Good Morning, my name is Martha Ehlman, owner of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia's Green America business; Tenfold Fair Trade Collection. I am here before you as a proud American, a West Virginia resident and business owner, and the granddaughter of two great men who both made their livings in the coalmines of southern West Virginia. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak with you today to show my support of the President's Climate Action Plan. I applaud the EPA's Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon pollution in the power sector.
As a small business whose focus is lifting up marginalized artisans, spanning the globe; I often hear the worst of how climate disruption is affecting the poorest of the poor, from Indonesia's devastating Tsunami, to Haiti's mudslides. Not to mention the plight of so many small farmers fighting to keep their crops alive in Central and South America. It is important to our very existence that we do everything we can to halt climate disruption. I am her today because I am committed to the care of our planet, as well as the care of our global neighbors.
As a resident of West Virginia l know all too well the dependency our state has on King Coal and as the granddaughter of inen that both died way too young of complications having to do with their line of work, I also know that our state's and our country's dependency on coal and other dirty energy has gone on for way too long. The illness that our miners and their communities suffer has to stop. The mass exodus from our state to greener pastures for opportunity has to stop. The destruction of our mountains has to stop. The poisoning of our rivers and streams has to stop. The pollution of our air has to stop.
I would love to see West Virginians given the opportunity to be leaders in new and renewable energy sources. I would love to see West Virginia's schools fitted with solar panels and more energy efficient heating and cooling units as
manv of the school buildines in our neiehborine state of Marvland have done.In West Virginia, energy-efficiency programs could create as many as 19,500 new jobs in construction, installation, technology development, and other related fields within three years of aggressive investments by utilities. Energy efficiency creates more jobs per dollar spent than investments in other parts of the economy, including coal plants. Utility energy-efficiency programs make updating lighting, replacing outdated appliances, weatherizing homes, and other money-saving building upgrades more accessible to customers. I. myself, would love to be able to purchase my own electricity and my business's electricity from renewable sources. Sadly, at present, the only alternative I have is to purchase carbon offsets.
1 support your commitment to a 30 percent drop in sector-wide carbon emissions by 2030, although I'd like to see it happen more quickly and in other sectors as well. I support your plan to put Americans to work making the U.S. electricity system less polluting and our homes and businesses more efficient, shrinking electricity bills by roughly 8 percent in 2030; although, this too, I would like to see happen more quickly. I would caution us not to move
to less dirty energy sources such as natural gas or nuclear power. Nuclear power is not a climate solution. It may produce lower-carbon energy, but it is not clean energy. Natural gas may have a smaller carbon footprint, but it is not clean energy.

I do understand that in the political landscape in which we find ourselves it is impossible to enact a progressive carbon tax capable of funding renewable energy infrastructure. I also understand that this Administration is doing what it can without the blessing of Congress. I truly hope that with the improvements that the Clean Power Plan can make, it will lead us to turn our energies toward the technologies and strategies that can truly make a difference: solar power, wind power, and energy conservation.