by Ted Nace
Bummed out about Copenhagen, the U.S. Senate, that expensive-sounding kggrstch emanating from somewhere in your transmission? Well, here’s some good news to sip and enjoy: the
amazing success of the fight to stop new coal plants. Consider the situation in early
2007. At that time the Energy Department released a survey showing 151 new
coal plants in progress. Speaking
to the National Press Club in February 2007, NASA’s head climate scientist James
Hansen identified stopping this boom in new coal plant construction as a
necessary condition for halting climate disaster.
Hansen’s focus on coal proved invaluable as a yardstick for
grassroots climate activists. Across the country, hundreds of small groups mobilized to block the wave of construction. While many national groups
assisted the grassroots groups, two deserve particular kudos for zeroing in
specifically on stopping coal plants: Sierra Club and Rainforest Action
Network.
In my account of the anti-coal movement, Climate Hope: On
the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal, I document 100 coal plant cancellations between mid-2007 and mid-2009. That
number continues to grow, with the Sierra Club tracking list now showing 123
coal projects derailed as Feb. 12. Of the 151 coal plants listed by the
Energy Department in 2007, the CoalSwarm wiki lists 95 plants cancelled or
abandoned.
That’s a .629 batting average—incredible!
For the first time in six years, not a single new coal plant
broke ground in 2009, a radical turnaround from projections of three years ago.
But the success of the anti-coal movement hasn’t been
limited to stopping new coal plants. The vast infrastructure of existing plants—call
it the Carbon Archipelago—is beginning to crumble as well. And overseas, the Chinese
coal plant boom is also fading. I’ll make those two closely related
developments the subject of upcoming posts.
Related Links:
Complaint cites health threats at Alabama dump taking TVA’s spilled coal ash
Collateral Damage of Clean Coal
