My name is Mary Minette and I am the Director for Environmental Education and Advocacy for the Evangelical 

Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 

about 4 million members in nearly 10,000 congregations across the 50 states and in the Caribbean. Lutherans 

believe that we are called by God to love and serve our neighbors, particularly those who live in poverty, and 

that we are also called to be stewards of God's creation. 

Reducing hunger and alleviating global poverty is a key concern for people of faith. Yet as we look to our future, 

that work faces a daunting problem—we will need to address hunger and poverty in an ever more challenging 

climate. The ELCA supports ministries that respond to weather-related disasters both in the United States and 

globally. We know from these ministries that extreme weather events have severe impacts on low income 

individuals and communities and we are told by scientists that these extreme events are growing and will 

continue to grow worse, due to a changing global climate. We know that climate change has many other public 

health impacts, and that those impacts fall hardest on those who are most vulnerable, including children and the 

elderly, and particularly hard on vulnerable people who live in poverty. And we are already seeing the impact 

that a changing climate can have on food production and food security, with the drought in California as only the 

most recent example. 

The ELCA and our congregations, together with communities of faith around the country, are working to reduce 

our own energy use in recognition of the growing threat of climate change; however, we also know that what 

each of us does out of faith and a sense of stewardship is not enough. To reduce our nation's significant 

contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions, we must act collectively to reduce emissions from power plants 

and other major sources of carbon pollution. For this reason, we strongly support the proposed rule to limit 

carbon emissions from existing power plants. ELCA Lutherans are speaking at each of the hearings being held 

this week and sending in our comments to the EPA because we believe that this rule is an important and 

necessary step towards taking responsibility for our role in causing the earth's climate to change. We believe 

that climate change is a moral issue that calls each of us to speak out of our faith in support of strong, decisive 

action. 

Reducing carbon emissions from power plants must be a top priority for our country and the world if we are 

going to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Last winter, I heard a colleague from a development 

agency in the Philippines speak about the difficulties her country would face in rebuilding after Typhoon Haiyan, 

which had hit just as the UN climate change meeting in Warsaw was beginning. She noted that many 

communities would likely never recover from the damage done by the storm. She said that she and her country 

appreciated the moral, financial and other support from the US and other parts of the world that followed the 
storm. But she said that what the Philippines and other nations and communities facing climate disaster need 

from the global community is not just our financial support and our prayers, but our solidarity—they need us to 

stand with them and to work with them to prevent the worst impacts of climate change from happening. Taking 

strong and decisive action to reduce power plant emissions is one way to demonstrate the solidarity that 

climate-impacted communities need and deserve. 

In these hearings, you will undoubtedly hear from people who believe that this rule is too costly, that it will 

harm our economy and eliminate jobs. As the economic analysis that accompanies the rule amply 

demonstrates, some jobs will be lost and some industries will be impacted by this rule as it begins to take effect. 

However, your research, and past evidence from the implementation of similar rules, also indicate thatjobs will 

be created because of the innovation needed to implement the rule—particularly in energy efficiency and 

renewable energy—that will lead us to a more robust, and cleaner, economy in the future. 

The arguments of economic impact and job loss also ignore the costs of doing nothing, of allowing global 

temperatures to continue their upward trend and earth's climate to become less and less predictable. Losses in 

productivity, increases in food prices, dwindling supplies of water, will all have steep costs and huge economic 

impacts, together with the continued cost of responding to ever more frequent weather disasters. 

We are faced with an important choice—we can act now, and help to protect future generations and God's 

creation from the worst impacts of climate change, or we can fail to act and let our children and the earth suffer 

the consequences. This rule is a critical step in the right direction. We look forward to your finalizing these rules 

in the coming months and thank you for your continued efforts to ensure a just and sustainable world for this 

generation and the next.