LETTERS

Re “Some gas station owners rebel against state pollution rule,” April 1

Good for James Hosmanek, the San Bernardino Chevron station owner who says he can’t and won’t obey the Air Resources Board mandate to buy new gas pump nozzles and hoses.

Station owners face the ultimate Catch-22 as they try to comply with new regulations for gas pump nozzles: the equipment is unaffordable. What was wrong with the old vapor-recovery nozzles? Government says “it is so” and regardless of consequence or cost, another rule or regulation becomes law. Faceless bureaucracies trample over individual rights and freedom, and no one bats an eye.

We have all but forgotten that the American Revolution was a rebellion against just this sort of tyranny. Here is a “revolutionary” idea: What if more people like Hosmanek stopped behaving like sheep and just said no?

Richard Deight

Orange