This past Thursday April 23, 2015, Community Organizer Taylor Thomas took a trip to Sacramento to share her comments on the Sustainable Freight Strategy draft to tell the California Air Resources Board to take immediate action to reduce pollution from rail yards.The Sustainable Freight Strategy draft is a long term plan to make freight hubs (ports, rail-yards, airports etc.) more sustainable and how can California Air Resources Board make them as green as possible. Below is Taylor’s testimony:

“Hello Board chair, board members, and staff.
My name is Taylor Thomas, I’m a resident of Long Beach and with East
Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and the California Cleaner
Freight Coalition.
While you’ve received copies of our letters regarding the draft Sustainable
Freight Strategy, I’m not here to go over them line by line as other coalition
members have outlined our concerns, but rather I want to underscore the
importance of the need for this Board to take immediate action to reduce
pollution from rail yards.
The last time I spoke here a few months ago, I talked to my experience of
growing up near major pollution sources and the impacts that had on my
health. But today I’m here on behalf of the people who could not be here to
give testimony.
I’m here for the families that have to keep their windows closed because
trains idle a few yards from their homes; I’m here for the teachers and
playground aides that keep bags of inhalers ready for when, not if but
when, a child has an asthma attack; I’m here for the nurses and doctors
that see their patients come in with chronic respiratory illnesses not
knowing how to treat them or what to prescribe to them and what could
they possibly give them knowing that they’ll return to the areas and air that
is making them sick? They want to tell them to move, but this simply isn’t
an option for most people.
Research supports that the communities that bare a disproportionate
burden of air pollution are lowincome and communities of color. Even if
people could afford to move, the question is why should they? We have a
right to a safe and healthy environment. We have a right to clean air.
So we’re calling on you to take immediate action. We want to see the
measures outlined in our formal comment letter like: inyard rail equipment,
such as yard trucks and cranes, changed to electric (there is already zero
emission and CNG tech available for these), enhanced truck and
locomotive inspections, and the installation of the Advanced Locomotive
Emissions Control System at the maintenance facilities where locomotives
idle.
Our communities have waited long enough, so we need you to stand up for
us. The Board has said that rail yards would be addressed in the
Sustainable Freight Strategy, but that didn’t happen. This fight for clean air
is not about me, it’s not about you it’s about the families and communities
that are suffering the consequences of this Board not taking action. Thank
you.”
Posted: April 29, 2015 by anegrete
“Our communities have waited long enough…” a Testimony by Taylor Thomas
This past Thursday April 23, 2015, Community Organizer Taylor Thomas took a trip to Sacramento to share her comments on the Sustainable Freight Strategy draft to tell the California Air Resources Board to take immediate action to reduce pollution from rail yards.The Sustainable Freight Strategy draft is a long term plan to make freight hubs (ports, rail-yards, airports etc.) more sustainable and how can California Air Resources Board make them as green as possible. Below is Taylor’s testimony:
“Hello Board chair, board members, and staff.
My name is Taylor Thomas, I’m a resident of Long Beach and with East
Yard Communities for Environmental Justice and the California Cleaner
Freight Coalition.
While you’ve received copies of our letters regarding the draft Sustainable
Freight Strategy, I’m not here to go over them line by line as other coalition
members have outlined our concerns, but rather I want to underscore the
importance of the need for this Board to take immediate action to reduce
pollution from rail yards.
The last time I spoke here a few months ago, I talked to my experience of
growing up near major pollution sources and the impacts that had on my
health. But today I’m here on behalf of the people who could not be here to
give testimony.
I’m here for the families that have to keep their windows closed because
trains idle a few yards from their homes; I’m here for the teachers and
playground aides that keep bags of inhalers ready for when, not if but
when, a child has an asthma attack; I’m here for the nurses and doctors
that see their patients come in with chronic respiratory illnesses not
knowing how to treat them or what to prescribe to them and what could
they possibly give them knowing that they’ll return to the areas and air that
is making them sick? They want to tell them to move, but this simply isn’t
an option for most people.
Research supports that the communities that bare a disproportionate
burden of air pollution are lowincome and communities of color. Even if
people could afford to move, the question is why should they? We have a
right to a safe and healthy environment. We have a right to clean air.
So we’re calling on you to take immediate action. We want to see the
measures outlined in our formal comment letter like: inyard rail equipment,
such as yard trucks and cranes, changed to electric (there is already zero
emission and CNG tech available for these), enhanced truck and
locomotive inspections, and the installation of the Advanced Locomotive
Emissions Control System at the maintenance facilities where locomotives
idle.
Our communities have waited long enough, so we need you to stand up for
us. The Board has said that rail yards would be addressed in the
Sustainable Freight Strategy, but that didn’t happen. This fight for clean air
is not about me, it’s not about you it’s about the families and communities
that are suffering the consequences of this Board not taking action. Thank
you.”
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