Readers React: Stop the coal industry from sickening so many people

To the editor: Coal has historically been part of the economic lifeblood of our nation. It has been extracted with great labor and considerable danger by brave men who work in conditions most people would not tolerate. It has also been strip mined at great ecological cost. (“EPA rule on power plant emissions faces formidable hurdle in Supreme Court,” March 23)

We know now that this cost extends to the health of all who breathe coal’s toxic brew when it is released from power plant smokestacks here and around the world.

It comes as no surprise to me that the power industry is mounting a vigorous assault on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations designed to limit the damage to human beings caused by the burning of oil and coal. In my mind they are in the same ethical position as the tobacco industry.

I hope our conservative-leaning Supreme Court sees the light of justice in this case, because some of the justices seem to have difficulty seeing that light when they pull words from the Constitution down over their eyes and ignore the greater context.

John Pierson, Pasadena

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