Nevada mothers rally in Washington calling for climate action

Mothers from around the country are in Washington calling for action on climate change at a rally on Capitol Hill. A Nevada woman says her son’s livelihood is at stake.

“He cannot breathe. And at nighttime...sometimes he wakes up suffocating,” said Jennifer Ann Cantley from Carson City.

Cantley rolled her way to Washington on a broken ankle to participate in a “Play-In for Climate Action.” Her son has asthma, which she says is exacerbated by pollution and wildfires. She also has asthma and she wants change.

“I want them to look at me to know that I did something for their future,” said Cantley.

Cantley is part of Mom’s Clean Air Force, the pollution-fighting organization that put on this event that included games and songs. Some elected officials spoke too. The goal was to send a message they want federal leaders committed to fighting climate change.

Reno’s Stacey Morgen also crossed the country with her kids. She says the resignation of former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is a move in the right direction. She is rallying in hopes that that momentum rolls on.

“We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to every blade of grass out there on the mall, we owe it to our children and we owe it to our next seven generations,” said Morgen.

While the moms at this rally want the EPA to head in a completely different direction, Nick Loris, a conservative climate expert at the Heritage Foundation says that is highly unlikely.

“I think it’s going to be more of the same when it comes to the policy,” said Loris.

Loris says cutting funding from the EPA and giving more control to states is a more appropriate way to look after our environment. He says federal overreach and trying to regulate certain sectors, like the fossil fuel industry, is not effective.

“They would raise the price of energy and really do nothing to mitigate climate change,” said Loris.

Andrew Wheeler is the acting EPA administrator. It is unknown whom President Donald Trump will select to be the next administrator.