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From the Huffington Post:
The Sierra Club and Michael Bloomberg are upping the ante in their effort to close down coal-fired power plants, announcing on Wednesday another $60 million in funding for their anti-coal campaign.
The Sierra Club is also raising its target for coal plant closures, setting a goal to close half of all coal plants in the U.S. by 2017. The group’s previous goal, set in 2011, was to close a third of coal plants by 2020. So far, the organizers have claimed victory on 187 plants, all of which have closed or are slated for closure in the near future.
If successful, the Sierra Club wants to see 166,000 megawatts of coal-fired power shut down or slated for closure in the U.S. in the next two years. Coal plants are responsible for about 40 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists have found are causing climate change.
"Dirty, outdated, deadly coal is a thing of the past," Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said at an event Wednesday announcing the new goal.Update:
Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York whose philanthropy donated $50 million to Sierra Club's anti-coal work in 2011, announced another $30 million in support for the campaign on Wednesday. About a dozen additional donors such as the Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Grantham Foundation have pledged another $30 million to the effort.
“Coal's days are numbered," said Bloomberg. "It is an outdated technology. It is holding back our economy and hurting our health."
The group says its success has come through grassroots efforts in communities across the country to retire older, polluting power plants. Sierra Club organizers have claimed victories in places like Nebraska, where the Omaha Public Power District announced last year that it will retire three coal units by 2016.
"This energy transformation was not made possible by Washington or Wall Street," said Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. "It happened on Main Street, thanks to regular people fighting in their backyards for the future of their communities."...MORE
If Half The Coal Fired Power Plants Were To Shut Down What Happens To Natural Gas?
