{"id":443584,"date":"2026-08-26T01:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/443584\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T01:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:44:10","slug":"letters-state-should-pass-bill-to-mitigate-east-bay-coal-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/443584\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters: State should pass bill to mitigate East Bay coal pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submit your letter to the editor via this form<\/a>. Read more Letters to the Editor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Support bill to mitigate coal pollution<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cState must protect East Bay from Trump\u2019s toxic coal threat<\/a>\u201d (Page A6, Aug. 18).<\/p>\n

As new residents of Oakland, my wife and I see, hear and smell the Port of Oakland from our home. We moved to a historic manufacturing building on the Jack London waterfront this spring and do not want coal dust filling our lungs or home.<\/p>\n

I recently read The Mercury News commentary supporting Assembly Bill 40<\/a> by Veronica Eady, executive director of West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, and I agree that this $75 million Defense Production Act<\/a> does nothing to make my community safer.<\/p>\n

I believe that selling \u201ccheap\u201d American coal to Chinese and other Asian markets does not further our national priority toward energy independence.<\/p>\n

What selling American coal means is selling out on America\u2019s health and exacerbating poor human and environmental indicators. I encourage readers and leaders to review the community-led research and organizing from No Coal In Oakland<\/a>\u00a0and support The Community First Coal Review Act<\/p>\n

.Ryan Gaul
Oakland<\/p>\n

Column misinforms on billionaire wealth tax<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cSearch beyond state budgets to discover real spending data<\/a>\u201d (Page A6, Aug. 21).<\/p>\n

In his column, Dan Walters presents excellent data that reveal California financial profligacy and opacity, for example: our general fund spending rose from 7.9% of personal income in 2019-20 to 9.4% today.<\/p>\n

However, Walters misinforms us about the Proposition 40 wealth tax, conflating billionaires with those with high taxable incomes. Our \u201ctop\u201d three billionaires (Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg) each earn $1 in annual salary. But Brin\u2019s wealth has increased by $170 billion from 2020 to today. How much income tax has he paid? Probably very little, possibly none. He\u2019s not propping up state finances. That\u2019s why we need a wealth tax, and why any departure of our oligarchs won\u2019t be a calamity.<\/p>\n

Doug McKenzie
Berkeley<\/p>\n

Transit tax opponents are not advocates<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cLawsuit calls tax measure wording \u2018biased\u2019<\/a>\u201d (Page A1, Aug. 21).<\/p>\n

The article refers to the complainants as \u201ctax advocates.\u201d They are not tax \u201cadvocates.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are tax haters \u2014 even though taxes paid by our parents and grandparents built and maintain our highways, schools, libraries, parks, public hospitals, fire departments and myriad other public services. These avaricious folks hate all taxes and would refuse to contribute to the maintenance of these services. They do not merit the platform you afford them.<\/p>\n

Please do not refer to these people as tax \u201cadvocates.\u201d They advocate no taxes \u2014 they advocate the collapse of our society. Your article should have called them what they are \u2014 opponents of all taxes and opponents of all government services and public infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Douglas Hammer
Oakland<\/p>\n

To be strong, third party needs platform<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cOur politics require a strong third party<\/a>\u201d (Page A10, Aug. 23).<\/p>\n

I agree with Jim Kenna\u2019s letter in which he asserts that we need a third party to challenge the two corrupt and out-of-touch establishment parties, both Republicans and Democrats. Unfortunately, he avoids the major issues such a party must address.<\/p>\n

First, we must advocate for detente between the major nuclear-armed powers, especially the U.S.and Russia. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists warns us that the danger of nuclear war is the highest since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963. A nuclear war would destroy civilization as we know it.<\/p>\n

Second, we must address the worsening global climate crisis before large areas of the planet become uninhabitable. This requires major carbon reductions by limiting our reliance on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Lastly, we must combat the burgeoning wealth gap that corrupts our democracy, enriching a tiny irresponsible elite who buy our politicians and make serious political reform difficult to nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

Michael Dunlap
Oakland<\/p>\n

Trump truthful in saying he wouldn\u2019t save lives<\/p>\n

Re: \u201cPresident Trump honors teen lifeguard, boy he rescued<\/a>\u201d (Page A1, Aug. 18).<\/p>\n

The only true words I have heard from Donald J. Trump are in this article referring to lifeguard Ryder Williams.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s a real hero.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019d do it. I wouldn\u2019t probably. You\u2019re lucky I wasn\u2019t on the service that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he is on the service of the United States of America, which he would probably like to name The United States of Trump. How can anyone support him? He is dangerous.<\/p>\n

Virginia Kamp
Berkeley<\/p>\n

Renaming carrier for Trump dishonors hero<\/p>\n

It is with sadness and disgust that I read about the Navy considering renaming<\/a>\u00a0the aircraft carrier under construction from the \u201cDoris Miller\u201d to the \u201cDonald J. Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doris Miller was a genuine hero who risked his life at Pearl Harbor to both carry wounded sailors on the battleship West Virginia and then, despite having no training, manning a machine gun to defend the ship which was under attack.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump avoided military service with a finding of \u201cbone spurs,\u201d reportedly issued by a doctor at the request of Donald\u2019s father. I urge people to write the Navy and urge them not to change the name.<\/p>\n

Roger Wood
Fremont<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor. Support bill to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,764,7,5307,1843,536,332,643,394,181,2953,1564,1703,143,145,144,975,13,1694,3766,1695],"class_list":["post-443584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-bay-area","tag-berkeley","tag-california","tag-california-ballot-measures","tag-california-legislature","tag-donald-trump","tag-east-bay","tag-environment","tag-fremont","tag-latest-headlines","tag-letters","tag-letters-to-the-editor","tag-military","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-opinion","tag-politics","tag-taxes","tag-transit","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}