I’m sitting in a church guest house in Houston, preparing to attend Dynegy’s annual shareholder meeting tomorrow. We’ve gathered in Texas to confront Dynegy CEO Bruce Wiliamson, King Coal himself, because he plans to build six new coal burning power plants — more than other corporation in the country. They say everything’s bigger in Texas and it’s especially true with the anti-coal movement, which has turned out over one hundred activists from around the country to challenge Dynegy’s plans. Activists from Iowa, Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, Michiga and Nevada, each state in which Dynegy plans to build a coal plant are gathered here. As expected, the youth climate movement has provided most of the energy and activists for the event. Twenty students working with Seth Gunning in Georgia caravaned out! There’s also representation from the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition, the University of Arkansas and the University of Texas here.
Tomorrow I’ll be representing Co-op America inside the shareholder meeting, bringing the argument that the
coal business is bad business to the boardroom. Outside the meeting, the youth climate activists will be joined by representatives from the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, RAN and Houston Climate Action Coalition to send the message to shareholders: it’s time to invest in a renewable energy future, not our grandfather’s coal plants!
It’s me and Mr. Williamson. The youth vs. King Coal. The time is now for us to rise up and declare: NO NEW COAL PLANTS. NO NEW COAL INVESTMENT. ITS TIME FOR A RENEWABLE ENERGY FUTURE!