Lara Levison 

Testimony on the proposed Clean Power Plan 

Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602 

July 29, 2014 

Thank you for this opportunity to testify. First let me say that I am testifying as a private citizen, not on 

behalf of my employer, the US Climate Action Network, although I included my employer in my 

registration information. 

Thank you to EPA and the Administration for moving forward with standards to reduce carbon pollution 

from power plants. This is not an easy step, but it's an important and necessary one. Thanks to the 

Clean Air Act, EPA's implementation of the Act, and strong public support, there are limits on mercury, 

arsenic, lead, soot, and other dangerous pollutants from power plants, but not yet on carbon pollution. 

We urgently need limits on carbon pollution, too, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow down 

climate change. 

When I first heard about the greenhouse effect and global warming, I didn't think I would see the effects 

of global warming in my lifetime. Now the effects of global warming are all around us, and the need to 

take action is extremely urgent if we are to protect humanity and the planet from severe consequences. 

I have a few reflections from my personal experience. A couple winters ago, my boyfriend and I 

vacationed in Key West, Florida, for a few days. Most of the buildings in Key West are about three feet 

above sea level, and a sea level rise between 3 and 7 inches is projected for South Florida by 2020, with 

up to 2 feet projected by 2060. We enjoyed the visit to Key West, but I couldn't help feeling that I was 

visiting the mythical city of Atlantis before it sank under the waves. If a hurricane were to hit Key West 

at high tide on a full moon, it would be devastated even now. 

At the other end of Route 1, in the state of Maine where some of my relatives live, snowy winters are 

turning into icy winters, which are much more dangerous and damaging. And in the summer, there are 

clearly more really hot days than when I visited as a kid, and ticks carrying Lyme disease are making their 

way north into areas that didn't have ticks before. Here where I live in the District of Columbia, hot, 

smoggy summer days are becoming more frequent, despite the good weather we are having this July. 

This morning, I ate breakfast with my four-year-old goddaughter, Johanna, who is visiting me for a few 

days, and I wondered what her future will be like as climate change transforms human society and the 

planet. Johanna is in her "princess" phase, and she came to breakfast wearing her tiara, so she has quite 

a rosy view of her own future right now. 

I fear for my goddaughter and her contemporaries. Yet the solutions, both technological and social, are 

at hand. To quote a TV show of my youth, and really date myself, "We have the technolo[Jy." What we 

need to do is overcome the political and institutional barriers to energy efficiency, renewable energy, 

and distributed energy based in our communities, and the technologies will continue developing. 

A good example is the tremendous growth of renewable energy in the state of Iowa. In the 1990s, I 

worked for an organization called the Union of Concerned Scientists, which issued a study called 

"Powering the Midwest" and launched a public education program called "Renewables Are Ready." 

Iowa already had a renewable electricity requirement in law, thanks to a far-sighted state legislator, 

Dave Osterberg, who pushed it through in 1983. 

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Twelve years later, in 1995, the electric utilities serving Iowa were under pressure to comply with the 

law, so they went to the legislature to get the law repealed. My organization joined with renewable 

energy supporters in Iowa to block repeal ofthat law. Now Iowa is a leader nationwide and world-wide 

in wind energy. Renewable energy provided some 3000 to 4000 direct and indirect jobs in the state in 

2013, and leaders across the political spectrum support renewable energy. 

Just as public support and public policy drove renewable energy development in Iowa, the Clean Power 

Plan can drive renewables and efficiency all around the country. I applaud EPA for BSER building blocks 

3 and 4 and encourage EPA to strengthen them. For renewable energy, block three, EPA's assessment 

of renewable energy potential can be significantly higher. Renewables are ready. The 29 states with 

Renewable Portfolio Standards have been achieving renewable targets that increase at 1 to 1.5 percent 

of state retail electricity sales per year. US wind power capacity has more than tripled since 2007. 

US solar photovoltaics capacity has increased nearly ten-fold since 2009. We are on the verge of a solar 

power revolution. The vehemence with which electric utilities and fossil fuel companies are fighting 

distributed solar power is an indicator of the potential it has to displace polluting, centralized power 

stations with distributed solar power that is clean, safe, reliable, and affordable. 

Electric utility companies and fossil fuel interests are fighting clean energy because they want to protect 

their profits. They give lip service to protecting jobs, but we should all know by now that corporations 

protect their shareholders, not their workers. Although EPA doesn't have the authority to assist 

displaced workers, the Administration should use its authorities through all appropriate laws and 

agencies to do so. 

For BSER Block 4 on energy efficiency, EPA has rightly recognized that energy efficiency is the most costeffective resource to reduce emissions. This building block should also be strengthened. EPA set the 

annual state efficiency targets at 1.5 percent, but utility energy efficiency programs have been 

demonstrated to deliver over 2 percent in annual energy savings. Other opportunities for energy 

efficiency, including transmission and distribution system efficiency, should also be included. 

Sustainable energy technologies can help transform our society to a healthier and more equitable one 

by providing community jobs, cleaning up the air, reducing energy costs, and turning over the 

generation of electrical power to families, churches, and schools. I encourage EPA to examine this draft 

rule through an environmental justice lens, to ensure that this standard is designed to maximize its 

benefits for all Americans, including frontline communities located next to polluting power plants. 

Finally, in light of the global challenge of climate change, I encourage EPA to increase the total emissions 

reductions under the Clean Power Plan. The goal of the Clean Power Plan should be to reduce emissions 

by 30 to 45 percent below 2005 emissions by the year 2020. 

My four-year-old goddaughter and her friends are counting on you. So is my 14-year-old niece, Antonia, 

though she would be deeply mortified if she knew I had mentioned her. 

Thank you for considering my views. 

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