Want to hear the full speaches? Check out our podcast:
(Click to Play)
Notes: Dr. Hansen joined the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now at our Earth Day rally on April 22nd, 2008. Both Ms Goodman and Rev. Wallis have recently released books addressing the issue of global warming.
Dominion Virginia Power is at it again. It ran a full-page page ad in the Washington Post yesterday, apparently forgetting all about a key ruling in March by the State Corporation Commission (SCC), the agency that oversees utilities.
Take a look at Dominion’s first bullet point describing how it plans to provide new electrical generation to Virginia:
[Among the important parts of this plan are:] A new clean-coal, carbon capture-compatible power station in Wise County where we’ll spend nearly $320 million to install the very latest in emissions-control systems. It’ll be one of the cleanest coal-powered stations in the U.S. and bring more than 1,200 jobs and $1.8 billion of new investment to Southwest Virginia.
Really? Carbon capture compatible? On July 13, 2007, Dominion Power applied to the State Corporation Commission for approval of a coal-fired power plant in Wise County it promised would be “carbon capture compatible.” On March 31st, the SCC approved construction of a “conventional coal” facility and did not give Dominion any bonus for carbon capture compatibility. Rather, the Commission was explicitly clear – of the $1.8 billion to build the plant, not one penny would go to address the plant’s global warming pollution, either now or at any time in the future.
Now let’s talk about “clean” coal. First, the term clean coal in general is a joke. Calling coal clean is like calling a cigarette healthy; the cigarette may have less tar and cancer-causing agents than other brands, but that does not mean it’s good for you. Same goes for coal: No matter what you do to it, it will never be clean. Continue reading
Living in an apartment building in the heart of Washington, DC I don’t feel a deep connection to coal mining. I drink my coffee in the mornings and read about the tragedy at Sago mine or China’s voracious appetite for coal. From my dining room table though, West Virginia feels far away and China could practically be in other universe.
Turns out I’m much more connected than I care to imagine. This Sunday, the Washington Post ran a great piece by David Fahrenthold about DC’s connection to mountaintop removal coal mining.
MUD, W.Va. — This is a place where “moving mountains” is no longer a figure of speech. Here, among the steep green Appalachians, mining companies are moving mountains off their pedestals to get the kind of coal that Washington needs.
Though this isolated mine is more than 400 miles from Washington, the two places share a powerful connection: coal. The D.C. region, with its need for electricity skyrocketing, has been burning steadily more coal, buying almost a third of its supply from this part of Appalachia.
Mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up — and it is happening here in America on a scale that is almost unimaginable.
Central Appalachia provides much of the country’s coal, second only to Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. In the United States, 100 tons of coal are extracted every two seconds. Around 70 percent of that coal comes from strip mines, and over the last 20 years, an increasing amount comes from mountaintop-removal sites. In Virginia 29 mountains have already been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining.
Dominion Power has plans to build a new $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant in Wise County — a county that has already lost 25% of its mountains to mountaintop removal. Dominion’s proposed plant would burn mostly Virginia coal, which would increase the demand for coal and thus increase mountaintop removal mining.
No matter where you live in Maryland, Virginia or DC, part of your electricity comes from coal that was mined using mountaintop removal.
Check our your connection to mountaintop removal using Appalachian Voices’ web tool that allows you to track exactly where your coal comes from.
One way you can help stop the destructive practice of mountaintop removal in Virginia is by making sure Virginia doesn’t build any new coal plants.
Take action! Sign the petition against new coal in Virginia>>
Dr. James Hansen’s speech last night brought out a cheering crowd and called on US citizens to join together and stop new coal and demand that our country rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, humans must reduce CO2 from its current 385 parts per million (ppm) to at most 350 ppm.”
Dr. Hansen joined the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now at our Earth Day rally last night. Both Ms Goodman and Rev. Wallis have recently released books addressing the issue of global warming.
One of my favorite quotes came from Jim Wallis:
“The neglect of our natural environment and its degradation is not just bad policy; it’s bad theology. When climate change and ecological pressures threaten the survival of civilization as we know it, I want to reassert an ethic of environmental stewardship that is rooted in our most basic moral and religious values.”
Share your favorite quotes from last night in the comments below! And post your photos in our flickr set!
ONLINE SALES END AT 3 PM. BUY YOURS AT THE DOOR STARTING AT 6!
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
The Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) is hosting a State Summit! With the momentum of their recent victory in making the University System of Maryland to go carbon neutral the MSCC is gathering to plan their next big campaign.
Our movement is growing and the MSCC is expanding to include ALL SCHOOLS in MD!
Here is a message from Erica Stout, Co-Coordinator of the MSCC:
Come be a climate leader for the state of Maryland!!
A lot has happened this year around global warming in MD, from
PowerShift in our own state, to our fight for the Global Warming
Solutions act, to the Maryland Student Climate Coalition’s victory in
getting 13 Universities in MD to pledge climate neutrality!!!!
There are HUGE opportunities to make MD a leader in the fight against global
warming and we are building immense momentum at all of our schools.
Now it is time for us all to come together and plan what steps we can take,
to use our power to make change in our state!! Come celebrate the end of Earth Week
with us and culminate your work for the year at the Maryland Student Climate Coalition Summit!!!
STATE SUMMIT, @ UMD April 25-27
Join dozens of other climate leaders from across MD at a
STATE SUMMIT April 25-27 where we will plan our next
campaign, get trained, and begin to build our momentum to hit the ground
running next semester!
Click here to register for the summit!
SUMMIT LOGISTICS:
WHEN: Friday April 25- Sunday April 27!!! We will begin Friday evening and finish Sunday, early afternoon.
WHERE: University of Maryland, College Park.
Sleeping Arrangements: We will be buddying up people from other schools to stay with UMD students. Mark in the registration form (Register Here!!) if you will need a place to stay in College Park.
Logistics: We hope to cover a majority of the meals (vegetarian, with
vegan options) with a contribution from our hosts from Clean Energy for UMD through the MD
Co-Op. Yum! Breakfast may be on your own.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO NOW:
1. Register for the summit!!!!
2. Tell your friends and your group!!! Pass around a sign up sheet at your next meeting, then register them through the same form.
3. Help us make this a success! Email me at ericastout@gmail.com or Andrew at anazdin@gmail.com if you would like to help out. Email Liz at lizlacoco@gmail.com to join the recruitment working group, or Hanna at hpoffenb@umd.edu to help with the agenda
Email me if you have any questions, thoughts, suggestions or concerns!!!
Erica Stout
(301) 787-2059
Co-Coordinator
Maryland Student Climate Coalition
“What we have found is that the target we have all been aiming for is a disaster – a guaranteed disaster,” Hansen recently told the Guardian Newspaper in London.
Hansen will give his first major public address since announcing that governments and climate researchers have grossly underestimated the severity of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions next Tuesday at CCAN’s Super Rally.
Since Hansen is coming to DC to talk to us, I figure we have to get him to answer at least one personal question. I kinda want to know what climate catastrophe keeps him up at night, but I’m a little scared to know what that would be. Ideas? Post your questions for Hansen in the comments
President Bush will lay out his “principles” on climate change at a press conference today. Many are saying that he is finally trying to make an attempt to stay relevant when the movement in congress heading toward legislation regulating carbon emissions. But neither the president nor congress are making the steps that James Hansen says are necessary to avert catastrophic climate change. With James Hansen setting the goal at 350 ppm, the movement in the federal government is more of a budge than a step.
Coal is the number one target. Coal generates approximately 40% of the world’s electricity
Judy Pasternak at the LA Times wrote an important piece this week on the national effort to stop coal plants (the full article is below). This comes only a day after the Wall Street Journal wrote a piece focusing on the Virginia coal plant fight. And it comes less than a month before our big rally on May 8th in front of Dominion’s headquarters in Richmond.
Environmental lawyers make a concentrated effort to stop new ones from being built; a coalition claims 65 victories in the last year. But industry groups are fighting back.
WASHINGTON — Every time a new coal-fired power plant is proposed anywhere in the United States, a lawyer from the Sierra Club or an allied environmental group is assigned to stop it, by any bureaucratic or legal means necessary. Continue reading
With Maryland in the midst of figuring out its energy future, it is up to citizens to voice their opinions about what is best for themselves and the environment of Maryland. Recent strides towards increased nuclear development, especially at the Calvert Cliffs Power Plant near Lusby, MD, not only threaten the health of the Chesapeake Bay, but area residents as well. It is time for Maryland to speak out, and this Earth Day, someone is going to get $500 for doing just that.
Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) are using the recent book “Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free; A Roadmap for U.S. Foreign Policy” by IEER President Dr. Arjun Makhijani as the basis for an Earth Day Viral Video Contest. The contest challenges citizens to create a video to be put on YouTube that addresses the concept outlined in Makhijani’s book.
Submitted videos cannot run longer than 3 minutes and group submissions cannot exceed more than 10 people. Every group must register via e-mail and submit their video by April 17th. Those submitting the winning video will receive $500.
The video submissions will be shown the evening of Earth Day, April 22 at St. Mary’s College following a presentation by Arjun Makhijani, author of “Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free; A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy.” After the viewing, the winning submission will be announced and a $500 cash prize will be given to the winner(s). All submissions will be put on YouTube.
Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. His book, published in 2007, outlines the plausible transformation of the U.S. to a carbon emissions free society by the year 2050 without the use of nuclear energy. Instead, he emphasizes energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The use of viral sharing has been pivotal in recent environmental and political campaigns and is a hallmark of the future of grassroots organizing. The contest is intended to us this method while exploring viable energy solutions for Maryland and the country as a whole.
For additional information about the Earth Day Viral Video Contest, or to register contact Rachel Roscoe at rroscoe@citizen.org or at (202) 454-5129.
