Comments on: AMP Coal-Fired Power Plant in Meigs OH Stopped

By: fred flinstone

fred flinstone — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:24:15 +0000

you folks just dont have a clue. You sure like to turn your lights on at night and go to your office buildings in the morning and throw the electric heater on to keep warm. i dont know anyone personally in racine ohio that didnt approve of the plant. there are alot of young people that could have retired from there. They were in college banking on that power plant going in. High paying, family feeding, stable jobs. now they will have to relocate to find work. if it werent for the delays caused by environmentalists the plant would have started construction a long time ago and would have never slipped through our fingers. Thanks alot.

COAL FIRED POWER PLANT EMPLOYEE,
meigs county resident.

By: Make our site better – 5 min survey for readers and writers « It’s Getting Hot In Here

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:14:14 +0000

[...] Our movement benefits from the breadth and quality of stories and opinions shared here. Activists in Oregon can benefit from action ideas from Australia. On-the-ground activists fighting coal in West Virginia engage in discussion with San Francisco think tanks. Climate activists share stories from around the world. We help the movement grow by broadcasting amazing victories, like the Green Job/Green New York Act and stopping a 1000 MW coal plant in Meigs Co Ohio. [...]

By: Dennis Swenie

Dennis Swenie — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:12:47 +0000

Thank you for your efforts and your success! IPCC scientists now tell us that Climate Change is progressing even faster than their worst case 2007 scenario (Scenario 2 B). World leaders met in Copenhagen and did nothing. Citizens: it’s up to us! Peaceful blockade of coal fired power plants and the trains carrying coal, works. In England, protests led to a ban on construction of any new coal fired plants. Hurray! Let’s get organized and repeat this success across the country. Getting off coal is the key issue. The last time I joined in direct action was in 1972. 5,000 Chicago area citizens stopped construction of the Crosstown Expressway, a planned 22-mile nightmare planned right through the heart of the city. It would have torn down the homes of 10,000 people. It’s been a long time, and I’m a lot older, but I won’t sit on my hands, and watch our leaders destroy our biosphere. We will not abandon construction workers and coal miners, who lose jobs because of the change from coal. You are not the enemy. New, greener projects will need to be built. Join the struggle. E-mail dow2200@yahoo.com. Please use “Stop Coal” for a subject. I will respond.

By: Jim Pugh

Jim Pugh — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:04:12 +0000

Todd, very interesting comments related to the benefits of such a project. I too was one Ohioan counting on the plant which was to include cutting edge carbon capture technology. Our company is a manufacturer, heavy equipment for heavy industry. We are a dying breed but what will America do when we are all gone? The service industry cannot survive alone, we need heavy industry no matter how ugly it may look to some.

The fabricated steel construction our company could have provided for the Meigs plant would have been in the neighborhood of 6-10 million pounds which would have provided work for 60 persons at our shop for up to 2 years. Imagine that, one small part of the overall project would have provided 54 man years of labor.

Is it a good thing a coal project was stopped? I doubt it. Nearly every source of energy has a polluting side effect and if suggest how clean solar is, take a look a the manufacturing process of the silicon crystal, the growing process, nasty nasty nasty. And keep in mind that a nasty aluminum smelter somewhere had to produce the aluminum for the frames.

Coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar, biomass… we need it all. We are energy pigs and there will never be enough. Conservation must also play a part and because we as free americans are so undisaplined that I suppose it will require yet another new law to make it happen.

By: Todd Franke

Todd Franke — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:35:50 +0000

From the Point Pleasant Register . . .

It was estimated that AMP’s project would contribute more than $20 million to the local economy on an annual basis. With this type of hole to fill, many residents and local officials are wondering, “what now?”

There seems to be no clear answer at the moment though “what might’ve been” is obvious to most when it comes to what the plant could have meant in terms of economic development.

For the past four years, hopes have been high for the American Municipal Power Generating Station (AMPGS) and the jobs and economic development it was predicted to bestow on Meigs County which has been struggling with high unemployment rates. Ironically, Meigs County received some good news this month following the release of the latest state unemployment figures which showed the county’s unemployment rate dropped from 15.1 percent in September, to 14.5 percent in October.

The AMPGS, a 1,000-megawatt facility, would have provided 1,600 construction jobs during the 4 1/2 year construction project. Once on line, it would have employed 165 full-time operators, including 15 at an adjacent fertilizer plant run by The Andersons. The Andersons would have taken some waste from the plant and recycled it into material for commercial fertilizer.

The Southern Local School District stood to benefit from the AMPGS, which was to be located in its district and cost in excess of $3 billion to build, not mention the predicted influx of a workers to the area, some with children, who might have enrolled in the district.

By: matt

matt — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:30:52 +0000

dun, dun, dun, another one bites the dust!

By: Josh Lynch

Josh Lynch — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:06:35 +0000

Bravo Meigs County organizers! This is a long, hard-fought victory. I visited Meigs County three times over the past four years and was impressed both by the amount of polluting facilities locals have to live with and the strength of the conviction of those opposing the new plants. There is still a long way to go, but this victory is a great step!

By: Morgan

Morgan — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 14:29:40 +0000

This is a sweet victory. The hundreds of people who have worked hard on this campaign deserve some appreciation. I was part of my first direct action organizing and planning on this campaign, when we did a sit-in at the headquarters. The sit-in ended successfullly – we actually met with the president and he agreed to organize a board meeting with the trustees and local residents of our choosing. He later backed down from that promise.

Keep up the great work Ohio