Good Evening. 

My nam.e is Tom Quinn I am a resident of Washington DC and the proud 

parent of 3 and 7 year old boys. 

I am not spending the evening with them tonight because I believe it is more 

important to be here testifying in favor of the EPA's proposed Clean Power 

Plan. 

The signs of Global Warming are unmistakable and indisputable — just 

yesterday National Geographic Photographer Paul Nicklen,posted on 

Facebook' that for the first time in 20 years of his summer visits there is no 

sea ice in the waters around Spitsbergen Island which is situated between the 

Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean and that it is possible within the next 

few years the Arctic Ocean could be completely free of sea ice during the 

summer months and last month NOAA issued a report 2detailing expected 

increases in flooding in 45 US cities as a result of rising sea levels. 

But here at home summers are getting hotter, winters milder and hurricanes 

large enough to impact a northern inland city like Washington DC with 

widespread power outages and significant property damage are becoming 

annual events. 

The United States is currently the greatest contributor to global warming 

gasses and although some utter complaints about the unfairness of the 

burden to lead on this issue I consider it an opportunity for the United States 

to take the lead on this issue both morally and economically. 

Currently US power plants account for 40% of our Nation's total carbon 

pollution and though as a nation we have made great strides in regulating 

many of the dangerous pollutants from our power plants like mercury, lead 

and arsenic the United States must step up and also regulate carbon 

emissions from those same plants. 

While many are lamenting the economic shifts and costs that such changes 

may necessitate particularly as old and inefficient coal fired power plants are 

'https://www.facebook.com/paul.nicklen?fref--ts 

2 http•//tidesandcurrents noaa gov/publications/NOAA Technical Report NOS COOPS 073.pdf 
either upgraded or taken off line to meet new carbon standards these changes 

are necessary and overdue. 

Shifting to newer energy sources, particularly renewable sources like wind 

and solar, will lead to a new wave of construction of these means of 

harnessing alternative energy sources which will by necessity be 

accompanied by a new workforce to build and manage that infrastructure. 

But there are two other important reasons for making this switch. 

Most importantly the new regulations will force all older power plants to 

either run cleaner or be shut down. 

According to a 2012 report from the NAACP 3older coal fired power plants 

are overwhelming located in and near poorer communities of color. 

As a parent it breaks my heart that through no fault of their own less 

fortunate children are forced to grow up in communities with poorer air 

quality and higher rates of asthma simply because we don't have the courage 

as a country to require that our electricity be sourced from cleaner and lower 

carbon emitting power sources. 

But this is an important segue to perhaps the most important reason why the 

BPA should embrace the Clean Power Plan and that is because the United 

States has a responsibility to lead — because we are the world's largest 

economy, because we are the world's largest polluter and most importantly 

because if we don't lead then no one else will. 

And that is why I am disappointed that the proposed plan requires the least 

improvement from the most polluting states. It is great that the plan requires 

even states that have already made great strides in improving their power 

sources and carbon emissions to improve further but it is equally 

disheartening that states that have done the least are asked to do the least in 

this proposal4. While it may make political sense to expect the least from 

more conservative coal dependent states it does not make policy or fiscal 

3lrttp://naacn.3cdn.nct/572d5c97907700910c 1 ykm6bi00.pdf 

4http://www.washingtonpost.com/bloi4s/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/16/the-epas-carbon-plan-asks-the-leastfrom-states-that-poll ute -the- most/ 
sense to hold them to a lower standard and it means that this proposal will 

not go as far is it possibly could and of course it also forces the residents of 

these same states to continue living with the local pollution associated with 

dirtier and older power sources. 

For the above reasons I strongly encourage you to not only implement the 

plan as proposed but to extend the same standards to all states because all of 

our citizens deserve cleaner air and the opportunity to contribute to a better 

world. 

Thank you again for your time. 

Tom Quinn 

5322 41 StStreet NW 

Washington DC 20015