protects our health

The residents of Maine count on the Environmental Protection Agency to protect us from dangerous pollutants that make our children sick and our air harder to breathe. But the EPA’s proposal to revoke the Clean Power Plan places children and other vulnerable populations in harm’s way.

Maine residents are already aware of the effects of a changing climate, and as a nurse I see the real effects of these changes on human health. Elevated levels of ozone in the summer months and air pollutants carried by the Gulf Stream lead to elevated levels of dangerous pollutants in our air, including particulate matter and smog. These in turn contribute to the high rates of asthma in our state.

The Clean Power Plan would reduce carbon emissions and other harmful pollution from power plants. Repealing this plan sets the United States and our state on a dangerous course of increasing rates of asthma and further deterioration of the state’s air quality. Air pollution, including ozone and particulate matter pollution, is worsened by climate change and emissions from power plants.

Revoking this life-saving plan denies Americans important health protections, and is inconsistent with the EPA’s core mission of protecting public health and the environment. Now is the time for the EPA to put public health first and scrap plans to repeal this life-saving standard that will protect Maine residents and all Americans.

Sally Melcher-McKeagney

Fairfield

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