Listening sessions held by the Department of Environmental Protection around the state are gathering comments on EPA’s Clean Power Climate Plan to help Pennsylvania develop a plan for meeting those requirements.
Michael Hanlon, Greene County resident and volunteer for Americans for Prosperity, presented these comments on his own behalf at the September 30 session--
Hello, my name is Michael Hanlon and I am a small business owners, a volunteer for Americans for Prosperity, a father of a 4 year old and 19 month old twin girls. I am an avid outdoorsman like many here in Green County, love my kids, and want to ensure the future is as bright as possible for them and their kids.
I am here tonight as a concerned citizen who felt compelled to speak due to the testimonies I heard last evening at Carnegie Mellon.
I care as much for the environment as anyone out there, but what separates my views from the many I heard last night is in the fact I put my emotions aside, rationally think about the consequences, and believe we should take our time to weigh the options available to us.
For those of you who weren’t in attendance, I would like to summarize the testimonies that I heard, basically unless we give the EPA full authority to impose their regulations we are killing unborn babies, destroying the hemlock tree in Pennsylvania, and should kiss streams and lakes goodbye.
We all should install solar panels on our roofs; push for wind turbines across the land and agree that CO2 emissions from coal generated power plants is the worst environmental destroyer we have ever known.
We had our heart strings tugged by the beautiful baby girl the young mother held as she gave her testimony, heard about the recent autism diagnosis due to particulate matter in the air from coal plants; and learned that a gentleman will not have to pay for electricity for 20 or more years due to his solar panels.
What we didn’t hear is that wind turbines produce slightly more particulate matter at a rate per unit of energy generated higher than fossil fuels and at the figures I found for installing a solar system that generates 5KW of energy, the amount the gentleman said his home produces, costs between $25,000-$35,000. Even if subsidies paid for half of his installation it would take over 20 years to pay for itself. So honestly he basically prepaid for 20 years of electricity and is not saving the planet or any money.
Let me start with stating I fully support John Pippy’s proposal [PA Coal Alliance] for a 2-year extension in order to conduct our due diligence and allow for more voices to be heard. A plan of this magnitude that affects all of us in one way or another and especially those who risk losing their jobs and livelihood from this plan cannot be possibly drafted in less than a year’s time and ready by September 6 deadline.
We all know the outcome of the rushing the Affordable Care Act through the legislature and imposing it on the American public.
Not to get off topic but one reason I am passionate about this issue is because the Affordable Care Act single handedly destroyed my successful chiropractic practice and I cannot sit idly by and see thousands of others possible lose their jobs by continued government overreach.
Next let’s dive into some facts and statements from the EPA itself. During the July 2015 Congressional hearing Representative Lamar Smith challenged EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on the impact of the plan on climate change.
Representative Smith quoted former EPA Assistant Secretary under Obama as saying the plan would at most reduce the global temperature by 1/100 of a degree Celsius. McCarthy responded by saying that the value of the plan can’t be measured that way.
The plan’s goal aims to prod other nations to reduce their emissions and trigger investment in technological innovations that also will reduce emissions. The value of the plan is in showing strong domestic action which can trigger global action and she went on to say I am not disagreeing that this action in and of itself will not make all the difference we need to address climate action.
But what I am saying is if we don’t take action domestically we will never get started. This sounds like one hell of a risky experiment to see if we can get other countries to do what we believe is the right thing when in fact the opposite is actually occurring.
Five or the 7 richest countries in the world are actually increasing the amount of coal burned and planning to further increase construction of coal fired power stations. These countries include the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan and France.
Also India’s coal consumption increased by 11.1 percent and production by 6.4 percent-- the largest increments to global demand and supply of coal.
More alarming is the fact that China is building one coal-fired power plant every 7 to 10 days, while Japan plans to build 43 coal-fired power projects to replace its shuttered nuclear units from the tsunami a few years ago.
Next, we are told that this plan will greatly benefit the low and middle income families and it is our moral obligation to switch to renewable sources to achieve this.
Taken from the EPA website; because the Clean Power Plan will reduce energy waste and improve efficiency we can expect on average electricity bills will be cut by 7 percent. That means by 2030 the average family will save $7 a month!
I don’t know about you, but I don’t think $84 a year is going to jump start our economy, or transform low and middle income lives.
Other studies have actually shown electric bills could rise on average of 14 percent for the average Pennsylvanian.
The fact that this projection is being heralded as a success really scares the hell out of me.
The Black Chamber of Commerce found that by 2030 the Clean Power Plan will lead to $565 billion, with a B, in higher electric costs and higher electric costs doesn’t just mean a higher utility bill, it’s higher prices on food, clothing, and every other good from a store that uses electricity.
In conclusion, I believe in time technological innovations will allow us to utilize renewable energy sources and I am all for it, but the reality is we are not there yet and by imposing regulations today that impact our most efficient, reliable and cost effective sources of power today we are setting ourselves up for more economic hardships and continue to fall behind other advancing countries.
When wind, solar and other energy sources become reliable then the market will decide to utilize them and prices will come down. We simply can’t afford to shut down our reliable sources at this time for more expensive and less reliable sources with minuscule environmental benefits.
This is why we need to slow down and properly assess the effects of every proposal in order to make the best decision moving forward.
For those of you out there who don’t believe your voice will be heard I have a suggestion for you. Contact your state representatives and senators and demand PA join with the 17 other states suing the EPA over this plan and demand legislation that would allow PA to opt out of the Clean Power Plan regulations if they can prove it will disproportionately harm low/fixed income vulnerable households, costs jobs, harm the economy or risk electric reliability.
A complete copy of Hanlon’s comments is available online.
For more information and a schedule of the remaining sessions, visit DEP’s Climate Change webpage. Comments on the Clean Power Plan can be submitted online. Click Here to see comments submitted by others so far.
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