By: Ali Simpson, Senior National Field Manager, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: July 8, 2025
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0124-0001
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for the opportunity to give testimony today. My name is Ali Simpson. I am a Senior National Field Manager for Moms Clean Air Force, an organization of over 1.6 million parents and caregivers advocating for clean air and a healthy climate on behalf of children nationwide. I live in Bedford, New York with my wife and two young sons – a four year old and one year old.
I’m here today to speak in support of the Carbon Rule and to strongly oppose efforts to roll back climate pollution standards for power plants.
2023’s IPCC report has found that we are likely to pass a dangerous temperature threshold within the next 10 years, pushing the planet past the point of catastrophic warming — unless nations drastically transform their economies and immediately transition away from fossil fuels. In 10 years, my sons will be 9 and 12 years old. I know that I will be able to look them in the eye and say I did everything I could to keep the planet safe. What I don’t know is whether it will have been enough. Did we continue to put corporate profits and politics ahead of safeguarding the place billions of people call home? Or did we do everything in our power to right the ship? The choices we make now will have impacts for not just the next 10 years, but the next thousand years and beyond. What could be more important than this?
Fossil fueled power plants are responsible for almost one-quarter of the climate pollution generated by the US, and we know that this pollution is heating the planet and supercharging dangerous extreme weather. We know that climate change is here now. We know what to do to stem the tide of this crisis. So let's do it.
In February 2023, I woke up to an alert on my phone about poor air quality caused by Canadian wildfires to our north. When the sun rose in the morning it was a fiery, auburn red. For the entire day, the sky was hazy, the air was thick. It was eerie and anxiety-inducing. I texted my wife to make sure our son wasn’t playing outside. Trying to explain to a 2-year-old why he can’t play outside is close to impossible. I fear that I will need to have this conversation with him over and over again. I don’t want that future. Climate change has increased the risk of wildfires through warmer temperatures and drier conditions that lengthen wildfire season, increase the chances of a fire starting, and help a burning fire spread. Warmer and drier conditions also contribute to the spread of the mountain pine beetle and other insects that can weaken or kill trees, building up the fuels in a forest. Climate change is here. It’s happening now. We must act.
In order to protect the health of our communities and reduce the greenhouse gas pollution causing dangerous and costly climate change, EPA must preserve strong limits on new and existing fossil fuel power plants. Thank you for your time.