PENNSYLVANIA 

Communities of faith resoondino to climate change 

July 31, 2014 

William S. Moorhead Federal Building 

Pittsburgh, PA 

Hearings on the proposed Carbon Pollution Standards for Existing Power Plants 

Statement from Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light 

Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light is made up of individuals and communities of 

faith, responding to climate change in active, faithful hope. We are drawn to this 

work by the scripture and wisdom of our traditions. We turn to different sources 

for the words, but they carry a shared call to care for Creation — for the world and 

all who dwell in it— and to particular care for the most vulnerable people. 

Climate change magnifies ills that faith communities have long responded to: food 

insecurity, water insecurity, disease, conflict, and many natural disasters, and we 

are stepping up again. We know that the EPA's charge is to protect the health and 

welfare of Americans. We also know that the health and welfare of other beings and 

other peoples is at risk. We act for them as well. 

People of faith are increasingly doing what we can to limit emissions. As much as 

we may take on, as meaningful and important as it is to do the work as part of our 

faithful walk, it takes a long time to fill a bucket with drops of water, and we no 

longer have that luxury. Cutting emissions 30% from 2005 levels is a broad goal, 

bold enough to begin our necessary turn away from combustion, toward sustainable 

and renewable sources of energy. Allowing states to develop singular paths to the 

shared goal allows each to showcase its particular strengths, and to shift nimbly as 

we develop new ways of using the resources we are freely and forever given: the 

wind, the sun, and the tides. 

Today we know you will hear some comments that are rooted in fear instead of 

hope. You will hear that the Clean Power Plan will lay off workers, and that 

communities are hurting. That is partly right: communities are hurting. Mine 

tailings, coal dust, coal emissions, and coal ash are hurting communities—poor 

communities— right now, increasing lung disease, heart disease, and cancer. The 

resulting climate change will hurt us all, but the poorest fare worst. We cannot 

knowingly continue to stand on their backs. 

Coal representatives will tell you that acting responsibly on carbon pollution will 

steal jobs from communities on the economic edge. They won't say that those jobs 

have never driven executive decision-making. They won't mention that those jobs 

are already in a decades-long decline, or that the decline is about bottom lines, not 

about federal policy nor even booming gas. Combined coal output from West 

Virginia and Kentucky has held nearly steady since 1983, but mining jobs have 

2100-C East College Ave., State College, PA 16801 www.paipl.org 814.876.2597 
dropped by half. We do need to help generate new paths for employees and 

communities that currently depend on fossil fuels. Holding tight to the diminishing 

fuels of the 18th and 19th centuries instead of reaching forward to the power of the 

21st is not the way to do it. 

Like our faith communities, the United States is explicitly founded on values. As 

such, we have a unique opportunity to lead according to those values. When we 

don't, as we have not on climate change, our silence is deafening. When these 

proposed standards were announced in June, the world took note. China 

immediately began hinting at an absolute cap on its own carbon emissions, and has 

since created 8 pilot carbon trading markets. Christians talk about acting as a "city 

on a hill" — when we act as we should, using the gifts we've been given, the example 

shines, and draws others in. PA 1PL applauds these proposed standards for their 

leadership as well as their direct effect. 

PA IPL urges the EPA to implement the carbon pollution standards as quickly as 

possible, and we urge states (particularly Pennsylvania) to begin creating 

meaningful State Implementation Plans without delay. In order that these two steps 

forward are not undercut by a giant step back, we also urge the EPA to act quickly to 

release meaningful standards for methane, particularly extractive methane. 

Faith communities are already switching off our harmful "standard mix" electricity. 

We look forward to meaningful national (and international) movement from "all of 

the above" to power from Above. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Cricket Eccleston Hunter 

Executive Director, PA IPL 

chunter@paipl.org 

2100-C East College Ave., State College, PA 16801 www.paipl.org 814.876.2597