Hydroelectric Dam to Be Destroyed

Regarding the dam in Maine that is being dismantled to revive the river it blocks (Nov. 26), Mark Isaacson, vice president of the company that owns the dam, said, “When you take private property for a public purpose, you get just compensation.”

Well, what compensation should there be for the taking of a public resource--the river, in this case--for private gain? And for no less than 160 years! As far as I can see, Isaacson and his associates owe the people of Maine far more than the dismantlement costs they are being assessed, and display an astounding arrogance in requesting even more money in exchange for ceasing their operations than they have already leeched from the river in the past century and a half.

RICHARD RISEMBERG

Los Angeles

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Let’s see. We can’t use nuclear power to generate electricity because we don’t want another Chernobyl. We can’t burn fossil fuels to generate power because of global warming. The vast solar arrays necessary to power cities would destroy all desert wildlife and now we can’t even have hydroelectric dams generating electricity because it interferes with salmon runs.

Has anyone in the environmental movement considered what half a billion people going back to burning candles would do to the ozone layer?

J. NEIL SCHULMAN

Culver City