On June 18, the Union of Concerned Scientists co-hosted an extreme weather “People’s Hearing” in Asheville, NC along with partners, including the Climate Action Campaign, Appalachian Voices, Western NC Sierra Club, Western NC Physicians for Social Responsibility, Mountain True, Moms Clean Air Force, Extreme Weather Survivors, and others.
The event was an opportunity for local residents and experts to share their testimonies about the impacts of Hurricane Helene and voice their opposition to harmful actions taken by the Trump administration to worsen the climate crisis. These include rolling back EPA standards to cut power plant carbon emissions, expanding fossil fuel production and use, and also undermining our ability to prepare for and respond to events like Hurricane Helene which devastated Western North Carolina last year.
I live a short two-hour drive away in Knoxville, TN and decided to make the trip to support the event and meet local community members and fellow organizers, most of whom I’d only seen on a Zoom screen. I was admittedly a bit worried on the drive there when a torrential downpour stopped traffic on Interstate 40 as water began to pool on the roadway that only recently re-opened after being damaged by Helene last year. In an eerily timed coincidence, a rockslide caused by the deluge damaged the interstate yet again and resulted in it being closed roughly an hour after I passed through on my way to Asheville. Thankfully, no injuries occurred as a result of the rockslide, but according to the National Weather Service, between 2.5 and 3.5 inches of rain fell in a short amount of time to cause it.
This was exactly the kind of extreme weather event that we are seeing all over the country during “Danger Season,” the time from roughly May to October when the US experiences the worst climate impacts, and was a reminder of a theme that arose during the event: there are no “climate havens” immune to the impacts of climate change.
Hearing it first-hand
Luckily, the I-40 closure and wet weather didn’t seem to affect turnout at the event too much. Over 175 people came to bear witness, 31 individuals shared their testimony, and several local elected officials were present to receive the testimony, including Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer. The EPA was invited to the event to hear public testimony but did not have a representative present.
The testimonies were a mix of heartbreak, outrage, and resilience. All told, at least 250 people lost their lives during Helene and its aftermath, the majority of whom were in the Asheville area. The storm resulted in even more injuries, and thousands of homes were damaged. In fact, Helene was the costliest single disaster in 2024 in the U.S. The rural and mountainous nature of the region made rescue and recovery efforts even more challenging, and there was not a single speaker at the event who had not been impacted in some way. Many in the audience indicated that they lost power or water for days or weeks, and several had lost friends or family members.
“We’re here because silence is no longer survivable, and because survival should not depend on your zip code, your income, or whether your community was profitable enough to protect,” Asheville resident Sam Hartman said, stating her reason for attending and speaking out. Like so many disasters in the U.S., Helene hit low-income and other marginalized communities hardest.
Beyond physical and economic impacts from the storm, many people are still dealing with mental health impacts even after much of the physical damage has been repaired: “having to run for your life with whatever you can grab is hard enough on anyone. For those who are already in a challenging place, it’s much worse,” said mental health counselor Janet Canfield.
A representative of United Food & Commercial Workers Union local 2598 spoke about the plight of so many workers dependent on the large eco-tourism market in Asheville who struggled to make ends meet despite the large profits generated from their services. Many of these workers have never recovered from Helene’s devastation. Local jeweler Alice Scott told the story of when local officials said she could get up to 4 feet of water in her store, but instead she got twenty-six feet, which destroyed her business and livelihood.
First responders are often first to arrive on scene when disasters strike, and Helene was no different. And, just like other folks, first responders get scared too: “One thing I think people can sometimes forget is that firefighters, we get scared just like you get scared, and we have moments when we rise above that fear just like you,” said Capt. Welcker Taylor, president of the Asheville Firefighters Association.
Trump administration turns its back on climate costs
All these compelling stories came amid the backdrop of a slew of actions that the Trump administration is taking to make confronting and responding to the climate crisis even more difficult.
The week before the Asheville People’s Hearing, Trump’s EPA announced its plans to roll back the power plant carbon standards finalized by the Biden administration, which are meant to curb climate-warming pollution at coal and gas-fired power plants, and re-opened loopholes for dangerous mercury pollution. Rather than upholding its mission to protect people and the environment, EPA is doing the opposite: “Yet another day when the Trump administration proves it can somehow go lower still in its disregard for people’s health and well-being. These are astoundingly shameful proposals. It’s galling to watch the US government so thoroughly debase itself as it sacrifices the public good to boost the bottom line of fossil fuel executives,” my colleague Julie McNamara said in a statement on the proposals.
The EPA, following administrator Lee Zeldin’s anti-science and anti-public health agenda, also just sent its proposal to reconsider EPA’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding to the White House Office of Management and Budget. This bedrock science-based finding underpins EPA’s responsibility to regulate GHGs—which the Supreme Court previously ruled are air pollutants that are covered under the Clean Air Act—because of the harms they pose to public health. We need EPA to act to limit this health-harming pollution and stop looking for ways to evade that responsibility.
To make matters worse, the Trump administration and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are working to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and leave responding to disasters like Helene up to states which have neither the resources nor capacity to do so.
People demand action
Speakers at the event let EPA and those in attendance know where they stood on these actions:
“The EPA wants to repeal almost 30 clean air and water rules that mitigate climate change. Repealing these could lead to over 30,000 unnecessary deaths and $275 billion annually.” – Sophie Loeb, Policy Analyst for Center for Progressive Reform
“The EPA doesn’t exist to serve politicians, it exists to protect the public.” Dr. Melissa Booth, Professor, Warren Wilson College
“Climate change is real, the consequences of inaction are severe.” Parker Sloan, Buncombe County Commissioner
“Please do not roll back the policies that help us thrive together.” Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri
“If the EPA rolls back protections against climate change pollution, then we will have more natural disasters like this.” Jesse Korotitsch, Asheville resident
Join people in fighting back
The science and public sentiment are both crystal clear: climate change is here now, and it’s causing devastating extreme weather events that are harming communities across the country and costing billions of dollars each year. The actions of the Trump administration risk making these extreme weather events more frequent and severe, adding additional pollution to our air and water that will harm public health and make it harder for communities to respond to and rebuild from events like Hurricane Helene.
Add your name alongside mine in support of Asheville and communities all over the country who are facing other climate-related impacts by signing a petition urging EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin not to roll back power plant carbon standards.