Letters: Lawsuit shows Congress must fully fund EPA in budget

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Congress must fully
fund EPA in budget

Re: “Apple, Tesla facing lawsuits” (Page C9, Dec. 4).

The article about a lawsuit filed against Tesla and Apple for environmental abuses shows that environmental oversight of corporations is vital.

That’s why members of Climate Hope Affiliates are encouraging our congressional representatives and senators to fund the Environmental Protection Agency as they create a budget for fiscal year 2026. I hope that people who read this letter will do the same thing.

All the budget proposals being considered cut the EPA’s budget, but in the Senate’s version, the cut is only 5%, and it has bipartisan support. That’s what we need to be pushing.

Jeffrey Spencer
Fremont

Voters should say
no to future taxes

If you think the government needs more tax money, think again.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors just transferred $3.5 million from homeless services to the undocumented. The state of California just lost $450 million for a 911 service that didn’t work when they tried to turn it on. During the pandemic, the state lost over $20 billion to fraud as the Employment Development Department couldn’t handle it.

Don’t vote for more taxes.

Herb Swords
Albany

Trump’s hypocrisy
undermines drug war

In desperate distraction from the looming Epstein files, Donald Trump allows the bombing of a small boat in the Caribbean, and a repeat bombing to kill the two remaining men or boys grasping the wreckage, under the guise of stopping possible drug smuggling.

Let’s say Trump and his toadies were right: What percentage of 400 tons of cocaine could such a small craft possibly hold?

Meanwhile, Trump pardons the former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who helped smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.

Impeach Trump. Third time’s the charm.

Mike Scott
Walnut Creek

Trump will try to cling
to power at term’s end

Donald Trump admires authoritarian dictators around the world. He has stated unabashed admiration for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un. He has no problem with Putin having assassinated his political enemies to stay in power. Is there any doubt that he would do whatever it takes to stay in power once his term is up?

Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Cay Johnston, who has written books on Trump dating back to the 1980s, has said, years before Trump ever got elected, that if Trump ever became president, he would never leave office peacefully. Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, proved that conclusively. Even though the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution clearly states that a president is prohibited from staying in office after being elected twice, it’s all but certain that Trump will initiate a repeat performance of Jan. 6, 2021, once his term is up.

Arthur Straus
Walnut Creek

With peace plan, Trump
takes role of appeaser

Re: “Ukraine faces ‘difficult choice’ over U.S. plan to end war, Zelenskyy says” (Page A7, Nov. 22).

Donald Trump covets a Nobel Peace Prize so much that he’s willing to appease Vladimir Putin in order to end the war in Ukraine. Then he can put himself forward as the Great Peacemaker and get his prize.

By that logic, why not award the prize jointly to Trump and posthumously to the greatest appeaser of the 20th Century, Neville Chamberlain, for his willingness to give Adolf Hitler what he wanted.

It’s not so far-fetched. Back in the day, Chamberlain was nominated for the prize.

Jim Wolpman
Walnut Creek

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