EPA Hearing on Carbon Pollution Standards for Existing Power Plants May 24, 2011

Chicago, IL TestimonyofRichard 

### I Stuckey Good morning, and thankyou for this opportunity to testify on the proposed New Source Pollution Standards. My name is Richard Stuckey and lam a member ofthe Sierra Club and several other environmental organizations but lam testifying here on behalfofmyselfand my family.
Istronglycommend the EPA for all its workin creating national standards for control of pollution. In particular, the proposed standards for control ofcarbon pollution from new power plants are an important step towards slowing down climate change, which is a huge threat to the well being ofthe nation and the planet. There is almostunanimous agreement among the climate scientists ofthe world (all ofthose that are not on the payroll ofthe carbon industry) that climate change is happening fast and that it is caused by man-made pollution, a large part ofwhich comes from Carbon Dioxide emissions from existing coal fired power plants. Refore the EPA can tackle carbon emissions from existing power plants it is required to issue standards onproposed future power plants, so these standards are a critical step towards addressing a major underlying cause ofclimate change. But they are also important in their own right in setting standards thatwill ensure that new power stations are built with limits on carbon pollution so they do not addto the climate change problem. At present, power companies protectthe health, safetyorwellbeing ofthe people they are supposed to serve onlywhen they are required to do so by regulations. They are set up to make the most profits possible while dumping as much oftheir waste products on the community free ofcharge as they are legally able to get away with. Icommend the EPA for creatingthese proposed standards thatwill limit the extent to which the powercompanies will damage the nation and the planet in their pursuit ofprofits when new power sources are built. The standards will also go a long way towards leveling the playing field so that clean, renewable sources ofpower will be able to compete and win out over dirty sources, particularlycoal, that have heretofore been able to pass on the costoftheir pollution to the public and the planet. Renewable sources ofelectric energy are now available at costs which are close to or even lower than the costofcarbon based power, and are much lowerwhen the full cost of externalities are included. ln an paper released in Februarythis year in theAnnalsof the New YorkAcademyof Sciences, Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director ofthe Center for Health and the Global

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Environment at Harvard Medical School, details the economic, health and environmental costs associated with each stage in the life cycle ofcoal- extraction,transportation, processing, and combustion. These costs, between a third to over halfa trillion dollars annually, are directly passed on to the public. Accounting for the total harm from coal would add "close to 17.8 cents per kWh to the costofelectricity generated". And these costs do not even include the cost ofclimate change (Storms, tornados, hurricanes, drought, fires, infestations ofdamaging pests, etc.) The American Lung Association found that coal-powered electricity alone caused "over 13,000 premature deaths in 2010, as well as almost 10,000 hospitalizations and more than 20,000 heart attacks peryear. So it is critical that the proposed standards for Carbon emissions from proposed power stations be implemented as quickly as possible to prevent the construction ofnewdirty power stations that will transfer more damaging costs ofpollution to the public. Then, Iimploreyou to move on quickly to create standards for pollution from existing power plants which must be controlled or eliminated to reduce the further damage to the population passed on by the power companies. Thankyou.