Clean air advocates rally outside the Chicago EPA hearing on the carbon pollution standard (Credit: Sierra Club)

Here is an excerpt from my testimony:

There has never been a more urgent time to stop the carbon pollution that is fueling climate change and ocean acidification. Each year, our nation’s power plants pump nearly 2.3B tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Global carbon pollution is increasing in record amounts – jumping by 6% over the last year.  If this pollution path is not altered global temperatures will increase by at least 4 degrees C (7.2 degrees F) and potentially 6 degrees C (10.8 degrees F) by 2100.  This current path also leaves wildlife and local communities on the frontlines experiencing the increasingly virulent impacts of climate change on a daily basis.

Carbon Pollution’s Impacts on Wildlife & People

At a 4 degrees C temperature increase, scientists predict massive extinctions around the globe. In this last year alone, the U.S. has seen wildfires harm the Monarch butterfly migration and push the Houston toad to the brink of extinction, record drought threaten endangered whooping cranes, and extreme floods blow out fish populations in numerous rivers and streams. Our 2011 report Game Changers: Air Pollution, a Warming Climate, and the Troubled Future for America’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage details how toxic air pollution and carbon pollution from power plants represents a double whammy exacerbating the disappearance of our nation’s beloved fish and game species. And our recent report On Thin Ice: Warming Winters Put America’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage at Risk provides real world experiences with how the decades-long trend to shorter, warmer and less snowy winters is having major implications for all forms of outdoor recreation.

At the same time, communities across the country face a record number of climate change-fueled extreme weather events that are taking their toll on families and personal property. In 2011, the U.S. experienced over $35B worth of extreme weather losses. This property damage has left families homeless, destroyed critical infrastructure, and placed an immediate human cost on accelerating climate change.  Without a national policy that begins to tackle carbon pollution these problems will accelerate in speed and force and may become unstoppable.

NWF Call for Action

It is for these very reasons that NWF’s affiliates passed a resolution in 2009 resolving that all new coal-fired power plants being built should be required to control their carbon pollution.  EPA’s proposed rule does just that, sets a standard – regardless of fuel type – that says we can no longer indiscriminately pump carbon pollution into our skies, and ensures that as we modernize our power sector we do not saddle future generations with more high carbon polluting infrastructure that lasts for decades to come.

Excerpt from NWF’s 2009 Resolution on Reducing Coal Power Plant Pollutants

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NWF urges that if a new coal-fired power plant is constructed, it be required to capture and permanently store or sequester its carbon emissions upon startup, and achieve near zero carbon emissions within 10 years of start-up.

Importantly, EPA cannot stop there. Since 1999, I have been engaged in efforts to utilize the Clean Air Act to limit carbon pollution.  One legal petition, numerous court rulings (including two Supreme Court rulings), and three presidents later we are now only tackling the first piece of the nation’s largest sector of carbon pollution.  It has been over 12 years since my own efforts began. I have literally watched my two daughters grow up and close to 40B tons of uncontrolled power plant carbon pollution emitted during this time. We cannot delay additional efforts any longer and standards to control the carbon pollution from existing power plants must follow in short order. There is not only a legal obligation to do so, but also a moral duty to act. We cannot leave future generations wondering why we waited to take the next step.

Have Your Voice Heard

Join NWF in supporting these carbon pollution limits can help to tackle climate change that threatens our protects wildlife – like the Nothern Moose – for children’s future.

Houston Toad Photo by: USFWS, Paige Najvar

The Houston toad is an endangered species that lives exclusively in southeast Texas. It is about 3 inches big, varies in color from light brown to gray or purplish gray, and has an alluring croak.  And it secretes chemicals in its skin to protect itself, such as serotonin and alkaloids, which are used as medicines to treat heart and nervous disorders in humans. Take Our Leap Day Frog Quiz!

Harmed by Record Drought

The Houston toad makes its home in loose, deep sands supporting woodland savannah and needs still or flowing waters for breeding. A five-year review of the toad’s status (see p. 12) conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows the need for water makes drought a significant threat to the toad.

As NWF has reported, climate change begets drought.  Since September of 2009, severe to exceptional drought has occurred in central Texas right in the heart of the Houston toad’s limited range. And last year was the driest 12-month period for Texas since measurements began according to Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, who says the Texas drought could continue until 2020.

Even more concerning for the Houston toad may be that climate change exacerbated drought begets wildfires.  Another recent environmental review (see p. 20) has pointed out that the toad’s need for moisture also means that “catastrophic wildlife fires could have devastating effects to Houston toad habitat.”

Devastated by Extreme Wildfires

Unfortunately, on September 4, 2011, a firestorm known as the Bastrop County Complex Fire engulfed Bastrop, Texas and by September 30th had destroyed 1,645 homes, burned over 34,000 acres, and killed two people. This fire is now regarded as the most catastrophic wildfire in Texas history.  The largest population of Houston toads exists in Bastrop County, one of the Houston toad’s few remaining habitats. The fires were so intense they could have wiped out the Houston toad.  A Texas State biologist recently called the Bastrop fire “an extinction level event.”

Read how climate change induced drought and wildfires have also made Monarch butterflies climate victims and impacted the livelihood of one Texas city.

Luckily, while the wildfires had a devastating impact on the Houston toad population, some were found to have survived.  Conservationists in Texas are working to rebuild the population, but the endangered toads will face an uphill battle as the extreme wildfires took away the plants and brush they rely on for cover and safety and the insects the toads eat.

New Carbon Pollution Limits Can Help

We shouldn’t wait any longer for more fire alarms about how the impacts of climate change are harming America’s wildlife heritage.  Climate change-causing carbon pollution is impacting not only the Houston toad but frogs as well.

You can help turn the tide for wildlife–from frogs to polar bears.  Join NWF Action Fund in celebrating the entire Leap Year by supporting new efforts to limit the carbon pollution coming from power plant smokestacks.