Jul 12, 2011
During the years when governments and the media were focused on
preparations for the 2009 Copenhagen climate negotiations, a
powerful climate movement was emerging in the United States: the
movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power
plants.
Environmental groups, both national and local, are opposing coal
plants because they are the primary driver of climate change.
Emissions from coal plants are also responsible for 13,200 U.S. deaths annually—a
number that dwarfs the U.S. lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan
combined.
What began as a few local ripples of resistance quickly evolved
into a national tidal wave of grassroots opposition from
environmental, health, farm, and community organizations. Despite a
heavily funded industry campaign to promote “clean coal,” the
American public is turning against coal. In a national poll that
asked which electricity source people would prefer, only 3 percent
chose coal. The Sierra Club, which has kept a tally of proposed
coal-fired power plants and their fates since 2000, reports that 152
plants in the United States have been defeated or abandoned. For
report, visit the EPI
website.