Theobald letter: F-35s

Good job, Mayor Bieter. Recently, when he patted himself on the back for signing the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, he pulled a Trump-like maneuver, successfully diverting our attention away from his support for bringing the ultra-polluting F-35s to his beloved Boise. Along with excruciating noise pollution, these jets and their exhaust will dump black carbon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and ultrafine particles into the air over Boise homes, schools, parks and landscapes. According to a 2012 environmental report done for the Boise area, these pollutants are all known to have a major impact on health.

“The sound of freedom” might be the wheezing, coughing and gagging we hear as we and our families struggle to breathe after the wind and inversions bring that F-35 pollution to the entire valley.

How does pouring cancer-causing pollution into the Boise air fit with Mayor Bieter’s promise to “continue to increase our efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions?” Something stinks, and it’s not coming from Gowen Field. At least not yet.

This story was originally published June 15, 2017 at 11:10 PM with the headline "Theobald letter: F-35s."