Docket No. EPA-HQ-20ll-0660 

Laura Kate Anderson 

Environment Virginia 

202-461-3844 

landerson@environmentvirginia.org 

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My name is Laura Kate Anderson. I live in Falls Church, Virginia and I'm a field organizer with 

Environment Virginia, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. I stand 

before you today in strong support of EPA's proposed standard to limit carbon pollution from 

new power plants. 

Power plants are the biggest single source of carbon pollution, and carbon pollution causes 

global warming. Cleaning up carbon is crucial to protecting our health. 

In my capacity as field organizer, I've been lucky enough to travel the state to help get the word 

out to the media and the public about the biggest problems facing Virginia's environment, and the 

solutions we have to fix them. And everywhere 1 go, 1 meet people who are passionate about 

keeping carbon pollution out of our air. 

There is no place in Virginia that will be immune from the effects of global warming. Global 

warming is not only raising sea levels around the world, but also makes it more likely that we'll 

see stronger storms and more frequent rains. Thanks in large part to industrial carbon pollution, 

Hampton Roads residents are literally struggling to stay above water. I've spoken with some who 

have watched the danger grow each year, facing more and more storms that could flood their 

homes. One volunteer took me on a tour ofNorfolk's Larchmont neighborhood and pointed out 

the places that had flooded in the past few hurricanes, and whole streets that will find themselves 

permanently under water in a matter of years if things continue the way they're going. 

Coastal communities aren't the only ones facing problems. Richmond had the dubious distinction 

of being named the asthma capital of the country by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of 

America in 2010 and 2011. Smog exacerbates asthma. and more global warming pollution means 

more smog. I've had asthma almost my entire life, and on particularly smoggy days, 1 can't do 

anything more strenuous outside than walk. I also vividly remember childhood asthma attacks 

and trips to the emergency room, and the baffling, terrifying feeling of not being able to breathe. 

I can only imagine that my asthma was even scarier for my parents. Once, when I was five, a 

severe stint of asthma attacks landed me in the hospital for a week. My parents were overseas 

visiting relatives at the time, and when they found out from an international phone call from my 

grandmother, they took the first flight home. Maybe when I'm a parent myself, I'll be able to 

understand exactly how my parents felt as they sat through a twelve-hour plane ride, with no way 

of knowing how I was doing. In the meantime, though, 1 do know that industrial carbon pollution 

means more parents will have to go through what mine went through. 
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A warming world will have more smog days, days when more kids with asthma are rushed to the 

hospital, days when playing outside is dangerous just because of the air our children breathe. In 

201 0, the Richmond area had 12 of those days. The DC area had 36. 

Everywhere I go, I meet people who are concerned about the impact that smog has on their 

health. In Northern Virginia, people in places like Reston and Loudoun are forming their own 

startup environmental organizations to help combat air pollution and other problems on the most 

local level. People in Fairfax recently gathered at an Environment Virginia event to learn more 

about what dirty air means for our health and exchange ideas on how to fix it. 

In Charlottesville. one doctor I spoke said that asthma is reaching epidemic proportions among 

children there. and that that epidemic is being fueled by the dirty air they breathe. Another 

Charlottesville doctor said that he treats children nearly every day for asthma flare-ups, and that 

pollution is part of the reason they're getting sick. 

I've also worked with college students from George Mason University in Fairfax to the 

University of Virginia in Charlottesville to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg. 

Many of the college students I've met see global warming as the most profound environmental 

threat of their generation. They're doing what they can to stop it, from getting their friends to use 

less electricity in the dorms, to starting bike share programs and campus gardens, to lobbying 

their school administrations to adopt sustainable practices. But they also know that these actions 

are only part of the puzzle. and that federal government action to cut carbon pollution is an 

essential piece. 

All over Virginia. people are speaking up about the need to fight global warming. We're getting 

news articles written about it in papers across the state. We're getting our opinions printed as 

letters to the editor. We're knocking on doors and talking to citizens and hearing time and time 

again, "We need to do something about these problems now." 

EPA's proposed standard to limit carbon pollution from new power plants is a necessary step in 

the fight to protect our health and our communities from the effects of global warming. But it's 

not a sufficient one. EPA needs to finalize its standard for new power plants, and then move 

forward to propose and finalize a rule that cuts carbon pollution from existing power plants, too. 

Virginia power plants poured 32,441,939 tons of carbon pollution into the air in 2010 (according 

to the Environmental Integrity Project.) We simply can't stop global warming without setting 

limits on those plants. 

Clean air is a need that transcends every possible division among people: race, location, 

background, political party. We can't wait any longer to tackle global warming. I urge EPA to 

protect our health by finalizing its proposed standards to cut carbon pollution from new power 

plants as soon as possible, because our health can't wait.