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Support Letters
Support
Letters
Ensure Your Members & Supporters Are Represented
See each safeguard below for docket and submission information where you can send a letter from your organization, group, or business. You are also welcome to join onto our organizational letter for each protection.
Power Plant Carbon Safeguard
Deadline: July 16, 2023
Docket ID Number: EPA–HQ–OAR–2023–007
Submission Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072-0001
Full Proposal Details: Federal Register
Group Letter
Please send any edits or questions to Laura Lane at whpcacomms@gmail.com. Links will be full APA citations in the final letter submitted.
Date: XXX
On behalf of our members and supporters, our (insert #) organizations urge the EPA to set the strongest possible safeguards on carbon pollution by early next year. While the agency’s current proposal is a good start, we ask the EPA to strengthen it in three ways: 1) require power plants to reduce their emissions more quickly, 2) apply the pollution safeguards to a wider number of gas plants, and 3) ensure communities have input on how the pollution safeguards are implemented at power plants.
The power sector is the second-largest contributor to overall climate pollution in the U.S., but currently, carbon emissions from existing fossil fuel power plants are unregulated. The strongest possible climate pollution safeguards on power plant emissions are essential to limit the climate crisis and protect Americans’ health and well-being.
Carbon pollution from the fossil-fuel industry drives climate change and leads to poor air quality and increasingly negative health outcomes, including respiratory disease, heart disease, and insect-borne infectious diseases. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, poor air quality as a result of climate change can harm respiratory and cardiovascular systems. These health impacts include hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke. Climate change creates more unhealthy smog, which is associated with diminished lung function, increased hospital admissions and emergency department visits for asthma, and increases in premature deaths.
Climate change also leads to more frequent and intense extreme weather events, including hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires, and flooding. In 2022, the U.S. experienced 18 storms that cost $1 billion or more. According to NOAA, the storms, droughts, and wildfires totaled more than $165 billion and led to at least 474 deaths. At one point in 2022, more than 60% of the continental United States was under official drought conditions.
In addition, cutting carbon pollution and limiting climate change is an issue of environmental justice and health equity. In 2021, the EPA released a peer-reviewed study that showed communities of color are expected to see more loss of life, health, and employment from climate change than the U.S. population as a whole. The report found that African Americans are 40% more likely to die from higher temperatures than the general population if climate change is kept to 2 degrees Celsius. Black children are 34% more likely to experience asthma exacerbated by climate change. Hispanic and Latin American, and Native Americans are 43% and 37% more likely to live in places where climate change threatens job opportunities.
By setting the strongest possible safeguards on carbon pollution from power plant emissions, the EPA can protect the health and well-being of all Americans, especially those who have historically been overburdened by pollution and may continue to live on the front lines of fossil fuel plants. There is no time to lose. The recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report made clear that the window to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis is rapidly closing. These safeguards must be finalized by early next year. Thank you for the opportunity to provide input.
Sincerely,
Abby Novinska-Lois, MPH, Executive Director
Joel Charles, MD, MPH
Healthy Climate Wisconsin
Add Your Organization
Emission Standards
Deadline: June 16, 2023
Docket ID Number: EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0985
Submission Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0985-1423
Full Proposal Details: Federal Register
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Group Letter
Please send any edits or questions to Laura Lane at whpcacomms@gmail.com. Links will be full APA citations in the final letter submitted.
Date: XXX
On behalf of our members and supporters, our (insert #) organizations urge the EPA to set the strongest possible safeguards on greenhouse gas emissions from heavy duty vehicles. The agency’s current proposal is a good start, but federal and manufacturer investments and state policies like the Advanced Clean Trucks rule all support the EPA enacting more stringent pollution limits than what is in the current proposal.
Implementing the strongest possible limits on greenhouse gas emissions from heavy duty vehicles will help limit climate change and dramatically improve public health. The American Lung Association estimates that if fleets move towards zero-emission trucks by 2050, we could have $735 billion in public health benefits due to cleaner air, 66,800 fewer premature deaths, 1.75 million fewer asthma attacks, and 8.5 million fewer lost workdays.
Cutting air pollution is an issue of environmental justice and health equity. Asian-American, Black, and Latinx communities are being disproportionately burdened with air pollution from vehicles. Respectively, they face 34%, 24%, and 23%, higher exposures when compared with their white counterparts. In addition, 45% of residents in counties with high truck traffic are people of color, compared to 38.4% of the total U.S. population. The strongest possible pollution safeguards on heavy duty vehicles would deliver massive emission reductions and life-saving relief to frontline communities.
While trucks and buses account for only 4 percent of vehicles on the road, they are responsible for more than 25 percent of total transportation sector greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from trucks are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the number of truck miles traveled on the nation’s roads is forecast to increase significantly in the coming decades.
Greenhouse gas emissions from heavy duty vehicles accelerate climate change, which poses a serious threat to Americans’ health and well-being. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, poor air quality as a result of climate change can harm respiratory and cardiovascular systems. These health impacts include hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke. Climate change creates more unhealthy smog, which is associated with diminished lung function, increased hospital admissions and emergency department visits for asthma, and increases in premature deaths.
Extreme weather events worsened by climate change create more air and water pollution, destabilize food sources, and put our homes and lives at risk. In 2022, the U.S. experienced 18 storms that cost $1 billion or more. According to NOAA, the storms, droughts, and wildfires totaled more than $165 billion and led to at least 474 deaths. At one point in 2022, more than 60% of the continental United States was under official drought conditions.
We urge the EPA to move quickly to finalize these pollution safeguards on heavy duty vehicles by the end of the year. There is no time to lose. The recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report made clear that the window to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis is rapidly closing. The EPA has the opportunity–and responsibility–to deploy the strongest possible safeguards to clean up deadly truck pollution, limit catastrophic climate change, and improve public health. Thank you for the opportunity to provide input.
Sincerely,
Abby Novinska-Lois, MPH, Executive Director
Joel Charles, MD, MPH
Healthy Climate Wisconsin
Add Your Organization
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Tailpipe Pollution Limits
Deadline: July 5, 2023
Docket ID Number: EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-082
Submission Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0829-0451
Full Proposal Details: Federal Register
Group Letter
Please send any edits or questions to Laura Lane at whpcacomms@gmail.com. Links will be full APA citations in the final letter submitted.
Date: XXX
On behalf of our members and supporters, our (insert #) organizations urge the EPA to quickly finalize the strongest possible air pollution safeguards on emissions from passenger cars and light trucks. The EPA’s current proposal is a good start, but it needs to be even stronger to significantly limit climate change and improve public health. We appreciate that the EPA has said it will consider more stringent alternatives and ask the agency to implement air pollution safeguards on cars and light trucks that are at least as strong as the standards set forth in Alternative 1 of the EPA’s proposal.
In order for the U.S. to meet its Paris Climate Agreement goals, the EPA must set the strongest possible long-term standards that will reduce car and light truck greenhouse gas emissions 75% by 2030, putting the country on a path to a 100% zero-emission new vehicle sales target by 2035. According to the EPA’s own analysis, the transportation sector accounts for 27% of greenhouse gas emissions and is the fastest growing emitter of greenhouse gasses.
Greenhouse gas emissions accelerate climate change, which poses a serious threat to Americans’ health and well-being. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, poor air quality as a result of climate change can harm respiratory and cardiovascular systems. These health impacts include hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke. Climate change creates more unhealthy smog, which is associated with diminished lung function, increased hospital admissions and emergency department visits for asthma, and increases in premature deaths.
Climate change also leads to more frequent and intense extreme weather events, including hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires, and flooding. In 2022, the U.S. experienced 18 storms that cost $1 billion or more. According to NOAA, the storms, droughts, and wildfires totaled more than $165 billion and led to at least 474 deaths. At one point in 2022, more than 60% of the continental United States was under official drought conditions.
According to the American Lung Association, a nationwide transition to zero-emission cars, light trucks, and heavy-duty vehicles –coupled with a transition to zero-emission electricity – would result in 110,000 premature deaths prevented (nationwide, 2020-2050); $1.2 trillion in health benefits (nationwide, 2020-2050); and $1.7 trillion in additional climate benefits (global, 2020-2050).
The strongest possible air pollution safeguards on cars and light trucks would also deliver massive emission reductions and life-saving relief to frontline communities that are often closest to highways and bear the greatest burden from vehicle pollution. Low-wealth and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities experience disproportionate harm from dirty vehicle pollution, leading to increased rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
We ask that the EPA move quickly to finalize air pollution safeguards on cars and light trucks that are at least as strong as the standards set forth in Alternative 1 of the agency’s proposal. There is no time to lose. The recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report made clear that the window to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis is rapidly closing. The EPA has the opportunity–and responsibility–to deploy the strongest possible safeguards to clean up deadly car pollution, limit catastrophic climate change, and improve public health. Thank you for the opportunity to provide input.
Sincerely,
Abby Novinska-Lois, MPH, Executive Director
Joel Charles, MD, MPH
Healthy Climate Wisconsin
Add Your Organization