Testimony of Michael V. Nixon

The Center for Biological Diversity's Comments on U.S. EPA Proposed Rule Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility

Generating Units, Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602 July 31, 2014 — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania This testimony is being presented today on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity which has offices nationwide and works collaboratively with a global perspective. President Obama's proposed limits on carbon pollution are an important step forward to mitigate climate disruption but are not nearly adequate to the scale of the problem. Science demonstrates that the rule is not stringent enough to avoid the worst impacts of global climate disruption. This is a draft rule and the President and the EPA need to strengthen it significantly. SUMMARY OF ISSUES & SIGNIFICANT DEFECTS IN THE DRAFT RULE The rule builds in way too much delay — until 2030 — before reductions might be achieved. The rule is right to propose measures beyond the fence of power plants, but wrong on how it goes about accomplishing that. The current draft encourages even more natural gas use and exacerbates the unfolding fracking disaster. And the rule is wrong on the math: it undercounts the danger and leakage rate of methane, and seriously underestimates the costs of climate change damage. Another defect in this draft rule allows states to bypass renewables and energy conservation. Reduction targets are woefully insufficient and should be increased because, among other reasons:

o The targets are too lenient.

o State targets add up to a national goal that will not avert the worst impacts of climate change.

o Scientists warn developed countries must reduce their economy-wide emissions 50% below 1990 levels by 2020 to have a medium chance of keeping warming to two degrees Celsius. Overall progress in reducing GHGs should be based on emissions in 1990, the Kyoto Protocol baseline, not emissions in 2005.

o International community has used 1990 as a baseline since the Kyoto Protocol.o Emissions were at their height in 2005 (7200 MMT) and have declined since (6500 MMT in 2012). o Having 2005 as a baseline takes credit for reductions that have already occurred. Overall progress in reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) should be based on emissions in 1990, the Kyoto Protocol baseline, not emissions in 2005. Substantial reductions should be required sooner — by 2020, not a decade later in 2030 — with even much greater reductions required later in the future. GHGs remain in the atmosphere from decades to centuries after they are released so they have a strong and persistent cumulative effect. And, because emissions must peak within the next few years and decline sharply thereafter in order for us to be successful in this endeavor, waiting 15 years for meaningful reductions is an unacceptable, indefensible, and irresponsible delay. The rule encourages even more natural gas power generation. EPA claims this would result in up to 40% emissions reductions, but that is incorrect. Like the earlier rule for new power plants, this draft rule doesn't require any increase in efficiency at existing natural gas plants, and thus fails to implement the "technology-forcing" requirements of the Clean Air Act.
THE "JOBS vs. THE ENVIRONMENT" HOKUM Now, I will take just a moment to address the latest re-looping of the ol' "Jobs vs. The Environment" hokum and scare 'em tactic which has been trod out yet again, this time by the fossil fuel corporations who are trying to manipulate their workers and consumers and prevent the people of this country from doing something real and substantial in bringing positive change to the deadly climate situation currently threatening the United States and the world. There are 10 times fewer coal miners in this region now than there were in the previous generation. Fewer miners, but more and more coal is mined by the tonnes. And the fact that "coal mine jobs are disappearing" is not because of the Clean Air Act — it is primarily because the coal industry has been replacing coal miners with giant machines. All the while, on a massive scale, destroying our environment, our land, our aquifers, our drinking water, our rivers and streams and their headwaters, our rural and agricultural community life, and the very air that we all breathe. There's actually a greater future for employment for people in greener technologies and alternative energy industries than working for the desperate fossil fuel corporations trying to hold their reign over from the previous century. A greater future is one of the ultimate goals and attributes of the"technology-forcing" provisions and functions of the Clean Air Act. The stricter regulation of carbon

emissions will require more and more people doing the new, additional, and critical work necessary to mitigate the damage wrought by our fossil fuel past and present, and bring humanity back from this brink of climate catastrophe.
THE MENACE OF METHANE Climate degradation is cascading from the climate forcing of continued greenhouse gas emissions - particularly including methane. The escalating, compounding, and synergistic rates of GHG emissionsof coal mining, oil & gas extractions, fossil fuel processing and transport, and the thawing of the subartic permafrost from the rampant effects of the consequential human-caused warming and acidification of the oceans is a deadly menace to present-day life on earth. Dr. James Hansen and Dr. Makiko Sato, two of the leading climate scientists in the world today have stated: Future climate depends on how climate forcings change — human-made greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, and forcings that are not yet well measured, especially aerosols. The speed and degree of climate change also will depend upon how fast amplifying feedbacks, such as Arctic sea ice, the large ice sheets, and methane hydrates come into play.' The EPA has acknowledged "coal mine methane (CMM), [is] a greenhouse gas more than 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide." 2 Yet, the EPA dangerously underestimates the magnitude of the hazard presented by methane emissions because the impacts of the current global gas rushes and fracking frenzy multiply the problems. Furthermore, "voluntary programs" such as EPA's Coalbed Methane Outreach Program (CMOP) are obviously inadequate mechanisms for significant and timely change, especially in response to such an emergent recognized threat posed by methane emissions. Instituting and relying on voluntary programs also undermines the technology-forcing mechanisms and time-sensitive goals of the Clean Air Act and its implementing regulations. Dr. Naomi Oreskes, professor of The History of Science at Harvard University and co-author of the recent book, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from

1 Sato, Makiko, and Hansen, James, Updating the Climate Science - What Path is the Real World Following? Columbia University Earth Institute, New York, New York (2014) 

### http://www.columbia.edu/—mhs119/.

2 See, U.S. EPA Coalbed Methane Outreach Program (CMOP) 

### http://www.epa.gov/cmop/.

1Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming hItp://www.merchantsofdoubt.org explains the grave danger presented by methane emissions in particular: INaJtural gas is methane (CH4), which is a greenhouse gas far more potent than CO2 [, and] gas leaks are a cause for enormous concern, because any methane that reaches the atmosphere unburned contributes to global warming more than the same amount of CO2. How much more? This is a question that has caused considerable angst in the climate science community, because it depends on how you calculate it. Scientists have developed the concept of "Global Warming Potential" (GWP) to try to answer this question. The argument is complicated because while CH4 warms the planet far more than CO2, it stays in the atmosphere for much less time. A typical molecule of CO2 remains in the atmosphere about 10 times longer than a molecule of CH4. In their Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that the GWP for methane is 34 times that of CO2 over the span of 100 years. However, when the time frame is changed to 20 years, the GWP increases to 868
CONCLUSION The EPA, the President, and Congress must be more diligent and more forthright in fulfilling their responsibilities as our government representatives, and as our official stewards and trustees of the environment and the well-being of all concerned — that is, not just us human beings, but the life-giving and life-sustaining plants and animals, great and small, that we share the Earth with and are responsible for safeguarding. These draft rules must be significantly improved and promptly re-drafted with a new public notice and opportunity for public comment before adopting a final version. Human-caused damage to the climate, and the exacerbation of climate change, is the greatest matter of life and death, and You — We — All ofus, must choose smartly and act urgently. Because life is good. And because extended-play piecemealing and avoiding of the prompt full regulation of all of the carbon emissions generated from the extraction, processing, and burning of fossil fuels is bad. We look forward to seeing your improved next draft very soon. The Center will be submitting final written comments before the deadline. Thank you for coming to Pittsburgh, and for heeding these comments.

3 Oreskes, Naomi, "Wishful Thinking About Natural Gas: Why Fossil Fuels Can't Solve the Problems Created by Fossil Fuels," TomDispatch.com (July 27, 2014) http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175873/ . See also, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (2013). http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/

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