By: Stephanie Reese, Director of DEIJ and Strategic Implementation, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: June 15, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072
To: Environmental Protection Agency
Being a mother today is not an easy feat. Challenges and issues that may have never entered the mind of my mother are constant concerns for me today. While 40 years ago, climate issues were a concern, today those concerns that were discussed only in speculation have become a reality.
My sons, seven and twelve, were actually unable to go outside last week because of the air quality. It’s something we’ve seen in movies, in other states, but to see the hazy air and feel the smoke in our nostrils and the tickle in our throat, to hear my son coughing in the back seat on our way to school, to give him a mask and tell him not to linger outside—it felt surreal. And I think, for many of us, we believed that this reality was a long way off.
I don’t know where we will be in 40 more years, but I know how we got here, and it's time to change course.
Moms Clean Air Force supports the proposed carbon rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. We also support the cleanest and most reliable pathways to ramping down climate emissions. We have the technology to make these changes. We have abundant sources of clean, renewable, and sustainable energy like wind and solar. We must support the acceleration of these healthy energy sources.
My children and I are concerned with what is happening in our world today, the part we play, and how we can make a difference.
It is not the role of EPA to dictate power sources, your role is to regulate pollution levels from any source. It is our role, as Moms, to demand clean renewable energy as the simplest way to cut carbon and methane emissions and safeguard the future of our children.
As a Mom, I have serious concerns about the massive deployment of unproven, untested, unregulated, and potentially dangerous industrial-scale technologies that may even make climate pollution worse, and I don’t know what that will look like for my sons 40 years from now.
Fossil-fueled power plants are responsible for almost one-quarter of the climate pollution generated by the US.
I’m calling on EPA to finalize the strongest possible standards for greenhouse gas emissions from power plants to help protect our families from harmful air pollution that contributes to climate change and impacts health.
I’m urging EPA to promote a diversified and comprehensive approach, by prioritizing community input and strengthening safeguards in the final version of this rule. We must also prioritize the reduction of chronic disparities of pollution exposure experienced by environmental justice communities.
When you’re young, it feels like you have all the time in the world, but I can say that 40 years goes by faster than you think, and time is something none of us have any control over. But we have control over what we do in that time and the choices we make. We’re well beyond the point where we can do nothing. The time for meaningful action is now.