LETTER: Clean Power Plan would be good for America

I was very disappointed to read about the Supreme Court’s recent decision to stay the “Clean Power Plan.” As a father and an educator, I am very concerned about the threat of climate change and have been working hard to do all that I can to support good policy on climate health. A huge number of climate scientists and public health experts have identified climate change as the most important health threat we face.

Climate change already affects the health of Montanans, including residents of Flathead County, and creates multiple and profound risks for our future. As seen in the summer of 2015, smoke from this area as well as regional wildfires created elevated — and too often hazardous — levels of particle pollution in the air that can cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, and premature death. Experts tell us that climate change is causing longer wildfire seasons and more severe fires in the Western United States. Besides worsened air quality, climate change is also resulting in prolonged allergy seasons.

Along with older adults and people with preexisting medical conditions, children are most at risk. Children face special risks from air pollution because their bodies are growing and because they are so active. In our county, there are more than 21,000 children and approximately 1,800 of them suffer from asthma, making them especially vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution.

I am confident that the courts will ultimately uphold the Clean Power Plan. In the meantime, Gov. Bullock should not postpone work to reduce carbon pollution and should invest in truly clean energy sources, such as wind and solar, and also in energy efficiency. We owe it to our children.

—Rick Stern, Marion