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Docket No. EPA-HQ-2011-0660 

Hello, everyone' My name is Christina Morgan, and I am from Hampton Roads, Virginia. 

I am currently a canvasser with the Fund for the Public Interest, working on grassroots 

campaigns for nonprofits such as Environment America. 

I have spent my life feeling passionately about the environment, and have studied and 

explored the natural world with joy from my childhood. My undergraduate studies and 

research within biology and chemistry have given me an in-depth view of many aspects 

of the carbon cycle on planet Earth and the ways that human activities affect that cycle. 

We are all here today essentially discussing those aspects of the carbon cycle- the ways 

that humans, through their power plants in the U.S.A., for example, are shaping the 

destiny and overall experience of billions of people and countless numbers of other 

organisms on the planet. For me, this issue boils down to one major concept: 

responsibility. 

The planet is now more populated by human beings than ever before in recorded history. 

In tandem, our biosphere is more challenged by human impacts than ever before in 

Earth's history. Time ticks by, and we learn daily about the ways that greenhouse gases 

and global warming affect our climate. News stories daily tell us the tales of lives 

destroyed through storms and illnesses that are expected to intensify as carbon release 

into the atmosphere through human activities continues and, tentatively. increases within 

the coming years. 

At this point in the research and experience of the human species, we are at a cross-roads: 

we know the facts, or at least many of them, and have found critical connections of major 

greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to phenomenon like global warming or climate 

change, and we are watching the effects of climate change unfold around us through 

weather and temperature changes, ocean acidification, increased ground-level ozone 

pollution, and all of their dramatic effects on our biosphere. 

When faced by these information and circumstances, I feel that the one choice that we 

have as a species is to stand up for the lives of the many, even if it some times is a bit of 

inconvenience for the few. With knowledge comes great responsibility, and for the United 

States to finally adopt and enforce standards for power plant carbon emissions. with 

power plants leading the way in our nation for anthropogenic sources of carbon release, 

we would truly be acting appropriately in response to the knowledge that we possess on 

this subject. Personally, it would make me more proud to be an American. © 

My family and I have evacuated numerous times from powerful nor'easters and 

hurricanes and felt the impacts of their winds and floodwaters on our homes and 

communities. The older I get, the more I meet youth with respiratory problems and 

asthma tied to air pollution. I have watched as the view in many of my favorite "natural 

spots" in Virginia has been obscured by smog and grey-green haze. As a marine scientist. 
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I have been horrified to learn about the ways that ocean-acidification threatens our 

marine life worldwide. In particular, how phytoplankton (the producers of most of the 

world's oxygen and foundational components to the world's marine ecosystems) are 

threatened by increasingly acidic oceans. as created by more carbon dioxide diffusing 

into Earth's waters. 

I am not prepared to witness humans fail to acknowledge their role in conserving species 

and habitats for humans and non-humans worldwide. Rather, I am ready to see America 

take responsibility for its anthropogenic sources of carbon release into the atmosphere, 

and. so, I support the EPA's proposed standard for carbon pollution from new power 

plants, and I urge the agency to move forward with finalizing these standards this year. I 

also urge the EPA to move quickly to develop standards for existing power plants, 

bringing our nation notably more up-to-date in meeting our biological requirements for 

reduced carbon emissions from such industry. 

Thank you all for your time and efforts on these causes, and here's to a long-lived, 

healthy planet Earth for countless generations of creatures yet to come'