Lost in the Pullman biodiesel discussion
Lost in the discussion of whether or not a fuel processing plant should operate in a light manufacturing zone is the question of if the plant should even be built. For now we have enough fossil fuel to meet our needs. We should reserve the most productive farmland in the nation for food crops. Biodiesel is an expensive, inefficient product pretending to be good for the planet. It is not. We can accept necessary climate impacts from farming including the use of insecticides and fertilizers to grow food, but we should not allow those impacts for a boutique fuel with no real value.
Jeffrey Watt
Pullman
Parks made a difference
It was with regret that I read of the recent passing of Bill Parks. I first met Dr. Parks when he was one of my professors while obtaining a master’s degree at the University of Idaho in the mid 1980s. I later interacted with him for various reasons while living in Moscow.
One item that was not in your news story was that Bill, in addition to his philanthropic work, in 2009 brought to the Moscow City Council a request that, because of the health hazard of second hand smoke, Moscow become the first city in Idaho to ban smoking in bars. As a member of the Moscow City Council, I was part of the unanimous vote to do so. In addition, we also included a 20-foot restriction to entrances or exits of any public place where smoking was prohibited by the Idaho Indoor Clean Air Act.
This is another good to add to the list of things Bill did for the benefit of Moscow.
Walter M. Steed
Meridian, Idaho
