Southern California Air Board Rejects Pollution Rules After AI-Generated Flood of Comments
- Reference: 0180870868
- News link: https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/02/27/2348254/southern-california-air-board-rejects-pollution-rules-after-ai-generated-flood-of-comments
- Source link:
> A Southern California-based public affairs consultant, Matt Klink, has taken credit for using CiviClick to wage the opposition campaign, including in a sponsored article on the website Campaigns and Elections. The campaign "left the staff of the Southern California Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) reeling," the article says. It is not clear how AI was deployed in the campaign, and officials at CiviClick did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But their website boasts several tools, including "state of the art technology and artificial intelligence message assistance" that can be used to create custom advocacy letters, as opposed to repetitive form letters or petitions often used in similar campaigns.
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> When staffers at the air district reached out to a small sample of people to verify their comments, at least three said they had not written to the agency and were not aware of any such messages, records show. But the email onslaught almost certainly influenced the board's June decision, according to agency insiders, who noted that the number of public comments typically submitted on agenda items can be counted on one hand.
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> The proposed rules were nearly two years in the making and would have placed a fee on natural gas-powered water heaters and furnaces, favoring electric ones, in an effort to reduce air pollution in the district, which includes Orange County and large swaths of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Gas appliances emit nitrogen oxides, or NOx -- key pollutants for forming smog. The implications are troubling, experts said, and go beyond the use of natural gas furnaces and heaters in the second-largest metropolitan area in the country.
[1] https://phys.org/news/2026-02-southern-california-air-board-pollution.html
Fossil fuels suck, and politicians are idiots (Score:3, Interesting)
We have a propane cook top and oven at one residence and all electric at the other. The smell from cooking with propane indoors is just awful, even with windows open and a breeze. Yes, there is more control over the temperature, but I'd rather not breath in toxic gasses poisoning my asses. I can cook just fine with a $40 induction plate, thank you, and breath easier too. Not to mention that propane and natural gas leaks into the house all the fucking time, no matter how much you think it isn't leaking. As for the politicians, they're not smart enough to recognize bullshit, because generally all they know is bullshit. It's how they got elected. Matt Klink and the cunts at CiviClick should be flayed alive.
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Oh yeah, and it's a Wolf oven and range, so not exactly low end or cheap.
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Propane != NG
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Our first house has NG. It sucks too.
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Diesel != Gasoline. That doesn't mean that both of them don't contribute to health related issues and air quality problems. The problem with any gas burning inside the house, including gas fireplaces in your living space is that it creates fine particulates and NOx emissions due to imperfect combustion. This is universal. There's no stove nor is there a gas type that prevents this. In all cases the result is a level that is now known to be a cause of adverse health effects.
So yeah the OP complains about Pro
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Instead of being angry, cap the gas line at your other residence (wow, you have two, that's more than 95% of us which means you have more financial freedom to get what you want) and install another induction cook top like you have at the other residence. As you said, you'll breathe less "toxic gas" and not have to use that awful fossil fuel anymore.
But the key here is CHOICE. It's obvious from the fight that a lot of people do not want to be forced into electric appliances, and that is their choice. The in
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Morally and ethically, why should small polluters get off? It's not like GHG emissions from any source are that different. I get proportionality, but by what logic do you simply hand wave away small emitters?
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And with a decent induction hob you will have an even better temperature control.
Politicans aren't good at this (Score:2, Insightful)
I see a lot of things changing in the future but politicans being illiterate about tech and science and health isn't going to change at all. They can usually quote a trenchant bible verse though, so we've got that covered. Unfortunately more and more of the decisions they face are going to be tech related, and dismantling the part of the goverment filled with experts and scientists is just going to make everything worse.
Flooding the zone with shit using AI (Score:1)
N/T
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You too can do AI advocacy and flood the system with AI generated objections to the objections. Might be more satisfying than blaming Big Rich Boogeymen. It's your country, sit on your ass and complain if that's what you want to do, just do it quietly, it's annoying to read.