Letters to the Editor

Ah, memories! When I was a little kid in the 1940s, the power of the press meant the giant rollers folding the Sunday paper in the large storefront window of the Inquirer building on North Broad Street ("The final farewell to grand old home," Sunday). I lived five blocks from the iconic white building with the big clock tower and passed it many times in my forays around the neighborhood. I would eagerly anticipate the colorful display of Dick Tracy, Li'l Abner, The Katzenjammer Kids, and others thundering incessantly from the top roller in one continual stream to a lower one that made the first fold of its final manageable size.

Sometimes the rollers were silent; never so silent as now.

I was impressed by Alfred Lubrano's sweeping "obituary" of the Inquirer building and its denizens. Lubrano has artfully condensed a book's worth of memorabilia into a short but exciting story. The newspaper may change its location, but its standard of journalism soldiers on, led by writers such as Lubrano. Good luck to the "new" Inquirer.

Wonderful story ("Deal saves Sunoco refinery," Tuesday). The Sunoco plant saved. Jobs in our region saved by those big bad venture capitalists who are willing to put their money on the line in order to maybe make a profit down the road. I think this is the American way.

Nice to see some really good news on the front page. The Sunoco refinery, its 850 direct jobs, and its 1,000 outside vendors were saved by the Carlyle Group's decision to purchase the facility.

A chief Carlyle official called U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Phila.) the "quarterback" who was "pushing and prodding" to get this deal done.

There have been too many times when Brady has been treated unfairly as merely a ward heeler and backroom guy whose style is not one of highbrow legislation. However, politics and government are only effective when based on relationships among people who can get things done. It has always been that way. Bob Brady has developed those relationships over his many years in Congress and in politics. He is smart and approachable. He cares about people and uses his skill to make people's lives better. Just ask the hundreds of families, parents, and children who live in these small Delaware County towns.

Never put it past politicians to get into any photo op about "saving" a plant. Time and again, taxpayer dollars are spent to save jobs, which in the end aren't saved at all.

Now the Carlyle Group, a private-equity manager, is "saving" the Sunoco refinery. Private-equity funds don't save anything. Instead, they extract a return for their investors from assets they acquire.

While President Obama's supporters, such as Mayor Nutter, rail against Mitt Romney's abuses at Bain Capital, they herald this deal. Never is there a need to be consistent. The fact is, if you like Bain Capital, you'll love the Carlyle Group. Cuts will make for returns on investment.

The good news is the refinery jobs are saved. The bad news is that we double down on a risky future.

Global warming is here to stay. The nation and the world can only adapt. The best way to move forward is to start with a near-run future in which fossil and green energy sources are used side by side. We should pass President Obama's national renewable-fuel standard and look to co-fire, co-mix, and co-refine all or most fossil plants and refineries with green additions. We know how to make green fuel for cars and planes and for electric generation. We have the formula, and in Pennsylvania, if you use photovoltaic panels, you put the electricity back in the grid and you get cash. There is lots of money to go around and you don't have to have a gas lease or an oil well.

It wasn't that long ago when Mayor Nutter was running around slamming Mitt Romney for being greedy for running a private-equity firm. With the purchase of the Sunoco refinery, I guess he now understands what they do for the community. The mayor showed how much of a hypocrite he is by getting his face on as a many cameras as possible while applauding the Sunoco reopening.

So, "the White House was worried" and President Obama "could not afford the loss of 850 refinery jobs" ("It all began with a phone call," Wednesday). Certainly those 850 employees, their families, and communities could not afford such job losses either.

Politicians are a disingenuous bunch when they publicly demonize the value of private-equity investments or stop the building of new petroleum pipelines when it suits their political messaging. Thank goodness our area petroleum pipelines are already in place to transport the 330,000 barrels a day Philadelphia Energy Solutions will produce.

For some reason, the White House could afford to lose thousands of Keystone Pipeline-related jobs, while differently valuing Pennsylvania swing-state jobs.

It will be interesting to see how President Obama reconciles his opposition to fossil fuel with his push to reinstate the unprofitable Sunoco operation. The fundamental question goes unanswered: What will Carlyle do differently that will enable the refinery to become profitable? As a private-equity firm (how will Obama reconcile this with his opposition to Bain Capital?), what expertise does it have that Sunoco lacked? And why didn't it jump in sooner and save thousands of workers a year's worth of anguish over the future of their jobs? In nine to 18 months, Carlyle will either quietly shut the refinery down, or beg the taxpayers to buy it out or subsidize it.