### Notes for EPA Hearing:

My name is Alex Blackmer and I am speaking as President of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society. I want to thank you for coming to Denver, and thank the EPA for taking this small but important step towards regulating carbon in our country. I say small, because it is only the very beginning of what is needed to prevent our planet from being overwhelmed by the impacts of global climate change caused by our uninhibited combustion of Fossil Fuels, and I say important because it shows leadership which in the past has been lacking nationally, both in facing the issue of human caused climate change and in acting to mitigate it's effects. While this is by no means a perfect proposal, it is a positive step towards reining in our species' inclination to soil the nest in which we have been raised.

I would hold that contrary to what some of my colleagues in the electrical generation industry might believe, this is a very moderate proposal which at best will represent a baby step towards what the future of carbon regulation will look like. In fact, much of the 30% reduction in carbon produced by electrical generation from 2005 levels which these rules mandate has already been achieved by many states. According to the EPA's own documentation a combination of energy efficiency, renewable energy and gas power plant technology has already achieved a
13% reduction from 2005 levels in current electrical based carbon emissions. This brings us nearly half of the way to achieving the proposed nationwide goals before we even begin. I believe that we can and will far outstrip the EPA goals in this proposal, much as many states including Colorado continue to surpass the goals they have outlined in their renewable energy standards due to the success that the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries have achieved by working in partnership with the electrical generation industries. In the US, power plants are the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions, coming in at 38%, with 3 /4 of that directly attributable to burning coal. The average age of their electrical generating fleet is 42 years old, with 11% of their plants being over 60. How many technologies from 60 or even 40 years ago remain viable today? The coal industry needs to be aware that their product is in danger of becoming as obsolete and outdated as the dinosaurs which in their dying created the fuel we burn today. The coal industry needs to either find a way to burn their product without massive amounts of damaging emissions, or work to find sequestration strategies that will safely transform their emissions into a non lethal by product. This EPA proposal is asking them to take a small step in that direction. Ifthe coal industry cannot develop the technologies to effectively achieve this, they
will and should become obsolete. Other economic and regulatory forces are clearly leading in the same direction. Wind Energy is already at parity or below the cost of coal in many instances, and solar energy is well on its way with cost decreases of over 40% in the last 3 years alone. This set of proposed rules from the EPA echoes the market trend away from the coal industry as it stands today, reinforcing the global movement away from fossil fuel consumption and towards cleaner and more sustainable renewable energy

use.

While the EPA rules may be seen by some as not going far enough, and are criticized by others for having no effect on the vast carbon emissions of China and India, I believe they are an important first step domestically and put the United States of America in a leadership role globally. While they are not as demanding as I or many others would like, they demonstrate a doable first step at home, and show other nations that we as a country are serious about taking steps to reduce the carbon emissions that are threatening our planet. For that reason I would like to endorse and support in any way possible this small but important step towards regulating an extremely dangerous pollutant.

Alex Blackmer a.blackmer@cres-energy.org