Letters to the Editor: California cannot afford to move backward on clean air standards

To the editor: I grew up in Pasadena in the 1950s. At that time, the smog was so bad that we often could not see the San Gabriel Mountains. When we swam at the public pool in the summer, our lungs would ache from having breathed in the polluted air. When I was in college in Claremont in the 1960s, our football team was not allowed to practice on days when the smog was heavy.

Fast-forward to today, when, due to California’s strict anti-pollution measures, the mountains can now be seen from Pasadena, and the skies are mostly blue rather than gray. This is a victory for Angelenos and Californians alike. Therefore, I am dismayed by the House’s vote to bar California from mandating a transition to electric vehicles by 2035 (“Fate of California’s auto standards will come down to Senate battle,” May 1).

Our state was given the ability to enact clean air standards that are tougher than federal limits because we have historically had the most polluted air in the nation. And in fact, as pointed out in the article, “Today, more than a dozen states follow California’s standards, including New York, Colorado, Massachusetts, Washington and Oregon.” This should not change. Thanks to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is quoted as saying, “Our vehicles program helps clean the air for all Californians, and we’ll continue defending it.” Amen!

Jill Anderson, Pismo Beach

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To the editor: I am well-known in Los Angeles as an advocate for public transportation and for my 11 years as an appointed governing official at Metro. Being someone who “walks the walk and talks the talk,” I used public transit to get around for more than two decades. But in recent years, my doctors have diagnosed me with diminished lung capacity, and I now find it necessary to use a steroid-based inhaler daily as well as carry the same type of inhaler used by asthmatics for emergencies. The reason, my primary care physician tells me, is my having breathed in exhaust fumes all those years while waiting at bus stops.

What those who want to eliminate — or at least weaken — the regulations that lessen those exhaust fumes do not seem to realize is that they are breathing in those same fumes themselves every time they step outside. My condition came while California’s Clean Air Act waiver was in effect; I am terrified to think how many more will suffer the same condition as I if that waiver were to be diminished.

Kymberleigh Richards, Van Nuys