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:

Good morning. My name is Mary Anne Hitt. I’m a mother, a concerned citizen, and the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. I live in West Virginia with my family, and because my husband is traveling on business this week, I am joined today by my two-year-old daughter, Hazel. Hopefully, her patience will match the length of my remarks this morning. We will see.

I’m here today to voice my full support for the EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standard.

A decade ago, there were over 200 proposed coal-fired power plants on the drawing board nationwide. Fast forward to today, ten years later, and only a handful of those plants have been built. Why?

Some were rejected by moms, dads, small business owners, and other local residents who feared a major new industrial polluter in their backyard would harm their children’s health, destroy their property values, and trap them in a town or neighborhood condemned to a downward spiral of pollution and poverty.

Some were rejected by governors, who wanted their states to be clean energy leaders in the 21^st century, and thought major new investments in coal would take their state in exactly the wrong direction.

Some were rejected by state regulators, who feared that ratepayers would pay dearly on their electric bills if their state became locked into high carbon energy for the next fifty plus years.

And some were rejected by financial backers, who realized that these projects were an increasingly bad bet, because they simply could not compete with the rapidly dropping prices of cleaner sources of energy.

As a result, only one new coal-fired power plant has broken ground in the US since 2008, and the permit for that project was recently struck down in a unanimous decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

During this same decade, in 2009, the EPA issued its finding that carbon pollution endangers public health and welfare. As I just noted, Americans of all walks of life were simultaneously reaching the same conclusion – from financiers to governors, from state regulators to local moms and dads.

In issuing this proposed carbon pollution standard, the EPA has taken an important step to safeguard our health and our families.   As I’m sure you will hear many times today, carbon pollution has been linked by scientists to increasing temperatures and increasing levels of smog, which triggers asthma attacks and other life-threatening health problems.

But carbon pollution doesn’t just threaten our children’s health today. As the main cause of climate disruption, carbon pollution casts a dark shadow over every aspect of their future, a future menaced by the threat of increasing droughts, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and rising sea levels, not to mention the resulting political instability around the world.

My daughter Hazel is the light of my life. She is learning to sing, she never wants to come inside, and one of her favorite things is wandering around the alleys of our small town looking for cats. She is also an 11^th generation West Virginian, through her father. With our deep Appalachian roots, we understand all too well the challenges that the clean energy future poses to some parts of our country. But I believe we have the ingenuity and know-how to tackle those challenges. Here is how the largest newspaper in West Virginia, the Charleston Gazette, put it in their editorial this past Sunday:

This topic [climate change] has special resonance in West Virginia, a fossil fuel treasure trove. And what happens here has a special impact on the future of the planet. Pollution controls seeking to reduce global warming are sure to impose tighter restrictions on coal and natural gas. West Virginia’s energy should not be squandered on a shortsighted attempt to protect the status quo, or to discredit science in the public’s eyes, or to vilify the Obama administration’s very reasonable proposal that new coal-fired power plants be required to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

The EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standard is a common-sense step towards addressing a very real threat to this nation, and to the future that my daughter, and all our children, will inherit. If anything, the EPA is arriving late in the game, following in the footsteps of community leaders, governors, state regulators, and financiers who all realized, in the past decade, that new power plants in this country must deal with their carbon pollution. I support the proposed standard, and I encourage you to finalize it with all due haste. Thank you.

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

It’s amazing how much can change in a year. At this time in 2011, we were testing our hair for mercury as a way to encourage the Environmental Protection Agency to adopt strong mercury pollution protections — which the agency did. I was also celebrating generating my first clean kilowatt of energy from brand new solar panels on my home.

A mere one year later, some jaw-dropping numbers have just come in: In the first quarter of 2012, coal made up just 36 percent of U.S. electricity generation — down from nearly 45 percent from the same period in 2011. That’s a 9 percent drop in U.S. coal use in just one year.

The report, released this week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), had even more bad news for big polluters. Electricity generation from coal may drop another 14 percent this year. The EIA also believes coal production will decline 10 percent in 2012.

Meanwhile, wind energy is thriving. In the first quarter of 2012, the U.S. installed 1,695 megawatts of wind, one of the industry’s best quarters ever, up 53 percent from the same time last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Wind projects are creating jobs and economic opportunity across the country, with 32 new projects installed in 17 states in the first quarter alone.

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.

In the past year, we celebrated a historic victory that brought us much closer to that cleaner, safer future, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the first-ever national mercury standards for coal-fired power plants. Believe it or not, while coal plants are our nation’s No. 1 source of mercury pollution, until this year, there were no national mercury standards in place for coal plants. None at all! Coal plants could just spew 100 percent of their toxic mercury into the air, which then made its way into our waterways and the fish that we eat.

These protections are long overdue, and will safeguard our families. According to the EPA, every year over 300,000 babies are born exposed to high enough levels of mercury to put them at risk of developmental problems, like lowered IQ and delays in walking and talking — problems that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Babies come into contact with this toxic mercury if their mothers eat a lot of certain species of fish, even before they become pregnant.

I was one of hundreds of thousands of moms and dads who worked hard to secure these new mercury protections, which were finalized in January. Now these safeguards are under attack, and we have to defend them.

Unfortunately, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is preparing to file a measure in Congress that would not only stop these mercury protections, but would also prevent the EPA from ever taking action on mercury again. Yes, you heard that right.

This Mother’s Day, my wish is that you will join me in taking action to defend these crucial mercury protections. I know all you moms and dads out there are busy, so we’ve made it simple for you — just click here to send a note to your senator. Our kids are counting on us, so it’s time to speak up in defense of these long-overdue safeguards from toxic mercury pollution.

Thank you. And happy Mother’s Day!

Photo by Alan Goya.

I want to share a story with you about an amazing event that took place this past Earth Day. For three days, in 100+ degree heat, Native Americans led a50-mile march to draw attention to the devastating effects of coal pollution on their community

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:

Michigan State University (MSU) operates the largest coal plant on a university campus in the nation, burning approximately 200,000 tons of coal per year. Fortunately for us, it also has one of the largest Campuses Beyond Coal campaigns in the nation, with MSU Beyond Coal, which has collected over 10,000 petition signatures to retire the dirty, aging plant over the course of their two-and-a-half-year campaign.

As a result of student pressure, the university released an “Energy Transition Plan” this semester that is meant to be its road map toward cleaner energy for the campus. Unfortunately, the plan lacks, well, any real plan at all. In many ways the ETP is a smokescreen for furthering fossil fuel use at the school while talking a lot about clean energy in only vaguest terms.

Students have responded with action, especially as the plan is headed to the Board of Trustees for approval. Along with an 18-foot-tall (yes, close to two stories!) inflatable inhaler, students held a press conference today about the negative health impacts of burning coal.

“I know firsthand how awful it is to have an asthma attack so bad that I’ve been hospitalized and stuck in a bed with machines helping me breathe, rather than being in class or out with friends,” said senior and leader of MSU Beyond Coal Talya Tavor, who has been suffering from asthma since she was 2 years old. “Coal causes hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks every year, which is why MSU must be a leader by cutting their toxic air pollution and switching to healthier energy sources starting now.”

In addition to the inhaler sitting just behind “The Rock” — an iconic campus landmark they had to camp out all night to paint and defend — the group created a field of 37 10-foot-tall sunflowers to represent the 37 deaths per year in Ingham County from coal-related illnesses, and a banner representing the 10,547 student petitions the group has collected asking the administration to retire the dirty coal-burning plant on campus.

Later tonight they’re hosting a Clean Energy Forum with energy experts from across the state discussing how Michigan can create jobs and improve the economy by being a clean energy leader. They’ll also be joined by Bill McKibben, renowned author and activist who you might know from 350.org or those massive protests against the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline, who is Skyping in to cheer them on. (You can catch a live stream of the event starting at 7 p.m. EST.)

All of this is leading up to the Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, where the administration will formally present its deeply flawed plan. It’s so bad that the students who were initially invited to participate in the Steering Committee refused to sign off on the final version.

Michigan State has a long way to go to be a clean energy leader, but students are still hopeful.

“We know MSU can be a clean energy leader. Our vision is not just for cleaner air on campus, but to put Spartans at the forefront of building a prosperous clean energy economy for Michigan and being a model for our peer institutions,” said Tavor.

And you can help — take action today by signing a petition to the university’s Board of Trustees urging them to take real steps to move MSU to 100 percent clean energy starting now.

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 from dangerous carbon pollution produced by new coal plants.

These standards will protect Americans’ health, our economy, and the future of our children from carbon’s threats. Before today, there were no limits on the amount of carbon being spewed into the air by the nation’s largest sources of carbon pollution: dirty coal-fired power plants.

Concerned about these dangers, Americans have repeatedly said no to new coal-fired power plants for the past decade, defeating 166 proposed coal plants across the nation. Now, as the Sierra Club’s executive director, Michael Brune, said today in a press statement, “These first-ever carbon pollution standards for new power plants mean that business as usual for the nation’s biggest sources of carbon pollution, dirty coal-burning utilities, is over.”

As I’ve said before, a growing body of scientific evidence shows that warming temperatures caused by industrial carbon pollution pose a number of threats to our health and families, including worsening smog pollution, which in turn triggers asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses.

Doctors, nurses, scientists, and other experts say that this increased smog pollution is especially dangerous for children because it permanently damages and reduces the function of children’s lungs — a major concern for all my fellow parents out there.

These new air quality protections are a historic step forward in allowing EPA to focus on the industries that create the lion’s share of the nation’s carbon pollution, because it is time to hold big polluters accountable for the pollutants they spew into our air.

Over 120 health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Lung Association, American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, American Thoracic Society, and others are on record stating:

Climate change is a serious public health issue. As temperatures rise, more Americans will be exposed to conditions that can result in illness and death due to respiratory illness, heat- and weather-related stress, and disease carried by insects. These health issues are likely to have the greatest impact on our most vulnerable communities, including children, older adults, those with serious health conditions, and the most economically disadvantaged.

Clean Air Act protections like these also spur innovation and modernization in our energy sector, creating much-needed jobs, protecting public health, and tackling climate disruption. Countries around the world are racing to see who will lead the clean energy future, and we cannot afford to let American fall behind. These new protections will help ensure our nation is leading the way in developing the cutting-edge clean energy technologies of the 21^st century.

Every family has the right to breathe clean air, free from the toxic pollution that has taken too many lives and destroyed too many communities. We cannot accept more dirty coal while our friends and family miss days of school and work, ending up in the emergency room instead. Or while American workers remain off the job, when clean energy projects could create thousands of sustainable careers. Or while the fate of our planet hangs in the balance, as global temperatures rise.

By establishing carbon pollution protections, the EPA is moving forward to clean up and modernize the way we power our country — a move that will make for healthier kids, families, and workers, while creating much-needed jobs and fighting climate disruption.

In Western Michigan last week, more than 170 people turned out for a wind energy public forum held by the local Sierra Club chapter and more than a dozen other businesses and nonprofits. The crowd listened to speakers like this one talk about wind power’s benefits for that region, which includes everything from pollution-free electricity, to job creation:

A wind turbine is made of more than 8,000 parts, said Sue Browne, program manager for BlueGreen Alliance Michigan. The alliance works to expand the number and quality of jobs in a “green” economy. Manufacturing wind turbines will bring both, Browne said. The process employs a variety of professions, from iron workers to electricians, she said.

This wind power event came on the heels of last month’s report by the Michigan Public Service Commission regarding the state’s development of clean energy and also the future viability of coal as a source of energy. The report shows Michigan’s renewable energy standard is directly sparking Michigan’s economy, generating $100 million in investments, spurring manufacturing and business growth, and creating jobs.

In Michigan, not only is the state’s renewable energy standard creating jobs and generating millions of dollars of investment, but the ongoing movement for clean energy has also meant that some renewable sources of energy – particularly wind power – are now cheaper than coal.

Also last week, the Sierra Club North Star Chapter in Minnesota delivered to Governor Mark Dayton more than 6,000 postcards calling for more solar power and clean energy.

“It was a real team effort collecting these cards, with over 150 volunteers helping out since 2010,” says Sierra Club volunteer Stephanie Spitzer, who helped coordinate the delivery.

The Sierra Club is part of the Solar Works for Minnesota coalition, a group of businesses, consumers, labor groups, the solar industry, and clean energy advocates working to establish a Solar Energy Standard, with 10 percent of the state’s electricity coming from solar by 2030. The Club is pushing for state agencies to achieve that goal by 2025.

The North Star Chapter is also working with solar installers to teach the public about what it takes to install solar at your home or office. This month’s workshop is in Edina, Minnesota, where clean energy financing is available for businesses.

Finally, in Wisconsin last month, the Sierra Club John Muir Chapter hosted a Great Lakes wind stakeholder conference connecting potential supply chain businesses, local technical colleges, utility representative, labor, elected officials and environmentalists. Topics ranged from the economic opportunity of offshore wind for Wisconsin to responsible siting considerations. From the conference, a working group formed to continue exploring this clean energy opportunity.

And these are just three examples from the Midwest. All these events nationwide add up to a groundswell of support for clean energy. Americans see the benefits of clean energy and know it’s time to make the switch.

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, Ore. You can see a map of the proposed ports here.

Coal exports could make thousands of Northwest residents sick with serious respiratory health problems in cities along the rail line, while fouling the air and water that farms and Main Street businesses depend on. For residents in Montana who have been battling the effects of coal mining in the Powder River Basin, the idea of coal companies tightening their grip on their resources and quality of life to tap international markets is particularly threatening.

Millennium Bulk Terminals’ recent permit application for Longview, Wash., proposes exporting 44 million tons of coal annually, making it the largest coal terminal on the West Coast. In February 2011, the company was exposed for deceiving Washington state officials about the amount of coal to be exported from the Longview terminal — although the company originally claimed they would only export 5 million tons of coal per year, news coverage revealed they actually planned to ship up to 60 million tons per year. Decision makers sent them back to the drawing board, and now they’re pushing for the terminal yet again.

Another active coal export proposal is at Cherry Point near Bellingham, Wash., where SSA Marine’s Gateway Pacific Terminal would handle up to 48 million tons of coal annually. The health and environmental effects would be drastic in this beautiful coastal area north of Puget Sound, as coal piles and massive diesel tanker ships contaminate waterways and devastate local fishing and tourism industries.

Meanwhile, three other questionable coal export proposals are active in Oregon and Washington. In these projects, the coal companies are trying to bypass the public permitting process by negotiating with municipalities without public comment or input.

The International Port of Coos Bay in Oregon has been especially secretive, keeping coal export development plans behind closed doors. The Sierra Club recently filed a legal challenge in order to obtain more information about the plan.  The Port of Coos Bay has already secured a state dredging permit, which would be the largest in state history and could devastate local oyster farming and fishing industries.

We can’t let coal companies make huge profits at the expense of these communities’ public health, economies, and environment — not to mention at the expense of climate disruption on our planet as they export U.S. coal for others to burn, polluting communities every step of the way, including those living near huge power plants abroad.

This summer, officials from local counties, the Washington State Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are collaborating on a statewide environmental review process of these proposals. It’s critical that Northwest leadership ensure state and federal agencies fully analyze all the health and environmental impacts of exporting coal from the Powder River Basin through any Northwest Port.

The Sierra Club’s “Coal-Free Northwest” campaign and the Power Past Coal Coalition are mounting an effort to ensure that public agencies fully and fairly consider impacts on communities across the region in their permitting process for the coal export terminals at Cherry Point and Longview — and beyond.

We are determined to stop these dirty coal exports across the region and instead build a clean energy future that protects the Pacific Northwest’s environment, health, and economy.

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 acid gases. Some of those grateful Americans are featured in this thank you video we’re releasing today — I hope you’ll check it out:

As a mom, I’m especially aware that mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin, poses a particular threat to pregnant women and young children. Exposure affects a developing child’s ability to walk, talk, read, write, and learn. The Centers for Disease Control, along with EPA, estimate that as many as one in six women of childbearing age have high enough mercury levels in their blood to harm a developing fetus. Additionally, this protection will reduce exposure to a host of other health-threatening toxics.

These strong new standards will ensure that more than 90 percent of the mercury from coal-burning plants is cleaned up, and each year will prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks.

Now we are on the verge of seeing EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standards. Carbon pollution poses serious threats to Americans’ health, our economy, and the future of our children, but there are currently no federal limits on the amount of carbon being spewed into the air by the nation’s largest sources of carbon pollution — dirty coal-fired power plants.

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that warming temperatures caused by industrial carbon pollution worsen smog pollution, which in turn triggers asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses. Doctors, nurses, scientists, and other experts say that this increased smog pollution is especially dangerous for children because it permanently damages and reduces the function of children’s lungs — again, a major concern for all my fellow parents out there.

And of course, as with the mercury safeguards, big polluters are lining up in advance to challenge these protections. In response, we started running a new TV ad this week in several states that asks this simple question: What if polluter lobbyists in Washington were replaced with asthmatic children?

We support strong clean air standards that will safeguard our health, our families, and our planet. Clean, healthy air and water are fundamental American rights. Join us in thanking the Obama administration for standing up for public health, clean air, and clean water.

And tell EPA that Americans support industrial carbon pollution protections!

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 100^th coal plant retirement announced since January 2010.

The Crawford coal plant in Chicago, Ill., became the 100^th 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 plants being retired in this press release.

City by city, town by town, communities are standing up and saying no to coal, and saying yes to clean energy. This milestone demonstrates that a shift is well underway across the country, and that we will not power our future with the energy sources of the 19th century. The Beyond Coal campaign’s goal is to retire one-third of America’s polluting coal plants by the year 2020 and replace that power with clean energy like wind and solar.

Now we must ensure that the transition from coal to clean energy happens in a way that protects workers and communities. We’ve seen it happen before — from the Pacific Northwest to the Tennessee Valley — and today we call on GenOn to ensure jobs for the workers now at these plants.

Today’s announcement is a tremendous victory for public health. Pollution from coal-fired power plants contributes to a host of health problems, including respiratory illnesses and asthma attacks, heart disease and cancer. Coal mining is also being linked to serious health effects, like increased rates of cancer and birth defects near mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia. Retirement of these 100 plants is estimated to prevent more than 2,042 premature deaths, 3,299 heart attacks, and 33,053 asthma attacks, according to Clean Air Task Force.

In addition to securing retirement dates for 100 coal plants nationwide, the Beyond Coal campaign has prevented 166 proposed new coal plants from being built since 2002. The campaign estimates that these preventions and closures have led to 50,000 megawatts of new clean energy projects across the country.

The Beyond Coal campaign had very humble beginnings back in 2002, when a handful of volunteers and a lone staff person decided to stand in the way of a tsunami of new coal plants proposed by the Bush administration. Ten years later, we are a movement and a powerhouse that is changing the way America produces energy, and slashing the pollution that threatens our health, our homes, and our climate.

I am constantly amazed and energized by the volunteers, allies, and organizers who are part of our Beyond Coal effort. Just look at some of what has been accomplished to date:

• Proposals for 166 new coal-fired power plants have been abandoned, opening market space for clean energy.

• We have secured retirement dates for 106 existing plants since January 2010, meaning nearly 20 percent of the nation’s current coal plants are now slated for retirement.

• New mountaintop removal mining permits have slowed to a trickle.

• Nineteen colleges and universities have won fights to phase out coal plants on their campuses, thanks in large part to the Sierra Student Coalition.

• Hundreds of thousands of people mobilized in support of strong clean air and water protections, submitting a record number of comments — almost 800,000 — in support of new national mercury standards.

• We won the biggest clean air agreement in the history of the Southeast when the Tennessee Valley Authority announced it would retire 18 dirty, outdated coal units.
• We won the retirement of the only two coal plants in Oregon and Washington.

Working with local people in neighborhoods across the country and dozens of allied organizations, Sierra Club organizers have been fighting Big Coal’s efforts to push through the dozens and dozens of new plants since the early 2000s. Together, they achieved one victory after another. Now, by retiring existing coal plants, we are saving lives, saving mountains, and saving the planet — all while clearing a path for clean energy.

Take a moment to celebrate this milestone for public health and the environment today. Then it’s time to get back to work building a clean energy economy that will create jobs and protect our health.