You've likely heard that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing, at long last, to limit industrial carbon pollution from dirty, power plants. The agency's Clean Power Plan is great news for Pennsylvania (and the rest of the world). It can only mean cleaner air, a more stable climate, and better health for all of us in the future.
Consider yourself hereby invited to testify at the EPA hearing in Pittsburgh on Thursday, July 31, and Friday, August 1. Anyone and everyone should consider testifying. You can represent yourself, an organization, your faith community, or your family.
What would you say in your testimony? Start by introducing yourself and where you live. State the name of the organization you represent and what they do, if you're speaking on their behalf.
State that you are fully supportive of the EPA's proposed standard, and that you want it to be implemented promptly and without being weakened in any way.
Continue by offering a sentence or two about why you care about action on climate change. For example, "My cousins lost their home on the Jersey shore to Hurricane Sandy, and unchecked climate change will only bring us more and more superstorms." Or perhaps, "My children (or grandchildren) deserve as safe and stable a future as we can possible leave them, and climate change works against that." You get the idea.
Then it would be helpful to list some facts and figures about climate change. See below for a bunch of those that you can use.
Finish up by reiterating your support for the proposed standard, and thanking EPA for the opportunity to be heard.
Keep in mind that you are only allotted five minutes. so you will want to speak to the issues that resonate with you the most. (300 to 600 words total would be great.)
Bring two copies of your testimony (typed or handwritten) to leave with the EPA. And be sure to include your name and contact info on the copies.
So, register to speak at the hearing!
Please sign up now for a speaking slot on Thursday, July 31, or Friday, August 1. EPA should respond to your request within 24 hours, assigning you a time to speak. Please email me at bergey at pennfuture dot org and let me know what time you've been assigned to speak. And if you can't get to Pittsburgh, I can arrange for someone to read your testimony.Talking Points......Feel free to use any of these in your testimony.
- Carbon pollution causes climate change, resulting in more frequent and increasingly violent extreme weather events, drought, sea level rise and other stressors that devastate communities, threaten public health, and destroy and degrade wildlife habitat.
- Globally, we’ve now had 351 consecutive months above the long-term average, meaning a 29-year-old has never lived through a “cooler than normal” month.
- Wildfires, floods and extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts and heavy rainfall, are becoming more frequent and more severe. These changes are happening in the evolutionary blink of an eye. This creates real costs to our economy, negatively impacts public health and puts stress on wildlife and the natural environment.
- Pennsylvania creates more heat-trapping emissions than all but two other states -- Texas and California, each of which have much larger populations.
- Pennsylvania creates nearly one percent of the world's total heat-trapping emissions, far disproportionate to our population.
The Public Health Impacts
- From the American Lung Association: "Climate change and ozone scientists warn that the buildup of greenhouse gases and the climate changes caused by it will create conditions, including warmer temperatures, which will increase the risk of unhealthful ambient [ground level] ozone levels....Even with the steps that are in place to reduce ozone, evidence warns that changes in climate are likely to increase ozone levels in the future in large parts of the U.S. To protect human health, the nation needs strong measures to reduce climate change and ozone." (www.lung.org)
- From the 2014 National Climate Assessment: "Climate change, as well as increased CO2 by itself, can contribute to increased production of plant-based allergens....Higher pollen concentrations and longer pollen seasons can increase allergic sensitizations and asthma episodes and diminish productive work and school days. Simultaneous exposure to toxic air pollutants can worsen allergic responses. Even rainfall and rising temperatures can foster indoor air quality problems, including the growth of indoor fungi and molds, with increases in respiratory and asthma-related conditions." (nca2014.globalchange.gov)
- From the 2014 National Climate Assessment: "Extreme heat events are the leading weather-related cause of death in the U.S. Many cities, including Philadelphia, have suffered dramatic spikes in death rates during heat waves....Heat waves are also associated with increased hospital admissions for cardiovascular, kidney, and respiratory disorders." (nca2014.globalchange.gov)
- Clean Air Task Force provides terrific information at the level of counties and power plants for every state, including Pennsylvania. Go to www.catf.us/fossil/problems/power_plants and click on Pennsylvania on the map.
The Economic Impacts
- Between 1970 and 2006, U.S. GDP grew by 195 percent, even though we had Environmental Protection Agency and Clean Air Act regulations that significantly cut carbon monoxide, smog pollution, acid rain, and toxic pollutants like lead.
- Setting limits on the carbon pollution causing climate change will spur investment and innovation in energy efficiency and clean energy technologies. The real economic risk is inaction. From 2011-2013 alone, damages from extreme weather events have exceeded $200 billion. Imagine how much of a cleanup bill we’d be handing our children and grandchildren if we fail to act now.
- More than 90 million Americans take part in wildlife-related recreation, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Hunting and Fishing Survey. The outdoor recreation industry contributes $730 billion annually to the U.S. economy, supporting nearly 6.5 million jobs in communities across the U.S. and generating $88 billion in annual state and national tax revenue.
Supporting Points
- The EPA is using its authority, granted by a bipartisan vote of Congress, signed by a Republican president [Nixon], and confirmed by a conservative-leaning Supreme Court [The Roberts Court], to set standards for industrial carbon pollution from power plants, which threatens public health.
- Setting reasonable carbon pollution standards for power plants will cut the primary driver of climate change, which fuels extreme weather that threatens communities and public health with increasing costs and worsening impacts.
- Climate change deniers want you to distrust the science, and ignore the impacts and costs of climate change already being felt by communities and wildlife across the country.
- Big polluters want to continue to dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air for free, instead of adopting reasonable carbon pollution safeguards that protect public health and wildlife by slowing climate change. That’s wrong.
Joy Bergey is federal policy director for PennFuture, and is based in Philadelphia. She tweets @joybergey. You can meet her in Pittsburgh on July 31 or August 1 -- she wouldn't miss it for the world.
