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I am a native Californian born with severe asthma. When I was a
child growing up the air quality in some places like LA, San
Fernando Valley and San Bernardino was horrendous.  Frequently my
eyes burned and my need for medication went up.  Thank God some
people wised up and passed some clean fuel requirements, enabling
the smog to go down at least somewhat since the 1970s.  

The selfishness and small-mindedness of the oil and coal industries
who, recognising that these resources are finite and who now want
freedom to engage in any form of high-pollution production and/or
composition of fuel, or any relaxation of air quality regulations.
There are many people like myself, born with asthma and other
severe respiratory allergies--for whom smog represents a
consignment to early death. Just because we were born with this
handicap does not make us 2nd class citizens, forced to give up
part of our lives to let the industries fill their bank accounts. 


The oil and coal industries need to move forward, not backward.  It
is past time for American ingenuity to come up with something
better than tar sands mining, fracking and other energy sources
fraught with more extreme pollution. It's time to get engineers and
scientists on the job designing the energy sources of the 21st
Century--fund these efforts with the money now used to subsidise
old dirty technologies.  And don't cave into the old industry hacks
who want to prolong the 20th Century thinking.

Sincerely, 
Ellen McRae