- Special Offers
-
Politics and Practice
Two CGP Authors take action on Coal Plants
The race is on in Texas and around the country to build more coal-fired power plants. When stricter clean air standards come into effect, these plants with their dangerous emissions can be grandfathered in and won’t need to meet the new standards. Texas Governor Rick Perry is fast tracking 19 new coal-powered plants. But he is finding strong opposition from groups that traditionally don’t work together very often: Christians and environmentalists. Two Chelsea Green authors are in the thick of the battle against the plants, each using their own methods to bring about change.
Dr. Matthew Sleeth (Serve God, Save the Planet), who toured five Texas cities in September to raise awareness about the proposed coal plants, provided much of the impetus for a statewide day of prayer about the plants. In an op-ed in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Star Telegrpah, Dr. Sleeth said, "In the final analysis, the question of whether to build the coal plants is not a logical one. It is a spiritual one. How many more mountains full of coal should we level in order to run our multiple televisions and refrigerators?" Read the rest of the op-ed.
Texas activist and author Diane Wilson (An Unreasonable Woman) is participating with other Texans in a hunger strike demanding an immediate moratorium on new coal-plant permits until the appropriate health studies are completed. Two of the plants will be located near Lavaca Bay, the center of Wilson's fight with chemical companies who have dumped toxins into the bay. "Lavaca Bay is the home of a Mercury Underwater Superfund Site," Wilson explained. "These coal burning power plants will be adding even more mercury to the bay."
Statement from Hunger Strikers
Not More Dirty Coal-Burning Power Plants!
Proposed coal-burning power plants threaten the health of Texans. Smog pollution burns our lungs, and toxic mercury leads to permanent brain damage in children and increased risks for cardiac patients. Currently proposed plants would emit the smog equivalent of a million cars, and as much global warming gas as 20 million cars. Hurricanes are intensifying, and we must act to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, instead of making the problem worse.
We urge action to:
- End fast-track permitting of coal plants that resulted from Gov. Perry’s Oct. 2005 executive order, to clean up existing coal plants and to enact a moratorium until permit standards are improved and a real plan for clean air is developed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality,
- Use energy efficiency and renewable energy as first choices in meeting our energy needs, since these approaches are clean, safe, affordable, and easily implemented.