By: Rachel Meyer, Ohio River Valley Coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: June 14, 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 Rachel Meyer, and I am the Ohio River Valley Field Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force. I am from Independence Township, Beaver County, in western Pennsylvania.
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. EPA must strengthen community input and safeguards in the final version of this rule.
As I write this testimony, I cough from the irritation to my asthmatic lungs from the wildfire smoke, something I never thought I would have to deal with in western PA. I also write this on the day the US Drought Monitor officially has us entering into a moderate drought, something extremely unusual for our normally wet spring. There is no escaping the reality of climate change.
Climate change is an issue of generational justice. I have a three-year-old daughter. Today’s children will live through at least 3 times as many climate disasters as their grandparents. According to the new peer reviewed EPA report Climate Change and Children’s Health and Well-Being in the United States, specific health impacts of climate change that particularly affect children include increased infectious disease such as Lyme disease, reductions in academic achievement, damage to or displacement from homes from natural disasters such as flooding, and increased asthma, allergies, and respiratory illness due to increased pollen and air pollution. By reducing climate pollution from power plants now, we can improve the outlook for our children’s future well-being.
I support the carbon rule because cutting climate pollution and other forms of air pollution will have profound benefits for the health of our children and everyone in our communities. However, I have concerns about the massive deployment of unproven, untested, unregulated and potentially dangerous technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). CCS is being considered in my region and I am worried it would result in even greater harm and suffering in communities like mine that have already borne the brunt of the industrial scale pollution from the fossil fuel industry.
In Beaver County, where my family lives, there is already large-scale buildout of oil and gas operations, petrochemical facilities, and many pipelines that threaten the health and safety of families. Vast swaths of land have been cleared for hazardous pipelines carrying explosive gases through our bucolic rolling hills. In 2018, the Revolution pipeline carrying methane gas exploded causing 150 ft flames that could be seen for miles and resulted in the evacuation of two dozen families. I live in fear of another pipeline explosion. I stand in solidarity with other communities who don’t want carbon capture pipelines and storage facilities located in their communities. I support the acceleration of clean, renewable, and sustainable energy, like wind and solar. Once again, I ask that EPA finalize a strong Carbon Rule to help protect our families from harmful air pollution but have serious concerns about technologies such as CCS that could sacrifice the health and safety of communities like mine.