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Citizen Comment on EPA Clean Power Plan 

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

Pittsburgh, PA 

Submitted by Susan C. Edwards 

32 College Ave., Swarthmore PA 19081 

I see our society and economy as having reached a crossroads. We can ignore the warnings 

of the overwhelming majority of scientists and choose the path of business as usual, burning 

fossil fuels to run our vehicles, heat and cool our buildings, manufacture products, and create 

electricity. I believe this path leads to pollution, illness, and a dangerous alteration of the 

climate of our entire planet. OR we can take charge of our situation and, for the first time in 

human history, consciously design together a rational energy future. 

I believe the first path represents putting our heads in the sand and hoping against hope that 

the scientists are wrong, while the second path means keeping our eyes wide open and using 

our best minds to plan energy production and distribution, not allowing the profit calculations 

of a few owners of coal and oil reserves to drag all of us to the brink of destruction and 

beyond. 

I applaud the EPA's proposal to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. I am li( retired 

now, and I am devoting many hours each week to volunteering with environmental groups 

because I see the issue of human-caused planetary warming and the resulting chaotic effects 

on our climate as the most crucial issue of our times. I believe we need to take strong action 

(1) to increase the efficiency of all our forms of energy use and (2) to reduce fossil fuel 

consumption and replace it with clean, sustainable energy sources. I think the Clean Power 

Plan is a step in the right direction. There is a caveat: I do hope the EPA will reconsider 

including nuclear energy and natural gas as alternatives to be encouraged. The problems of 

nuclear waste storage, the pollution from uranium mining, and the immense water usage in 

nuclear plants are all reasons to exclude it and focus on developing efficiency measures and 

expanding wind, solar, and geothermal electricity generation and storage. And while natural 

gas may burn cleaner than other fossil fuels, the problem of methane leakage during fracking 

as well as pollution of air and water make it highly problematic. We should be focusing 

investment dollars on long-term sustainability, that is efficiency first, then solar, wind, and 

geothermal power. 

The benefits of reducing carbon emissions will not only be to ameliorate climate change but 

also to improve public health as we clean up our air and water. I live close to the city of 

Philadelphia. Philadelphia's African American children are afflicted with asthma at twice the 

national rate. Nearly one in four, and in some areas, one in three African American children 

in Philadelphia suffer from asthma, which has been linked to ozone and rising temperatures. 

These children deserve an environment in which they won't have to miss school days and can 

play outside without being sickened. 

One final but most important note: some try to pit environmental protection as Jobs Versus 

the Environment. I think it can be Jobs For the Environment. I fully understand, I think, the 
anxiety associated with a transition to a clean energy future. People will have to leave behind 

the jobs associated with our current energy infrastructure. They will be looking for help 

getting retrained, if need be, and finding work in the many avenues that will open up, from 

retrofitting buildings to manufacturing and installing wind turbines and solar panels, as well 

as many other jobs that will be needed. I say I think I understand because my husband is a 

retired UAW member and former local union officer; and I was at one time a union shop 

steward. I was laid off in the 1982 economic downturn, and eventually found other work. 

My husband, a highly skilled machinist who could trim metal parts to within a few ten 

thousandths of an inch, saw the machines on which he earned a livelihood sold to companies 

overseas. He had to switch to assembly work, a huge change in his life. So I appreciate the 

wrenching that will come with shifting from dirty to clean energy production and leaving fossil 

fuels in the ground. 

I hope that under the Clean Power Plan, states will emphasize increasing renewable energy 

sources and increasing energy efficiency, both of which create more than 3 times the number 

of jobs per dollar spent than any of the fossil fuels. And salaries for clean jobs are nearly 

$8,000 higher than other wages.; 

I support a strong and just Clean Power Plan. So I commit to using my energies to advocate 

as strongly as I know how for a just transition to good-paying union level jobs in the new 

energy economy. And disadvantaged communities must receive fair access to clean energyrelated economic opportunities, so they must be at the table as plans are made. 

Thank you for listening to my testimony. 

Source: 

1 Adam James, Fact Sheet: 6 Things You Should Know About the Value of Renewable Energy, Climate Progress (2012). 

Available online at http://thinkprogress.org/climate/20 12/03.i28/-t53 122/fact-sheet -6-things-you-should-know-about -thc-

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