EPA Hearing on Proposed Carbon Pollution Standard for Future Power Plants May 24,2012 Testimony submitted by Kathleen Mogelgaard Telephone 202-487-9084: Email:

Good afternoon, andthank you for providingthis opportunity for public input onthe EPA'sproposed carbon pollution standards for future power plants. My name is Kathleen Mogelgaard, and I am a resident ofWashington, DC. Ihave a longstanding interest in environmental policy, and I work as an independent consultant on science and policy issues.

For the past two years, Ihave taught a course onclimate change and energypolicy to undergraduates at the University ofMaryland. In that process, my students read technical reports on climate change science and climate change impacts, learned about prospects for energy efficiency and renewable energy development, and spoke with guest lecturers from the federal government aboutthe challenges and opportunities in the federal system for advancing a clean energy future and mitigating climate change.
My students teamedthe basic science: that carbon pollution is contributing to global averagetemperature increase. They learnedthat the United States has contributedthe most ofany countrytothe carbon pollution that is causingthis temperature increase. And they learnedthat in the United States, electricity generation is the biggest source ofcarbon pollution.
My students also read the US Global Change Research Program's recent report about the impacts that climate change is having in the United States: severe weather, sea level rise and storm surge, more agricultural pests, and health risks associated with extreme heat and declining airquality. Students wrote about how these changes are already affecting their lives and the lives oftheir families. In class, when we discussed projectedgro\\th in greenhousegases and carbon pollution, they voicedtheir fears about what the future might look like for them ifthesetrends don't change.

Wetalked about how to respond to these challenges, analyzing possibilities for reducing carbon pollution at individuaL state, national, and international levels. Students quickly realized how critical federal government action is. They recognizedthat individual and state action can only get us so far, andhow international progress on climate change has been stymiedby a lack ofnational action.

Not surprisingly, many ofmy students are frustrated atthe slowpace offederal action. After studyingthe climate science and impacts- and especially after viewing a film in which they watched an old man on the Pacific Island ofKiribati, a country with almost no carbon pollution, dragging boulders by handto protect his familv's home from sea level rise and storm surge- after seeing that image and others like it, many students are somewhat bewilderedthat the US government has yet to impose any limits carbon pollution from power plants.

It is for their sake and my own that I wantto voice my support for the currently proposed rulethat would limit carbon pollution from future power plants. Such limits represent an important step in the direction
our country needs to head- toward a future in which we continueto innovate and prosperwith cleaner energy sources that don't threaten ourhealth, that don't wreck our agricultural systems and strain our water supplies, andthat don'tinundate ourcoastlines andthe coastlines ofothers around the world who have not contributed to this problem. The proposed carbon pollution standards for future power plants do signal that we are serious about addressing our climate change and energy challenges, thatwe are readyto lead, andthat we do, indeed, care about the future we are leavingto our youngpeople.

Thank you for this opportunityto share my views.