Pittsburgh, Thursday, July 31: Tell the EPA we need a strong carbon standard!

Our loyal readers will already know that Pittsburgh has been chosen as one of only four cities nationally to host Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearings on the newly proposed standard to limit industrial carbon pollution from dirty old coal-fired power plants.

Pittsburgh
Thursday, July 31
9:00 a.m. — 8:00 p.m.

William S. Moorhead
Federal Building
   Room 1310
1000 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222

This hearing, to be held on Thursday, July 31, gives Pittsburghers and all Pennsylvanians (and even our neighbors in surrounding states) a chance to shine.

Sign up to speak at the hearing

Everyone is welcome to testify — whether you're an individual, on staff or a volunteer for an environmental community group, a business owner, a teenager concerned about the future, a faith leader — anyone can and should testify. No expertise required — just passion about climate change.

Please sign up now for Thursday, July 31. EPA should respond to your request within 24 hours, assigning you a time to speak. If they don't, I encourage you to follow up with them.

Please do let PennFuture know what time slot you're assigned. (Send me an email.)

Want some help composing your statement for the hearing?

Have questions about what's being proposed by the EPA? Or what types of comments would be most helpful in getting the EPA to take the strongest actions possible? Would you like some facts and figures to help you compose your remarks for the hearing?

PennFuture is here to help! Just contact me.

Want to submit testimony, but can't make it to Pittsburgh on July 31?

PennFuture has volunteers who can read your testimony on your behalf, even if you live too far away to make it to Pittsburgh. Again, just let me know.

Want to be part of the activity on July 31, even if you don't want to testify?

There will be lots going on that day in and around the hearing, and we'd love to have you with us for all or part of the day. It would be really helpful for you simply to sit in the audience for a few hours, encouraging those who are testifying. We also need volunteers to help register people or distribute signs and T-shirts. Want to help out? You know the drill by now: Email me.

Come out and meet PennFuture on July 31!

PennFuture will have a strong presence at the hearing. So far, we know that Valessa Souter-Kline (Western Pa. Outreach Coordinator), Andrew Sharp (Director of Outreach), Elaine Labalme (Communications Manager) and I will all be there, and perhaps even more of our staff for parts of the day. We'd love to see you. And if you're new to any of us, come and introduce yourself.

Hope to see you on July 31, and to connect with you directly through email.

— Joy Bergey

P.S. When young people ask me in 20 years what I did to help slow climate disruption, I'll tell them I worked like heck to turn an EPA hearing in Pittsburgh in the summer of 2014 into a huge rallying cry for federal action. I want to tell the kids that there were so many people in Pittsburgh that day, that the issue could no longer be ignored by our politicians. And I'd love to have you in a selfie with me at the hearing that day, to prove that we were there, and our voices were counted at this critical moment.

Joy Bergey is federal policy director for PennFuture and based in Philadelphia. She tweets @joybergey.