To the editor

The impact of public pressure

It seems like every day there is some new proposal by Oracle that the company claims will reduce the environmental impact of Project Jupiter. Whether these promises are true or not is doubtful. But they do represent the effect public pressure can have to make a bad project at least marginally better.

By Oracle's own admission, the changes they have put forward are in response to public concerns raised during the air permit process. Their new plans would reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants from Jupiter by hundreds of tons per year, and in the case of greenhouse gases, millions of tons per year. Their emissions are still too high, but if this monstrosity of a project does get built, and I hope it doesn't, it will be less harmful to the environment than what was originally proposed. All because of public pressure.

That is why a bill proposed by Senator Martin Heinrich is so concerning. Heinrich wants to limit the ability of the public to respond to projects like Jupiter, putting them on a fast track to development that limits communities' ability to respond to, and demand improvements in, projects that can have severe consequences for local residents. Heinrich's so-called Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act is a recipe for disaster. Communities need more protection, not less, because whether we like it or not, the polluters are

coming for us.

Annabel Simpson

Las Cruces

Educating voters

Where were the debates this year concerning New Mexico governor candidates? How do we know what they believe? The Bulletin did a good job of the

questions and answers printed in their publication, did you read them? Our candidates for governor, Deb Haaland DEM and Gregg Hull GOP scheduled a debate on 10-9-26, Deb Haaland withdrew. Hull participated in a televised debate alone.

Margaret Herring

Las Cruces

Reporting fraud

Our president is asking American citizens to begin reporting any suspected "fraud" by their neighbors or acquaintances. How fitting:

We have in office the only president in US history who has already been convicted by a jury of American citizens of committing fraud. Simultaneously, we were treated to a press release/photo opportunity on the grounds of the White House, by a former member of the president's staff, also a person convicted of fraud. That person, who has actually served time in prison, was trying to sell copies of his book, in which he accuses another person, a physician, of fraud, although there is no evidence of fraud by our former Director of NIH. His actions today are in direct violation of US law.

Those of us with knowledge of the Second World War remember how Hitler and his party asked that German and other European citizens report their neighbors for "fraud" or other crimes, and thereby used such reports as a starting point for rounding up and killing citizens of Europe.

Those of us who studied world history in school likewise remember learning about how Stalin similarly used reporting from neighbors as a starting point for rounding up and imprisoning Russian and other eastern European citizens.

Even today countries in the Middle East and elsewhere accuse their citizens of crimes and imprison their citizens as a means ;of keeping control of their countries.

America, we can and should do better! Please do not be misled by a "wannabe" dictator and autocrat. Please do not be misled by a convicted fraudster! We are a democracy, so let's start acting like one and refuse to begin reporting our friends and neighbors!

Arlene Brown, MD, FAAFP

Retired after 37 years practice in southern NM