Letters to the Editor: The EPA’s embrace of ignorance will cost us greatly in lives and dollars
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To the editor: The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to embrace ignorance over knowledge will cost us dearly, in both lives and dollars (“EPA says it will stop calculating healthcare savings from key air pollution rules,” Jan. 14).
Credible estimates for annual U.S. deaths linked to fossil fuel pollution range from 91,000 (for pollution from the oil and gas industries alone) to 350,000 (from a 2018 count). The pollution may be responsible for up to one-tenth of annual premature deaths in the U.S.
Businesses (and all of us) pay to hire and retrain employees replacing those who die or are disabled due to fossil fuel pollution. Short of death, fossil fuel pollution drives up medical bills and insurance costs for everybody.
Last year, China brought more solar energy online than the rest of the world combined, providing China with nearly free energy for decades. How will our manufacturers compete while locked into more expensive, deadly and seemingly never-ending fossil fuel expenses?
Throw in increased climate-related disasters including hurricanes, floods, droughts and wildfires, and we’re talking about some serious money.
Tom Hazelleaf, Seal Beach
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To the editor: Are human lives a value worth calculating? President Trump’s EPA says no.
Claiming such analysis is “misleading” is a pretext. The president and his allies in the fossil fuel industry want to bury the evidence that burning fossil fuels for energy is deadly. For this administration, the only number that matters is the corporate bottom line. That must be reduced. Hearts, lungs and lives are expendable. Even the dollar savings from reduced doctor’s office and hospital visits, and missed work and school, must be ignored to complete the fantasy.
This allows false claims that emissions regulations have no benefit. In Trump’s alternate reality, the many, indisputable connections between global heating, air pollution and human health do not exist.
Gary Stewart, Laguna Beach
