Testimony of Rev. Douglas B. Hunt 264 Montgomery AV, Haverford, PA 19041 Email: doug.b.hunt@gmail.com Board Member, Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - August 1, 2014 Regarding Proposed Standards to Reduce Air Pollution from Existing Power Plants Docket ID# OAR-2013-0602
Good morning. My name is Rev. Douglas Hunt. I'm ordained clergy serving as Vice President of Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light. IPL is a national organization connecting over 30,000 congregations through 39 state affiliates, working with people of all faiths and spiritual paths to meet the growing threat of global warming. I commend the Environmental Protection Agency for their proposal for reducing CO2 and other harmful emissions from existing power plants, and urge its implementation as soon as possible. I have two granddaughters. They are one important reason I believe this proposal is so important. My granddaughters, Rachel and Guinevere, and all children should be able to live and grow in a world that is diverse and beautiful, can nuture their spirits, and fill them with wonder, awe, and a sense of connection with all of creation. Considering the hours you have already spent in these rooms, I am sure that you have heard many speakers, far more qualified than I, tell you that over 97% of active climate scientists affirm the reality of global warming and its current and potential long term impacts.

In addition to the love and concern I have for children and all that lives on this garden planet, it is clear to me that doing all that I can to reduce the threats from climate change is a moral and existential obligation.

1Reducing our contribution to climate change is a moral issue because it is an

issue of JUSTICE - written large. The United Nations estimated last year that there are already at least 100 million climate refugees. As usual, the worst impacts of global climate change are affecting first and most dramatically, people living in poverty, women, and childrenhere and around the world. It is monumentally unjust that those who have done the least to create the climate crisis are affected most immediately and directly by its consequences. Effectively addressing the underlying causes of climate change is also an existential necessity. Our dramatically changing climate is a current crisis, threatening all living things on the planet. How we respond to this crisis consequences: increasing temperature extremes, stronger storms, drought, floods, are already playing a major role in devastating homes and families. Our changing climate has become more unpredictable and more deadly. In dramatically warmed, not too distant future, the intensified and more frequent events will play a greater role in determining how people live, and, increasingly, who will live and who will die. We need only remember Katrina, Sandy, our current droughts in the southwest, floods along the east coast, forest fires throughout the west that have shown the fingerprint of waming climate - I could go on, circling the planet with the growing list of simlar events. While no one event can definitely be said to be CAUSED by global warming, scientists have concluded that the pattern is climate related and will only increase.

As Nobel Laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu told the leaders of the Canadian government, "Only those who don't want to listen, only those who want to be blind can't see that we are sitting on a powder keg. If we don't do something urgently, quickly, we won't have a world."

2Climate change is indeed an existential issue.

People can do much as individuals to reduce greenhouse emissions. But our world is now so far down the road -- highest CO2 levels in our atmosphere for over 600,000 years; 354 straight months with average global temperatures above those for the average for the 20th century; average temperatures for May and June were the hottest ever identified in the history of the planet -- we are so far down the road that unless governments begin to be active, persistent, and aggressive about reducing greenhouse emissions, the survival of future generations is in doubt. My granddaughters' future may not be a happy one. This EPA proposal is not THE answer to climate change, it is an important and well crafted beginning. It has apparently had impacts well beyond the interest of concerned groups in the US. I note that the DAY AFTER THE PRESIDENT ANNOUNCED THIS PLAN, the Chinese government announced that it would be working towards reduction goals of its own. We have a moral obligation in this process to those workers and communities that will be adversely affected by the global movement away from fossil fuels. Transition plans, job training, support for local businesses, and assistance for workers will be absolutely necessary. Assistance for the mammoth corporations that have profited from the honest work of honest people without maintaining adequate working conditions, failing to meeting safety standards, keeping wages low, seems both unnecessary and inappropriate. I know that such transitions are possible. At one point in my life's journey I worked for the University of Tennessee's Agricultural Policy Analysis Center in the Ag Econnomics department, doing sustainability research. That office had been deeply involved in the transition of workers from the tobacco industry to farm employment and other industries. The program was not only successful, it

3became a model for employment transition planning. Here in Pennsylvania groups

with disparate interests have come together to work on ways to support such transitions in the most effective way. I want to commend the EPA's efforts to not impose a "one size fits all" proposal. Most states, for instance will not have Pennsylvania's close relationship with both the production and burning of coal. The flexibility that has been provided may be the key to successful implementation. However, I am concerned that the nature of and standards for EPA monitoring and evaluation of state plans is not clearly described. Experience with other state delegations of responsibility demonstrates that constant monitoring is absolutely necessary. We will also be monitoring EPA to encourage the most rapid possible movement to finalize and implement these rules. I know personally, having lived only a few miles from the Kingston coal ash spill five years ago. I testified at EPA hearings in both Charlotte and Knoxville (we had to embarass the administration into holding a hearing in the state where the spill happened). We still do not have rules regarding such wastes after five years. The world cannot wait five years for these rules. I close, urging you to hold in your hearts and souls the admonition of Bishop Tutu: "Only those who don't want to listen, only those who want to be blind can't see that we are sitting on a powder keg. If we don't do something urgently, quickly, we won't have a world."

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