As of October 23, the Environmental Protection Agency is holding 11 Public Listening Sessions across the country to solicit ideas and input from the public about the best approaches to reducing carbon pollution from existing power plants. President Obama has tasked the EPA with coming up with regulations for these plants by next summer.

One of those sessions will take place all day Thursday, November 7 in Washington, D.C. at the national EPA headquarters, 1201 Constitution Avenue. CCAN has joined with other groups in the DC area to mobilize people to testify at this hearing. If you are interested in doing so, contact me at ted@chesapeakeclimate.org and I can give you the necessary information and support.
It is a hopeful and positive development that President Obama in his second term is speaking up and taking action on climate, and this initiative by the EPA is the latest indicator of this commitment. It’s an important initiative given the current preponderance of climate denier types in Congress. Strong regulation of power plants, as required under the Clean Air Act, is an important front right now in our campaign to move from fossil fuels to renewables. Power plants are responsible for 40% of all of the carbon pollution created in the USA.
There are many things to be said to the EPA in these hearings. We should support their initiative and oppose the efforts of the fossil fuel industry to weaken it. We should support the need to get off fossil fuels and onto a renewable energy path. We should talk about the job-creating potential of renewable and energy efficiency programs. We should link the cleaning up of carbon pollution with the cleaning up of our polluted air and water. And, very importantly, we should call for the EPA to require reductions in emissions from not just coal-fired plants but also natural gas-fired plants.
If you are interested in testifying, contact me at ted@chesapeakeclimate.org. All who care deeply about our threatened climate are eligible, and encouraged, to testify.