RVC tanker crash, electric vehicles and COVID-19

Electric vehicles get two different views

The Rockville Centre tanker accident that spewed 9,200 gallons of gasoline is a clarion call to action: End our addiction to petrol engines ["Assessing crash damage," News, Feb. 18].

More than air pollution, the collision smacks of the convergence of multiple environmental hazards. Thousands of pounds of debris will be landfilled or incinerated.

Although taxpayers must foot the bill for infrastructure repairs, they fortunately won’t be attending any resultant funerals.

But what if that tanker had crashed into an elementary school full of children? A department store full of shoppers? Other vehicles? Pedestrians? What if emergency responders were killed? Had it been a different time of day in a location near the incident, a tragedy of significant magnitude could have unfolded.

Usher in the era of electric vehicles so that gasoline-powered cars and their stench will become an obsession of the past.

The state should pass the bills that would provide for consumer choice by ending the five-store limit New York State imposes on U.S. electric car makers like Tesla, Lucid and Rivian that make electric vehicles and sell them directly to consumers in stores without traditional franchise car dealers.

— Guy Jacob, Elmont

The writer is an at-large delegate of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter.

Expanding the direct sale of electric vehicles is a losing proposition ["Expand direct sales of electric vehicles," Opinion, Feb. 15]. It increases the tax burden on individual homeowners and disadvantages members of the business community.

Traditional auto dealers conduct business under a franchise agreement model with manufacturers. They occupy a tremendous amount of commercial real estate at a time when other retailers are vacating properties and abandoning communities. The revenue they generate is significant and used to fund public services, educate our communities, and create good jobs. Tesla, Lucid, and Rivian have decided this business model doesn’t work for them.

The New York League of Conservation Voters has taken up their fight and called on the state to rewrite the rules, suggesting there are barriers for New Yorkers to purchase electric vehicles. This is false. The only barrier to EV manufacturers participating in the auto market is the requirement they play by the rules.

Legislating direct sale of EVs under the guise of climate action is a false flag for the CEOs to continue getting richer at taxpayers’ expense. The state shouldn’t have to rewrite the rules because EV manufacturers developed a business model based on greed. They can and should sell to consumers the way every other car is sold in New York, through a franchise.

— Ryan Stanton, Hauppauge

The writer is executive director of the LI Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

Unhealthy people put prior burdens on us

The Northwell physician-in-chief said, "The nurses in the hospitals are tired, having to care for people who aren’t caring for themselves" ["Searching for a misinformation antidote," News, Feb. 22].

People not caring for themselves have been around long before COVID-19, and few have said anything.

What about people who burden the health care system because they refuse to: stop overeating and/or eat unhealthy food, quit drinking alcohol in excess, quit smoking, stop abusing drugs, take care of themselves and ignore a doctor’s advice. The list goes on, leading to more preventable illnesses and disease and more doctor visits and hospitalizations.

Preventable illnesses tax the health care system, which leads to higher hospitalization costs and affects everyone, even those in good health.

There is so much misinformation being thrown around that I think that some people are hesitant to know what to believe or who to believe anymore. You can’t really blame us or them.

— Charles J. Brown, Levittown

The omicron variant has been a very contagious but milder variant of COVID-19 the past few months. Yet, people, most of whom were unvaccinated, have died. More children were hospitalized compared with the delta variant.

If people still refuse to get vaccinated, I feel it would be naive to think that this fall there won’t be another surge of possibly a more contagious and/or deadlier variant.

Pediatricians’ advice to parents to get their children vaccinated is disregarded by many. Parents don’t know how their child will react to the virus until they get it. Is it worth the risk?

— Debra Kelly-Lukaszewicz, Massapequa