The Sierra Club Foundation Annual Report 2011

THE SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION | ANNUAL REPORT 2011
BEYOND COAL (continued)
District of Columbia, after which Vincent Gray became the first
D.C. mayor to publicly voice concerns about the plant.
In August, GenOn agreed to retire the 62-year-old facility,
sparing 400,000 local residents from its deadly soot and smog,
which have been proven to cause chronic bronchitis, asthma, and
other costly health issues. Under the new agreement, the plant will
stop burning coal by October 2012.
LANDMARK MERCURY RULING
In December, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) finalized the Mercury and Air Toxics (MATS) rule, a new
regulation requiring coal- and oil-fired power plant operators to
slash emissions of mercury and other airborne toxics. This longoverdue
standard—which the EPA estimates will save as many as
11,000 lives while preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma
annually—has actually been mandated since 1990, but the coal
industry has successfully blocked action to limit pollution for more
than two decades.
Throughout 2011, the Sierra Club led a broad coalition of
more than 200 health, environmental, and social justice groups
across the country to generate more than 800,000 comments to
the EPA calling for strong mercury safeguards. These comments,
collected from every state in the nation, constitute the largest
number of public comments that the EPA has ever received on
any issue.
To magnify public support for mercury safeguards, the Club
engaged grassroots activists nationwide, organizing dozens of hairtesting
events to inform participants of their personal mercury
levels, garner media attention, and build grassroots support. The
Beyond Coal Campaign pushed the mercury issue hard in the
media, securing coverage from Good Morning America, TIME,
CNN, and dozens of TV and print outlets across the country. The
campaign also leveraged its grassroots power and brought hundreds
4