By: Samantha Schmitz, DC Field Events Coordinator, 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 Samantha Schmitz, and I am the DC Events Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force currently living in Washington, DC. I support the Carbon Rule overall, but I urge EPA to finalize the strongest possible standards while also increasing mechanisms for community engagement.
We know that power plants are responsible for roughly a quarter of current climate-warming pollution with over 60% of that coming from burning fossil fuels. And we’re seeing the impacts of the climate crisis all around us already. The wildfire smoke that covered the East Coast in a blanket of haze last week was just one reminder. But notably, it also exacerbated another dire issue caused by the climate crisis: worsened asthma. In fact, the climate crisis can effectively worsen asthma in many ways including intensified wildfires, increased pollen, more frequent heat waves, and worsened smog.
I have struggled with severe asthma throughout my entire life and know that I’m not alone as 25 million other people in the US have asthma as well. I’ve had asthma attacks that have ended in hospitalizations that have greatly affected not just me but my entire family. I still remember how upset my parents were when I went to the emergency room and even just at regular doctor’s visits as they watched their small child gasp for air and struggle to breathe on an ongoing basis. And unfortunately, I fear that my asthma will get worse if we don’t combat climate change and cut our emissions now.
Unfortunately, climate change is also an issue of generational injustice. Today’s children will live through at least 3 times as many climate disasters as their grandparents. And as a young person, I’m already feeling these generational impacts and the mental health implications that dirty air and climate change cause, but I can only imagine what my kids and future generations might experience.
With fossil fuel power plants being responsible for such a large share of our climate-warming pollution, it is essential that we take action to curb their emissions so we can avoid the most dire climate consequences. However, we must also be acutely aware of the environmental injustices of the past and make an active choice not to repeat them. With that in mind, many already overburdened communities have serious concerns about the massive deployment of industrial-scale technologies whose safety and efficacy have yet to be proven. Rather than endanger the same communities with more risks and potential hazards, we must instead utilize the abundant renewable energy options that have already proven themselves.
I’m calling on EPA to live out its commitment to environmental justice and substantially strengthen mechanisms for community engagement and safeguards in the final version of this rule. Please finalize the strongest possible Carbon Rule standards to help protect our communities from the harms of climate-warming power plants. Thank you for your time.