Letters to the Editor

Continued from A22

There are no certain answers to continued use of these sites for electrical purposes to replace lost tax revenues. Just the opposite is true: The higher the taxes on any new facilities, the more expensive will be their operation and less likely they would be built here.

Peter Gollon Huntington

Editor’s note: The writer was a LIPA trustee from 2016-21. See also story, “Carbon-free technologies explored for local power stations,” page A4.

Words matter in immigration dialogue

One of the most beautiful elements of America is diversity. The immigrants who live in our communities contribute to our economy, our culture and our public life. We are a better nation for it.

We have seen a vilification of those seeking asylum at our southern border. This past Sunday, local, state, and federal Suffolk County Republicans held a press conference, announcing a plan to hire legal counsel to block asylum seekers from entering Suffolk County.

Though seeking asylum is legal, county Legislature Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey [R-Lindenhurst] said, “We don’t know who’s coming over.” In doing so, McCaffrey implies that asylum seekers are a danger to us.

U.S. Congressman Nick LaLota [R-NY1] differentiated between documented and undocumented immigrants. Both ignore a basic truth: Asylum seekers are fleeing their countries because of climate change, poverty and political violence. They are not seeking to do us harm. Our federal government must provide assistance and address these root causes in our foreign policy. That is the direction we must take, rather than demonizing and “othering” asylum seekers.

Today’s asylum seekers remind me of my paternal grandfather. As a teenager, he fled Odessa [now in Ukraine] after his father, a practicing rabbi, was murdered in Siberia. My grandfather didn’t consider paperwork — he fled to survive. My grandfather may have had a different religion and skin color than the migrants at the border, but their stories and their humanity are quite similar. As a Jew who has had branches of my family tree cut off by political violence, I know that “Never Again” applies to every one of us, including asylum seekers.

Words matter. When our politicians use xenophobic rhetoric like the county Republicans are, it makes all of us less safe. Will the base they have riled up distinguish between which of their neighbors are documented or undocumented?

Did the teenager who murdered Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue in 2008 check his immigration status before ending his life? Rather than learning from our history, the county Republicans seem intent on repeating that harm, all in the name of firing up their base for the November elections.

We cannot accept this in Suffolk. We must seek solutions that bring us all together, rather than divide us up. We must expect more from our elected leaders. If they cannot deliver, we must vote them out and replace them with moral leaders who can.

Shoshana Hershkowitz South Setauket

EPA power plant standards are cost prohibitive

The EPA’s proposed rules for cutting emissions are so onerous that older generators, like Northport and Port Jefferson as well as hundreds around the country, will be shut down because the expense to upgrade would be prohibitive.

These power stations have operated since the 1960s with incredible reliability and cost-effectiveness. They have blessed Long Island and the communities that host them with tax income and life-sustaining, consistent energy. The developed world survives on this.

A main difference between our society and the third world is their lack of affordable, reliable energy. It is also a matter of survival. One can broil in the heat and freeze in the cold. One can starve for lack of food and water. One can die from inadequate health care facilities and resources.

Note well that these power plants have operated within EPA pollution regulations. Now the EPA is moving the goalposts. Companies, towns and cities that have relied on the energy for our civilization will be in mortal danger.

It is extremely difficult, costly and lengthy to site, plan, permit and build a new power station. The real estate is gone. The possibility of rebuilding an old power station to new standards, repowering, may not be costeffective, especially if there are the preferential power purchase agreements that put wind and solar electricity ahead of fossil fuel generation.

Another consideration is China, Russia, India and the Global South in general are building fossil-fueled power plants, including coal, at a breathtaking rate — hundreds a year. Decarbonization of New York state and the U.S. power plant emissions will have no effect.

Furthermore, wind and solar power operate on average about 20% of the nameplate capacity of generation. Spinning reserves are mandatory. Battery backup, aside from the huge expense, child labor and devastation to the environment in obtaining rare earths, may work for a few hours. Where is that coming from if Northport, Port Jeff and other power stations are closed?

Planet Earth, throughout its billions of years, experienced much higher temperatures and CO2. In fact, the Holocene period, with the greatest explosion of flora and fauna in history, flourished with way higher temperatures and CO2. Life adapted and thrived. In fact, thousands of scientists confirm there is no CO2 crisis.

Buy some candles if this goes through.

Mark Sertoff East Northport

Exploiting bail reform is not a solution

In response to my letter on bail reform [“Eliminating bail reduces recidivism,” TBR News Media, May 4], Jim Soviero takes exception to my use of the term “crocodile tears” [“Local crime exposes bail reform dangers,” May 18] to describe his professed concern for “minorities” that “tragically . . . continue to suffer disproportionately from violent crime.”

This was not an attack on his person or behavior, or an attempt to question the sincerity of his political beliefs. My point was that it seems a trifle presumptuous for Soviero, who is white, to proffer ending bail reform as a cure for the suffering of “minorities” when they themselves overwhelmingly disagree.

The larger point is that exploiting bail reform to excite fear and division for political gain is the worst possible way to actually address the underlying issues behind violent crime. Bail reform isn’t something that was just dreamed up by “leftist think tanks” as Soviero puts it. It was to address a very real problem he ignores, namely, the inequity of a system that condemns people who have not been convicted to days, weeks or even months in jails such as Rikers

Island, for, in effect, the crime of being poor. As I noted in my May 4 letter, it is overwhelmingly supported in the minority community. If it’s so harmful to them there’s a very simple remedy — they can vote out their representatives who support it.

Soviero scoffs at the data presented by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice study I cited, surrounding the word “data” with scare quotes. Naturally, since the data doesn’t support his contention that bail reform is terrible, he would much rather rely on anecdotal evidence that seems to. And for every horror story he could cite where someone was harmed by a person arraigned and released without bail, I could cite a horror story of someone who committed suicide or whose life was damaged beyond repair by being held in jail for days or weeks without being convicted. The point is, this is no way to formulate criminal justice policy. If we don’t use data, what do we use? Who can cite the most sensationalized anecdotes?

New York City Mayor Eric Adams [D], whom Soviero approvingly cited in his original letter denouncing bail reform, recently termed fixing it a “bumper sticker slogan.” Adams is right. Instead of politicians weaponizing this issue for political gain what we need is reasoned discussion of underlying issues. The problems with the criminal justice system are much deeper and more entrenched beyond the obsession with this one issue.

The following incidents have been reported by Suffolk County Police:

Two girls from Stony Brook missing Suffolk County Police Sixth Squad detectives are seeking the public’s help to locate a 16-year old girl and a 13-year-old girl who were reported missing from Stony Brook on May 21. 16-year-old Brittany Villatoro and 13-year-old Angelina Smith were last seen leaving a home on Stony Brook Road together on May 21 at 5:45 p.m. Villatoro is Hispanic, 5 feet 2 inches tall, 144 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Smith is Hispanic, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 185 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information on their location is asked to call 631-854-8652 or 911.

Dance teacher from Centereach arrested Suffolk County Police arrested a Centereach man on May 17 for alleged Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance for incidents that occurred last month.

Jordan Viscomi, a dance instructor at David Sanders Dance Dynamics, located at 4110 Sunrise Highway in Oakdale, met and befriended two female juveniles, aged 15 and 16, who were dance students there. Over the course of three days in April, Viscomi allegedly engaged the two victims in live video chats and phone text messages, where he exchanged sexual content with them.

Anyone who may have been victimized by Viscomi is asked to call 631- 854-8552.

Woman killed in Holtsville hit-and-run Suffolk County Police Major Case Unit detectives are investigating a hit-and-run crash that killed a woman in Holtsville on May 21. Fifth Precinct police officers responded to a 911 call regarding a body on the grass on the side of North Ocean Avenue, north of Fish Road, at approximately 7:45 a.m. The victim, Jennifer Bianco, was pronounced dead at the scene. It was determined that Bianco, 42, of Bay Shore, was struck by a 2019 to 2022 blue Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. Detectives are asking anyone with information on the crash to call the Major Case Unit at 631-852-6553.

Bicyclist injured in Sound Beach crash Suffolk County Police Seventh Squad detectives are investigating a motor vehicle crash that seriously injured a bicyclist in Sound Beach on May 19.

Matthew Aparicio was riding a bicycle eastbound on the North Shore Rail Trail, when he stopped at the intersection of Hallock Landing Road at a stop sign. He proceeded through the intersection, where he was struck in the crosswalk by a 1997 Ford Super Duty truck traveling southbound on Hallock Landing Road, at approximately 4:35 p.m.

Aparicio, 20, of Miller Place, was airlifted by Suffolk County Police helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment of serious injuries. The driver of the Ford, Luis Delgado, 27, of Riverhead, was not injured. Detectives are asking anyone with information on the crash to call 631-852- 8752.

— COMPILED BY HEIDI SUTTON

Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about these incidents can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers to submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-800-220-TIPS.