Don’t retreat on smog rules

Re: Front page article just before Labor Day weekend: “Obama retreats on smog rules.” Clearly the Friday news rug this was shoved under is the one that all those with lung disease or other breathing problems will now have to breathe through. Why? Because Obama caved to big corporate polluters and the right wing lies regarding the cost of protecting our air and environment.

Implementing this sensible clean-air legislation would have created many new jobs and improved our economy while reducing health care costs by protecting the air we (especially our children) breathe.

Instead, Obama is now fully “Republican light,” actually repeating their lies about the cost of environmental protection, thus encouraging tea partiers to force even more dangerous deregulation on this country’s shaky economy. It cannot stand for much more.

Refusing to update smog standards will likely cost tens of thousands of lives. We need a real progressive presidential candidate to challenge this ugly and immoral status quo.

Melissa Rose

Malo, Wash.