This is a Moms Clean Air Force press release delivered on Monday, June 2, 2014:
The Environmental Protection Agency today announced the Clean Power Plan, which will limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.
Dominique Browning, co-founder and senior director of Moms Clean Air Force, said:
“Moms Clean Air Force salutes the new carbon protections, now EPA’s most important work. They continue a great—and pragmatic—bipartisan tradition of using the Clean Air Act to safeguard our families from harmful pollutants.”
Carbon dioxide emissions from power plants are driving climate disruption, leading to a range of serious public health impacts that we are already experiencing.
Carbon pollution is responsible for thousands of premature deaths, higher risk of asthma attacks and respiratory disease, and hundreds of thousands of missed workdays.
Children bear the health burden of climate change already, suffering disproportionately from pollution-related respiratory problems, extreme weather injuries and displacements, malnutrition and hunger from crop disruption, and increased illnesses as disease vectors expand their range.
Asthma is just one example of how climate change harms children in particular. In the US, asthma already affects one in ten children, with higher rates among minority groups and low-income communities. Researchers predict that asthma will get worse from future climate disruption, due to increased heat, rising pollen levels, and the increases in smog and soot that are predicted to plague urban areas – all of which are asthma triggers.
Because climate change will disproportionately affect the health of children, moms and dads support placing strong limits on the amount of carbon that can be emitted from power plants.
Today’s Clean Power Plan will place needed limits on a dangerous air pollutant that until now has gone unregulated.
“Just as we place limits on emissions of lead, mercury, and carbon monoxide, we need to cut carbon pollution from power plants, our nation’s largest source of carbon pollution,” says Browning. “These rules give parents across the country hope that we can avert the terrible consequences of a chaotic climate.”