By: Elizabeth Hauptman, Michigan field organizer, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: December 1, 2021
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0317
To: Environmental Protection Agency
I’m Elizabeth Hauptman. I live in Brighton with my family, and I’m the field organizer with Moms Clean Air Force Michigan. We have 30,000 members here in Michigan and over a million nationally fighting for clean air and climate for the sake of our children’s health.
I support the proposed EPA methane rules and urge the EPA to finalize the strongest and most comprehensive rules to protect children’s health from all sources of oil and gas methane pollution, including small wells and routine flaring.
The oil and gas industry is one of the largest sources of industrial methane pollution. Methane, which is the primary ingredient in natural gas, is a powerful greenhouse gas that is contributing to the climate crisis.
Michiganders are experiencing climate change today with more flooding, coastal erosion, warming of the Great Lakes, and extreme weather. Climate change is causing our lakes to warm faster than our oceans and impacting the fish populations. Michigan summers are getting longer and hotter, our winters we see more rain and less snow, and our lake only freezes for weeks, not months. We cannot skate, sled, or ice fish because it’s too warm. These changes affect commerce and recreation for all Michiganders.
These hotter temperatures can cause an increase in ground-level ozone pollution or smog. Smog is a lung irritant that triggers asthma attacks. My son, Oscar, has asthma, so I understand how vital clean air is for life. He is one of 166,000 children in Michigan who suffer from asthma. Michigan has some of the worst asthma rates in the country, according to the American Lung Association. In the summertime, parents like me need to check our weather apps to see if it’s safe for our children to play outside. We have far too often rushed home after a soccer game on a hot summer day to use his nebulizer.
Children are more impacted by air pollution for many reasons. They breathe more rapidly than adults, spend more time outdoors, and are more physically active than adults, thus exposing their still-developing lungs to more air pollution. That’s why I depend on the EPA to do their job and protect children from air pollution and climate change. Moms and dads want climate action, and we want the EPA to make protective regulations that would limit potent greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas operations. On behalf of the more than 30,000 members of Moms Clean Air Force in Michigan, thank you again for the opportunity to offer remarks today. We urge you to finalize the strongest and most comprehensive methane rules to protect children’s health from all sources of oil and gas methane pollution including small wells and routine flaring.
Thank you.