Letter to the Editor: The environment and our elected officials

To the Editor:

During this pandemic crisis, with the importance of lung health well established, the current administration is working against us. They are doing favors for polluters, weakening health safeguards that could lessen air pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning a rollback on protections against mercury in our environment. There is no crackdown on industrial soot. They are gutting clean-car standards, increasing air pollution and fuel costs. The EPA is inviting industrial facilities to stop monitoring and reporting dangerous air and water pollution during the pandemic.

These actions will hurt Americans in the most vulnerable communities now. They will affect us all negatively as the climate crisis worsens. We need to hold this administration accountable to our nation’s environmental protections laws. We need to contact our senators and representatives to help us. That is their job! Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Joni Ernst, 202-224-3121 (U.S. Capitol Switchboard), Representative Abby Finkenauer, 319-364-2288 (Cedar Rapids Office)

When voting this fall, keep in mind this administration’s attitudes and actions against us, the American people. They are doing a bad job.

Jill Stephenson
Waukon