Community | March 01, 2010 | 9 comments

Coal-Fired Power On the Way Out?

source: http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/book_bytes/2010/pb4ch10_ss3

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JanforGore
The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a powerful movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States," says Lester R. Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute, in a recent release, "Coal-Fired Power On the Way Out?" "Initially led by environmental groups, both national and local, it has since been joined by prominent national political leaders and many state governors. The principal reason for opposing coal plants is that they are changing the earth's climate. There is also the effect of mercury emissions on health and the 23,600 U.S. deaths each year from power plant air pollution."

Over the last few years the coal industry has suffered one setback after another. The Sierra Club, which has kept a tally of proposed coal-fired power plants and their fates since 2000, reports that 123 plants have been defeated, with another 51 facing opposition in the courts. Of the 231 plants being tracked, only 25 currently have a chance at gaining the permits necessary to begin construction and eventually come online. Building a coal plant may soon be impossible.

What began as a few local ripples of resistance to coal-fired power quickly evolved into a national tidal wave of grassroots opposition from environmental, health, farm, and community organizations. Despite a heavily funded ad campaign to promote so-called clean coal (one reminiscent of the tobacco industry's earlier efforts to convince people that cigarettes were not unhealthy), the American public is turning against coal.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   Earth and Science,   Healthcare,   3 more
  2. tags:
    Politics,  Environment,  Global Warming,  Activism,  8 more
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