to public and commercial spaces. America is taking precautions to better control the spread of the virus.

— Samantha Hernandez

San Bruno