Former Gov. Mike Leavitt is doing a good job at the EPA. He is being aggressive at asking for cleaner air, while keeping in mind the realities involved.
According to the May 11 Deseret Morning News, cleaning up the smoke from diesel engines will involve costs but will reduce medical costs 40 times as much, resulting in better health for many thousands. At the insistence of President Bush, the new rules will apply to both on-the-road and off-road diesels ASAP.
Smoke from coal-fired power plants now kills 30,000 each year, so here is my challenge for the EPA director: Study the currently available energy sources and find a way to replace all of the old coal-fired plants with reliable, economical, non-polluting, non-greenhouse sources of electricity that can produce the half of our nation's power requirements that coal now provides. Hints: Such U.S. power plants have not killed anyone by radiation, and the wind blows only part time.
Steven C. Barrowes
Salt Lake City