Power Past Coal

One Woman's Testament to the Community Fight Against Coal

Marie Gladue served as one of Power Past Coal's six coalfield delegates on April 30th, the 100th day of action. Here, Gladue reflects on her journey to Washington D.C. for the Capitol Climate Action, when she first realized that the fight against her home's destruction was larger than even she could imagine.

This movement keeps moving: Updates from our coalfield friends...

Fri, 10 Jul 2009

The 100 Days project may have ended two months ago, but that didn't stop Power Past Coaler's from amping up action in their own communities. While the JOBS project in southeast West Virginia continues to spark neighborly interest in true "energy independence" -- opportunities for community-owned wind -- impacted residents and welcomed activists in the Coal River Valley have been taking a stoic stand against mountaintop removal. On June 23rd, twenty-nine valley residents and activists -- including Dr. James Hansen and Daryl Hannah -- were arrested in front of the Marfork coal prep plant, which sits just across the river from Marsh Fork Elementary School. Meanwhile, impacted community members from Chicago and West Virginia have arranged "holler-to-the-hood" exchanges to learn and share in one anothers' struggle. And from Black Mesa, 100th Day delegate Marie Gladue just sent this essay of hers our way...it's a beautiful reflection on her community's journey to Washington D.C.

Power Past Coal Video!

Mon, 11 May 2009

100th Day a Success!

The 100th day was an incredibly successful start to an essential and ongoing dialogue between grassroots leaders impacted by coal, and those who could bring green economic solutions to their communities. In our meeting with the EPA, chief climate adviser Bob Sussman said, "These are the voices I needed to hear. It makes a real difference to hear from people living with these issues on a daily basis."

Over its first 100 days, the Power Past Coal project has grown faster than any of us could have imagined. We're the first nationwide project to have successfully engaged hundreds of impacted community members from every region of the country, impacted at every stage of the coal cycle. By making the stories of these impacted communities prominent - and by bringing their voices straight to our leaders in the EPA, CEQ, and Congress - we've made remarkable progress: coal plants stopped, mining permits revoked, and investments in renewables and green jobs promised.

100th Day Speaker Biographies

100th Day Media Advisory

The 100th Day Events: Details for the Press and Other Attendees

After fantastic meetings today with the EPA and CEQ, our six grassroots delegates are headed to Congress and the National Press Club to take their message public. Here's a list of details of the events on Thursday, April 30th, with links to additional materials:

Congressional Briefing: 10:30 a.m. in room 2456 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Washington D.C. (Independence Avenue, South of Capitol.)

Press Conference: 2 p.m. in Zenger Room of National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor.

100th Day Reception: 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., the Mott House, 122 Maryland Ave. NW.

Some helpful materials: Check out our Media Advisory, today's Press Release, our delegate's biographies, and our 100th day pamphlet.

Coalfield Residents Want Wind in West Virginia

Mon, 27 Apr 2009

Seventeen residents from four southern West Virginia coal counties met early Saturday morning, April 25th to take a tour of the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center in Tucker and Preston Counties and the Mount Storm wind farms in Grant County.

The 250 mile trip took just over five hours each way. The group met for lunch at a local restaurant, proceeded to the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center, and ended the trip at Mt. Storm Lake for a picnic with a comparative view of Mt. Storm's wind farm and the Mt. Storm coal fired power plant.

Citizen Involvement Pays Off in Montana Coal Appraisal Process

Wed, 22 Apr 2009

Earlier this week the Montana Land Board, a committee made up of the top 5 elected offices in the state, met to determine the process to move forward on an appraisal of an estimated 610 million tons of coal. Beth Kaeding, Chair of the Northern Plains Resource Council, a grassroots group that works to protect family farms and ranches, went to their meeting with two goals: (1) extend the comment period to 60 days and (2) hold two public meetings near the proposed development. Due entirely to the work of citizens in groups like Northern Plains the Land Board agreed to both requests.

This may seem like a small victory, but it allows the people who will be most directly harmed by this lease to voice their concerns. For a variety of social, environmental and economic reasons, groups like Northern Plains have long opposed developing these tracts of coal. While this fight is not over, we are happy to have more time to organize, educate the decision makers, and potentially stop this coal mine from being developed.

Hundreds March and 44 Arrested to Stop Cliffside Power Plant

Tue, 21 Apr 2009

Charlotte, N.C.- Police arrested 44 people for participating in a protest of Duke Energy's plans to add massive additional coal burning to the company's Cliffside plant. Those arrested include: Jim Warren of NC Warn; Bo Webb Coal River Mountain in Appalachia; Larry Gibson with Mountainkeeper, and Mike McCoy-from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth; and several Rutherford County residents where the construction is underway. They will likely be charged with second-degree trespass.

Duke CEO Jim Rogers has publicly touted his company's commitment to addressing climate change, even pledging in a recent speech to shut down all their plants by 2050. Yet building this plant would lock in another half century of dangerous greenhouse gas emissions in North Carolina.

Today, 40 activists begin a fast for the future

Mon, 20 Apr 2009

This morning, activist Ted Glick has stopped eating. He's joined by dozens of others who are doing the same - some for a day or two, and some for more than twenty-five and as many as forty. Glick calls it the, "Fast for our Future" - a Gandhian tribute to the necessity of bold, immediate action on climate change.

According to Glick, "We will be fasting because we are entering a critical period in the struggle to get the U.S. government to act decisively on the climate crisis. With the introduction in the House Energy and Commerce Committee of the "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009," a process has been started that will lead to a vote in the full House this summer and in the Senate in the summer or fall. Hearings on this bill begin the week of April 20th."

Solidarity Across Borders: NC Introduces Law to Break MTR Connection

Sat, 18 Apr 2009

On Tuesday, a new act in North Carolina to break the state's dependence on mountaintop removal coal faces its first public committee hearing. As one of the heaviest users of mountaintop removal coal, it seems North Carolina is learning to be neighborly -- and recognizing the damage that the state's energy use is wreaking on the same Appalachian mountains, just beyond its state border.

Jeff Biggers told the full story this morning in his piece, "Our Chance to Spare Mountains," published in the News & Observer:

The wonderful ending of the NCAA men's basketball season notwithstanding, the nation will still be watching North Carolina next week.

Powering Past Coal in Michigan, Leaving No One Behind

Fri, 17 Apr 2009

Michigan activist Andrew Munn wrote this fantastic piece after helping to organize a rally for clean energy at this week's public hearing on a nearby coal plant's expansion..."

Yesterday, 125 youth from the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition rallied for green jobs, clean and just energy, and accountability from our Department of Environmental Quality at a public hearing for permits to massively expand Consumers Energy's Karn Weadock complex's coal-fired plant by 800 mega watts. As the rally drew to a close and we entered the public hearing, a woman from Bay City shared with me why she joined us in opposition to the expansion. Her mother lives in one of nine homes across the mouth of the Saginaw River from the Karn Weadock complex and is in the midst of her 4th battle with cancer. Each of the nine families living on the row of beachfront homes is afflicted by cancer. It is not a coincidence.

Five Activists Arrested Hanging "EPA stop MTR" on Massey Mine

Thu, 16 Apr 2009

SUNDIAL, W.Va. - Three activists, who are committed to nonviolently ending mountaintop removal, unveiled a 40-foot-tall banner that said "EPA stop MTR" at Massey Energy's Edwight mountaintop removal mine. Five people were arrested: the three activists Charles Suggs, Madeline Gardner, and William Wickham, and independent photographer Antrim Caskey and independent filmmaker Jordan Freeman. The activists chose the Edwight mine because Massey has recently begun blasting directly above the town of Naoma, W.Va., and the grave danger its slurry dam poses to Marsh Fork Elementary. This is the fifth in a series of such actions over the last 3 months that Climate Ground Zero has taken against Massey Energy and mountaintop removal coal mining.

"With the EPA seemingly considering actually doing its job, we believe they will realize that mountaintop removal is illegal and put a stop to it," Mathew Louis-Rosenberg said, referencing the five mountaintop removal permits EPA has put on hold for review in recent weeks.

Indiana Ratepayers Get Shafted

Thu, 16 Apr 2009

So wait, why don't we want coal-to-natural gas plants? Oh right: they are expensive, environmentally destructive, use imperfect technology, and use the most destructive form of mining for its coal. With the costs of coal doubling in one year, what state would try and turn coal into gas? Who would want something so financially irresponsible?

The Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels and his administration.

For years, the hedge fund Leucadia has been working to negotiate a deal with Indiana gas companies to bid on contracts to build a coal-to-gas facility in Rockport, Indiana. Due to the risk and unknown cost there were no takers. Instead, Leucadia lobbied to introduce legislation that would force utility companies into a 30-year contract with the plant without knowing the cost of building the plant, or the cost of the synthetic gas production.