In Gillette, Wyoming, Moms testified against repealing America’s Clean Power Plan. Gillette hosted the final EPA public hearing. America’s Clean Power Plan was first proposed under President Obama. At the time, the EPA conducted extensive public outreach and received more than 8 million comments in support of limiting carbon pollution.
Gillette is the center of the largest coal-producing region in the country, the Powder River Basin, which supplies about 40 percent of the coal burned for power in the US.
The Moms spoke of miscarriages that occurred when living in an Superfund community that had been impacted by industrial air pollution. Another Montana Mom noted the increase of fire damage from wildfires that may be attributed to climate change.
Moms Clean Air Force’s Kristen Blanding grew up in Wyoming and said,
“Right now, there are companies that are flaring and venting and leaking unknown chemicals into the air. And we know that there’s existing health threats to our health and our environment, and that’s why America’s Clean Power Plan was created in the first place.”
Shaina Oliver, a Colorado Moms Clean Air Force member from the Navajo Nation, testified that repealing the Plan would be detrimental to Indian reservations. She told the EPA,
“My people, the indigenous people, we’re the guinea pigs of all of the industrial fossil fuel industry. What’s happening to us will happen to the rest of the people in the world.”
Shaina spoke of her grandfather, a former coal miner who had retired due to ill health:
“He was pushed into early retirement due to his asthma attacks on the job site at the coal plant. He suffered a lot through his health with asthma and not being able to breathe.” Shaina spoke through her tears. “I found out he passed away this morning.”
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The comment period on the repeal ends April 26. Here’s how to submit a comment.