Allison Donnelly Student, Duke University allison.donnelly@duke.edu Commenton the Carbon Pollution Standard Washington, DC May 24,2012 Good evening. My name is Allison Donnelly; Iam a risingjuniorat Duke University, but Iam originally from Appleton, Wisconsin. The carbon pollution standard is important for all of us- which is whyyou've heard todayfrom public health professionals, businesses, environmental organizations, economists, faith groups, mothers, and concerned citizens in support ofthe rule. I'm here representing a voice and an age group that isn't often included in these hearings: college students. Like every otherAmerican, we have a stake in this, a responsibility to be informed, and the right to speakup. We understand the health consequences ofboth pollution and climate change. We understand from basic economics concepts like externalities and how damages from pollution can end up costingus far more than what we actually pay. We also understand the messaging coming from the other side: complying with the rule will cost the electric power sector more moneyto build and operate, and therefore losejobs and hurtthe economy. But this is far outweighed by the positive economic impacts- a factor which has been understated, and affects us greatly. Thejobs rhetoric appliesjustas much to college students as to the rest ofthe country, and potentiallyeven more. When myfriends in the class of2012 graduate- orwhen Igraduate in 2014- we enter the work force in full for the first time, and every single one ofus is worried about finding work. The unemployment rate for workers under age 25 is 16.4%- twice as high as the national average. Also notably, the underemployment rate for recent college graduates was 19.1

### o/o overthe lastyear, accordingto a recentreport by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute. We students have ideas and the know-howto put them to good use, and we as members of an overeducated and underemplayed workforce will therefore tend to gravitate towards areas where we see progress and growth -areas where investments have sparked innovation.Allison Donnelly Student, Duke University allison.donnellv@duke.edu Comment on the Carbon Pollution Standard Washington, DC May 24, 2012 The carbon pollution standard will do just this- sparkinnovation. It will create highpayingjobs for an educatedworkforce to develop and implementnew technologies to provide clean, reliable power. AMarch 2012 report by the Economic Policy Institute stated that investments towards cleaningup and modernizingpower plants would create many morejobs than itwill displace. For example, the report analyzed the EPA's finalized mercury and air taxies standard and estimated thatthe rule would create 117,000 newjobs. Investments in clean technologies for power plantswould further spur one ofthe fastest growingindustries worldwide, the clean energy sector. In the last seven years, investments in US clean energyhave increased 600 percent, and the industry alreadyemploys 2.7 million Americans, according to reports by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Brookings Institute, respectively. This generation ofcurrent students is not bound to a view thattraditional coal is how we've always done things, and that's how we're going to continue. In our lifetimes, we've seen massive strides with cleaner technologies, and we see no need to hold on to outdated technology simply because alternatives represent a change to the status quo. We will be the ones in a few years taking those massive strides in innovation ourselves. Therefore we call on the EPA to enact the first-ever carbon pollution standard for newpower plants, to reduce pollutants that should not be in our air in the first place, and to sparkinnovation in new cleaner technologies that will createjobs. We, the future American workforce, are counting on it. Thankyou.