My name is Richard Dunkel and I am an electrician, as well as a business agent for the IBEW Local 5 here in Pittsburgh. IBEW Local 5 represents approximately 3500 inside construction electricians covering 22 counties in Northand Southwestern PA. I have worked in the power generation industryfor my entire career, as well as my father. He worked on the construction of Keystone, Conemaugh, and Homer City Power Plants, and later oversaw the addition of scrubbers at Conemaugh and the installation of a SCR at the Homer City ··Power Plant. I have also worked on

numerous maintenance outages at these plants as well as maintenance outages at the First Energy Hatfield Plant and the Allegheny Power Systems-Armstrong Plant,

1both of which have been recently closed down. The power generation industry has providedtwogenerationsofmyfamilywith
agood, middleclass standard ofliving. Recently in our22 countyarea, we had4 coal burning power plants shut down costing the members we represent hundreds of lostjobopportunities and tens of thousands of man hours worked. Unfortunately, the effects of these plant closures reach further than the electricians
we represent; thousands of building tradesmen, utilityworkers, miners, railroad workers and barge operators have also lost their jobs. With this increase ofjob loss, there is a negative impact on the economic development that affects manufacturing expansion, local, state and federal tax

2revenues and small businesses. Estimates show that the clean power plan could cost the United States more than 150,000 jobs bytheyear2020. Firstandforemost, let'snotforget, ifthe clean power plan in enacted,the rest ofthe world will continue to burn coal. Developing nations such as China and India will continue to

**burn~"at** an increasing rates and these two countries combined, contain
more than 1/3 of the world's population and currently use less 10% of the world's electricity. Because of the industrial revolution occurring in these developing nations, this number will go up drastically

**___l_tvcet>-~Lover**the nextdecade. We believethatthe plan is prematuresincewedo not knowthe extent to which other nations including

3China and India, will be willingto commit a truly global program of greenhouse gas reductions. We cannot "go it alone" and expect that our actions will have any meaningful climate impact in a world economythat is using more coal and other fossil fuels everyday. Second, the EPA's proposal for increasing the use of natural gas combined cycle generating units will lead to a significant increase in natural gas prices. This price increase will be further amplified by the export of natural gas to these developing nations. Independent analysts' project that utility gas demand may rise three-fold abovethe EPA's currentforecast. Consumers and energy-intensive industries

4will be required to bearthe bruntthese gas

• • pnce mcreases. We all agree that the air needs to be cleaner, but these proposed steps have deep reaching effects on the economy and thefuture**ge~~rations** ofthe United States. The possibility losing 150,000 highly skilled, good paying jobs could be an economic disaster. This great country, the United States, cannot "go it alone" and implement the Clean Power Plan without having a reasonable assurance the rest ofthe world will follow in our footsteps. It is my hope that these hearings provide cleaner air without sacrificing the economic future of the UnitedStates.

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