County officials prevaricated on sunset provision Re: “Unions push for MontCo to keep huge energy tax hike,” Dec. 9
Montgomery County’s 256 percent electricity tax increase, which went from $.0052/kwh to $.0133/kwh on residential usage, was passed in 2010 before the election, and was supposed to “sunset” in June 2012. The definition of “sunset” is “the close or final stage of any period.”
The County Council and the county executive both promised before the election that people wouldn’t have to run around wearing two sweaters in the winter and nothing but their underwear in the summer to save energy taxes after 2012. But they “prevaricated.”
“Prevarication” is “a false or deliberate misstatement.”
There’s only one way to get around Montgomery County’s one-party system, where elected officials scratch the backs of union bosses so they can be elected in return, is to visit montgomerypetitions.com. There, honest voters can limit energy taxes and abolish union control at the same time by supporting the two charter amendments.
Robin Ficker
Boyds, Md.
EPA has been deadly wrong before
Re: “More unsupported hysteria over fracking,” Editorial, Dec. 9
Your editorial on fracking, which promoted the findings of our Environmental Protection Agency, was a shocker to me.
For this agency to conclude that this method does not interfere with the “aquanatory” trenches of our drinking water reminds me of the time when the EPA’s previous leader went on national television soon after the tragic Twin Towers disaster and told the world that the air around the World Trade Centers area was safe to breathe and posed no danger to human health.
Both of these findings — pure nonsense.
Bernard Helinski
Baltimore
Political incorrectness is salute to American freedom
Re: “Middle and high schools should be teaching history,” From Readers, Dec. 9
Cargill Kelly’s proposal that children study American history before college leaves us with the question: Whose version?
For example, although the North saw the Civil War as a way to preserve the Union, the South saw it as a war for independence. Loyola University professor Thomas J. DiLorenzo wrote two books portraying President Abraham Lincoln as a scoundrel and the war as totally unnecessary.
School-age children must be educated, not propagandized. We must also be free to discuss the politically-incorrect aspects of American history. After all, political incorrectness is a salute to American freedom.
Lawrence K. Marsh
Gaithersburg
