Orion Magazine  [Printer-friendly version]
February 1, 2008

RESOURCES FOR COAL FIGHTERS

By Ted Nace

Perhaps the best way to learn more about the No New Coal Plants
movement is simply to dive right in. Locate a proposed coal-fired
power plant in your state, check out the web sites of the groups
opposing it, and get involved.

A complete state-by-state list of proposed plants (including canceled
projects and proposals defeated by opponents) can be found at htt
p://tinyurl.com/2gwcpz. If your state doesn't have any active
proposals, you can still help out by contacting groups in areas where
plants are on the drawing board. The following is a list of ten
proposed plants, among scores across the country, that face determined
grassroots opposition:

Alaska: Sponsored by the Matanuska Electrical Association, The
Matanuska Power Plant would be located northeast of Anchorage, Alaska.
It is opposed by Cook Inletkeeper and Castle Mountain Coalition.

Georgia: Longleaf, a pair of 600 MW plants, is under development in
Georgia by LS Power/Dynegy, one of the largest independent power
producers in the country. The proposal is being opposed by GreenLaw,
No New Coal for Georgia, Friends of Chattahoochee, and others.

Indiana: The 630 MW Edwardsport IGCC plant is planned for Knox County,
Indiana, by Duke Energy/Vectren. It is being opposed by Citizens
Action Coalition of Indiana, Save the Valley, Sierra Club Hoosier
Chapter, and Valley Watch.

Michigan: One of several coal-fired power plants under study in
Michigan, the Wolverine Clean Energy Venture has already sparked local
organizing, including a new group, Citizens for Environmental
Inquiry as well as Environment Michigan and the Michigan
Environmental Council.

Montana: The Highwood Generating Station would be built with the aid
of federal Rural Utilities Service financing by the Southern Montana
Generation and Transmission cooperative. Opponents include the
Montana Environmental Information Center and Citizens for Clean
Energy.

New Mexico: The huge (1500 MW) Desert Rock plant proposed for
Farmington, New Mexico, has drawn fire from groups throughout the Four
Corners region including Black Mesa Indigenous Support, Dine CARE,
and San Juan Citizens Alliance.

South Carolina: Located along the Pee Dee River in Florence County,
South Carolina, the Pee Dee Generating Facility is a pair of 600 MW
power plants proposed by Santee Cooper, a state-owned utility. The
project is opposed by the Southern Environmental Law Center,
Coastal Conservation League, and Appalachian Voices.

South Dakota: An array of utilities joined to propose the Big Stone II
plant, and an even broader array of environmental and agricultural
groups has mobilized to stop it. Opponents celebrated when two of the
sponsors recently pulled out. Groups opposing Big Stone II include
South Dakota Clean Water Action, Beyond Big Stone II, Sierra Club
Northstar Chapter, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, and
Dakota Resource Council.

Washington: Energy Northwest's proposed Pacific Mountain Energy
Center, an IGCC coal plant on the Columbia River near Longview,
Washington, is being opposed by NW Energy Coalition, a combination
of over 100 groups.

Wyoming: Although the Northern Great Plains area it serves is blessed
with the most extensive wind resources in the country, rural electric
cooperative giant Basin Electric persists in building coal-fired power
plants. Dry Fork, a 385 MW project, is slated for Gillette, Wyoming,
the heart of the coal-rich Powder River Basin. The plant, which would
use federal Rural Utilities Service financing, is opposed by the
Powder River Basin Resource Council.

Local and Statewide Efforts

Across the country, scores of local and statewide groups are focusing
on proposed coal-fired power plants, synthetic fuels plants, and the
accompanying mining, water, and air impacts. To find a group in your
area, see Coal Moratorium Now or the Citizens Coal Council.

Regional, National, and Campus Groups

Taking a cue from climate change activists in the United Kingdom,
Europe, and Australia, anti-coal activists in the United States have
over the past year placed increasing emphasis on direct action such as
blockades and hunger strikes. Rainforest Action Network's Dirty Money
campaign targets Citibank and Bank of America for financing coal
mines and power plants. Rising Tide North America, a decentralized
group with several locations across the country, also organizes direct
action against coal mines and power companies. In fall of 2007, a fast
organized by the U.S. Climate Emergency Council brought national
attention to the need for a national moratorium on new coal plants. A
new effort, 1Sky, has combined demands for a moratorium on new coal
with innovative proposals for five million green jobs in solar and
efficiency retrofitting.

Focusing on blocking coal plants through regulatory channels such as
state air and siting permits, the Sierra Club's "Stop the Coal Rush"
campaign combines the heavy-hitting litigation resources of a Big
Green organization with the on-the-ground strengths of its numerous
local chapters. The club maintains an up-to-date state-by-state
inventory of coal projects.

Energy Justice Network works closely on low-income communities and
communities of color, advocating a complete phase out of fossil and
nuclear energy and focusing on low-income communities and communities
of color. Energy Action Coalition is a coalition of more than forty
groups working on global warming issues.

On campuses, an array of groups have participated in mobilization such
as PowerShift2007, a gathering of thousands of students in
Washington, D.C., and Step It Up, which made "no new coal" one of
the three themes of its November 2007 nationwide actions to highlight
global warming. To catch up on the rapidly evolving student movement
against climate change, check out Student Environmental Action
Coalition or the online magazine It's Getting Hot in Here.

Background Reading

Jeff Goodell, Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy
Future (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) To report this story, Goodell rode
coal trains out of Wyoming, visited precarious cabins in spoil-choked
Appalachian Valleys, descended into mile-deep mines, and interviewed
the power brokers who make up the Coal Lobby. Especially fascinating
is his rags-to-riches tale of Don Blankenship, the coal baron whose
machinations in West Virginia arguably tipped the 2000 White House to
George Bush.

Barbara Freese, Coal: A Human History (Penguin, 2004)
http://tinyurl.com/2mbhab. Coal lifted medieval Europe into the
industrial era, but it also inflicted misery: brutal working
conditions in mines and mills, choking city pollution, labor wars.
That mixed history has been repeated whereever coal appeared -- from
England to China to Pennsylvania. Barbara Freese's account is as
readable as it is relevant to today's climate crisis.

Erik Reese, Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness
(Riverhead Books, 2006) http://tinyurl.com/2l4sd5. Global warming is
not the only reason to oppose new coal plants. In this remarkable
report on coal mining in Kentucky, Erik Reece describes how only ten
men and an array of heavy equipment can entirely destroy a mountain in
a single season, filling adjacent valleys with dangerous spoil.

K. Ross Toole, The Rape of the Great Plains: Northwestern America,
Cattle and Coal (Little Brown and Company, 1976)
http://tinyurl.com/2o5n8b. A generation ago, Montana historian K. Ross
Toole wrote this classic account of the fight against the Colstrip
power plant. The rural organizing that brought ranchers and
environmentalists into an effective alliance remains a lasting model.