Communities Speak Out Against Coal Plants

posted by Jason Disterhoft

This morning, the EPA announced limits on carbon pollution from power plants. That’s a welcome step in fighting climate change—and it wouldn’t have happened without communities speaking out against coal plants. Here at RAN, we’re proud of the role our network of friends and activists has played in building pressure over the last several years.

TXU_AStern_1024

Stop TXU! Activists stage protests against financial institutions linked to Texas utility company TXU’s controversial plans to build 11 new coal-fired power plants as part of an expansion strategy that would make it the single largest corporate greenhouse gas emitter in the Unites States. Winter 2007. Photo: Andrew Stern.

 

FFD_UK

University of Kentucky Fossil Fools Day. Students raise a wind turbine atop a coal mound as part of an action for Fossil Fools Day at University of Kentucky. April 1, 2008.

 

Wise-County

Wise Coal Action. Virginia residents and anti-coal activists form a blockade to disrupt the construction of Dominion’s Wise County Coal-Fired Power Plant. September 2008.

 

closed-for-climate-justice

Capitol Climate Action. Thousands of activists surround the Capitol Coal Plant in Washington DC to demand its retirement. March 2009.

 

Duke_Cliffside

Duke Energy’s Cliffside Coal Plant. RAN activists holding a banner in front of Duke Energy’s Cliffside coal plant in Cliffside, North Carolina. The banner action coincided with the release a new report, The Principle Matter: Banks, Climate & The Carbon Principles. January 2011.

 

Chicago_Crawford

Crawford Coal Plant Banner. Six activists with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), Rising Tide North America, Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and the Backbone Campaign climbed the fence to Midwest Generation’s controversial Crawford coal plant in Little Village. The activists unfurled a 7′ x 30′ banner atop a 20-foot tall sprawling coal pile that feeds the power plant, which reads: “Close Chicago’s Toxic Coal Plants.” April 2011.

 

BofA_PCBrown
BofA_PCBrown2

Stand with Pat: Tell BofA to Stop Funding Coal. Grandmothers Pat Moore and Beth Henry and seven others were arrested outside of four different Bank of America branches in Charlotte, NC delivering a simple yet urgent message to the bank: they must STOP funding coal. November 2012. Photo: © Paul Corbit Brown.