No Coal Lotta Love

After spending millions of dollars to promote the oxymoron that is “Clean Coal”, the coal industry couldn’t shield its investment from a massive coal-ash spill at a power plant in Tennessee just before Christmas. Concerned citizens from all over the U.S. are standing up and declaring coal will always be a filthy energy source and we need to invest the precious time we have into safe, renewable, and clean energy.

The past two months have been a nightmare for the coal industry. First there was the Tennessee spill shortly before Christmas. On New Year’s Day, a coal train derailed in Otero County, Colorado. On Jan. 9, a leak at a second TVA waste pond at the ironically named Widows Creek Power Plant in Alabama spilled some 10,000 gallons of gypsum slurry, that same day a coal train operated by National Coal Corporation overturned, dumping 1,100 tons of coal along the New River in Scott County, Tenn.

On the political front, The dense and ugly smog choked cloud the industry had over the past 8 years, seems to have cleared a bit thanks to the Obama administration. The EPA nominee, Lisa Jackson, told the Senate that if she were confirmed, the agency would consider regulating coal-ash storage sites around the country. Just a few days after the drapes were officially measured in the Obama whitehouse, the EPA put a hold on the approval of a coal-fired power plant in South Dakota, stating the state’s proposed permit didn’t meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act.

On the state level, the governors of Michigan, Wisconsin, and even South Carolina have been pushing back against coal, citing environmental to financial reasons for the destructive uses of coal.

Even while pushing for federal action, activists across the country and especially in the southeast have been busy taking on King Coal plant by plant. We’re targeting proposed plants in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida that just won’t die, despite growing concerns over the viability and cost to ratepayers. Check out Stopping the Coal Rush by the Sierra Club for more info.

The Southern Energy Network is endorsing a big display of civil disobedience on March 2 at the coal-fired plant that powers the U.S. Capitol. Please consider joining us and let’s show King Coal that we mean business. This will be a peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes to support this effort organized by our friends at Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, and the Ruckus Society and many others, we ask the same of you if you can participate.