Why? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is holding public hearings on those days to accept comments on its proposed standard to limit CO2 from dirty, old power plants. Finally!
I personally -- and strongly -- encourage everyone to testify: individuals, representatives of organizations, health care professionals, business leaders. Everyone.
This is because I suggest that everyone is an environmentalist (calm down, Rush, and do hear me out):
- The adult daughter, sitting in the ER with her aging mother all night, hoping Mom will survive this latest asthma attack, exacerbated by our dirty air.
- The grandfather, concerned about how his grandchildren will cope with a world that will be changed by ever more severe weather.
- The families of the 47 people killed one year ago by the explosion of the runaway oil train in Quebec.
- The lifelong fisherman, concerned about the health of the fish in the Susquehanna River.
Do you pay for any part of your own health insurance, or even the occasional doctor's bill? Then you should care about unchecked carbon pollution from power plants, since the health costs associated with this pollution ultimately falls on all our shoulders. Tell the EPA what you think.
Are you concerned by the financial and safety threats of more superstorms like Hurricane Sandy? You got it: Tell the EPA what you think.
You don't have to be an expert to testify, simply a concerned citizen.
Click here for information to help you write your testimony.
If you can't make it to Pittsburgh, email me at bergey at pennfuture dot org and I'll read your testimony into the record.
It matters. Because you matter. Now is the time to speak out.
Tell the EPA what you think.
Joy Bergey is PennFuture's federal policy director and is based in Philadelphia; she tweets @joybergey. She'll be in Pittsburgh on July 31 and August 1, telling the EPA what she thinks.
