What has fueled your passion to address environmental issues that affect population health?
Environmental hazards harm public health in Rhode Island, a downwind, coastal state. Air pollution flows into our state on prevailing winds from coal-fired power plants and other big polluters in states to our west. This causes thousands of premature deaths, and costs billions in increased healthcare costs and decreased productivity, in our state. Because Rhode Island can’t regulate out of state polluters, it is critical to work with the EPA to curb cross-state air pollution.
Climate change and rising seas are also threatening coastal communities in Rhode Island. Seeing the damage recently inflicted on Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas, and the Carolinas, we begin to understand what’s at stake when bigger and more frequent storms become the new normal. Rhode Island has a lot of coastline at risk, and I feel it is my duty to rally Congress and bring attention to our changing environment.
What is one thing you would like members of the public to understand about your work?
If we pay attention and plan wisely, we can protect and restore our land and water. It is not too late to take action; we just need to work quickly. Public and environmental health progress is already under way to clean our oceans, increase our energy security, and protect Rhode Islanders from toxic chemicals. More and more, there is movement with an entire generation of young people, and a growing acceptance among the public of the science behind climate change.
Hope also lies in the fact that this is not really a partisan problem. This is a political problem where big special interest groups are putting intense political pressure on one party. Dark money is flowing to groups that call climate change a hoax. Dark money looks to threaten and punish any Republican who dares to support climate legislation. I am confident that as soon as that political pressure eases, there will again be bipartisan work on climate change and other environmental issues.