Collegians from Georgia State University testified on Wednesday October 23, 2013 at the EPA “Listening Session” on their newly proposed green house gas regulations on existing coal fueled power plants. What the EPA heard was that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, that the rules are based on faulty climate models, and that the new regulations will do far more to harm human health, welfare and the environment.Georgia State Collegian Chapter leader Jeff Copeland warned, “We believe EPA’s proposed regulations on coal power plants are going to kill jobs, shut down factories, companies and industries and hurt our future. That’s simply unacceptable.”
Copeland also discussed previous Collegian surveys on the use of coal for power, “CFACT has run polls on several campuses in recent years and found student support for coal power electricity generation to be upwards of 75% in every case.”
Georgia State Collegian member Josh Thomas urged the EPA to keep some perspective about carbon dioxide, stating “the total human contribution is only four percent of all the carbon dioxide that goes into our atmosphere every year. On top of that, the United States contributes only three percent of all the human carbon dioxide – three percent of the four percent that humans contribute. That means Americans are responsible for one tenth of one percent of all the CO2 that goes into the atmosphere every year.”
CFACT Coordinator Rob Harrelson attacked the basis of the new regulations, arguing, “Almost everybody, even the IPCC, now recognizes that average atmospheric temperatures have not changed for sixteen years – when the models, and EPA, said planetary temperatures would keep going higher and higher.”
Harrelson concluded that, “Real science says you change your hypothesis and model if actual facts don’t back them up. What EPA is doing is political science – politics dictating science. That’s wrong.”
Copeland pointed out the disastrous effects of similar policies in Europe, “In England electricity prices have doubled since 2005. In Germany, ratepayers are spending three times more for their electricity than we are here. And in Spain, which was perhaps the most aggressive country investing in wind and solar power, unemployment is now at 26 percent.”
Thomas ended by saying, “For EPA to demand that we slash our use and pay more for the fossil fuels that supply eighty percent of all the energy that makes our nation’s jobs, living standards, health and welfare possible, is wrong and counterproductive.”
The EPA will be holding several more “Listening Sessions” in the coming days and CFACT’s collegians will be at many of them. The upcoming session which are open to the public for comment are:
DATE: Wednesday, October 30, 2013
TIME: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm MDT (last 2 hours for call ins)
EPA REGION & LOCATION:
US EPA Region 8
1595 Wynkoop Street
Denver, CODATE: Monday, November 4, 2013
TIME: 4:00 – 8:00 pm CST
EPA REGION & LOCATION:
US EPA Region 7
11201 Renner Blvd.
Lenexa, KSDATE: Tuesday, November 5, 2013
TIME: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
EPA REGION & LOCATION:
US EPA Region 9
75 Hawthorne St.
San Francisco, CADATE: Thursday, November 7, 2013
TIME: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm EST
LOCATION:
US EPA Headquarters
William Jefferson Clinton East
1201 Constitution Ave.
Washington, DCDATE: Thursday, November 7, 2013
TIME: 10:00 am – 3:00 pm CST
EPA REGION & LOCATION:
US EPA Region 6
Auditorium- 1st floor
J. Erik Jonsson Central Library
1515 Young St.
Dallas, TXDATE: Thursday, November 7, 2013
TIME: 3:00 – 6:00 pm PST
EPA REGION & LOCATION:
US EPA Region 10
Jackson Federal Bldg.
915 Second Ave.
Seattle, WADATE: November 8, 2013
TIME: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm CST
EPA REGION & LOCATION:
US EPA Region 5
Metcalfe Federal Building
Lake Michigan Room
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL
EPA Commissioners hear CFACT’s Collegians at Listening Session
