FILE -This Sept. 22, 2006 file photo shows the Conoco Oil Refinery in Rodeo, Calif. at sunset. California refineries, utilities and companies that tap into natural gas pipelines are facing a new levy designed to pay for the state's landmark law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The 36.2 million fee is expected to be approved Thursday, June 25, 2009, by California air regulators in what would amount to the country's first statewide carbon fee. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, file)
FILE -This Sept. 22, 2006 file photo shows the Conoco Oil Refinery in Rodeo, Calif. at sunset. California refineries, utilities and companies that tap into natural gas pipelines are facing a new levy designed to pay for the state's landmark law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The 36.2 million fee is expected to be approved Thursday, June 25, 2009, by California air regulators in what would amount to the country's first statewide carbon fee. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, file) Credit: Rich Pedroncelli

The Trump administration’s new coal plans will not necessarily create more jobs, but according to EPA’s own data, it will certainly increase public health problems.

This new plan will directly affect New Hampshire, especially our children.

According to a recent release by the Centers for Disease Control, our New Hampshire children already have the highest rates of cancer in the nation, and there is a CDC-confirmed double cancer cluster in a five-town area of the Seacoast. Our New Hampshire children are dying from environmental toxin exposures.

The EPA says that the new coal plan will cause 48,000 new cases of asthma and thousands of lost school days nationally, but New Hampshire already has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country. New Hampshire is dubbed the “tailpipe of the nation” as air pollution from the south and west coalesce and descend upon New Hampshire.

During the recent heat wave, 25 percent of our greenhouse gases were caused by coal-burning electric power plants. Trumpian economics won’t help West Virginia if our power plants continue to burn coal from Venezuela, as we have historically.

This all should not come as a surprise to us with Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, at the helm of the EPA with Pruitt’s departure. For the health of our children and families, we have to get the money out of politics to eliminate the fossil-fuel industry stranglehold on Congress, so we can pass regulation and policy to prevent cancer and chronic disease.

The future of electricity and our children’s lungs in New Hampshire is tied to reducing demand, renewable energy and storage of energy. And this is where the jobs are. One of our many solar panel installers alone has 50 new employees and a three-month backlog.

We must transition to 100 percent renewable energy as fast as possible and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

I will be bold and fight to make this transition by 2035. We have a responsibility to start fixing our problems immediately so that our children and their children inherit a healthy and sustainable environment.

(Mindi Messmer is a state representative for Rye and New Castle, and an environmental scientist with a public health background. She is running for Congress in the 1st District.)