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Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
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For most of my 50 years as an adult I assumed the Supreme Court was trustworthy enough to be an independent court. No more. Supreme Court justices have become no better than elected politicians. There may be no rule that says a Supreme Court justice cannot accept significant gifts, but there should be (“Thomas took gift trips from donor,” front page, April 7). Trust is easily lost and slow to be regained. Thank you, Justice Clarence Thomas, for contributing to my growing lack of faith in the court. Thank you to the other justices for lacking the will to have addressed this long ago.
Craig Britton, Plymouth
HEALTH CARE
Another set of talented managers have failed to make a going business of health insurance. Evan Ramstad’s column in the April 5 edition reports that neither generous capitalization, cutting-edge technology nor a deep bench of expertise helped Bright Health of Bloomington (“State’s biggest IPO a cautionary tale”). Their failure occurs shortly after Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett watched their brainchild, Haven Healthcare, go down the tubes. Its life span was also less than three years.
It is time to rethink the financing of health care in the United States. We are distinctive among developed countries for our conviction that the free market can solve problems of health care dysfunction and sky high costs. “Free market” seems to mean private capital operating with the lightest possible constraint by regulation.
This model works very well in producing consumer goods. It fails in health care financing because many consumers are constrained from shopping around or find it confusing to do so. In addition, as a decent society, we are obligated to offer an option to those who are priced out, thus driving up total costs. In fact, our hodgepodge of health care financing with its duplication and multiple standards is itself a primary driver of costs. Adding some more companies to the mix is going in the wrong direction.
Let’s decide instead that every resident of the United States needs coverage and use social insurance to provide it. After all, the bigger the insurance pool, the greater the efficiency. This is the approach pioneered by Medicare, and we know it works.
Joel Clemmer, St. Paul
ENERGY
A recent letter from an industry organization decries the 20-year ban on mining of federally owned minerals on National Forest lands upstream from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (“Get needed minerals here,” April 5). The letter ignores the incalculable value of the Boundary Waters and grossly misleads with respect to the quantity of minerals covered by the ban.
The environmental assessment underlying the ban states “[t]he Boundary Waters … is a complex and interconnected ecosystem and offers recreational opportunities and other uses such that it is considered an irreplaceable national treasure.” The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s 2017 water quality assessment of the Boundary Waters watershed, which includes all of the mining ban area, describes waters there as “immaculate” and as having “exceptional biological, chemical and physical characteristics that are worthy of additional protection.”
The argument that metals in the mining ban area are needed for the green economy is not credible. Minerals do not exist there in quantities sufficient to justify irreparably damaging the Boundary Waters with mining’s inevitable water pollution. Based on U.S. Geological Survey data, the amount of minerals that a proposed mine would produce is tiny in terms of U.S. demand — 1.5% as to cobalt, 3.6% as to nickel and 2.3% as to copper. The only viable solution for transition to a green economy is to continue to rely on our longtime and secure allies — Canada, Australia, Norway and others — for cobalt and nickel. Copper is abundant around the world.
Congress and the Minnesota Legislature should act to make the mining ban permanent.
Becky Rom, Ely, Minn.
The writer is national chair, Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters.
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This week, President Joe Biden visited the Cummins power generation facility in Fridley as part of his “Investing in America” tour to tout federal funding for America’s infrastructure and clean energy projects (“Biden touts investment in Minn.,” April 4).
Of course, he did not mention controversial policies within the Inflation Reduction Act that threaten to undermine America’s clean-energy agenda. Tax credits designed to propel this transformation are conditioned on confusing and incomplete regulations from the Internal Revenue Service that will make them difficult to utilize. Worse, private clean-energy developers must ensure construction workers are paid government-determined wages and comply with labor and domestic content requirements that are likely to delay projects, discourage small business participation and needlessly increase construction costs.
In addition, the Biden administration’s insistence on requiring union labor and steering federal and federally assisted construction contracts to unionized contractors via mandatory project labor agreements will increase infrastructure project costs by 12% to 20%. This will also exacerbate the construction industry’s skilled labor shortage of more than half a million people by excluding the 88% of the construction industry that chooses not to join a union.
This is the last thing Minnesotans need as they continue to face rising prices for food, energy, housing and just about everything else. All Americans deserve better.
Adam Hanson, Eden Prairie
The writer is chapter president, Associated Builders and Contractors Minnesota/North Dakota.
BNSF DERAILMENT
Through the media I’ve been notified of two significant environmental accidents near me in central Minnesota over the past few weeks.
One, a BNSF train derails in Raymond, Minn. (“Cleanup begins as stunned Raymond residents return home after derailment,” April 1.) BNSF notifies all immediately. Emergency is help notified, neighbors are notified, and a Prinsburg church assists those in need.
Two, a nuclear power plant owned by Xcel, now 53 years old, had a sudden 400,000-gallon water leak. The leak occurred months ago.
I trust BNSF. I do not trust Xcel.
Pete Sorensen, Buffalo
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Following the fiery derailment of a BNSF train in Raymond, Minn., BNSF CEO Katie Farmer reassured us that “99.99%” of rail transports of toxic or flammable materials are completed successfully. So 0.01% fail. What if a different safety-conscious sector of the American economy, the airline industry, provided us with such soothing reassurances? Around 612 million passengers fly annually on domestic flights, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. If 0.01% failed to reach their destinations safely — and we know what the consequences are when flights fail — the annual death toll would be 60,000. Feel better?
Gregory B. Wright, Edina
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