By: Elizabeth Brandt, National Field Manager, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: June 13, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Hello, my name is Elizabeth Brandt, mom to Natalia and Valencia. I am a National Field Manager for Moms Clean Air Force, an organization of 1.5 million parents and caregivers across America who are taking action against air pollution and climate change.
Fossil fuel power plants are responsible for almost one-quarter of the climate pollution generated by the US. I support the Carbon Rule and am calling on EPA to finalize the strongest possible climate pollution standards to hold power plants accountable for the impact their pollution has on our climate. Reducing climate-warming pollution from the smokestacks of power plants will also provide families with cleaner air and a more stable climate. EPA must strengthen community input and safeguards in the final version of this rule.
My family name, Brandt, refers to people who live on land that has burned. Fire is part of the cycle of life and regeneration, but only when nature is in balance. The UN IPCC has said greenhouse gas emissions have “led to an increased frequency and/or intensity of some weather and climate extremes” such as wildfires. Many studies demonstrate that wildfires are more severe and frequent because of human caused climate change. According to Dr. Stephen Pyne, an environmental historian, “We are creating the fire equivalent of an ice age.” We have a moral responsibility to reduce carbon emissions now to protect our children from extreme weather, sea level rise, worsened air quality, and all the impacts of climate change.
Seattle, my soggy hometown, was still enduring drought and wildfire smoke when I visited in late September. By mid-October, there had still been hardly any rain at all since June. This is a far cry from growing up in the Northwest. Fall sports were all about skidding across sodden soccer fields, and rowing in the liquid sunshine with soaking wet socks.
Climate change isn’t just bringing wildfire smoke and all its horrible health impacts to the West, though. This week my family experienced a reality we were unprepared for—intense wildfire smoke in Maryland! After seeing air quality indexes around 300 for particulate matter in the DC area this week, I can say with certainty: climate-fueled fires are now a threat to air quality everywhere.
Moms Clean Air Force supports EPA’s carbon rule because we know that cutting climate pollution and other forms of air pollution will have profound benefits for the health of our children and everyone in our communities. At the same time, we stand in solidarity with community members that have concerns about carbon capture and storage and support the protections they want for their communities.
We have serious concerns about massive deployment of unproven, untested, unregulated, and potentially dangerous industrial-scale technologies that may even make climate pollution worse and may harm the communities in which these technologies are sited. Many of these communities have already borne the brunt of the industrial-scale pollution from the fossil fuel industry.
Personally, I believe that we are at a point where each of us can make a tremendous difference in the future of America and humanity. I can’t wait to see all the good things that will come from slashing power plant pollution and accelerating our switch to wind and solar. Please lean in to this exciting opportunity to collaborate with environmental justice communities in shaping the clean energy future that benefits these communities the most.
Again, I am calling on EPA to finalize the strongest possible climate pollution standards with increased input from impacted communities.