STATEMENT TO THE EPA JULY 30, 2014 

I am the Rev. Dr. Barbara Schlachter, an Episcopal priest from lowa and I speak in 

favor of the Clean Power Plan. 

lowa has experienced the effects of climate change dramatically in the last six 

years, starting with the floods of 2008 and continuing with alternating drought 

and flood. This has wreaked havoc on agriculture in many parts of the state. 

When I left lowa to come here to testify, we still had areas of lowa City 

inaccessible because of flood waters that peaked over a month ago. 

I speak as an Episcopal priest and also a founder of 100Grannies for a Livable 

Future. We are a group of older women who are concerned about the kind of 

world our grandchildren, indeed everyone's children and grandchildren, will have 

to live in. We are over a hundred strong. We refer to ourselves as "fossils for a 

fossil fuel free future," and we have a funny picture of a group of us like aging 

Rockettes getting off our rockers and getting out and active about the issue of 

global warming. 

At our meeting this past week we shared what places we love that are already 

being impacted by climate change. I spoke about what is happening to my 

beloved beach on Lake Erie where my family has lived for over a hundred years 

and yet my grandchildren may not be able to swim there because of algal bloom, 

run-off, and erosion exacerbated by climate change. One woman spoke of visiting 

her children and grandchildren in Colorado where the pine beetles have killed 

trees because it wasn't cold enough to kill them, leaving the trees as tinder for 

forest fires and threatening her family. Another woman spoke of growing up in 

lowa City and riding her bike in City Park. She is still doing it, but the park is 

officially closed because of flooding. We all have places that we mourn, in this 

country and around the world. 

Also this past week during the Johnson County Fair many of the Grannies braved 

the heat and took a shift at a booth to talk to people about the reality and danger 

of the climate crisis and what they can do as ordinary citizens. While we have 
pledged to live more simply with less impact on the earth, we know that it has to 

be a larger, corporate business, and government solution. 

The Episcopal Church passed a resolution in 2009 urging President Obama and 

Congressional leaders to commit the US to a course of action to lower the output 

of atmospheric carbon by 25% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050. This is even more 

ambitious than the Clean Power Plan and it is in the camp of those who say that 

the Clean Power Plan doesn't go far enough soon enough. Yet the Clean Power 

Plan is a first step and an extremely important one. 

As one of the Grannies who teaches biology at a nearby college reminded me, 

"regulation of air and water pollution through the EPA is the only policy that has a 

successful track record." 

Others at this hearing can speak from a scientific perspective on why it is 

necessary to reduce carbon emissions so that the earth's temperature does not 

rise more than 2 degrees Celsious. 

I speak from a moral perspective that comes from being an Episcopal priest from 

the earliest days that women were ordained. I have been a student of scripture, 

history, and human nature and above all a person of prayer. Most recently I have 

become a student of climate justice issues. I have concluded that the climate 

crisis is the defining moral issue of our time and is the scientific realty that 

exacerbates all social and health problems, and aggravates many o ~ the conflict 

zones around the world. It is the poor that suffer the most, whether it is poor 

nations or poor people. This is happening as we speak today. 

As a person of Biblical faith 1 believe we are entrusted with the care of the earth, 

and we are co-creators with the ultimate source and destiny many of us call God. 

How can we claim the right to deny a stable climate, a life-giving earth, to future 

generations? Now that we know the consequences of our fossil fuel addiction 

and we know ways to ameliorate and change our energy sources, how can we 

refuse to do so? How can we deny those who come after, even if it is 

inconvenient and perhaps economically expensive in the short term? 
As a person of Biblical faith, I not only believe at looking at tough reality and hard 

questions directly, I also believe there are reasons #or hope. We humans are 

ingenious; we have created the mess we are in. And we are resourcefu.l. We can 

do amazing things when we have to—like niabiiizL-a country overnight to fight a 

world war. And deep down we have caring hearts that when given the choice 

between life and death for millions, we choose-life. By adopting the Clean Power 

Plan, our nation is saying yes to life, yes to the care of creation, its creatures, and 

all of the earth's people. 

Thank you. 

The Rev. Dr. Barbara H. Schlachter 

7 Glenview Knoll NE 

lowa City IA 52240 

319-351-4380