Letters to the Editor: June 29, 2012

The Constitution mandates the separation of powers. All parties should understand that in order for a branch of government to make a valid decision, it must be based in fact, not some edited fiction.

Operation Fast and Furious is an embarrassment to our attorney general and the president.President Obama should be stepping up and representing the people, not his party or his employees.Jay Carney, the White House mouthpiece, is trying to imply that the Congress is playing “political gamesmanship and theater.”

But the reality is that Congress is simply seeking the truth, and the executive branch has provided nothing but arrogance as an answer to their questions.Executive privilege is just a trick to avoid embarrassment and responsibility.

Randy Mathson

Alexandria

Colorado wildfire illuminates media double standard

The mainstream media criticized President George W. Bush for perceived delays in providing aid to a largely African-American city, New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina.

Why has the same mainstream media refrained from criticizing President Obama for real delays in providing aid to the largely white city of Colorado Springs?

When will President Obama stop fundraising and come here to inspect efforts to fight the fire and talk to us local residents?

Richard Allen

Colorado Springs, Col.

Don’t let fraud detract from renewable fuels promotion

Re: “EPA punishes the innocent for green fuels fraud,” June 7

Isolated fraud cases in the Renewable Fuel Standard — the federal policy shifting the nation away from our singular dependence on petroleum — warrant attention. But we should not let them distract from the great success that the RFS is having in diversifying the U.S. energy supply, creating U.S. jobs and improving the environment.

Thanks in part to the RFS, the biodiesel industry has grown to a point where it now has plants in nearly every state. Production has increased from 75 million gallons to nearly 1.1 billion in just six years, supporting more than 39,000 jobs, cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions and reducing our dependency on imported oil.

As representatives of the U.S. biodiesel industry, we are proud of this contribution. We have consistently urged the EPA to vigorously fight fraud, and to be flexible with oil companies that may have unwittingly purchased fake credits from perpetrators of fraud.

We are committed to working with the EPA and petroleum companies to ensure a successful program, and we commend the EPA for administering a complicated policy with competence and transparency. Already, private-sector solutions are being implemented to prevent fraud in the future.

Fraud is not unique to the renewable fuels industry, and we can’t let a handful of bad actors cause us to lose sight of why the RFS was created. Since Congress and President George W. Bush approved it in 2005 with overwhelming bipartisan support, the RFS has been one of the most successful policies in recent history for stimulating domestic energy production and making us less vulnerable to global petroleum markets and the endless price spikes that disrupt our economy and are so dangerous to our national security.

Joe Jobe

CEO,

National Biodiesel Board