As most people who follow this blog know, there’s been tremendous momentum in the past few months challenging the US Coal Rush. From stopping power plant construction in Texas and North Carolina to leading scientists and politicians calling for a moratorium on coal – NOW is the time to hold firm on our demands. No New C
oal – Period.
Every dollar spent on new (and existing) coal development is a dollar spent destroying ecosystems and communities and accelerating global warming. There is no responsible energy policy that involves coal – and so-called “Clean Coal”simply does not exist. As a recent MIT report shows – the ability to capture and sequester carbon has yet to be proven on a commercial scale and even if possible, “clean coal” ignores the massive destruction from mountain-top removal surface mining and transportation.
Join us on April 13th and 14th as Rainforest Action Network and our allies take the “No New Coal” demand to the doorsteps of Wall Street’s richest banks.
Seven banks are funding most of the new coal-fired power plants and mining that are currently being developed in the US: JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers. It’s time for Wall Street to “Step It Up” by ending investments in destruction and to instead support energy efficiency and renewable energies like solar and wind. If we want to stop ALL new coal development – then we need to pull the financial rug out from under companies like TXU, Dynegy, Duke, AEP, LS Power, Massey Energy, Arch Coal and more.
Take the first step by downloading our “No New Coal” action kit:
http://ran.org/NoNewCoal/
You’ll find all the tools you need to tell the bankers and financiers to stop funding new coal power plants. Find local bank branches, download a letter you can take to the local branch manager, send a letter to their corporate headquarters, and learn about how your group can become “Billionaires for Coal” for the day of action.
Be sure to register your action – or check out what’s already planned in your community:
http://www.DirtyMoney.org/
If the banks don’t fund them, then the coal power plants won’t be built. Together, we can convince these giant banks to Step It Up and start funding the future!
The United States would be short-sighted to ignore the fuel source we have in greatest abundance – coal. Instead, we must force the energy industry and our government to work together to develop increasingly clean ways to use coal through new technologies. And the sooner the better. Our world is becoming more electronic with each passing day, and our nation will need every fuel source we have available to us to stay competitive and stay independent. We all want a brighter future for ourselves and future generations. The only way to do this is to develop clean-coal technologies that can be deployed on a grand scale — not just across the USA but also in developing nations, such as China and India, where they will burn fossil fuels with reckless abandonment and will soon become the world’s biggest polluters. We must help the world achieve its environmental goals while also allowing countries economic prosperity. The answer is through clean-coal technologies.
I agree with Kim, sticking our heads in the sand and pretending coal will never be burned is futile and does not tackle the serious issue of combatting CO2 from developing nations. CO2 capture and sequestration is still far away, so do we give up? Matt Leonard has NOT provided a constructive solution to the problem. Will Matt find an alternative to the 10,000 MW of coal-fired generation being built every few weeks in China? Matt should have supported clean coal twenty years ago (when he was 7) to have the technology in place to generate power cleanly today. The fact is coal IS dirty stuff, and pretending the stuff does not exist and will never be burned is naive, me must deal with the dilemma, and bite the bullet, and think seriously about coal, nuclear, energy efficiency and renewables. We must consider the responsible use of fossil fuels, and not the waste of fossil fuels. Matt should also ask why the cars you build in the US are technologically so far behind anything designed and built in Europe and Japan! Act now and lets deliver the whole package and find a global solution.
Honestly – the only appropriate context for the metaphor of “Sticking our heads in the sand” is the fooloish notion that we can just keep burning fossil fuels. How much more growing evidence do we need that this path will not only further accelerate environmental destruction – but also be far more economically costly that pursuing renewables and energy efficiency?
CCS is a technology is still unproven on a commercial scale- and again, growing studies point to the fact that it will many years away, and be economically prohibitive IF EVER proven possible. We are still left with a waste stream (a massive one at that) which still needs somewhere to go. Why create this waste in the first place? Why keep locking ourselves into coal for the next 50-60 years (the typical life of a coal plant). And again – “clean coal” doesn’t address the destruction caused from the other lifecycles aspects of coal – transportation, refinement, toxic slurries, mountain-top removal etc….
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) outlines steps that the U.S. can take to dramatically reduce energy use and related greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 30 percent – using conservative figures. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has a “2,000-Watt Society” program which pushes for reducing per-capita energy use in industrialized countries to 2,000 watts per day – a two-thirds reduction in energy use for Europeans and a five-sixths decrease for typical Americans – all without substantial shifts in lifestyle.
And all the VERY important concerns over environment, climate, and pollution aside – every dollar thrown at coal is a dollar NOT being spent on other options. We KNOW that energy efficiency is cheaper, and far more effective in addressing energy needs than building new coal plants. Renewable technology will only get cheaper and more productive the more research, development, and money invested in that sector – and that’s the responsible and SMART investment.
As for the US’s role in the world – there’s a great article in the Christian Science Monitor a few days ago showing how the US is accelerating it’s demand for coal, while other countries (like China) are actually backing away from it.
And our lack of efficient vehicles is largely due to massive lobbying efforts by the auto industry to fight CAFE increases – and market bigger, heavier trucks throughout the past decade-plus. And historically – it’s again from industry-interests shaping urban planning and transportation policies (by closing down passenger rail lines and inner-city transit options) that forced reliance on personal cars in the first place.
i don’t see Bank of America on this list ~ didn’t BoA pick up Massey after Massey was dropped by Wells Fargo last summer? Massey is mentioned as a company whose financial rug we must pull out from under them, but on the RAN’s webpage about Banks & the Wall Street Seven, there is no mention of a bank affiliated with Massey. could someone please clarify this for me? thanks