To the Editor:
Re “New Rule Aims to Push E.V.s to Fore” (Enterprise, March 21):
I’m one hundred pc for electrical automobiles. I commend President Biden for making such a daring and forward-thinking proposal. However the actuality is that this may increasingly by no means occur in in the present day’s America. As your story notes, fossil gasoline firms and Republican attorneys common are prone to file authorized challenges.
One factor that additionally must be addressed is the supply of the supplies wanted to make the batteries. We should understand how a lot injury is finished to the setting so as to entry these supplies.
E.V.s won’t ever change into mainstream till some main infrastructure adjustments happen. These embrace the necessity for a whole bunch of 1000’s of charging stations throughout America, together with fast-charging stations. Fortunately, Mr. Biden’s inexperienced initiatives and infrastructure plans are already in place so these are starting to take form.
E.V.s should additionally see an enormous enhance in battery capability, thus permitting customers to drive longer distances on a single cost.
And at last, the price of these automobiles should change into inexpensive for individuals who have been unable to purchase them prior to now.
On the upside, like all expertise, this can occur organically. As time goes on, E.V.s will change into extra inexpensive.
Prediction: It should take one other seven to 10 years earlier than E.V.s change into mainstream.
Ben Milano
Lindenhurst, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “A Hybrid-First Strategy Is Paying Off for Toyota” (Enterprise, March 13):
Toyota’s hybrid-first technique could also be delivering huge earnings proper now, however Toyota stands to lose out to its opponents if the corporate refuses to make a big transition to electrical automobiles.
The place Toyota is getting it flawed is that the transition to electrical automobiles is unavoidable. The transportation trade is the one largest U.S. source of greenhouse gas emissions, and hybrid vehicles still run on gas. E.V.s don’t produce tailpipe emissions and are the only option to eradicate carbon air pollution.
Monitoring short-term monetary advantages — inventory costs, earnings and gross sales — misses the purpose. Whereas The Instances notes that Toyota bought 15,000 E.V.s within the U.S. in 2023, I’m not impressed. Toyota is woefully behind the gross sales targets of competitor manufacturers.
Toyota is at a precipice: The corporate can both proceed to double down on gas-powered hybrids and threat changing into out of date — or it will probably meaningfully begin producing all-electric automobiles. Ought to Toyota proceed to refuse an E.V. transition, its deal with hybrids will show to be shortsighted, coming on the expense of worsening the local weather disaster and devaluing the model.
Ben Scott
London
The author is head of automotive at Carbon Tracker.
Putin’s Anti-Homosexual Persecution
To the Editor:
Re “Putin’s War Against Queer Ukrainians,” by J. Lester Feder (Opinion visitor essay, March 17):
I’m a homosexual man of a sure age. My coronary heart ached and my intestine wrenched once I learn Mr. Feder’s stories of Russian atrocities focusing on L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians. As if Vladimir Putin’s politicized use of homophobia weren’t unhealthy sufficient, wielding such hate as a weapon of struggle takes his depravity to complete new ranges.
Whereas I by no means skilled the focused torture and persecution Ukrainian gays now expertise, Mr. Feder’s piece jogged my memory that there have been occasions and locations right here within the U.S. that completely made being homosexual unsafe. Given the current rise in hate crimes of assorted types, together with elevated violence in opposition to homosexual individuals — to not point out potential rollbacks of homosexual rights by the unconventional proper — we’re shifting again to these unsafe occasions.
It’s crucial that the worldwide group completely examine and prosecute all Russian struggle crimes, together with crimes in opposition to L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians. That would be the first optimistic step towards eradicating violent anti-gay ideology in Ukraine and right here at residence.
S.S. Brown
San Diego
Church and State
To the Editor:
Re “G.O.P. Official in N. Carolina Sows Gospel of Far Right” (information article, March 19):
Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, claims he can’t discover the phrase “separation of church and state” within the “writings of any patriot, anyplace.”
He apparently didn’t look very far, as a result of Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802 that the First Modification’s institution clause created “a wall of separation between Church & State” designed to maintain the federal government from influencing religions.
To the Editor:
Re “I Asked My Mom if She Was Prepared to Die,” by Shaina Feinberg and Julia Rothman (Sunday Enterprise, March 17):
Along with the wonderful recommendation on this article, I recommend writing your individual obituary. Not all of us are fortunate sufficient to have one written by reporters for The New York Instances, however we are able to comply with their mannequin of getting the fundamentals ready.
It’s surprising how many individuals don’t know all of their husband/spouse/important different’s kin and pals; instructional, skilled or civic achievements; and even the place they could need charitable donations despatched.
Preserve it together with your different paperwork pertaining to your demise — together with the picture you wish to accompany it — and you’ll relieve your family members of yet one more unhappy activity as they mourn your passing.
Jana Goldman
Honor, Mich.
To the Editor:
The article about end-of-life planning supplied many beneficial concepts nevertheless it didn’t point out one which has put me extra comfy: donating my physique to science.
I reached out to a neighborhood medical college (on this case, the College of California San Francisco) and signed up for its Willed Body Program.
Not solely will I relaxation realizing that my physique helps to teach the subsequent era of physicians, however this system additionally pays for every part, together with pickup and cremation, so I may be assured that my household gained’t spend our hard-earned cash on inflated funeral bills as a substitute of on issues that make them joyful.
Lisa Tsering
El Cerrito, Calif.
Falling Birthrates
To the Editor:
Re “Birthrates Are Plummeting Worldwide. Why?” (“The Ezra Klein Present,” Opinion, nytimes.com, March 19):
That birthrates are plummeting world wide is testomony to the truth that life is mostly getting higher. With rising incomes, there are extra income-earning alternatives, notably for girls. In lots of nations the quantity of schooling wanted for a given job has elevated. Individuals are learning longer and dealing tougher.
The price of having a child must be thought of in opposition to the lack of revenue from a lady’s wages, a trade-off that was not required when jobs for girls have been comparatively few and much between. As a consequence ladies are sometimes selecting to not have infants.
Additional, ladies are getting married later and having infants later in life, so they may find yourself having fewer youngsters in contrast with ladies who begin having youngsters a lot earlier in life.
Ananish Chaudhuri
Auckland, New Zealand
The author is professor of experimental economics on the College of Auckland and the writer of the forthcoming “Economics: A International Introduction.”
