Job Killer or Opportunity to Help Clean Up L.A.'s Filthy Air?

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

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By Senator Alan Lowenthal

With an Introduction by By Hannah Beth Jackson

Senator Alan Lowenthal has served in the California Legislature since 1998. He served six years in the State Assembly and was elected in 2004 as the senator from the 27th Senatorial District, representing the communities surrounding the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

He is a committed and strong voice for reasonable yet firm environmental protections, especially when dealing with issues of public health and air quality specifically. His SB 974 has engendered a full-scale push-back from big businesses both state-wide and nationally. In typical hyperbolic and hysterical fashion, these companies (which read like a Fortune 500 company who's who) claim that the measure will destroy business in California. As Senator Lowenthal explains below, this is typical business baloney.....

What they don't, and can't do is deny the health problems they create or encourage when they deny any responsibility for the mess their current transportation practices engender. This measure will split a mere $30 per container use fee equally between air quality mitigation measures, such as the replacement of dirty diesel trucks and infrastructure improvements such as rail grade separations.

It all boils down to these big Fortune 500 companies, and their cronies, wanting to maintain the status quo which allows emitting filthy and noxious diesel fumes into the air and sustaining gridlock. Rather than addressing and trying to solve the very real issues of LA's deadly air quality, they prefer forcing California's residents to continue suffering so the rest of the country can have cheap goods.

Who ultimately pays the price? In SB 974, Senator Lowenthal says it shouldn't be the health and well-being of Californians. This measure is moving its way toward the Governor's desk. He vetoed a similar measure last year. This time, we're hoping a groundswell of public support will force Schwarzenegger to do the right thing for the people of our state. Here are Senator Lowenthal's thoughts on the issue:

Imagine for a moment living in the midst of a toxic cloud of lethal smog that cuts visibility to a couple of blocks. Or trying to enjoy an evening picnic in Orange County but being chocked out by the 1 million rubber and oil burning "smudge" pots used by orange farmers to keep their orchards warm. If you were around Los Angeles and Orange Counties in 1943 you would not have had to imagine it, it was reality.

An L.A. Times article from July 26, 1943 reported that visibility due to smog in downtown Los Angeles was 3 blocks. It also turned out to be a watershed moment in the fight to clean the Los Angeles basin's air.

Posted September 2nd, 2007 by Syndicated