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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | MARCH 13, 2022
For more community news visit SanTanSun.com
We need real “Made in America” energy policy BY JILL NORGAARD Guest Writer
After four years of Democrats denouncing America First policies, Joe Biden proposed a socalled ‘Made in America’ agenda in his State of the Union address. Yet his policies prevent us from making energy here in America. Arizona drivers are already starting to see gas pumps with prices of four dollars per gallon and higher, with expectations of continued increases. Biden and the Democrats want you to believe that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is the cause of this spike. While it is a contributing cause, the price rise started long before Russian troops rolled.
Joe Biden came into office and immediately moved to shut down the construction of the Keystone pipeline. He also signed executive orders that ended oil and gas exploration on federal lands. This eliminated jobs in both the long and short term. Construction jobs were eliminated. Long-term projects to build increased refining capacity for oil and natural gas were eliminated. The United States would have easily refined enough gasoline for domestic use. With natural gas, the infrastructure was to be built to allow for exporting liquified natural gas to Europe and other places overseas. The collapse of these projects diminished output here in the United States. After having achieved energy indepen-
dence, a year later we were back to relying on foreign sources for energy. Biden’s Administration claims that fossil fuels can all be replaced by renewable energy sources. This cannot be done as wind and solar are not reliable, are expensive, and are subsidized. In addition, ships and aircraft require liquid fuels, renewables will not be effective. In his speech, Biden announced the release of sixty million barrels of oil from strategic oil reserves, thirty million from the United States. This token effort was already done before, gasoline prices were constant for less than a week, then continued to climb. After Biden’s state of the union announcement on the oil reserve, international oil prices rose by 5%. Energy policy is national security
policy. Biden has increased the money supply which has contributed to the price of energy - and all - the inflation that we are seeing. The government has made energy less reliable and more expensive, resulting in a lower standard of living and increased reliance on foreign sources of energy. Unnecessarily. States are acting. Fifteen states have sued the Environmental Protection Agency to reverse the Biden oil and gas rules. Just as with the Bidens administration’s unconstitutional pandemic mandates, hopefully, the courts will restore some sanity. Jill Norgaard is an engineer and a former Arizona state representative, She is the first vice-chair of the Republican Party of Arizona.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Chandler Council should seriously study police staffing
In an irony that I hope wasn’t lost on the Chandler mayor and city council, the front-page story on crime in the Feb. 27 edition of the SanTan Sun News was accompanied by an article that reported Arizona’s crime rate is higher than the nation’s average (“Police union rep disputes mayor’s take on Chandler crime” and “Violent crime increase higher in Arizona than Nation”). The first article profiled Phoenix and its surrounding cities relative to residents per officer, starting wage, and new recruit bonuses. An even cursory review of this data, as well as (Chandler Law Enforcement Association) President Michael Collins’s assertions concerning the sub-optimal staffing levels, should convince Chandler residents that our hard-working, dedicated officers are in a compromised situation. The second article reported that violent crime in the U.S. rose 4.6%
between 2019 and 2020, while the rate in Arizona rose 8.6%. One needn’t be a criminologist to understand the linear relationship between funding for law enforcement and crime rates. A glance at other major metropolitan areas that have cut or redirected funding due to wholly misguided politics and priorities would convince even the skeptics among us of that causal relationship. Having served seven years on city council in a small Colorado town, I can attest to the political tensions between council and law enforcement relative to funding. In order to resolve those issues, we conducted annual comparative analyses to ensure our force was within statistical parameters. That not only satisfied our primary responsibilities regarding public safety, but kept us competitive in the vital areas of recruitment and retention. To the extent the Chandler mayor and council oppose this evi-
dence-based, common sense approach to public safety, they are effectively compromising the critical work of our officers, and increasing the risk of violent crime. As a staunch fiscal conservative, while on council I scrutinized city budgets and found many ways to reduce the burden to tax payers. But I consistently provided strong and unqualified support for law enforcement who have some of the toughest jobs in any community. As Collins was quoted, “Eventually you’re going to burn that candle out, and we’ve long been burned out...It’s not good for people who are making split-second, critical decisions to work 16-hour shifts three days a week.” It’s time for the mayor and council to express their unequivocal support for law enforcement, by providing the funding necessary to improve staffing ratios and wages. -Philip Mella
Students Can Make a Fresh Start by Transferring Schools When working in a field as impactful as education, it is a privilege to witness how schools can change the course of a student’s life. For some students, however, school does not always feel like a positive experience. A 2020 Yale study found that 75 percent of students reported negative feelings toward their school. Outside factors like moving homes, family crises and bullying are common reasons for a student to be unhappy in their learning environment, as the emotional repercussions of these stressors often carry over into the learning environment. For many students, the pandemic has caused an even greater rift in their educational experience, causing increased depression and anxiety over safety protocols and disruptions in
learning. For some, a fresh start at a different school can spur a newfound interest in learning, reinvigorate interest, and ease stresses for both parents and students. A transfer doesn’t have to be permanent either; it could be as simple as a semester or year-long break from a current environment to reassess expectations. Hesitations toward a transfer are normal, as humans are creatures of habit and embracing new environments can be intimidating. During the transfer process, students are encouraged to rely on the guidance of their teachers, counselors and administrators to learn the ropes of their new school. During my time as a classroom teacher at a traditional brick-and-mortar school, and now as a high school counselor at Primavera Online School, I’ve observed that the right support often acclimates students to their new school within the first few weeks of transferring. Parents and guardians can also support students by being available to talk through their new experiences, assisting with unfamiliar assignments, and encouraging an open dialogue about any new feelings they may have. Ultimately, the most difficult part for many families is transferring their student’s paperwork, which administrators can help facilitate. With the immense impact schools have on their lives, families shouldn’t feel obligated to keep their students in a learning environment that is making them unhappy or simply no longer working. If you find your student in this situation, I encourage you to have a conversation about transferring. There’s no time like the present to switch schools, and in today’s virtual world, the sky’s the limit. -Derek Petersen, high school counselor at Primavera Online School
