Recently, the Obama administration proposed strengthening fuel efficiency standards for new medium- and heavy-duty trucks to reduce the carbon pollution causing climate change and making people sick.

Those standards require new medium- and heavy-duty trucks to get more than 50 miles per gallon, saving trucking companies money in fuel costs.

What is not to like about historical fuel efficiency standards and less pollution?

If manufacturers are not designing better products based on the realities of our time and good common sense, then regulation is required.

Last June, the National Climate Action Plan made real the president’s promise to address climate change, setting carbon pollution standards for new power plants. Coal- and petroleum-fired power plants still generate 69 percent of the nation’s electricity. They are responsible for nearly 40 percent of the United States’ carbon dioxide emissions every year, being the largest source of CO2 pollution.

Allowing them to dump unlimited amounts of pollution into the air is gross negligence. This industry needs to move into the 21st century.

The EPA’s carbon standard for new power plants will require them to be built with 21st century emission-capturing technologies. Protecting the climate is a global concern and it is personal. We all breathe the air. Reducing air emissions reduces respiratory illnesses and health care costs.

I have been to Washington, D.C.; I have spoken to Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King. They do listen. That is how democracy works.

I hope others will join me in support of these common sense, life-saving efforts.

Betty Allen, Auburn