Prior to delivering her testimony at the EPA hearing, Sister Donna Zwigart participated in a press conference with several others.
My name is Sister Donna Zwigart, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities whose WPA regional house is in Millvale, PA.
I want to thank you, our media representatives for taking time to hear us today as we voice our thoughts on climate change—a moral issue of our time which Pope Francis expresses in his recent encyclical Laudato Sí: On the care of our Common Home, specifically, the EPA proposed rule to cut methane.
This rule is a good first step in the right direction. However, the proposed ruling only covers new and modified souces of emissions. This leaves a large gap where existing sources of emissions are concerned! A band-aid approach will not cover a gaping wound! Let’s not be complacent or let politics stand in the way to heal our atmosphere!
We urge our elected officials Senator Casey, Senator Toomey, and especially Governor Wolf who promised in his campaign to regulate the existing sources of 10,000 gas wells which spew into our state atmosphere the mthane pollutant.
In his encyclical Laudato Sí Pope Francis reminds us that we all have a moral obligation to all of our brothers and sisters, especially the disadvantaged, to provide clean air.
Let us show Pope Francis that Pennsylvanians will exercise leadership to help save our Common Home, Mother Earth, from carbon and methane pollution.