Letters to the Editor: Trump is killing the EPA by inflicting death by a thousand cuts

To the editor: I was shocked when I first heard Donald Trump say during a Republican presidential primary debate that “we are going to get rid” of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But as president, Trump is smart enough to know that if he fired everyone at the agency, EPA regulations would remain in force. So he decided to gut the EPA, one regulation at a time. (“Trump’s rollback of methane rules endangers us all to save oil and gas companies pennies,” editorial, Aug. 29)

Trump has changed the EPA from a “protection” into a “pollution” agency. By appointing what amounts to arsonists to lead the fire department, he is systematically destroying protections to the environment that President Richard Nixon first authorized in 1970, and which have been enhanced over the past 49 years.

Trump’s latest EPA rule rollback will permit methane gas, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in contributing to climate change, to further contaminate our air. Hopefully, the nation will be able to stop the anti-environmental onslaught in the 2020 election.

Phillip J. Stevens, Newport Beach

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To the editor: When I read about the methane rule reversal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I kept comparing it in my mind to my role as a consumer of packaged goods.

If the bottle of olive oil or tube of sunscreen I bought started leaking, I would be outraged. I would demand compensation from the makers, and unless they showed me proof that they had corrected the issues that caused the leak, I would never buy from them again.

The idea that we would not hold oil and gas companies to the same basic standards we hold makers of consumer goods to — checking for and fixing leaks — is absurd, especially when you consider that methane does a great deal more damage when released in the air than olive oil does when released in my cabinet.

Susan Harper, Porter Ranch

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To the editor: After reading about the methane rule rollback, I believe it is time to rename the EPA to the EDA, for “Environmental Destruction Agency.”

Mary Carlson, Mission Viejo