Hello, my name is Annie Ekblad and I am speaking to support the EPA's Clean Power 

Plan. I am here as a concerned citizen of Colorado and the United States, but most of all I 

am here as a mother. When we talk about climate change, a lot of the time the dialog is 

focused on what kind of world we will be leaving our children and grandchildren, and 

this is important. We also need to focus on the effects climate change is having right now, 

as it is a view to the uncertain future we face without strong regulations on carbon 

pollution. 

In September of 2013, Northern Colorado, where I make my home, was ravaged by 

flooding. Prior to the floods, we had been in a state of drought, and when the equivalent 

of an entire year's worth of precipitation fell in a matter of days, it caused over one 

billion dollars in damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure, as well as taking the 

lives of 8 people. This kind of extreme weather used to be called "100 year" floods, but 

without curbing carbon pollution, they will become "once a mortgage events." Is this the 

kind of uncertain future we want to hand off to our children? 

This is my son, Lex. He's three years old and is the greatest joy I have in my life. 

However, that joy gets dampened when I think about what his world, what our world, 

might look like in, 15, 20 or 30 years. I am gravely concerned. Clean air to breathe, a 

livable climate — these are things that we take for granted every day, but they are things 

that we need to work hard to protect. They are things that every child, every person on 

this planet is entitled to, and we're not going to have them unless we take serious action 

NOW to address carbon pollution. 

Curbing carbon pollution requires immediate and sustained action. Carbon pollution from 

power plants is the largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions. Those who would 

oppose these common sense standards included in the EPA Clean Power Plant need to 

explain why they support no limits at all for power plants for this kind of pollution. 

Wouldn't we all agree that unlimited pollution is bad for everyone? We have the 

technology to move forward with a clean energy future — we just need to leave this kind 

of dirty, polluting energy in our past. 

Carbon pollution harms us all our health, our economy and our way of life: air pollution 

and the asthma it causes, the loss of property from wildfires exacerbated from drought, as 

saw in Colorado Springs in 2013, and the increased food prices that we will see as food 

crop yields decline due to extreme temperatures. Climate change paints a very frightening 

picture of our possible future, but we can still mitigate its worst effects. The EPA's Clean 

Power Plan is an important first step in addressing climate change — but it needs to be 

stronger. That's why I'm asking that the EPA strengthens the Clean Power Plan and 

finalizes a rule that reduces carbon dioxide emissions 40% below 2005 levels by 2020. 

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my testimony. I appreciate the opportunity to 

speak up for me and my family. 
Annie Ekblad, 8103 Lighthouse Lane, Windsor Co 80528 970-481-3184, 

zeanner@gmail.com 

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