Thanks for being here to listen to ordinary people like me. 

My name is Susan Jacobson, and am an economics 

professor at Regis College in North Denver. Climate 

change is real. The organization 350.orghighlights just 

how far beyond the "limits" we have already gone. 

Named for a "safe" level of parts per million of CO2 in the 

atmosphere, it now almost looks laughable. In gay 2013, 

we hit 400 ppm and the line on the chart just keeps 

rising. You don't have to be a scientist to notice. Crazy 

weather - fires, floods, heat, and drought are visible to 

everyone, especially those of us who live in the fragile 

environments of the desert west. I am a member of a 

number of organizations including Great Old Broads for 

Wilderness, Grand Canyon Trust, Conservation Colorado 

and the Sierra Club. These affiliations indicate my deep 

love of the western landscape which will be changed 

dramatically if we don't act. I also, thankfully, am blessed 

with a strong constitution and a good job. But_ I'm not 

here today to testify not for me personally. I'm here to 

testify for all the people who don't come to these 

meetings to speak out because they can't. They are the 

people who are sick or working long hours for minimum 

wage to support families. These are the people who suffer 
the greater costs of inaction on climate change because 

they live and work in the most polluted areas. Others of 

us, the privileged few find ways to buy our way out of the 

problems for now and apparently we haven't yet had the 

wisdom or ethical conscience to think far enough ahead 

to curtail and clean up our consumption and pay our fair 

share of the costs of energy use. just heard last 

week on Colorado Public Radio the director of the 

National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden say that coal is 

still the cheapest source of a kilowatt hour. But 

"cheapest" ignores the huge costs to our environment 

and to our health that are unjustly borne by those who 

are least able. Of course the director of NREL knows this, 

but too many of us focus on "costs" economic costs / 

dollar costs that do not reflect the real costs of our way of 

life. To use Raj Patel's words, coal is not "cheap" energy 

it's "cheat" energy because we are transferring the real 

costs to the less fortunate and to the earth. Let me quote 

from a recent report: "The findings of the Yale University 

research add to evidence of a widening racial and 

economic gap when it comes to air pollution. 

Communities of color and those with low education and 

high poverty and unemployment fac:e greater health risks 
even if their air quality meets federal health standards. 

This is according to the article published online in the 

scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives." 

Cleaning up our economy is about more than clean air for 

those of us who are here to speak out. It's also about 

justice. As Gina McCarthy said, we have a "moral 

obligation to act." A 300/0 reuuction by 2030 as-compared 

to 2005 levels is not only doable but imperative. This is 

not a do or die effort. States may implement the 

regulations using many flexible means and methods over 

time. 

One more issue. People throw out numbers to get 

attention. in the Denver Post this morning I read that the 

American coalition for Clean coal Energy is against 

tougher air quality standards because it will cost 9,000 

mining jobs. 9,000 jobs may sound like a lot, and to the 

9,000 people whose jobs are lost it is. But to put that 

number in context, the US economy created 288,000 jobs 

in June alone - one month. People need jobs, but not just 

any jobs. They need good, sustainable jobs. 

Finally, how do we offset perhaps higher economic costs 

of energy for those least able to pay. We must use 

subsidies for those least able to pay. Rather than ignoring 
the costs to the environment and health that are 

disproportionately pad by those people who are least 

able, we who are able need to bear those costs. 1here's 

no more ignoring reality. It doesn't go away if we turn our 

heads. This is an ethical imperative which we must 

support. 

Thank you for listening. 

LII