'I'estimony EPA's Proposed Rule Clean Power Plan "Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units" I)ocicet Number EPA-IIQ-®AR-2013-0602 Presented by Cristobal Alex President Latino Victory Project July 29, 2014 Public Hearing Washington, D.C.

My name is Crist6bal Alex, and I am the President of the Latino Victory Project. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. The Latino Victory Project supports the EPA's Rule on carbon emissions for existing power plants. We believe it is an important step towards protecting our environinent and initigating the negative effects that pollution has on the Latino cominunity.

The Latino Victory Project is an ambitious, non-partisan effort to build power within the Latino coinmunity to ensure the voices of Latinos are reflected at every level of governinent and in the policies that drive our nation forward. The organization was founded by Eva Longoria and Henry Munoz to fill a void: we are 17% of the U.S. population. We are the nation's largest ininority group and among the fastest growing. But we do not yet have a voice commensurate with our share of the population.

There are more than 53 inillion Latinos in the United States, but we have only 8 Latinos elected to statewide office. We have only 28 Latinos in the House of Representatives when it should be more than twice that. We've never had a Latina elected to the U.S. Senate. What this ineans is that our voice, our vote, has not been fully heard when it

1comes to important policy debates that matter so much to our coinmunity. This is

especially true when it comes to the environment.

For us, this rule isn't political. It's a public health issue, and an economic issue. It means that our families are safer, and healthier. That we have an environinent—a planet—that we can leave to future generations. And the rule can inake a positive difference in whether or not we have a j ob.

My parents caine to the United States in search of the American Dream. Like so many others, they worked hard so that their children would have the opportunity—the chance— that they didn't have. My Mom, Consuelo, was the eldest of ten children and worked with her family in the fields picking cotton from Bakersfield to the panhandle of Texas. The work was extremely dangerous; and it still is. As each harvesting season becoines hotter, and the temperatures soar, workers in the fields, and in other industries suffer the
consequences.

This rule will inake our working conditions safer.

My Mom ended up settling the family in El Paso, Texas. By the time my brother Richie and I came along, my Mom wasn't working in the fields, but she was working three jobs so we'd have the chance that she didn't have. She is what Eva calls, "the CE® of the family". Growing up in El Paso, you notice a few things: the Franklin mountains, the beautiful desert, and unfortunately a great deal of sinog and pollution. Soine days you cant even see the inountains. And it's getting worse. The skyline is dominated by smokestacks. It's a poor cominunity, and we suffer greatly from the effects of dirty air.

This rule, would inake our air cleaner, and iinprove the health of our community.

2No other demographic group scores as high as Latinos when it comes to the environment,

especially on clean air and water. Nationally, nine in ten Latinos want the government to take action against the dangers of global wanning and climate change. Eight in ten Latinos want the President to curb the carbon pollution that causes climate change.

Latinos are uniquely iinpacted by carbon pollution and climate change. It is both a public health issue and an econoinic one. Nearly half of all Hispanics live in areas with unhealthy air quality. Climate change further exacerbates this unhealthy air quality with an increase in extreme heat days. The impacts include increased asthma attacks, from which Hispanics are three times more likely than whites to end up in a hospital. Shockingly, Hispanic children are 40 percent more likely to die from asthma, as coinpared to non-Hispanic Whites.

Moreover, Latinos play a large role in the clean energy economy and adding more clean energy jobs will greatly benefit our community, which has a disproportionately higher unemployment rate. Latinos see and feel the iinpact of climate change in the most fundamental areas of their lives: their health and their economic welibeing.

In 2012, we saw the power of the Latino vote and what happens when nearly 12 inillion Latinos' voices are heard. We have a ways to go, but we know that we must continue to exercise that power to ensure that Latino voices are heard, and an overwhelming number of Latinos support the Administration's efforts to limit carbon pollution from power plants. The Latino Victory Project will continue to engage Latino voters and leaders to elevate and advance values that are important to the Latino community and all Americans, including a healthy and sustainable environment that we can leave to future generations.