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. 

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Reducing 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." 

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Climate 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 

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became 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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