{"id":5569,"date":"2025-07-15T12:29:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T16:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weact.org\/?post_type=update&p=5569"},"modified":"2025-07-15T12:29:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T16:29:58","slug":"mats-2025-testimony","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/mats-2025-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"WE ACT Testimony for Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s Hearing on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS)"},"template":"","class_list":["post-5569","update","type-update","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","update_type-press-release","focus_tax-environmental-health","person_tax-manuel-salgado"],"acf":{"details":{"":null,"featured_image":5221,"update_type":[366],"focus_area":[8],"authors":[219],"abstract":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_hero_links","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_hero_links":{"title":"","abstract":"","links":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/strong>\r\n\r\nJuly 10, 2025\r\n<\/strong>Contact: Ashley Sullivan, 1(917) 837-1183, Ashley.Sullivan@weact.org\r\n\r\nWASHINGTON<\/strong> - My name is Manuel Salgado, I am an environmental and climate scientist with a remote sensing and atmospheric science background, and I serve as Federal Research Manager for WE ACT for Environmental Justice.\u00a0 We are part of the Clean Air for the Long Haul Cohort, a national group of environmental justice organizations working together to embed environmental justice in EPA rulemaking and advance strong health protections within the power and transportation sectors.\u00a0 While I am grateful for the opportunity to provide testimony on the importance of the MATS, I am greatly saddened and angered that two years after my testimony on the current rule, the context for these comments is the potential repeal of a regulation which provides overdue protections to our public against the danger of mercury, arsenic, and other toxic pollution from power plants.<\/span>\r\n\r\nDue to a legacy of structural racism leading to discriminatory housing practices and zoning, communities of color and low-wealth are disproportionately overburdened by the health damaging effects of toxic pollution from coal and oil fired power plants.\u00a0 Exposure to these toxic chemicals leads to disastrous health effects and premature deaths.<\/span>\r\n\r\nHigh rates of exposure and health risks from mercury and other toxic air pollution are a stark reality for many of the environmental justice communities across the country who live, work, and go to school in the shadow of coal and oil fueled power plants.\u00a0 According to the EPA\u2019s own analysis, people living within 10 km of coal plants are far more likely to live at extreme levels of poverty.\u00a0 Children are especially at risk from mercury emissions from power plants.\u00a0 Studies have shown mercury exposure for children leads to reduced neurological function which persists into adulthood and negatively impacts the rest of their lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nOur communities have contended with emissions from coal burning power plants for far too long and the current administration threatens to roll back the recent and hard earned relief our communities have spent decades fighting for.\u00a0 We cannot afford for this administration to roll back these rules so that the rich might become richer.\u00a0 Our children deserve to live in an environment free from the danger posed by these toxics and their lives are not a bargaining chip for the president to use to repay the billionaire polluters who contributed to his campaign.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is clearly stated in the name:\u00a0 to PROTECT public health and the environment.\u00a0 The EPA\u2019s mission is NOT to allow power plants to pursue higher profit margins by continuing to operate in a manner that places the lives of millions of people across the country in danger.\u00a0 We can and must do better and the updated MATS remain a necessary step in the right direction.\u00a0 The science on mercury and other toxics from coal is crystal clear and in no way justifies this action.\u00a0 A rollback of this rule would be a complete abandonment of the EPA\u2019s duty to the American people and directly lead to increased rates of cancer, childhood impairment, and loss of life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nWE ACT and the Clean Air For The Long Haul cohort implore the EPA to either strengthen the standards to provide even greater levels of health benefits to our communities and the American people or, at the very least, maintain the current MATS.\u00a0 Any other choice is simply unconscionable.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/span>\r\n\r\n# # #\r\n\r\nWE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and\/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at\u00a0weact.org<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>, and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.","include_drop_cap":false}}]},"yoast_head":"\nWE ACT Testimony for Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s Hearing on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"WE ACT Testimony for Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s Hearing on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/weact.org\/es\/updates\/mats-2025-testimony\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WE ACT Testimony for Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s Hearing on the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WE ACT Testimony for Environmental 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