Testimony of Sarah Saylor, July 30, 2014, Washington, D.C. 

Hello and thank you for the opportunity to share my testimony in favor of the Clean 

Power Plan. I am here today as a private citizen and my remarks express my own 

views. 

I attended the listening sessions EPA held in November and did some listening myself. 

Afterward, I wrote a blogpost with 55 reasons that EPA should move forward with a rule. 

Today, to prove just how universal those reasons are, I share the first 10, along with my 

rationale for supporting them. 

1. EPA must protect our children and future generations. As a mother, I am 

responsible for the wellbeing of my child. I know her life will be made worse by 

climate change if we don't do what is required to abate it. Instead of discounting 

the lives of those who will come after us, we must let their future guide us. 

2. EPA must protect the hungry and the homeless. As a Christian, I must look out 

for those who are considered the least among us, those who are already 

disadvantaged. are those who are most impacted by climate change, globally and 

here in the U.S. 

3. EPA must make the U.S. a good global neighbor. As a former Girl Scout I 

learned to leave my campsite better than I found it for the next group of scouts 

that came along. Being a good global neighbor is no different. 

4. EPA must save the honeybees. As someone who eats honey, I have a stake in 

protecting the bees that make it. They are already under assault on top of the 

impact climate change is having on them. 

5. EPA must protect plant and animal life. As someone with a liberal arts degree in 

plant biology, I advocate for the ecosystems that support life as we know it, 

ecosystems put at risk by climate change and other pressures. 

6. EPA must relieve those with asthma and other lung diseases that will only 

become worse with rising temperatures. As a human being, I have a 

responsibility look out for those who are most at risk from climate change as well 

as other pollutants, our children, our seniors, communities of color and those who 

are poor. 

7. EPA must make the moral and ethical choice. As someone represents a public 

interest law firm, I know our nation relies upon the rule of law and the law 
requires action: for a livable climate, for breathable air, for clean water, and for 

other basic human necessities entrusted to EPA. 

8. EPA must pay our debt to coal miners and coal mining communities. As a cancer 

survivor, I can appreciate the sacrifices these individuals have made for us all. 

What better tribute than to help these folks transition to jobs where their lives and 

the lives of their families are no longer at risk. 

9. EPA must save mountaintops. As a singer, I often sing about the beauty and 

grandeur of mountains, of love that will last "until the mountains fall into the sea". 

Never did I imagine that human beings and not the slow passage of time would 

be hastening their demise. Climate change is among the reasons we must arrest 

this and all forms of coal mining. 

10. EPA must reduce coal-related illnesses. As an environmentalist, I know that 

climate change itself is a coal-related illness — and a fossil-fuel and methanerelated illness. EPA must make deeper reductions in emissions sooner — to do 

better than a 35-40% reduction in total U.S. emissions by 2020 — to do what the 

science demands. We cannot delay our response to climate change and neither 

can we delay justice for those whose lives are at the mercy of polluters of any 

kind. 

Like so many Americans, I once believed that having laws like the Clean Air Act on the 

books was all it took to provide a healthy environment. I no longer take that for granted. 

I urge EPA to do what many in our nation believe you have already done and set the 

strongest carbon pollution standard for existing fossil fuel generated power plants that 

the law will allow. And don't stop there. 

Sarah Saylor 

10211 Leslie St. 

Silver Spring, MD 20902