Volunteer Spotlight: Cindy Veloric
This article was written by Cindy Veloric, a Clean Air Council volunteer
I recently had two unique and exciting experiences as a Clean Air Council clean air advocate. On October 6th I attended a “Keystone Coffee” with Senator Robert Casey, Jr. in his Washington office. Luckily for me, there were very few other PA constituents there so I was able to talk face to face with the Senator for about 15 minutes. I took the opportunity to remind him that there are currently no regulations on methane leaks from existing oil and gas facilities. I wanted to gauge his reaction and persuade him to make a public statement about this issue. I even asked the Senator’s aide to promote the need for such methane regulations on the Senator’s website.
On October 24th, Senators Casey and Sheldon Whitehouse held a roundtable discussion on climate change and its impact on our children’s health at the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia. I was invited to attend the event along with about 25 other people. Both Senators restated their positions in support of the Clean Power Plan and described how industry has spent billions of dollars in the campaign against the CPP so far. Although I did not speak publicly at the event, I did talk with Casey privately afterward. I thanked him for stepping up his public engagement with environmental issues (there were two more events that day). The best part was Casey’s answer to me, “It’s because of people like you who keep me on my toes.”
Interested in volunteering at the Council? Contact John Lee at jlee@cleanair.org
