Start thinking about alternative-energy options

Both current wind and solar efforts are considerably behind ocean-motion energy in efficiency [“Green star this year? Think energy efficiency,” Business, Jan. 27]. Wind turbines at best transmit less than 25 percent of the energy that impinges their blades. Solar does not come close to doing that well.

When you ignore the input and concentrate on use efficiency, you are ignoring the reality of where we must go and the necessary action to get there. The downslope of expendable options even now is considerably greater than any conservation efforts or use efficiencies.

We do not need to act like the U.S. as a whole and live on 100 quads per year [an amount of energy equivalent to more than eight billion gallons of gasoline]. If we do not act responsibly with our current challenges, we will end up with less, and no amount of insulation will fill that void.

Oil and natural gas may have different availabilities but you can plan on both lasting about the same amount of time. This means at that point we must have other options in place and neither wind nor solar alone can meet that scale.

We are going to have several efficient options that currently are possible but not available at this time. The time to talk and not act passed long ago.

— Hugh Coleman, Kelso

Stop war, pay for windmills

If instead of paying for endless foreign wars, the citizens of Washington state should somehow magically redirect the amount of their federal taxes being spent on the military for one month — really just one month.

That would be enough money to build enough windmills to replace the Centralia Coal Power Plant — one coal-power plant that emits as much carbon dioxide as all the cars in the state of Washington combined!

Is it really true we cannot afford to do our part to reduce global warming?

— James Adcock, Bellevue

Salmon runs

The premise in “Getting past the dams” is simply wrong [Opinion, Jan. 24]. Salmon and steelhead trout survival is far more complex than mandating spills at dams.

According to the latest NOAA Science Center research, fish survivals since 2006 have varied dramatically even though the spill program has remained static. Nor can NOAA correlate spill with increased adult returns.

As correctly noted, there are many elements affecting fish throughout their complex life-cycle including ocean conditions, which can swamp human actions taken at the dams. These fish live for four to five years, travel thousands of miles, face predators everywhere, face an often hostile ocean environment, and run a gauntlet of nets and hooks to spawn and sustain their genetic legacy.

But, spilling water does not affect survival of fish passing through turbines and doesn’t change water temperatures because it neither warms nor cools water being spilled. Spill does interfere with barging that benefits fish when water temperatures are warm and predation is high and has kept returning adult fish from being able to use the fish ladders.

The Fish Passage Center information you relied on in your editorial does not provide a complete or accurate picture of factors affecting healthy salmon-runs.

— Terry Flores, executive director Northwest RiverPartners, Portland