It’s good news that Boral Roofing in Stockton is manufacturing smog-eating tiles. I browsed around their website, tried out their energy calculator and learned that in California I could save $459.31 yearly using these regular roofing tiles with a coating of titanium dioxide that eats smog.
The titanium dioxide coating on these roof tiles reacts with sunshine to remove nitrogen from the air, breaking the smog formation cycle. “The residue is left on the surface of the tile and washed off by moisture and rain fall,” explained John Renowden, Boral’s vice president of product development. When the byproduct washes off the accumulated nitrogen acts as a fertilizer for soil.
People more well acquainted with roofing costs can figure comparative costs of a Boral roof with other options. I’d be interested to know.
Why Is It That We Pay and Not the Polluters?
And we do pay, as drivers and anyone issued with a set of lungs. In 2010, the San Joaquin Valley failed air quality compliance standards seven times and paid a fine of $29 million dollars.
We paid that fine with an $12 increase in Department of Motor Vehicle fees in 2011. You and me, because the heavy duty polluters are untouchable. Because, of course, they pay county taxes or fees, and provide jobs.
“As a matter of principle I oppose fees and penalties because they’re another form of tax,” said Kern County Supervisor Ray Watson, who also serves on the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District board.
Guess what, Ray? I think paying taxes is a patriotic duty. If nobody paid taxes how would we get the money to build roads, license neurosurgeons, inspect chickens? You think we should run the country on donations?
In the same article, Watson and his fellow members agreed that the alternative –” assessing the valley’s largest stationary polluters, such as oil refineries, power plants and agricultural-production facilities — would be both unfair and unwise.”
Ponder that for a while. Unfair and unwise …