Here’s the back-story. Last fall the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it was going to use its authority under the CAA to regulate climate changing greenhouse gases. Unsurprisingly, Big Coal has instigated a full-court press to stop the use of the CAA to regulate greenhouse gas emission from “stationary” sources. Sources like coal power plants, refineries, chemical plants, etc.
That’s where Sen. Kerry comes in. He wants to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gasses through a cap-and-trade system. So far so good. But Senator Kerry had lengthy discussions this week with energy industry leaders, and it appears he will be influenced by them and will trade stronger EPA enforcement of the Clean Air Act in order to get the legislation passed.
That would be bad for Massachusetts, especially for those most likely to bear the ill-effects of climate change and increasing air pollution, the state’s low- and moderate-income communities and families of color.
Even with the CAA’s success, these vulnerable communities are still the hardest-hit by the problems of air pollution. For example, in MA, asthma rates are disproportionally high in Dorchester and Roxbury: a whopping 178% higher than the state average. Roxbury, Dorchester, and Jamaica Plain have three of the top five hospitalization rates for asthma in the state and in Boston as a whole, asthma is the leading cause of childhood emergency hospitalization and the number one cause of school illness and absenteeism in the public schools.
And in case you think this has nothing to do with climate change, think again. Hotter temperatures make asthma-causing pollutants stay closer to the earth, resulting higher concentrations of them (the 2000’s were the hottest decade on record). And, sadly, African-Americans are more likely to live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant than other groups, they have one of the highest rates of asthma among any cultural group, and are three times as likely as whites to die from asthma.
For communities of color and poor communities, this is literally a matter of life and death.
And that’s why Massachusetts is seeing the emergence of “unusual suspects” to fight these moves by Big Coal and energy-interests and to make sure Sen. Kerry does the right thing. While it is no surprise that groups like Greenpeace and the Boston Climate Action Network are part of the effort, it is less expected to see groups like New England United for Justice (NEUJ) stepping up.
Because global climate change is going to hit Massachusetts’ most vulnerable citizens the same way it will threaten local ecologies around the world – crop failures, shrinking sources of fresh water, increases in skin cancers – they support the common sense step of regulating greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide.
They are calling on Sen. Kerry to do the same thing and they are mobilizing their grassroots membership based in communities like Dorchester and Mattapan to make sure Sen. Kerry hears them. Already this week over 80 folks have made calls to the Senator’s office asking him to do the right thing.
On Saturday, March 13, 75-100 community and religious leaders, activists, business owners and residents of the greater Boston area attended a NEUJ press conference to urge U.S. Senator John Kerry to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement of the Clean Air Act. As part of its popular education program on the issue, NEUJ held a community climate change workshop immediately after the press conference. In that workshop one of the activities was for residents to hand-write a letter to Sen. Kerry urging him to reject gutting the CAA as part of his deal-cutting around cap-and-trade.
Climate change workshop attendees write to Sen. Kerry
You can help make sure that Big Coal doesn’t shirk its responsibility for clean air even as the rest of us pay the cost through negative health effects and the challenges of climate chage. Tell Senator Kerry that it’s not okay to let dirty industries off the hook and give Big Coal a pass.
Senator Kerry’s office numbers:
Boston: (617) 565-8519
Springfield: (413) 785-4610
Fall River: (508) 677-0522
DC: (202) 224-2742
You can get more info here: mimi.neunited4justice@gmail.com or (513) 257-9813
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p>You have to think that after all of the millions of email campaigns if the good Senator might just weigh hand written letters just a little bit heavier?
They have to deal with you right away. Emails get deleted, there simply aren’t enough staff to process them. Mail is good, because the volume is less and it is harder to ignore. The main downside is that it takes longer, especially with the security restrictions added after the 2001 anthrax attacks, so if the issue is at all urgent, it’s a waste of time.