By: Julie Silverman, Moms Clean Air Force intern, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: June 17, 2021
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0295
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Julie Silverman and I am currently a senior at Tufts University studying Environmental Policy and Biology. I have lived in Cazenovia, NY—a small, rural town outside of Syracuse—my entire life and am an intern at Moms Clean Air Force this summer. This is my first time participating in a listening session and I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak today.
I am here to urge this Administration to cut oil and gas methane pollution 65% by 2025 (from 2012 levels) to protect children’s health, their futures, and the overall health of our communities. As a college student, I am extremely concerned about the impacts that climate change will have during my lifetime and beyond. I have seen friends’ homes get severely damaged and destroyed by extreme weather events such as Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and last year’s wildfires in California. Although climate change arguably hasn’t impacted New York as severely as other states, I am extremely concerned about the future of my home, my family and friends, and this country. Methane warms the planet 86 times more than carbon pollution over 20 years and is fueling the climate crisis and endangering the health and wellbeing of millions of Americans, including newborn babies and children. As a college student learning more and more about the devastating impacts of methane pollution every day, I strongly believe that the only way to keep ourselves and the ones we love safe is to drastically reduce the amount of methane we are putting into our communities and the atmosphere. Without doing so we will see an exponential increase in extreme weather events and dramatic food shortages. Climate change is already altering animal habitats and putting humans in contact with animals that they have not previously been in before. This has the potential to spread diseases and lead to an increasing amount of future deadly global pandemics.
In the US, one in three people live in a county with oil and gas production and those in proximity to these operations are exposed to extremely harmful air pollution that puts their health at risk. Right before the pandemic hit the US, I was visiting my sister at the elementary school that she worked at in Tiltonsville, Ohio and was shocked by how much more difficult it was for me—a healthy 20-year-old with seasonal allergies—to breathe than back home in Central New York. Ascent Resources and Gulfport Energy both have natural gas wells in proximity to Buckeye South Elementary School. Children who live, learn, and play in these highly polluted areas, such as those in Eastern Ohio, are at risk for developing severe health issues. It is devastating that a child’s zip code can have such negative and lasting health impacts that will affect them the rest of their life.
Once again, I support cutting oil and gas methane pollution 65% by 2025 (from 2012 levels) to protect children’s health, their futures, and the overall health of our communities. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify.