Tuesday letters: Loans, natural gas, Astros

August 04:

New path

Regarding "Lawmaker at odds with GOP allies, including Big Oil" (Page B6, Monday), the profile of the anti-cronyism stance of Rep. Jeb Hensarling underscored the civil war within the Republican Party between the establishment and reformers. It also brings to mind a quotation from the late economist Milton Friedman: "The two greatest enemies of free enterprise in the United States … have been, on the one hand, my fellow intellectuals and, on the other hand, the business corporations of this country."
Eliminating special subsidies for business is good for business in several ways. One, it levels the playing field for competition. Two, it reduces the federal deficit. Three, it gives the business community moral standing to require cuts to other special interests to help tame the budget deficit. And in the case of the Export-Import Bank, elimination will require private banks and involved corporations to really decide what are good versus bad business risks rather than taking the easy way out with taxpayer obligations.
Bob Bradley, Houston

Natural gas
Regarding "Utilities eye stress of electric vehicles on grid" (Page A1, Monday), add another problem to the development of battery-operated automobiles. There were already the small size, limited range and high cost of purchase, once the federal subsidies expire. Plus these existing problems don't address the difficulty of disposal of these large batteries when they expire. Now there is the new problem of over-taxing the electric grid. Every year we are warned that the nationwide grid is over-taxed and that we might have to endure rolling brown-outs or even black-outs. And building new generating capacity is nearly impossible due to restrictive environmental requirements on power plants. So new designs and programs to control electric car usage of the grid will have to be devised. These will add still more cost (or inconvenience) to the vehicle and, maybe, the electric grid.
All the while we sit on the already "shovel ready" solution for vehicular power using natural gas. This is a relatively simple solution and one that would make use of this natural resource, which is practically at a glut stage.
Kent Marshall, Missouri City

Fill empty seats
Regarding "Ticket prices to see spike for '15 season" (Page C1, Saturday), the owner of the Houston Astroswould do better by investing more money in his team thereby fielding a better team rather than just arbitrarily raising ticket prices. An improved team would in turn attract more fans, increase the team's revenue and thereby pay back the owner for his investment. You cannot raise the price of tickets when the demand for the product is not there. You're asking the Houston fans to decide where they want to spend their entertainment dollars, having to chose between four major league teams and some college teams. And given the current record of the Astros, it would seem more logical to reduce the ticket prices because you would make more money from filled rather than empty seats.

By increasing attendance, they would also get an increase in revenue from concessions and parking.
Robert M. Louie, Houston
Source: www.chron.com/opinion/letters/article/Tuesday-letters-Loans-natural-gas-Astros-5667696.php?

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