Media
For general inquiries, please contact Sierra Murdoch at sierra@powerpastcoal.org.
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE-- April 30, 2009
Contact: Sierra Murdoch, 518.817.3222, sierra@powerpastcoal.org
Grassroots Activists Demand Power Past Coal from Nation’s Top Leaders
On President Obama’s 100th day of office, citizens highlight coal injustices and alternatives
WASHINGTON DC – April 30, 2009—To mark the 100th day of President Barack Obama’s administration, six grassroots delegates from communities disadvantaged by coal mining, processing or burning met with representatives of Congress, the EPA, and the CEQ. These citizens impacted by the coal cycle evaluated Obama’s progress thus far towards a clean energy future, provided insight into the issues that coal presents, and offered positive steps to fix the problems caused by the use of coal. These meetings mark the first time in history that coal community residents from across the nation have publicly rallied around the common demand for a swift, just transition away from coal.
“Our lives are proof that coal is, and always will be, a dirty, unjust source of energy. We deserve better, and we have the clean energy options to do better,” said Sam Villaseñor, an activist with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago, where the community is fighting two coal-fired power plants and promoting energy efficiency.
Among the other delegates were Towana Yepa, representing Indigenous communities in Michigan, where toxic mercury from coal fired power plants has ruined the water supply, LJ Turner, a rancher in Wyoming whose fields have dried up after strip mining drained the region’s aquifers, Lorelei Scarbro, the daughter and widow of coal miners advocating for a wind farm in her mountaintop removal ravaged community, Marie Gladue, from the Arizona Navajo reservations where strip mining has taken sacred lands, and Mike Cherin, from North Carolina, where new coal fired power plants could boost local rates of respiratory illness.
The delegates represent tens of thousands of citizens, who, since the President’s inauguration, have organized over 300 actions in all fifty states as part of a nationwide project called Power Past Coal. Among these actions was the March 2nd civil disobedience at the Capitol Coal Plant, which shut down operation for four hours and convinced the district to stop burning coal. “The national community of people fighting coal is powerful, and we’re growing. Our leaders have let the coal companies off easy for a very long time at our expense, and we can’t wait for this to change,” said Marie Gladue, representing the Black Mesa Water Coalition.
This week’s events come in the midst of Congressional deliberations over the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, which aims to address climate change by reducing national carbon emissions, but still offers significant giveaways to the coal industry. “We can’t let you compromise with the coal industry,” said Towana Yepa in the Congressional briefing, “because you would be compromising our lives.”
In their presentations to Congress, the EPA and the CEQ, the delegates said the transition away from coal should begin with building green economies in the communities directly impacted by coal, by developing clean energy and creating opportunities for green jobs. “We’re the hands behind a green workforce, and the minds behind innovation,” said Villasenor in his address. “Now we need you to lead.”
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The 100th Day Delegation Biographies
LJ Turner
www.worc.org
L.J. Turner is a rancher and member of the Western Organization of Resource Councils
(WORC), a network for grassroots organizations from seven states that include
10,000 members and 45 local community chapters. L.J. runs the ranch his family homesteaded in 1918, in Campbell County, Wyoming.
Strip mines encroach on one edge of his ranch, while oil and coalbed methane
development deplete and pollute the water resources vital to his operation.
Aquifers have been destroyed and stock water wells impacted. The loss of water
threatens the ranch’s viability. L.J.’s story
is far from unique in the west, as irresponsible energy development scars
private and public lands in rural communities. Strip mine pits have displaced
grazing cattle and shattered the western landscape’s iconic imagery. L.J. is working to be part of the energy
solution and is negotiating to develop a utility scale wind farm on his ranch.
He is one of many cowboys who have been fighting to keep their way of life for
over 30 years.
Marie Gladue
www.blackmesawatercoalition.
Marie Gladue Dine comes from the Black Mesa region of northeastern Arizona, where she works with the Black Mesa Water Coalition to fight Peabody Energy’s controversial Black Mesa coal mine and to promote green jobs and clean energy among the Hopi and Navajo communities. Peabody ’s coal mining operations on Black Mesa have for more than 35 years been dependent on a sole source of drinking water for Navajo and Hopi communities. Between 1969 and 2005, Peabody pumped an average of 4,600 acre-feet of water annually from the Navajo Aquifer, resulting in significant damage to community water supplies. According to Gladue, the coal mining operations have taken sacred lands. Her Indigenous community recognizes Black Mesa as a female mountain, water as her lifeblood, and the coal as her liver. Respect for Mother Earth would mean leaving the coal in the ground.
Mike Cherin
Mike Cherin, a resident of Rutherford County, N.C., lives 16 miles from the Cliffside Coal Plant, the site of an 800-megawatt coal-fired facility currently under construction by Duke Energy. The plant, if allowed online, would emit 6 million tons of additional carbon dioxide annually, threatening the health of nearby residents, and causing significant environmental concern, including global warming and mercury contamination. Cherin and many of his neighbors are diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and oppose the Cliffside Coal Plant for its threat to public health. Cherin and his wife, an R.N. at the local hospital, are community organizers with the Canary Coalition, a clean air advocacy group in western N.C. which recently helped rally several hundred community members in opposition to the Cliffside Coal Plant, resulting in the highest number of arrests in protest of coal in American history. Recognizing that his region has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, Cherin is an outspoken advocate for green collar jobs to build solar panels and wind turbines, which could fill the region’s empty factories.
Samuel Villaseñor
Samuel Villaseñor is the Clean Power organizer with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), in the southwest side of Chicago. Samuel arrived to Little Village from Huerta Vieja, Iguala, Guerrero in Mexico, when he was two years old. Little Village, Chicago is the second largest Latino community in the nation outside of East L.A., with a population of 100,000 within a 5 mile radius. In Little Village alone, 40 deaths, 2800 asthma attacks and 500 emergency room visits annually are attributed to the two coal-fired power plants situated near the residential area. To bring attention to the health problems associated with coal burning, Villaseñor has helped to organize the Coal-Olympics, a creative community event that pressures the Mayor to invest in long term green jobs, public transit, and housing, instead of Chicago’s Olympic bid. Villaseñor’s campaign also trains young people in the community on weatherization and retrofitting, to help older residents make their homes energy efficient. The multi-generational activity promotes alternatives to coal and job creation in the city. LVEJO saw a major victory last year when the Chicago Mayor publicly recognized Little Village’s two coal plants as responsible for half of the city’s pollution.
Towana Yepa
Towana Yepa is 22 and a member of the Indigenous communities of Jemez Pueblo and The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. She is fluent in the Towa language and knows the traditional life ways of the Desert Peoples cultures and the Great Lakes cultures. Her tribes' lands are on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, where the deposition of mercury from coal-fired power plants across the lake has ruined the tribes’ water supplies and rendered the water unusable for drinking or fishing. The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians fought off a proposed coal plant four years ago in Filer Township, MI. Now, the Indigenous Tribes in Michigan are facing eight more proposed coal plants.
Lorelei Scarbro
www.crmw.net, www.coalriverwind.org
Lorelei Scarbro is a community organizer at Coal River Mountain Watch. Lorelei is the granddaughter, daughter, and widow of West Virginia coal miners. The home in which she lives was built by her late husband, who passed away due to black lung. He was an underground coal miner for 35 years. He is buried in the family cemetery which is adjacent to their home. Lorelei's land, home, the family cemetery, and surrounding environment are now faced with the threat of mountaintop removal coal mining on Coal River Mountain. There is a 6,600 acre mountaintop removal site proposed above her home – but she is joining with local residents to promote a 328 MW wind farm instead. More than 95,000 acres in the Coal River watershed have been destroyed by mountaintop removal – Coal River Mountain is the last remaining mountain with wind potential in that area. The Coal River Wind project would preserve her family’s land and history for generations to come, as well as prevent further destruction in her community.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
Contact: Sierra Murdoch, sierra@powerpastcoal.org, 304.854.1937.
101 ACTIONS IN 50 DAYS CALL ON OBAMA TO POWER PAST COAL
This week in the Little
Village of Chicago, fifty high school students will hurdle over coal piles and
race past power plants for the 2009 Coal-Olympics competition. These respirator-clad youth aren’t just
running for fun – they know that two coal plants in their backyards are making
their families sick and causing global warming, and they want their President
to do something about it.
The Coal-Olympics are part of
a nationwide, fledgling project called Power Past Coal, uniting hundreds of
communities calling on their leaders to transition away from coal to clean and
just sources of energy, like wind and solar. On the morning after President Obama’s inauguration, forty groups
launched 100 Days of Action to highlight the efforts and strength of the
grassroots movement to move the country away from coal. Everyday since, participants have taken
action by lobbying their congressmen to halt mountaintop removal, marching to
stop new coal plants, and risking arrest in acts of nonviolent civil
disobedience.
Today, Power Past Coal
celebrates its 50th day of action, having united 101 actions from
every corner of the country – a number the project’s founders hadn’t imagined
possible on inauguration day.
The nationwide effort began
in November 2008 with a meeting of thirty-six grassroots activists from
twenty-four different organizations and nineteen states. “Before, I hadn’t realized how many people
were fighting my same fight, hundreds of miles away,” said Elouise Brown, a
Navajo army veteran who has camped for three years on the site of a proposed
coal plant near Farmington,
New Mexico. Among the other attendees were Chuck Nelson,
a retired coal miner from Sylvester,
West Virginia, and Teri Blanton
from Harlan County, Kentucky, whose home was flooded when an abandoned sediment
pond collapsed thirty-five years ago.
The Power Past Coal project reached
a crescendo on March 2nd when 12,000 students convened in Washington DC
for Powershift 2009 and several thousand more shut down the capitol coal plant
for four hours in the largest civil disobedience for climate in history. “You know it’s a movement when you see
thousands out in the streets, waving Power Past Coal signs and putting their
bodies on the line,” said Enei Begaye, an indigenous rights organizer in the Arizona coalfields. “Now
we just need Obama to notice.”
With Obama’s recent efforts
to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants and coal ash from slurry
ponds, it seems like the President is beginning to listen.
But in the communities
directly impacted by coal, these statements have yet to make a difference. On Monday, citizens from Wise
County, Virginia packed the Andover Methodist Church
to protest a 1,300 acre mountaintop removal permit that would allow strip
mining on Ison Rock Ridge, threatening six adjacent communities and hundreds of
people who live there. On Friday, New
Hampshirites will convene at the Concord Statehouse to demand a cleaner
alternative to an out-of-date coal plant. Meanwhile, all across the country, organizations are gearing up for the
100th Day Action, which will unite all communities impacted by coal
at every stage of its cycle.
“How much yelling is it going to take us before Obama admits coal is just plain dirty?” said Judy Bonds, the director of Coal River Mountain Watch in Whitesville, West Virginia. “We’re still fighting the same fight as we were ten years ago. But now we have a chance to win.”
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, February 13, 2009
www.PowerPastCoal.org
Contact: Sierra
Murdoch, sierra@powerpastcoal.org
Breaking
up with Coal: Across
the US,
Groups Are Cutting Ties with Coal This Valentine's Day
This
Valentines day, there will be actions from Boston, Massachusetts to Black Mesa
in Arizona calling for an end to coal, and that's just the beginning.
Since Obama has taken office, just 3 short weeks ago, there have been more than
50 actions in 25 states proclaiming the need for the US to break up with coal
and move on to a healthier relationship--metaphorically speaking.
These
community events have been connected by a common thread -- a scrappy but
quickly booming movement called Power Past Coal (www.powerpastcoal.org), which
is linking together an action every day for the first 100 days of Obama's
presidency. So far, the response to this effort has been overwhelming.
"We
originally had hoped to connect just one action for each day, but some days have
had as many as 5 or 6 events. America's relationship to coal is troubling and
toxic – and people are showing they are ready to move onto something healthier
and more sustainable, like renewable energy and investments in efficiency and
conservation," said participant Adam Wells of southwestern Virginia, where
groups are fighting mountaintop removal coal mining and working for energy
efficiency initiatives.
"Transitioning
beyond coal won't be easy, but we need to begin today if we are going to slow
global warming and bring healthier, green jobs into communities that have been
most impacted by coal mining, burning, and waste disposal." said Ted Glick
of Chesepeake Climate Action Network, whose events include encouraging citizens
across the country to tell their legislators why they love clean energy.
Power Past
Coal events of the past three weeks have been as diverse as the groups
participating in this landmark project. Saturday's events include Black Mesa
Water Project's event to asking the new Secretary of the Intererior to reverse
the "life of mine" permit in their community near Flagstaff, AZ.
Across the US, Rising Tide
Boston is "breaking up" with Bank of America; asking members to close
their accounts in an effort to hold Bank of America accountable to its
commitment to stop financing mountaintop removal and climate change.
New York City Loves Mountains will be encouraging New York residents to make the switch to
clean energy and end their reliance on mountaintop removal coal mining. And at
the heart of the mountaintop removal debate, groups across Kentucky are taking action with Kentuckians
for the Commonwealth to support the Stream Saver, a state bill that would ban
valley fills. More events on Valentine's Day and beyond can be found at www.powerpastcoal.org
Despite the
flurry of activity this Saturday, organizers insist the real momentum is just
beginning—dozens more events advocating for a transition past coal and a switch
to clean energy will send a strong message to President Obama, as well as Congress
and local leaders that the United States is ready to Power Past Coal. Seewww.powerpastcoal.org for more information.
# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 20th, 2009
Contact: Sierra Murdoch, sierra@powerpastcoal.org
National Project Plans 100 Days of Action to Power Past Coal
Charleston, WV - Power Past Coal (www.powerpastcoal.org), a national project by dozens of environmental and social justice groups, launched today to expose the true cost of coal and call on the new president and congress to transition to a clean and just energy economy. The project announces 100 Days of Action; on each of the first one hundred days of the new administration, a different community will take action, demanding a moratorium on coal power plants, an end to the destructive forms of coal mining, or a reinvestment in the communities impacted by coal.
Coal is one of the most serious justice issues facing America today; coal-derived pollutants cause asthma, mercury poisoning, and global warming. “We must halt all new coal plants now, and we must begin shutting down existing ones as soon as possible,” says NASA climatologist James Hansen, “Otherwise we should face up to the truth -- as a world, we are driving off the edge of a cliff with the accelerator pressed to the floor. Power Past Coal is the wake-up call we need to put on the brakes.”
Power Past Coal is the product of a nation-wide collaboration among over twenty-five organizations and forty volunteers. The team includes Navajo activists from the coalfields of Arizona, former coal miners from Appalachia, green jobs advocates from inner-city communities, and representatives from national environmental groups. “From coal mining to coal burning, coal has been devastating community after community for too long,” says Enei Begaye, co-director of the Black Water Mesa Coalition in Flagstaff, AZ. “It's time to stand together and demand a transition away from coal to wind and solar.”
From January 21st to April 30th, Power Past Coal will connect over one hundred independent actions, building off the existing work of historic grassroots organizations while inviting new communities to take part. The 100 Days of Action kicks off with a National Call-In Day hosted by CLEAN, with plans to flood the White House phone lines with calls for clean energy. An interactive website, www.powerpastcoal.org, will chart the progress of the project, displaying photos and reports from actions and a schedule of planned actions.
Power Past Coal launches three weeks after a sludge dam burst in Kingston, TN, spewing toxic coal ash into an area over one hundred times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. A week later, another dam failed in Alabama, sending more toxics into local waterways. These recent events have made a transition away from coal more urgent than ever.
Please visit our website, www.powerpastcoal.org for more information.####