At public hearings in Chicago and Washington, D.C. today, supporters, public health officials, and scientists are testifying in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Carbon Pollution Standard, the first-ever limit on life-threatening carbon pollution from power plants.

Thousands of Americans have already spoken out via email in support of these standards to protect our health and clean our air, and now hundreds more will do it in person at these hearings.

This morning I spoke at the Washington, DC, hearing. I want to share that testimony with you and encourage you to follow along with the hearings online to both voice your support and to see the support from Americans nationwide.

(Also, looks like the coal industry is still paying people to say they support coal - look at how they paid people to wear pro-coal shirts to the Chicago hearing)

Here’s what I said to the EPA this morning:

A version of this post originally appeared on Compass, a Sierra Club blog.

As the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, I have to do a lot of traveling, which means spending more time than I would like away from my 2-year-old daughter, Hazel. Just the other day, I got home from a trip to find Hazel and her dad pretty exhausted after three days without Mom. I hope that someday, she’ll understand that I had to be away sometimes because I was working hard to protect her from the pollution that is a very real threat to her future.

For Hazel, I hope when she’s my age that the air and water are clean and safe, the mountains of her home state of West Virginia are still standing, and the threat of climate disruption has passed. I think that future is within our grasp, thanks to the work we are doing to move America beyond coal.

MSU students protest the school's inadequate Energy Transition Plan.

Nationwide, students are leading the way in pushing their universities and colleges to invest in innovative clean energy solutions. There is a growing momentum on college campuses to move our nation off dirty, 19th^-century fuels that are making people sick.

Twenty colleges and universities have won fights to phase out coal plants on their campuses, thanks in large part to the hard-hitting Campuses Beyond Coal campaigns of Sierra Student Coalition. These plants are responsible for dangerous pollution, including mercury, carbon dioxide, arsenic, and lead, and can lead to more severe asthma attacks, bronchial infections, and cancer.

Students can help reinvent the American economy by pressuring school administrations to invest in clean, safe, and reliable energy on campuses from California to Connecticut. Here’s the latest example of this amazing work by students -- from Michigan State University and Sierra Student Coalition Organizer Anastasia Schemkes:

Today, our nation is taking a historic step for our health and our children’s future. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Obama administration have just announced new carbon pollution safeguards that will protect clean air and the planet, while also spurring innovation and creating jobs in the clean energy economy. Carbon pollution is linked to life-threatening air pollution like the smog that triggers asthma attacks, and it is the main contributor to climate disruption -- making it a serious hazard to Americans’ health and future. EPA today established new proposed safeguards under the Clean Air Act to protect Americans …

As aging coal plants retire, Sierra Club activists, members, and allies nationwide are doing innovative, exciting work to replace that power with clean energy. Americans know we must end our dependence on fossil fuels to provide cleaner, healthier air. We also know that clean energy innovation is powering economic growth and creating new jobs in this country every day. These recent highlights from the Midwest are just a small sample of the groundswell of the homegrown support for clean energy that is sweeping the nation. In Western Michigan last week, more than 170 people turned out for a wind energy …

As coal use drops dramatically in the U.S. and clean energy continues to grow, King Coal is looking for new customers. The coal industry is now pursuing its corporate profits via coal exports at the expense of the health, safety, and quality of life of thousands of families in several states, including Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Right now, several major coal companies are proposing to develop Northwest ports to export coal from the Powder River Basin to Asia; including ports at Cherry Point, Wash.; Longview, Wash.; Grays Harbor, Wash.; Coos Bay, Ore.; St. Helens, Ore.; and Port of Morrow, …

We are more thankful than ever for the recent mercury and air toxics protections released by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson and the Obama administration. Unfortunately -- but not surprisingly -- some polluters filed legal challenges to the new mercury protections on the very day they went into effect. While some are attacking these standards on behalf of big polluters like the coal industry, we are joined by hundreds of thousands of Americans who want these protections to keep them safe from mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants, such as arsenic, nickel, selenium, cyanide, and …

Actions like this one last year at Chicago's Crawford coal plant finally achieved their goal of shutting the plant down. (Photo by Rainforest Action Network.) Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign joined with allies to mark the 100th coal plant retirement announced since January 2010. The Crawford coal plant in Chicago, Ill., became the 100th coal plant to set plans to retire. This Midwest Generation-owned plant is one of nine coal-fired plants from Chicago to Pennsylvania that announced plans to retire today. You can learn more about the Chicago plants in my column from earlier today, and about the seven GenOn …