EPA Testimony — Denver 

July 29. 2014 

Coal, A Big Mistake 

Good afternoon, my name is Ronnie Citron-Fink. I've traveled from New York to 

speak as a deidn, aTteacher, and a representativA/loms Clean Air Force; a 

community of hundreds of thousands of parents,43elieve the biggest stakeholders 

in the Clean Power Plan are our children. Our members know that if we continue 

to allow carbon to be spewed into the air unchecked, we will be leaving our 

children an uncertain, unhealthy, and unsafe future. 

When I started with MCAF over three years ago, I was keenly aware that the 

Clean Air Act was a major public health success. Like all parents, I felt strongly 

that I would do anything to protect my family. But I was worried that delving deep 

into stacks and stacks of reports, regulations, and cost analysis associated 

childhood asthma, cancer, and infant mortality would leave me glazed over and 

paralyzed with parental fear. 

That didn't happen. It wasn't the reports and statistics, or even the insane politics 

that seem to put profits over people that stopped me dead in my tracks...it was 

the stories that I heard every single day from parents with infants, toddlers, 

school kids and teenagers. 

It was the stories of moms like Wendy from Indiana, who can't let her two-year 

old ,go out to play because she lives within a 62-mile radius of 17 coal-fired 

power plants. Her neighbors' kids have asthma and she doesn't want her baby to 

become another statistic. 

I joined Wendy when she visited her senator in Washington and asked if he 

would support common sense standards to limit pollution from his state's power 

plants. She asked if he cared that unlimited pollution was poisoning the citizens 

of his state? 

Wendy was told, "Make no mistake, the Senator cares about "coal-factory" 

employees and their families." 

She turned to me in tears and said, "This must be a mistake. Doesn't he have a 

moral obligation to protect his states' children? Does this man have children, 

grandchildren?" He does. 

Not only does unregulated carbon intensive coal poison the air our families 

breathe, there's a clear consensus among scientists that carbon pollution from 

fossil fuels is the single largest contributing factor to climate change -- warming 

our planet, contributing to extreme weather events and harming the most 

vulnerable citizens -- our children. 
Climate change is making asthma triggers worse. Extreme heat is hard on little 

bodies. And the soot and smog pollution that global warming exacerbates 

damages developing developing lungs and increases respiratory infections. 

My heart breaks when I listen to parents like Wendy, living in communities that 

deal daily with the health effects of burning unregulated fossil fuels. And now we 

have the opportunity tdl-ghilehis wrong and avoid this mistake. 

Coal is no longer the answer to power our children's future. To further its use is a 

big mistake. We can stop poisoning people and our planet with ancient, filthy 

power without being left in the dark. Now is the time to begin to shift to clean, 

renewable energy sources that save money, employ Americans and most 

importantly, protect the health of our precious children. 

The EPA's Clean Power Plan is an important first step in addressing climate 

change and its health impacts. Moms Clean Air Force asks that the EPA 

strengthen the Clean Power Plan and finalize this rule that will reduce carbon 

dioxide emissions 40% below 2005 levels by 2020. 

Let's set an example to the rest of the world that we value what is most 

important, our families. And make no mistake...our children are watching. 

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RONNIE CITRON-FINK 

MANAGING EDITOR, WEBSITE 

MOMS CLEAN AIR FORCE 

RONNIE@MOMSCLEANAIRFORCE.ORG 

WWW.MOMSCLEANAIRFORCE.ORG 

FACEBOOK.COM/MOMSCLEANAIRFORCE 

TWITTER.COM/MOMSCAF 

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