Activists chide Costello for clean air vote

POTTSTOWN » A small group of activists from the region stood in the rain as traffic poured into the Pottstown High School parking lot to chide U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, R-6 for one of his votes.

The vote delayed the implementation of stricter air quality standards in the Clean Air Act and the activists — Indivisible Chester County, We Speak for the Trees, Moms Clean Air Force, POWER Metro — took to calling it the “Smoggy Skies Act.”

The Rev. Vernon Ross, pastor of Bethel Community Church of Pottstown, said studies show that minority communities bear an unfair health and environmental burden from sources of pollution, saying clean air is a “social justice and civil rights issue plain and simple.”

African-American children already have a disproportionately high rate of asthma, and thus are harmed even more by air pollution in their communities, Ross said.

“Every Pennsylvania should be able to breathe air that doesn’t make them sick, but sadly Rep. Costello doesn’t seem to agree,” said a West Chester resident and representative of Indivisible Chester County.

Cathy Spaar, an Upper Chichester resident from We Speak for the Trees, said Costello “promotes Arctic drilling.”

“Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our children,” said Christine Dole of the Mom’s Clean Air Force.

Costello recently won an environmental award and is part of the bipartisan Climate Change Solutions coalition in Congress.

EVAN BRANDT— DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA The Rev. Vernon Ross, pastor of Bethel Community Church of Pottstown, speaks outside the U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello town hall at Pottstown High School about how cleaner air is a social justice issue.