www.peopleandplanet.net/
15 Feb 2008
by Lester R. Brown
Plans to build 151 new coal-fired power plants in the United States are running into an avalanche of opposition, says Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute. He believes it may signal the final end of coal power and a turning point in tackling climate change.
In a report compiled in early 2007, the US Department of Energy listed 151 coal-fired power plants in the planning stages and talked about a resurgence in coal-fired electricity. But during 2007, 59 proposed US coal-fired power plants were either refused licences by state governments or quietly abandoned. In addition to the 59 plants that were dropped, close to 50 more coal plants are being contested in the courts, and the remaining plants are likely to be challenged as they reach the permitting stage.
What began as a few local ripples of resistance to coal-fired power is quickly evolving into a national tidal wave of grassroots opposition from environmental, health, farm, and community organizations and a fast-growing number of state governments. The public at large is turning against coal. In a September 2007 national poll by the Opinion Research Corporation about which electricity source people would prefer, only 3 per cent chose coal.
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