EPA Testimony in Pittsburgh, PA 

Docket# EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602 and Docket# EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0630 

Miriam E. Lindauer July 31, 2014 

My name is Miriam Lindauer and I live here in Allegheny County. I'm a retired computer programmer. 

I strongly support the proposed EPA regulations limiting carbon emissions from fossil-fuel burning plants. We 

need the EPA to step in and make power plant standards as strong as possible. The new rules should 

encourage renewable energy instead of natural gas, which may burn cleaner than coal but which causes 

terrible water, air and noise pollution during its extraction from Marcellus Shale. 

Fossil fuel emissions are undeniably causing our planet's atmosphere to warm, affecting the health of every 

living thing. 

I have asthma and would not wish it on anyone else, so the following fact gets my attention: According to a 

Stanford University study,' "... for each increase of one degree Celsius caused by carbon dioxide, the resulting 

air pollution [will] lead annually to about a thousand additional deaths and many more cases of respiratory 

illness and asthma in the United States." 

Worsening global warming will not only have terrible effects on peoples' health, but will cost everyone in 

terms of rising sea levels, more acidic oceans, stronger storms and widespread drought. A recent report by 

the US National Park Service indicates that our national parks are being adversely affected by global warming 

right now': Wildfires came perilously close to Sequoia National Park in 2013, and Glacier National Park may be 

glacier-free by 2030. 

It is wishful thinking to claim that an unregulated free market will fix all of society's problems. There is no 

aspect of the free market that provides an inherent profit motive for industry to limit its pollution voluntarily. 

This does not mean the industry is evil, it just means that there's no money in it for them. 

The only way to stop global warming is to limit carbon pollution from all sources. Burning fossil fuels to 

generate electricity produces almost 40% of carbon pollution in the United States. Since the fossil-fuel 

industry will not voluntarily set limits, the EPA must do so. The proposed rules are a step, a small step, in the 

right direction. 

Claims of job losses in coal producing areas are way overstated. Coal jobs will not disappear overnight, as it 

will take years to complete the transition to cleaner energy. Furthermore, increasing renewable energy 

production will create more clean-energy jobs. Many of those Appalachian hills that cover coal seams are 

perfect spots for energy-generating windmills, which require a lot of maintenance by blue-collar workers. 

Installing solar panels and developing technology to conserve energy create even more jobs. There are 

already more blue-collar solar-and wind-energy jobs in this country than there are coal industry jobs3, and 

those clean jobs don't give workers Black Lung disease. 

One role of government is to resolve conflicts between the rights of individuals and the rights of corporations. 

We have conflicting interests here. The fossil fuel industry's business model includes emitting unhealthy 

carbon pollutants into the air and water at no cost to them. That business model conflicts with our right to 

clean air and water. They use our air, water and infrastructure for free, and they do not pay the cost that their 

pollution causes. 
EPA Testimony in Pittsburgh, PA 

Docket# EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602 and Docket# EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0630 

Miriam E. LindauerJuly 31, 2014 

Who does pay the cost? People like me who have pollution-caused respiratory diseases pay the cost. 

Governments fighting fires in the West pay the cost. Coastal cities being slowly flooded by rising sea levels 

pay the cost. Future generations who will never see the glaciers that are melting away in Glacier National 

Park and who will never see the giant Sequoias which may well be incinerated by wildfires will pay the cost. 

We should not be forced to bear this cost any longer. 

The right of fossil fuel industries to do business as they choose ends where our lungs begin. Their right to do 

business as they please ends when their activity threatens our right to a livable environment. The government 

represents us, the flesh-and-blood, breathing individuals of this nation. If the EPA does not protect our right 

to a healthy environment by issuing strong carbon emission rules, who will? 

Thank you. 

1 Study by Mark Z. Jacobson published in Geophysical Research Letters in 2008, as reported in Science Daily. 

http://www.sciencedaily.comkeleases/2008/01/080103135757.htm 

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0101302 

4Coal = 174,000 full-time blue collar in 2006; wind + solar = 193,000 in 2013 

Politifact. "Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says there are more U.S. jobs in solar industry than coal mining." 

http://www.politifact.com/rhode-islandistatements/2014/jul/06/sheldon-whitehouse/there-are-already-moreamerican-jobs-solar-industrj 

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coaland jobs in the United States 

http://www.agprofessional.com/news/Solar-energy-jobs-increase-wind-power-decrease-265401441.html?page=2