As a Reform Jew, I write in response to the EPA’s proposed rule to strengthen and update the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units (EGUs). I strongly support your work to update this safeguard and urge you to finalize the strongest possible protections from mercury and other toxic air pollution that threatens our health, our air and water.
Since the EPA first implemented the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) significant progress has been made toward cleaning up dangerous air pollution. Mercury and other toxic pollutants pose significant harm to vulnerable populations and children, harming people living near power plants and hundreds of miles away. Pollution not only accelerates the climate crisis, but disproportionately harm Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities who are exposed at higher rates to poor air quality and bear a disproportionate burden of environmental hazards.
My Jewish values guide my commitment to environmental and racial justice. In the Garden of Eden, the Eternal tells Adam and Eve, “Take care not to spoil or destroy My world, for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you” (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13). The Talmud teaches that all people are descended from a single being so that no person can say, “my ancestor is greater than yours.” (Sanhedrin 37a). Systemic racial oppression is a sin that violates the sacred tenet of equality between people; this continued sin endures through legacies of environmental injustice and racism.
By finalizing the strongest possible MATS, the EPA can clean up toxic power plant pollution that harms vulnerable populations and those living closest to polluting power plants. I urge you to finalize these standards, to deliver clean air, clean water, and a healthy climate for all.