Testimony of the Rev. Jim Ball 

Before the Environmental Protection Agency 

Concerning the EPA's Clean Power Plan 

Washington, DC 

July 29, 2014 

My name is the Rev. Jim Ball, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of the Evangelical 

Environmental Network (EEN). EEN is a non-profit, non-partisan Christian 

network of individuals and organizations dedicated to the care of God's 

creation. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today and for your service 

to our country. 

Climate change is one of the great moral challenges of our age; but overcoming 

this challenge also represents one of the most strategic opportunities to create 

a better world that will come before us in our lifetimes. 

We are grateful that President Obama has risen to meet this challenge. His 

Climate Action Plan will help overcome climate change in ways that could: (1) 

position America to lead the world in the coming clean energy revolution; (2) 

create good jobs here in America, (3) reduce pollution that fouls our air and 

makes our water impure, (4) protect the health of our children, and (5) build 

resiliency to the consequences of climate change both here and in vulnerable 

poor nations. 

Like the President, we would much prefer that Congress had acted responsibly 

to address this challenge by seizing the opportunities it provides us. It is well 

past time for our country to make the investments necessary, not only to 

protect us from climate impacts, but to position our country to be the leader of 

the clean energy revolution that is coming. Climate deniers and fossil fuel 

interests want to cling to the past and try to hold back the tide of change; this 

only weakens our nation by delaying what is necessary and forfeiting a 

dominant position in the clean energy market to countries like China. Their 

fears and narrow self-interests are attempting to thwart what is in our nation's 

best interest: overcoming climate change and leading the clean energy 

revolution. Unfortunately, such fear and self-interest has influenced a minority 

faction in Congress, which has successfully blocked major climate legislation 

that would use market mechanisms to put a price on carbon. 

Because Congress has thus far failed in its responsibility to protect our country 

from climate impacts, President Obama has stepped up with his Climate Action 

Plan to fill this leadership vacuum. 
A key part of President Obama's climate efforts is the Environmental Protection 

Agency's (EPA's) Clean Power Plan, which for the first time requires electric 

utilities to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants. 

When coupled with proper EPA regulation of inethane leaks in the oil and gas 

sector, 1 the EPA's Clean Power Plan is an essential step, the most important 

one we will have made to date in overcoming climate change. More than 

anything this shows our nation's resolve, that we are finally getting serious, 

that ourjourney has now begun in earnest and there's no turning back. This 

by itself will spur innovation and investment in the marketplace. 

The Plan itself should provide states with maximum flexibility to meet their 

carbon reduction goals. EEN's carbon reduction policy preference is to utilize 

market-based mechanisms to price carbon. We prefer market-based 

approaches because Christians are called to be good stewards not only of 

God's creation, but also of our financial resources; what markets do best is 

allocate scarce resources efficiently, and there is general agreement among 

economists that the most efficient, cost-effective way to reduce pollution is 

with a tax. 

As such, we ask the EPA to include in the final rule explicit language assuring 

states that a carbon tax/pollution fee would be an acceptable way to meet its 

obligations if it chose to do so. 

While the Clean Power Plan is essential, many more steps will be needed. To 

ensure it is America that leads the clean energy revolution, our country must 

make much bigger investments in basic Research and Development (R&D), not 

only in energy efficiency and clean energy technologies, but in how our 

thinking can be set free from the self-imposed silos we've created between 

energy research, and, say, information technology. 

During the Cold War years our country spent 6% of GDP on national defense. 

Overcoming climate change and leading the clean energy revolution are 

arguably as important as winning the Cold War. We must be ready to spend 

Cold War-level funding if that's what it takes. 

Due to our absence of focus and resolve (including appropriate R&D funding) 

we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of one of the greatest assets a 

free county like ours possesses: our own creativity. And it is our inquisitive, 

freedom-loving nature that should have us leading the way. 
Every single one of our ancestors — beginning at least 18,000 years agowhen 

groups traversed a land bridge over the Bering Strait — came from somewhere 

else in search of a better life. It's literally in our DNA to look beyond the 

horizon, to sail oceans and ford rivers and climb mountains and even go to the 

moon. It's who we are as a people, as Americans. 

We may be a nation of settlers, but we're not a nation of those who settle — for 

second-best, for the status quo; we're strivers who believe we can create a 

betterfuture. 

We believe also that each person is created equal, that all should be free to use 

our God-given gifts and abilities and creativity to make a better life. 

It is these qualities and values we share that make us the ones to lead the 

world in the clean energy revolution, a revolution that will benefit every single 

person, indeed every single creature, on this planet. 

Overcoming climate change and leading the clean energy revolution is the next 

great cause of freedom. Efforts like the President's Climate Action Plan and the 

EPA's Clean Power Plan are therefore profound acts of patriotism. 

' 1 note here that another part of President Obama's Climate Action Plan is integral to the 

ultimate effectiveness of the EPA's Clean Power Plan to actually reduce overall greenhouse 

gas or GHG emissions. I'm referring to the Climate Action Plan's proposed efforts to reduce 

methane emissions, especially methane leakage. This is quite important given how much the 

Clean Power Plan's emissions reductions from the electricity sector are projected to come 

from fuel switching from coal to natural gas. Studies have indicated that if the leakage isn't 

addressed, there isn't much difference between coal and gas from a climate perspective. We 

urge the EPA not to low-ball the leakage estimates and to take steps to regulate methane 

emissions from the oil and gas sector. Failure to do so could seriously undermine the ability 

of the Clean Power Plan to play its role in reducing overall emissions of GHGs. Simply put, to 

ensure the Clean Power Plan's ultimate success requires the EPA also to regulate methane 

leaks. 

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