"Climate change is contributing to deteriorating air quality in cities like Milwaukee, impacting the health and well-being of its residents. The cost of inaction on climate change is staggering, amounting to at least $5,230 per second. The proposed efforts by the Biden administration to reduce climate pollution from power plants represent a significant step forward. It is crucial to implement the most stringent version of these standards to benefit our health, mitigate climate change, and support communities nationwide." 

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Langston Verdin, Founder, MKE Fresh Air Collective, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

"I take incoming calls at a medical clinic and there are too many people hurting and dying from pollution. Please set the strongest possible standards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from electricity production. There are short-term and medium-term costs that justify nationalizing our country’s energy sector if vested interests want to continue harming our communities." 

Alex Kalfayan, MD, Medical Intake Specialist, Wisconsin

“Climate change and air pollution are environmental justice issues. People of color and traditionally underserved communities in Wisconsin are more likely to be exposed to harmful air pollution. They disproportionately bear the health, social and economic burdens of climate change and our broken energy system that continues to rely on expensive fossil fuels like coal. Once finalized, the EPA’s power plant rule will play a key role in reducing overall carbon emissions and helping us avoid the worst impacts of climate change. In addition to a strong plan to cut climate pollution from power plants, President Biden and EPA Administrator Regan must develop additional protections for communities that have historically borne the brunt of this deadly pollution and continue to live in the shadow of fossil fuel plants.”

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Nancy Retana, Resilient Communities Program Director, Clean Wisconsin, Milwaukee

"President Biden’s plan to cut climate pollution from dirty power plants is a strong start, but we need him to enact the strongest possible version of these climate pollution standards. I’m joining a broad coalition from around the U.S. to call on the EPA to not back down. As a nurse, I know first-hand the impacts pollution has on my patients. Our climate and health can’t wait."

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Alex Dudek, RN, UW Health, Wisconsin

"As a broadcast meteorologist, it is my job to sound the alarm when weather dangers are on the horizon. Well, a larger storm has been brewing for quite some time now, and I would be remiss in not alerting you to that danger as well: climate change. It is making extreme weather worse and will further disrupt our lives, livelihoods and economy unless and until it is curbed. Thankfully, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will soon release new standards with the potential to significantly reduce the amount of climate pollution released by power plants. These standards will clean up our air and protect our health and economy."

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Bob Lindmeier, senior chief meteorologist at WKOW-TV, Wisconsin

“Strong carbon safeguards from the EPA could give us a path to decrease asthma, cancers, neurological, and heart issues—medical conditions that Wisconsin families are unfairly suffering from across our rural and urban communities. Together, we can create a future that values our health, where everybody has access to clean air and water, and the freedom to thrive.” 

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Abby Novinska-Lois, Executive Director, Healthy Climate Wisconsin, Wisconsin

“Carbon emissions are killing us. We need strong regulations and policies in place to cut emissions drastically, and as soon as possible. The EPA must do everything it can to protect our communities and home planet, and resist pressure from big polluters.”

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Mandi McAlister, Organizer & Founder Hummingbird MKE, Wisconsin

“We need to start thinking about climate change every time we look at a young person. Regulating greenhouse gas emissions is the right thing to do for our present and future.”

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Reverend Cindy Crane, ELCA, Director of the Lutheran Office of Public Policy, Wisconsin

"For far too long, fossil fuel power plants have been allowed to harm people—especially nearby low-income and communities of color—and the planet. Strong regulation of carbon pollution is long overdue, and this is one of the most effective ways to limit climate change and toxic pollution. I urge the EPA to pass the strongest possible carbon safeguards, and put people before corporate polluters."

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Don Ferber, Wisconsin Sierra Club Co-Chair, Wisconsin

“There’s this idea that it’s too expensive to have higher pollution standards. The truth is though, that the actions needed to reduce pollution are actually cheaper than dealing with the health, economic and environmental costs of polluted air and water. It’s just that those actually responsible for pollution prefer not to pay the bill, instead letting it fall to those least able to pay the price. It’s time to be the country we like to think we are and implement the highest possible standards to protect everyone, not just those who can afford it”

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Jackie Harrison-Jewell, Executive Director, Couillard Solar Foundation, Wisconsin

“We need the strongest possible standards to stop power plants from emitting carbon pollution that is driving the climate crisis, and to protect our health.”

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Wisconsin State Senator Kelda Roys, District 26, Madison & Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin

“If no action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions/carbon pollution from corporate polluters, temperatures will increase 10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100. Babies born in 2023 will be 77 years old in 2100. It is possible that this generation will experience catastrophic, irreversible climate change. Will life on earth be livable in 2100?” 

Gail Syverud, Co-Chair, Wisconsin Sierra Club, Wisconsin

"From the moment of conception until their last breath, we doctors know our patients are made more sick because we burn fossil fuels. Air pollution from fossil fuels has been shown to cause stillbirths, preterm births, delayed cognitive development in children, autism, asthma, heart attacks, cancer, strokes, and dementia. The EPA must set the strongest possible carbon pollution standards to safeguard our patients’ health."

Joel Charles, MD MPH, Family Doctor, Healthy Climate Wisconsin, Wisconsin