Green Options

In a demonstration of increased surveillance on protest groups in Britain, police arrested 114 people for alleged conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass at a coal-fired power plant.

Huh? What kind of protest involves 114 people “conspiring” to enter and vandalize a power plant? Sounds like a few dozen were involved in logistics, and the rest had volunteered to go along for the ride. Does their willingness to participate really constitute conspiratory thought?

With the recent successes in stopping the further expansion of coal-based energy, activists direly need a complete list of proposed mining projects.

While SourceWatch.org already hosts the CoalSwarm database with all sorts of information about coal plants across different states, it’s lacking information on proposed coal mines. Legal opposition and community protests have been shown to work, so if you live in a coal mining area please add any known projects to this wiki list.

When a new coal preparation plant decided to begin construction without first securing a permit, Plains Justice with the Dakota Resource Council and local residents jumped at the opportunity to file a complaint against the company.

With the complaint challenging the plant’s construction, Great Northern Power Development withdrew its application for a new coal mine that was to work in conjunction with the plant. But the victory is bigger than one plant — it has repercussions for coal mining across North Dakota.

Baard Energy withdrew an application for federal loans for a $6 billion coal-to-liquids plant in Illiinois last week. The company cited lawsuits by the Sierra Club and National Resource Defense Council for blocking the project.

“Baard keeps claiming this is a clean coal facility and nothing could be further from the truth,” said Nachy Kanfer of Sierra Club. “There is nothing clean about a fuel that emits twice the global warming pollution of normal gasoline or a refinery that spits out huge amounts of dangerous air pollutants and heavy metals.”

Five activists managed to shut down a coal mine before being arrested and charged with “breach of the peace” for standing on a piece of equipment with a sign reading “No New Coal.”

“We’re here to send a message to [mining company] ATH Resources that mining the dirtiest fossil fuel and fuelling climate change is not acceptable,” said one activist. “As mining companies such as ATH don’t appear to be listening, we’ve come to stop them mining, too.”

Friday February 27^th will begin the four day Powershift 2009 conference, which is set to become the largest ever youth conference on climate change. But history will be made on Monday, March 2^nd, when thousands of youth lobby Congress and thousands of others march to the Capitol Coal Plant to take part in what should become the largest ever act of climate change related civil disobedience.

Over 10,000 high school and college aged students are expected to turn out to this year’s Powershift conference. 2007’s conference had thousands of attendees and speakers such as Van Jones, Ralph Nader and Nancy Pelosi. This year is expecting some of the same big names, and more.

Power Past Coal has been putting together an extensive list of actions across the country that are happening in the next 100 days to put an end to our coal-dependent economy. As the slew of recent coal disasters has shown us, the time to put an end to coal use is now.

NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen has put it eloquently:

“We must halt all new coal plants now, and we must begin shutting down existing ones as soon as possible. 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.”

Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States of America today. As one of the first moves of his presidency, he has suspended all of former-President George Bush’s midnight regulations. The order was issued by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel directly following the swearing in of Obama.

The regulations will not go into effect until Obama has had a chance to review their legality. Hopefully, this will undo some of the damage Bush attempted to leave our country with, such as his permitting coal companies to dump waste near rivers and oil companies to drill without reviewing the endangered species act.

Climate action group Rising Tide is joining forces with City Life/Vida Urbana, a housing justice organization, to announce a mass action against Bank of America. Instead of the usual sign holding and chanting (which has also been taking place), they are asking people across the country to close their bank accounts on February 14^th- Valentines Day.

Why?

Because Bank of America continues to kick poor families out of their foreclosed homes and finance the ecologically devastating practice of mountaintop removal. The two causes may seem unrelated, but house foreclosures affect primarily low income families- many of them minorities, and harmful coal extracting practices often take their biggest toll on poorer rural families. According to Rising Tide, the pollution from mountaintop removal poisons the water in Appalachia and has forced people to leave their homes.

The Tennesee Valley Authority says they have a spill contained near its Widows Creek power plant in northeast Alabama, but that the quantity of ash slurry spilled and damage caused is unknown.

“There’s been some release but we don’t have any information to show it’s from an ash pond,” said James McIndoe, director of water division for the Alabama Department of Environment Management. “We don’t have all the facts.”

Though President Bush remains in office for only two more weeks, he has left a final trail of devastation to cement his legacy in place. From gutting the endangered species act to allowing toxic waste to flow freely, Bush is pushing 11^th hour executive orders at a potentially record setting pace.

His list of last minute domestic atrocities is not limited to the environment, but many of his most egregious final offenses are those that spoil sensitive habitat and natural resources. This list is merely a sample of Bush’s midnight regulations, along with what is being done to stop him. Here are George Bush’s top five most disgraceful efforts to ruin our environment once more.

5) Actual pine woods to be replaced with a suburb named “Pine Woods”. Plum Creek Timber, the nation’s largest private landowner, has crafted a back door deal with the Bush administration to allow them to pave over logging roads and develop the previously inaccessible land. Local forest agencies are furious about the back door deal, which is being finalized this week. It might not be too late to stop it, so call 1-800-832-1355 and tell Forest Service director (and former timber industry lobbyist) to stop opening up our forests for development.