Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People

Combining Environmental Justice and Climate Justice: The Battle to End CoalPollutionWhile the principles of climate justice mandate that U.S. coal power plants must be closed,the principles of environmental justice should determine which coal plants should be closedfirst.Climate and environmental advocates in the United States — especially youth climate activists— have focused in recent years on cutting emissions from the U.S. coal power industry. Asmentioned earlier, coal power plants are responsible for 32 percent of U.S. CO 2 emissions, sothis is a highly strategic place to begin. 118 This fact has not been lost on high-profile advocatesof climate action. James Hansen has called coal “the single greatest threat to civilization and alllife on our planet,” while Former Vice President Al Gore has called for “rings of young peopleblocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants.” 119120Of course, in recent years, there have been rings of young people blocking bulldozers toprevent coal plants from being built, as part of a powerful, strategic, and highly sophisticatednational campaign against coal. This movement has focused on four sub-strategies: (1) stoppingproposed new coal plants from being built; (2) closing existing coal plants; (3) stoppingmountaintop removal mining (MTR); and (4) targeting banks responsible for financing the coalenergy sector.A surge in new plant proposals under George W. Bush’s Administration caused environmentaladvocates to initially focus on the first strategy, especially after a May 2007 report stated that151 new coal-fired generating units were in various stages of development in the U.S. However,by April 2010, 99 of those 151 plants had been cancelled or put on hold, while 24 had alreadybeen built — leaving only 16 plants that were under construction, and only 12 that were invarious stages of proposal and development. 121In November 2007, after fighting foryears with grassroots campaignersover its new Comanche 3 coal-firedgenerating station, Xcel Energyacknowledged that protests andpublic opinion would probably forcethe company to never build anothercoal power plant. 122While the battles against MTR andagainst coal financing remainimportant, the mass civildisobedience of over 4,000protestors against the coal-firedCapitol Power Plant in Washington,Page | 47