A report came out the other day talking about our nation's air quality.
Now here in Oregon, we take our air quality (as well as water quality, timber quality, pretty much any nature quality) pretty darn seriously. It's to the point that an average person might start to think, "Dear Lord! If it came down to me or that damn fish surviving, I think that the state government would side with the fish!"
But this quick rant is about the air. I spend $25 per car every two years to have my car's exhaust tested, to make sure that certain parts of the exhaust are below a certain level. It might be $27, I don't have the numbers right in front of me. Whatever it is, the DEQ gets that money to help it police our environment. Off the top of my head I don't know how much money they get from the general tax funds.
So here's the kicker. Well, it's a kicker if you've read that first link talking about the report, and you pay the DEQ to test your car and make sure that it's clean. WE HAVE THE THIRD DIRTIES AIR IN THE COUNTRY! Right behind New York and California. What's up with that?
Now that I think about it, I don't even know why I'm writing this blurb. Anyone who cares is probably somebody who lives here, and if you live here you already know about this. It's been all over the news. Quite a shot to Oregon's "Our state is cleaner than your state" attitude.
I still find it kind of hard to believe. I've been to cities/states with no kind of vehicle testing, way more industrial factories, places where a lot of the people treat the state as their own personal trash can if you judge it by the sides of the highway, and I could tell the air was funkier than here.
Of course, maybe that's just the Oregon Environmental Prima Donna in me. Whatever. I'm going to go read my Sierra Club magazine and eat some granola now.....