By: Melody Reis, Director, Federal Policy
Date: October 1, 2026
About: Docket # EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0124-2920
To: EPA
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Melody Reis, and I am the Federal Policy Director at Moms Clean Air Force. I am here to express my strong opposition to EPA’s proposal. EPA must maintain its authority to limit climate pollution from power plants and protect our communities, children, and future generations from the increasingly dire risks of climate change.
EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment, but it’s unclear how this proposal would protect anything but the profit margins of corporate polluters.
Fossil fuel power plants are responsible for about one quarter of climate pollution in the United States. To walk away from imposing commonsense safeguards on such a major source of greenhouse gas emissions is an abdication of responsibility.
Although I don’t agree, I understand that not everyone thinks about our obligation to future generations. But at this point, climate change is here. We are suffering through the hottest summers on record. We are suffering through more damaging storms. Our children, not hypothetical future humans, are living through unprecedented heat and storms and wildfires right now.
I want to be able to tell children today that we are doing all we can. That we are turning toward cleaner energy. That we are reducing pollution. That the government is doing its job to protect us. But that feels impossible with proposals like this one, which deny the reality of rising temperatures, worsening storms, and increasing costs in favor of more profits for outdated, polluting industries.
In a world that’s already warming, we must do everything we can to turn the tide, reduce climate emissions, and fight for a safer, healthier future for our children. I urge EPA not to undermine its own mission and undercut its ability to protect public health. Thank you for your time.