EPA Testimony of Julie Hantman 

July 30, 2014 

Julie Hantman 

DC Field Organizer, Moms Clean Air Force 

1325 18th Street NW, #805 

Washington, DC 20036 

202-744-4387 (mobile) 

jhantman@momscleanairforce.org 

Thank you for the opportunity to offer my views on the 

proposed Clean Power Plan. My name is Julie Hantman. I 

am the Washington, DC Field Organizer for Moms Clean 

Air Force, a community of moms and dads united in 

fighting air pollution and calling for climate action. 

When I became a parent, two and a half years ago, I 

learned quickly that parenting is a tough job -- the 

sleeplessness, the uncertainties, costs, and decisions. 

Parenting is joyous, but it's really hard! 

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Climate change is making that tough job a lot tougher. In 

fact it's interfering with my three basic roles as a parent. 

My Role as Protector. A climate-changed world weakens 

my ability to protect my daughter from serious health and 

weather-related threats. My family lives in Washington, 

DC, and our extended family across the wider Northeast--

a region with the greatest increase in extreme 

precipitation, according to the National Climate 

Assessment. My mother-in-law lives in southern Nassau 

County, Long Island- just a few miles from the shoreline 

where Hurricane Sandy landed with the intensity of a 

'once in three hundred years' storm- damaging or 

destroying seventy-four thousand structures in Nassau 

County alone. 

Here in DC, I try to keep my daughter indoors on days 

when ground-level ozone is elevated. Ozone can lead to 

breathing difficulties especially in children. DC already gets 

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a failing grade on ozone levels from the American Lung 

Association. Yet ozone will worsen further as a result of 

increased temperatures linked to climate change. 

I have a Master's degree in public health, so I'm aware of 

the other health threats posed by climate change- heat 

stroke, infectious diseases and more. These are real 

threats that easily could overwhelm the capabilities of our 

state and county public health systems, which are fragile 

to begin with. 

Secondly, climate change challenges my Role as Teacher. 

A mother ought to feel joy and confidence teaching her 

young child simple aspects of the natural world. But that 

world, our best scientists say, is changing and degrading--

and the normal truths about the weather, plants and 

animals won't endure through my daughter'slife. When 

we visit the zoo I'm quietly uneasy, aware that many 

animals she's getting to know will dwindle in the wild and 

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even go extinct, unable to adapt to a changing climate, 

during her lifetime. 

Finally, unchecked climate change will threaten the 

quintessential (mom' role of Reassurer-in-Chief. My 

mother always modeled hope for me. Her voice still 

resonates and reassures me in turbulent times. Hearing 

the clear-eyed predictions of scientists, I wonder if I'll be 

able to reassure my daughter that the future is bright, or 

that the world can be improved. 

In my day-to-day life and in my work with Moms Clean Air 

Force, I carry the conviction that if we run hard with the 

excellent science we have, and make the strong and fair 

changes we need to make, then we will be able to 

safeguard for our children the hopeful horizons we've 

enjoyed in our own lives. Our kids will need resilience to 

survive the hard times ahead. But if we start acting now, 

then qualities like lightheartedness and purpose also will 

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find true places in our children's and grandchildren's lives. 

And parents will have an easier time doing their jobs, 

namely protecting, teaching and reassuring our kids. 

I support the proposed standards and I ask that EPA 

further strengthen the Clean Power Plan by finalizing a 

rule that reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 50% below 

2005 levels by 2020. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to speak today. 

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