Arctic refuge votes don't make sense

The votes by Sens. Inouye and Akaka for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is incomprehensible for representatives of a state that depends entirely on its environmental riches.

Human intrusion into the finely balanced equilibrium of nature has a history of throwing up unanticipated effects that end up costing many times more than the original endeavor promised to deliver, greenhouse gasses being the most prominent example.

Their vote is also detrimental to this country's energy outlook. Opening ANWR does nothing to relieve the nation's dependency on oil. The U.S. Geological Society's 1999 report 98-34 shows that the federal land in ANWR holds about 7.7 billion barrels of oil. Production would start seven to 12 years from today, at the earliest, and would provide an estimated relief from 62 percent imports to 60 percent imports in 2020.

With the United States consuming about 20 million barrels per day, endangering ANWR would provide America with oil for an unimpressive grand total of 392 extra days sometime around 2020. A mere 13 more months of oil 15 years from today cannot be worth risking the loss of some of the last remaining wilderness in America forever.

This is anything but a long-term energy strategy, and desperately squeezing out more of it would certainly not reduce America's dependency on oil. The senators might want to spend some time reading the actual documentation and then vote for conservation, research into renewable energies and the people rather than for questionable oil industry profits.

First, make buses more convenient for us

How can the state of Hawai'i plan on spending millions of dollars on a fixed-rail system when it can't even fill the city buses to capacity? Only during rush hour are the buses full, with the remaining hours filled at less than 50 percent ridership.

The state should work on ways to increase passengers throughout the entire day by making it more convenient for us before engaging in another mass-transit system on a monumental scale.

Commercial exploiting at memorial must stop

I'm very shocked that a private retail operation has been allowed to open in a tent on government property right between the USS Arizona Memorial and USS Bowfin Museum at Pearl Harbor.

This is no place for something that looks like what you would see at the Aloha Stadium Flea Market or International Marketplace in Waikiki!

There should be an immediate investigation into how such an ugly project was approved without public input or knowledge. This is apparently just the beginning of a permanent retail store that plans to sell not just food, but also jewelry and T-shirts.

The Arizona Memorial has been visited by most local residents at one time or another and is an important part of Hawai'i history and important to our tourist economy. This commercial exploitation should not be allowed to continue.

Hannemann keeping an eye on road ahead

I disagree with Lee Cataluna's March 22 column. I don't think Mayor Mufi Hannemann is "looking in the rear-view mirror" at all. It seems to me the mayor inherited a bunch of problems from Jeremy Harris and is looking at a very bumpy road ahead.

There's not enough money, and long-delayed work on the sewers and roads is going to be a drag on the city for years to come. If we ignore those problems, they're just going to get bigger. How would Cataluna address that future?

It's easy to sit on the sidelines and snipe, not so easy to confront problems and lead responsibly, always keeping an eye on the road ahead.

UH must scale back its ambitious dreams

Achieving tuition equivalence with other universities suggests UH-Manoa has a foolish dream about its self-worth, where it finds itself in a fiscal bubble incurred by its ambitious building programs in a state marked by precarious revenue growth.

Federal pork dollars for UH will soon dry up as our senior senator in Congress must eventually consider his retirement, adding to UH's financial dilemma.

What UH and the Board of Regents don't seem to understand is that Hawai'i does not enjoy an "economy of scale" like other states. Hawai'i is locked in to a single industry (tourism) that is marred by low wages and salaries. Its taxpayers are beginning to see their disposable income erode from high gas prices and are burdened with ever-greater debt from mortgages and car loans.

UH-Manoa must cease and desist its foolish dreams and reflect on what our "economy of scale" can support and what we can burden our students with.

City has launched a major planning, permitting drive

This is in response to the March 20 article "City's permit process still lags" and Thursday's editorial on the city's Department of Planning and Permitting.

We appreciate your attempt to bring to light some of the challenges the department faces; however, both pieces fail to recognize the effort put forth by our dedicated employees. Neither article acknowledges the positive feedback we have received for improvements made since the Hannemann administration took office less than three months ago.

This administration has made it a priority to speed the permitting process, and as a result, the department has implemented improvements at our permit center, reducing waiting time and confusion.

In these first three months, the department has hired more new employees than in all of 2003, and we have already equaled the number of employees hired in all of 2004. In addition, the city has recently implemented a shortage differential increase for engineers, which allows us to match the pay scale of the state. With this, the department can now compete on the same playing field with the state in recruiting engineers to fill our shortage.

Our employees are remarkable and have embraced Mayor Mufi Hannemann's direction to improve the permit process. They have taken ownership of this challenge, and have provided real solutions.

You can expect more improvements in the coming months. We know there are problems; we've come up with some solutions and are working on more. We only ask for a fair chance before you judge whether we're lagging in our efforts to solve this challenge.