By: Kindra Weid, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: June 13, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Kindra Weid, and I am advocating on behalf of Moms Clean Air Force, Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action, and the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. I am speaking with you from southeastern Michigan.
Fossil-fueled 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 standards to help protect our families from harmful air pollution that contributes to climate change and impacts health. I encourage EPA to strengthen community input and safeguards in the final version of this rule.
I am a critical care nurse practicing since 2000 and have been a public health advocate in Michigan for air quality and climate change since 2015. The body of research linking public health outcomes to air pollution and climate change has grown exponentially during that time, and I have watched as past iterations and attempts to slow climate pollution have been overturned and fallen victim to political party power shifts.
I found the letter of opposition that I wrote in 2018 to then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt regarding the repeal of the Clean Power Plan. First, I want to say that EPA has come a long way through some dark times, and I am thankful to be here in this position today advocating for this rule. Second, it also pains me to think we lost those five years and speaks to the urgency of this moment. The impacts of climate change are glaringly evident in the forest fires spreading across Canada and the United States impacting air quality and health. As a result of these fires, the air quality in Detroit last week reached levels comparable to Delhi, India. This speaks to the global impact of this issue and to the United States’ responsibility as a major contributor to climate pollution to limit power plant emissions.
Climate change threatens our health and well-being in numerous ways. Impacts of climate change include more severe heat waves, drought, sea-level rise, extreme climate and weather events, exacerbated air pollution, coastal flooding, and wildfires.
As nurses, we see the health impacts of climate change at the bedside in the form of exacerbations of chronic heart and lung conditions due to poor air quality, heat exhaustion and stroke, and increasing rates of vector-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease and West Nile virus, to name just a few.
Climate change is an issue of generational justice. Today’s children will live through at least 3 times as many climate disasters as their grandparents.
Communities of color, which are hit first and worst by climate disasters, are also hit harder by the psychological impacts of climate change.
Cleaning up smokestack pollution from fossil fuel power plants can provide cleaner air and a safer, more stable climate.
It will also protect public health. In 2030 alone, the proposed standards would prevent:
- approximately 1,300 premature deaths;
- more than 800 hospital and emergency room visits;
- more than 300,000 cases of asthma attacks;
- 38,000 school absence days; and
- 66,000 lost workdays.
Once again, I support the carbon rule and am calling on the EPA to finalize the strongest possible standards to help protect our families from harmful air pollution that contributes to climate change and impacts public health. Time is wasting. Imagine where we would be today if we’d acted five years ago.
We know this administration cares deeply for the climate and public health, so thank you for limiting carbon pollution and keep fighting for future generations with equity at the core of your actions.