Air quality: Why not go after the real polluter?

On the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency website’s “Wood Heating” page there’s a “File a Complaint” button to click on.

Why is there not a “File a Complaint” button on the “Transportation - Diesel Solutions” page? Especially when considering that diesel particulate matter overwhelmingly represents the highest potential cancer risk in the Puget Sound region?

Answer: Diesel’s too big a target to go after. Go after the little guy.

Also, I find it a bit confusing when wood-burning folks are told to stop using their carbon-neutral fuel source and (particularly on the heels of the Paris climate change conference) instead start using natural gas, a decidedly not carbon-neutral fossil fuel that contributes to greenhouse gas emission, fracking and now, it seems, seismic activity.

It’s the gradual drip-drip accumulation of these sort of inconsistent, incoherent and double-standard encroachments into ordinary citizens’ lives that lead to general disdain and mistrust of government.

Heck, preventing unnecessary idling by adjusting most left-hand intersection turn signals to a flashing yellow arrow would be a more effective exercise in reducing particulate matter than targeting low-income folks who are just trying to heat their home in the most cost-effective way possible.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Air quality: Why not go after the real polluter?."