Katherine T. Egland Gulfport, MS ktegland@aol.com 

### First let me preface my remarks by commendingthis Administration for proposing this much neededNew Source Performance Standard regulation. This is atremendous leap towards providing safeguards to
assure cleaner air while promoting a more robust and responsible economy. One ofthe most perplexing concerns that Ihave heard from those who objectto the regulation is that it is a "job killer". Let me be clear, you simply cannotjustify killing people to createjobs. We cannot compromise the health ofa nation for the wealth ofthe privileged. Making a living wage is ofno consequence to an unhealthy or dying worker. The end does notjustify the means.

FormerPresident Bill Clinton once said: 

### "I have never believed we had to choose between either a clean and safe environment or a growing economy. Protecting the health and safety of all Americans doesn't have to come at the expense of our economy's bottom line. And creating thriving companies and newjobs doesn't have to come at the expense of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, or the natural landscape in which we live. We can, and indeed must, have both." 

### We should never tum ablind eye or a deafear to those who have a deep and abiding commitmentto protecting our environment and dismiss them as opponents ofprogress or even worse- hired assassins to kill the jobmarket.

I am certainly grateful for this administration and all those who work so diligently to protect my rightto breathe clean air. I am here today in a volunteer capacity, as the grandmother ofa child who requires periodic breathingtreatments and as a Gulfport, Mississippi homeowner, who for the past 33 years has resided within f1ve miles ofa failing coal plant,

### Jack Watson. Three ofmy grandchildren live only two blocks from me which places them within that same five mile radius.

It

### isn't enoughthat Plant Watson's owner, Mississippi Power Company, has this one failing plant, they are pending final approval by the Public Service Commissionto develop yet another coal plantinthe state. This new Kemper County site will utilize lignite and eliminate 20,000 acres ofprime forest land and small farms. Any run offfrom the project will impact the Pascagoula River. And tc add insultto injury, it app.::a;s that we, the rate-payers, will finance the**b~:lding** ofthis plant with a 30% rate hike. Butthe company claims it is doing
us a favor as the increased powerrates will take effect gradually over a ten year period. Apparently they have no appreciation for the fact that social security, retirement and most other incomes will not increase at a rate of30% over a 10 year period and thatthis increase will impose a considerable hardship on many ofits
consumers. This is really an absolute travesty thatthe construction ofthe new coal plant will be financed onthe backs ofstruggling customers with absolutely no risk to the shareholders ofthis publicly traded company.
The company's spokeswoman claims that l.Juilding the plant will secure a better energy future for customers. Well, the greatest beneficiary is the powercompany which will boosttheirbottom line, at our expense. This kind ofblatant disregard is why we need federal government intervention.

Also located within five miles ofPlant Watson is the GulfofMexico. Gulf residents have had to contend not only w'ththe results ofextreme climate changes which spawn the unprecedented devastation ofHurricane Katrina, but we have also had to cope with the horrendous BP oil drilling disaster. And we also have continued concerns regarding the environmental impact ofall the pollutants ofthe Mississippi River, which flows through ten states, before dumping into the Gulfof Mexico.

We need federal governmentregulation to protect us, notjust for futun:: coal plants, but for all the existingpitfalls which have 'ed us down this unyielding path of destruction.

I encourage cons:deration ofNSPS as well as protective guidelines for existing coal plants. Thankyou.