Sample Comment to COPY and AND THEN PASTE on the comment page on Regulations.gov (DON'T FORGET THE SECOND STEP!)
I'm writing today to strongly urge the Environmental Protection Agency not to repeal the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating Units. These standards promote the safety of communities and their physical environments; repealing them will undo a monumental protection of our air quality, our physical health, and our finances.
Coal and gas power plants constitute one of the biggest sources of pollution, as they regularly emit not only carbon dioxide, but also methane, soot, and heavy metals like mercury. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in 2023 that utility-scale fossil fuel power plants created 60% of the United States total utility-scale energy generation and produced 99% of the associated planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. Repealing regulation to reduce this pollution is a decision to worsen the ongoing climate crisis, at the same time that environmental disaster engulf the continent through flooding, record-breaking heat, and out-of-control wildfires.
Despite the EPA's claim that eliminating climate pollution from power plants would do little to impact public health, abundant public health research consistently indicates otherwise. In 2023, Scientific American published a study showing that, between 1999 and 2020, an estimated 460,000 deaths of Americans on Medicare can be attributed to living in areas polluted by coal power plants. Another 2023 study found that the closing of the Shenango Coke Works facility corresponded with a 90% decrease in average daily levels of sulfur dioxide, which is a component of coal PM2.5. That study, which was published in Environmental Research: Health, also found that the average number of weekly visits for emergency medical care for heart issues in the same local community decreased by 42%. Similarly, a study published in 2022 in ScienceDirect found that methane contributes to ground-level ozone, which can have negative health impacts such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
However, this pollution doesn't just affect human health through the air, but also through the environment, including the food we eat. A 2017 study published in Nature found that mercury emitted by coal power plants had contaminated the soil of nearby crops, with 79% of the vegetable samples and 675 of the gran samples exceeding food safety standards. Crops that were planted further away from the power plants showed lowered concentrations of mercury. In rolling back regulation that limits exposure to mercury, a potent neurotoxin that can significantly impact the physical and neurological development of children and babies, is in direct violation of its mission to protect both human health and the environment.
The EPA must remember its own mission of protecting the health and environment of Americans and preserve the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards. Without them, the health outcomes of our communities will worsen, the climate crisis will continue to unravel, and our environmental degradation will worsen. I strongly urge the EPA not to roll back the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards.
