FROM THE FRONTLINES OF THE WAR ON COAL

There is a war going on against coal in the U.S. and around the world.

It is becoming clear most of what is propagandized about coal from the industry is intentionally misleading.

Coal is not abundant, cheap or clean. It is dangerous to humans, animals and the environment.

And it is not necessary.

For a long time, people all over the country and all around the world accepted the lies and believed coal was necessary if they were to have affordable electricity. They are learning there are better choices.

Courageous people are fighting back. A Time Magazine piece recounts an ongoing protest at a proposed Dominion plant in West Virginia and an ongoing protest at a Lawrence Energy plant in Kansas.

Time Magazine: “Similar protests pop up anywhere a new plant is being built.”

Why?

Time Magazine: “The future of coal will dictate the future of the climate.”

Coal accounts for ~ 40% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs).

It is also the cause of a litany of toxins spewed into the air and water, from mercury to ash and including chemicals nobody outside a laboratory should have to try to spell or read. Can you spell POISON?

The U.S. runs 600 plants now. There are 110 planned. If they go ahead, forget worrying about global climate change because there is no point worrying about what can't be stopped. If those plants get built, any time available for worry will better be used worrying where there is high ground and arable land.

But those plants won’t get built if a bold coalition of committed warriors get their way and impose morality on the spewers. The warriors were inspired this summer when Al Gore spoke out on their behalf: "I believe we've reached the stage where it's time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal-fired power plants that do not have sequestration."

The warriors aren’t just picketing and protesting. They are using lawsuits to demand CO2 regulations according to the dictates of the Clean Air Act. They are lobbying and demonstrating against the banks and financiers who invest in coal.

The coal industry says it is only trying to meet the skyrocketing U.S. demand for cheap electricity (expected to go up 30% by 2030). It also says it is going to build “clean” coal plants.

The latter lie offers some insight into the insincerity of the former lie. Is “lie” a strong word? Here’s what Al Gore has to say about “clean” coal: "Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes…It does not exist."

As to the former lie, coal is a finite resource and coal-powered electricity is not cheap. New plants are too expensive to get financed and will be even worse deals when a cap-and-trade system is imposed by Congress, putting a price on the GhGs coal plants spew.

If the coal industry was sincerely concerned about meeting rising U.S. electricity demand, it would be driving a change to energy efficiency and investing in solar power plants and wind installations instead of trying to make people paranoid enough about power outages to accept electricity generated from burning toxins.

The activists fighting coal see their war as a moral matter.

Time magazine: “To accept a new generation of polluting coal plants is to doom future generations to an impoverished planet.”

Civil disobedience and nonviolent protest are the responses the bold foot soldiers in the war against coal have chosen on behalf of the nation’s future. They are not waiting for - but welcome - support.

Lots more at It’s Getting Hot In Here; Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement

Join the National Day of Protest against coal, November 14-15, 2008

The Dominion protest. From RANVideo via YouTube.

Taking On King Coal
Bryan Walsh, November 5, 2008 (Time)

WHO
The Dominion 11; Anti-coal environmental activists (Rainforest Action Network, Rising Tide North America, Mountain Justice Summer, Earth First! , Student Environmental Action Network (SEAC) , Southern Energy Network, Coal River Mountain watch, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Appalachian Voices, Co-Op America, Sierra Club, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Indigenous Environmental Network)

WHAT
The protest of the Dominion 11 of a proposed new Dominion Virginia Power coal plant is one of the frontline battles in the war on coal.

The Dominion 11 protest. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
- Sept. 15, 2008: Dominion Protest
- Oct. 26, 2008: Lawrence Energy Center protest dozens of locals in Kansas picketed
- November 14-15, 2008: National Day of protest against coal
- 2008: 600 coal power plants in the U.S., 110 in development.

WHERE
- Al Gore spoke out for civil disobedience against dirty coal at this fall’s meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City.
- The protest against Dominion Virginia Power is in rural Wise County, Virginia.
- A blockade of Dominion’s Richmond headquarters was held in the June.
- Activists picketed the Lawrence Energy Center in Hamilton Township of Lawrence County, Ohio, the 12th most polluting coal plant in the U.S.

WHY
- Police were not violent with the Dominion 11 and offered them breakfast if they would unchained themselves from coal plant structures. (The Dominion 11 declined.)
- The Dominion 11 were arrested and fined ($400 each).
- It is estimated the Dominion plant will emit 5.3 million tons of CO2/year (roughly the equivalent of a million cars).
- Rainforest Action Network’s motto is "Environmentalism with teeth."
- "Clean" coal can refer to technologies that remove soot and sulfur dioxide or it can mean capture and sequestration of GhGs (carbon capture and sequestration, CCS). The former is available but does not make coal spew harmless. The latter is a theory that is at present undeveloped due to inordinate risks and expenses.

The Lawrence Energy Center. Want one in your county? (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Hannah Morgan, member, the Dominion 11: "Business as usual can't continue as long as coal is destroying the climate…We are not going to back down."
- Scott Parkin, organizer, Rainforest Action Network: "People are willing to put their reputations and their livelihoods and physical well-being on the line for the climate…"