Sunday, June 12, 2022
Clerks’ Office
California Air
Resources Board
1001 I Street
Sacramento, California
95814
Subject: We need real pollution cuts to
protect our health and our parks. Reject the proposed haze plan. --
Notice of Public Meeting to Consider California’s Regional
Haze State Implementation Plan (hazesip2021)
Dear Secretary for Environmental Protection
Jared Blumefeld, CARB Chair Liane M. Randolf, and CARB
Boardmembers,
I write to urge the California Air Resources
Board (CARB) to reject the proposed haze plan in order to better
protect our health and to ensure clean air and clearer views in our
national parks and wilderness areas.
California is home to some of our
country’s most beloved national park sites like Yosemite,
Sequoia, and Joshua Tree, yet these national treasures suffer from
some of the worst air pollution and haziest skies of any in the
nation. Dirty air has led to dramatically obscured views, harms the
health of people across our state, park visitors and employees, and
negatively affects the long-term viability of our already
threatened park ecosystems.
CARB’s federal regional haze plan is
supposed to work towards improving visibility in many of
California’s national parks and wilderness areas. Yet,
instead of analyzing all sources of haze pollution and requiring
any new pollution controls on the major industrial sources of haze
pollution in the state like oil and gas and chemical facilities and
pulp and paper mills, CARB is proceeding with a plan that declares
that existing clean vehicles rules to cut nitrogen oxides are good
enough. While vehicles are a significant part of our haze pollution
problem, what is already on the books and on the way to cut one
pollutant does not suffice and is simply unacceptable.
Given California's worst in the nation air
quality, we need a dramatically stronger regional haze plan that
properly analyzes all types of haze pollution and requires unique
emission controls from industrial sources of pollution harming our
national parks and wilderness areas and local communities.
Please reject staff's haze plan and require
significant improvements to address more pollution types and
sources to actually address the crisis of dirty air in our state
and in our national parks.
Thank you for your consideration of my
comments. Please do NOT add my name to your mailing list. I will
learn about future developments on this issue from other
sources.
Sincerely,
Christopher Lish
San
Rafael, CA