Letters: Pass AB 1866 | Public health | Youth vote | Inaction disqualifies | Dismantle pipeline

East Bay Times Letters to the Editor for Aug. 4, 2024

Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

Legislators must pass
oil well emission bill

Re: “Oil companies should stop oil well emissions” (Page A6, July 24).

I am a health care professional. I am writing to support California Assembly Bill 1866, which strives to plug idle oil and gas wells in California. Such wells are a serious health hazard in our communities, especially socioeconomically disadvantaged ones. This bill will work to protect our citizens from this danger.

Those living in close proximity to oil and gas wells have an increased risk of developing asthma, heart disease, birth defects and cancer. Unfortunately, the oil companies responsible for the ethical management of these wells are doing everything they can to avoid the costs associated with the plugging process, and current law isn’t strong enough to make them.

AB 1866 will avoid massive taxpayer burden by making these companies responsible for the problems that they have created. As a health care professional and mom, I encourage California legislative leaders to support this bill.

Reetu Gupta
Fremont

AB 1866 would address
public health issue

Re: “Oil companies should stop oil well emissions” (Page A6, July 24).

I am writing in response to Ron Sadler of Livermore’s Letter to the Editor. As a community psychiatrist with decades of experience working with marginalized populations, I support these concerns regarding the significant threat that idle oil and gas wells pose to public and environmental health.

Oil and gas wells emit methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, as well as benzene, formaldehyde and multiple other hazardous substances. People living close to wells are at higher risk for asthma, heart disease, birth defects and cancer. I have personally observed how these illnesses impact the mental health of those affected and their families.

AB 1866 is vital to protecting public health and is a key piece of legislation in California’s path toward a sustainable future.

Wendy Bernstein
Berkeley

Derision is no way
to draw youth vote

Re: “Harris administration would offer hard lesson” (July 30).

Bill Behan’s letter denigrating younger voters exemplifies perfectly why so many of them are delighted by the prospects of a candidate like Kamala Harris.

Data has shown that the millennial and Gen Z generations are the first generations who feel worse off than their parents. Prices and income requirements to achieve a first home are beyond even the median U.S. wage. As such, younger workers have to work two to three jobs just to survive. Yet when it came to the old guard in politics, these worsening conditions for our upcoming generations were largely ignored. Now, being presented with an option that listens to their concerns, why shouldn’t they be excited?

If the only response to that is to belittle the candidate, complain about wanting free stuff (while ignoring Trump’s promises of unfunded tax cuts), and threaten a draft, is it really any mystery why young voters are so put off?

Christopher Dooner
Sunnyvale

Inaction on Jan. 6
disqualifies Trump

Donald Trump is morally disqualified from being president of the United States. His inaction following the breach of the U.S. Capitol by some of his supporters disqualifies him.

The investigation by the Jan. 6 committee shed some light on Trump’s behavior, but neither Trump nor any of his spokespeople have provided an affirmative accounting of his actions during that period of time.

In Trump’s Jan. 6 speech at the Ellipse, he directed the crowd to go to the U.S. Capitol and protest “peacefully.” As soon as he was aware that the Capitol security perimeter was breached he should have used the vast reach of his social media presence to immediately direct his followers to cease their actions and withdraw from the premises. This failure to act was a failure of leadership and moral authority.

It is up to the voters of this country to hold him to account.

Richard Thompson
Alameda

Dismantle pipeline
crossing tribal land

The majority of Americans should be aware of an oil company known as Enbridge, which built a pipeline known as Line 5 through several Indigenous peoples’ homelands in Michigan.

Every day, it transported 545,000 oil barrels across their homelands causing hardship to their way of life. Enbridge needs to end its destructive pipeline.

Billy Trice Jr.
Oakland