Utility’s new peak rates

To piggyback on the recent letter from H. Wayne Hall (Gazette 3/24) regarding the price gouging of Colorado Springs Utilities’ new peak rates, I couldn’t agree more. I just don’t understand why CSU even needs a peak rate during the winter months, when cumulative ratepayer demand is significantly lower than in the summer.

It really makes no sense, other than to fund its useless and unnecessary pet projects, like the City’s fiber optic network (high capital cost, no benefit to rate-payers).

Well, since “we’re all connected” (because we have no other choice), I guess I will have to skip the Christmas lights this year, thanks to the high electric rates from 5 pm-9 pm in the winter. Thanks again CSU for gouging us and Merry Christmas with your revenue windfall.

Chase Vendl

Colorado Springs

Bill 98 and the recent poll

The manner in which Bill 98 is being regarded & presented trivializes noise as a public health & environmental hazard, as well as downplays the elimination of citizen legal rights. Laws are created to protect everyone equally, even if those individuals are in a minority.

The scope of the existing Noise Abatement Act is two-fold. The first is public health and the second is environmental protection.

Public health and environmental protection policy decisions are significant matters & typically are made with direction from informed professionals not by local popularity contests ( i.e. polls ).

Public health law’s intent is to uniformly promote general public welfare & address hazards that threaten the population & environment. Such laws should address inequities, not create them, and cannot be subject to the vicissitudes of the highest bidder or the loudest voice. Noise regulation, whether purchased or the result of a local popularity contest, will result in piecemeal laws scattered across the state, which is inherently discriminatory. In such a scenario, monied interests can easily influence local policy rendering segments of the population vulnerable and without recourse.

For- profit entities are motivated by profit, not public health or environmental protection.

Imagine if the tobacco industry had been successful in steering smoking policy into the arena of popular opinion. If the tobacco companies and their paid lobbyists were allowed to influence laws and elections based solely on popularity, society might still have indoor public smoking.

Murray Relf , M.D.

Colorado Springs

Drone defense innovation

Ukraine has pivoted from its historic role as the “Breadbasket of the World” to a global leader in drone defense innovation. This shift was necessitated by Russia’s violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, beginning with the 2014 seizure of Crimea and culminating in the 2022 invasion.

To offset Russia’s numerical advantages, Ukraine developed a “drone wall” through scalable, cost-effective innovation. As Dmytro Kavun of Dignitas Ukraine notes, the strategy is to fight smarter; Douglas Davis a volunteer with the Ukrainian Alliance for Medical Exchange and Development adds that distributed interceptor drones provide a sustainable counter to cheap swarm tactics. Ukraine is now exporting this expertise to help the US and Gulf states defend against Iranian drone attacks.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s agricultural capacity has suffered significantly. Due to landmines and explosives, accessible land has dropped to 24 million hectares. Consequently, production fell from over 100 million tons of grains and oilseeds in 2021 to approximately 75 million tons in 2025.

Larysa Martyniuk, Neonila Martyniuk

Colorado Springs