State must battle EPA

Re “Hearing grows warm for EPA chief,” Jan. 25

Why should the Environmental Protection Agency adopt the Bush administration’s anti-terrorist secrecy behavior pattern when dealing with the health of Americans? The EPA has no business preventing me from knowing what is being done when it is my health that is at issue. If the EPA is preventing California from cleaning up its air for political reasons, I would like to know it. I won’t like it, but I’d like to know it.

Charles M.

Weisenberg

Beverly Hills

For years, California has tried to implement standards that require automakers to reduce pollution from cars and trucks by 30% by 2016. Yet every step of the way, our state has met obstruction and delay from automakers and the EPA.

After stalling for two years, the EPA announced in December that it would bar California and 12 other states from implementing the law.

With evidence now showing that EPA scientists and legal staff disagreed with the decision, it is clear that the agency’s failure to give California the go-ahead marks a political choice to cater to powerful special interests instead of protecting the public from real risks of climate change.

I hope the courts will swiftly reverse the EPA’s decision. If not, Americans hungry for action to solve global warming should ensure that every presidential candidate commits to giving California the green light to put cleaner cars on the road.

Jason Barbose

Global warming advocate

Environment California

Sacramento