Doesn’t seem unreasonable
Transfer, not fire
Regarding “Tuesday letters,” (A11, Feb. 11): There was a letter that said the military officer who testified against President Donald Trump was fired. That would be incorrect. He was reassigned to the Pentagon. He did not lose his job or his paycheck or any of his benefits. It is often reported when military personnel and career federal civil servants are reassigned that they have been fired. Those in the private sector understand being fired to mean you lost your paycheck and your benefits. That is not what happened to the military officer in this case. Given the situation it really does not seem unreasonable that the president no longer wanted to work personally with this person and had him reassigned. Thomas Austin, Montgomery
China and energy
Regarding “China’s challenge to the world’s energy capital,” (A1, Feb. 10): Thank you to the Houston Chronicle for your informative article. I found the following statement from the article very revealing and well calculated about Chinese strategy: “They have figured out which technologies will have the greatest impact in addressing climate change, and they have carved out those segments for a leadership position.”
I am frustrated by the lack of U.S. policymakers working to figure this out. We need visionary legislators who can see past our current high-carbon emission systems. We need bold policies that catalyze U.S. innovation (and profits) for a changing world. We need forwardthinking leadership that guides the U.S. toward free-market climate change solutions that don’t leave us eating the competitive dust. Sixty-eight percent of Harris County residents support policy to regulate CO2 as a pollutant, and 63 percent support policy requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax, according to Yale Climate Opinion Maps 2019. The House of Representatives bipartisan bill “Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act” (HR763) will drive down America’s carbon pollution, while unleashing American technology innovation and ingenuity. Energy transitions are inevitable. Taking economic advantage of them is a smart strategy. Susan Atkinson, Durango, Colo.
It is sobering to think that China might outstrip the U.S. as an energy supplier, but let’s not lose sight of the real issue here: beefing up the petroleum industry in any nation is suicide right now. It’s great that China is renewing its focus on green, clean and clean-ish (nuclear) power, but the idea that it might also be redoubling its efforts to flood the world in oil is depressing. However, it does underline something important: the U.S. still has a chance to become a green powerhouse. We could be the standout. We’re going to have to switch to renewables one way or another — why not be the industry leader? With carbon pricing, incentives for turbines and solar, and a lot of infrastructure work that we already need to do, we can beat China at the energy game for the 21st century — and save the world doing it. What’s better than that? Thank you. Anna Gooding-Call, Danvers, Mass.