By: Lorna Perez, Florida Field Organizer, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: January 8, 2025
About: NOx New Source Performance Standards, Docket # EPA-HQ-OAR-2024-0419
To: EPA
Hello, my name is Lorna Perez, and I’m the Florida Field Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, and we represent over 186,000 moms, dads, and caregivers across Florida united against air pollution. New gas-fired power plants are expected to be built in Florida, so this rule is particularly relevant to me and other Floridians. On behalf of our members, I’m here to ask EPA to go further in strengthening NOx protections in the final version of the proposed NOx rule. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
I live in the Tampa Bay Area, where there are already multiple gas-fired power plants in populated areas. According to the 2024 State of the Air Report from the American Lung Association, there are over 33,000 cases of reported pediatric asthma and over 251,000 adults that live with asthma in the greater Tampa Bay area. Research suggests that exposure to NOx pollution over time can cause asthma in children, so your decisions today are crucial to the health of our communities' future.
There are also over 34,000 pregnant people currently living in the greater Tampa Bay area, which also makes up a particularly vulnerable group of people when it comes to NOx pollution. NOx emissions and proximity to power plants are associated with lower birth weight and preterm birth and contribute to existing racial/ethnic disparities in birth outcomes. As somebody who wants to start a family soon, I am already considered to be in a “high risk” category and to add this worry is extremely concerning.
We must do all we can to protect the families and children of our communities by ensuring clean air for their future and avoiding this kind of suffering.
There are also more than 398,000 people living in poverty in the Tampa Bay area, which makes them more vulnerable to the NOx emissions associated with living near a power plant. Everybody deserves to live with clean air as a guaranteed human right, regardless of income.
Florida offers no protections for renters like rent control and the percentage of households living paycheck to paycheck has been increasing, so for families that are trying to get by, it would be almost impossible to just pick up and move away from a new gas-fired power plant. The air these communities breathe will be greatly impacted by the strength of this rule.
According to Zillow, from 2019 to 2023, rent increased by 50% in Tampa compared to wages increasing by just 15.3%. Tampa has the highest discrepancy in the nation, and 20% more than the national average. I myself know the struggle to pay rent, and being unable to move from a location due to high moving costs. Let’s help ensure that we help take care of our most vulnerable members of our community by expanding protections from these dangerous NOx emissions that will affect so many of us. Once again, I ask EPA to go further in strengthening NOx protections in the final version of this rule.