Columns

Columns

Zimmerman: It pays to go electric in 2023

2023 is the year to go electric. The Inflation Reduction Act includes generous rebates and tax incentives for installing solar appliances, weatherizing your home, purchasing an electric vehicle (EV) or doing energy efficiency retrofits. San Jose residents should take advantage of these incentives to make the leap to electric, reduce their electricity bill and improve...

Dewan: Our youth need climate resilient schools

The recent winter rain offers potential drought relief, but the severity of the storms had detrimental impacts throughout the state, including power outages that disrupted learning. Locally, several schools experienced closures due to storm related power outages. Schools have faced several years of ongoing disruption to learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, poor air quality,...

Bramson: 2023 is not a good year for recycling

In an interview on Good Morning America in 1984, President Ronald Reagan addressed a topic rarely discussed by any commander in chief: homelessness. Yet despite his acknowledgment that this is a crisis that has faced our society for generations, he fell into the old game of shifting the blame. Bad economic and housing policy had...

Bini: Sargent Ranch quarry is important to building Santa Clara County’s sustainable future

The proposed Sargent Ranch sand and gravel quarry in lower Santa Clara County presents the Bay Area with a unique opportunity to help the region develop a sustainable, locally-sourced vital building material while ensuring long-term protections for ecological and tribal resources. The construction-grade sand at the site is a key ingredient for the concrete we...

Mallon: The challenge of implementing zero-emission buses

With the new year come new laws and policies, and perhaps the biggest one that will impact transit in Santa Clara County is a state requirement moving large transit agencies toward implementing zero-emission buses. In 2018, the California Air Resources Board adopted an innovative clean transit regulation that requires all transit agencies in the state...

Diridon: Societal suicide by carbon combustion is not ethical at any price

A headline in the New York Times on Oct. 28 reads, “Exxon and Chevron Racked Up Giant Profits.” Is it ethical to charge outrageous prices while selling huge volumes of polluting gasoline, to maximize profits, when the world is fighting climate change and inflation? The November 2015 issue of National Geographic pulled the climate issue together...