Posts Tagged ‘power plant’

Fossil ‘Fools Day Protests Set for 30 Cities; Target Coal, Oil, Natural Gas and Big Banks

SAN FRANCISCO—More than 30 cities throughout North America have organized demonstrations against the fossil fuel industry, corporate banks and big environmental organizations for April 1’st national Fossil ‘Fools’ Day. Demonstrations are being coordinated by Rising Tide North America , which has also launched an online campaign targeting “Big Green” groups that have taken money from the worst corporate polluters. Key targets of the campaign include Conservation International, National Wildlife Federation and Environmental Defense.

http://bit.ly/8XDk09

The National Day of Action – organized by Rising Tide North America, Mountain Justice, a coalition of Canadian climate activists and others – will feature clownish parades, flyering, subversive advertising, creative street theater, and non-violent direct actions targeting the coal, oil, natural gas and banking sectors. Cities where actions will take place include Asheville, Boulder, Chicago, Edmonton, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Ottawa, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Washington D.C. Corporations targeted will include Chevron, JPMorgan Chase, NW Natural Gas, Pepco and Shell. Read the rest of this entry »

Greenville, SC Two protestors have locked themselves to the 1.5 million pound generator destined for Duke Energy’s Cliffside coal plant in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Protestors are vowing to prevent the generator, which has been traveling across South Carolina on a 300 foot trailer, from reaching the coal plant. “Our nation has no choice, we must stop burning coal. The only choice that we can make is whether we do that in time to still have breathable air, drinkable water, a livable climate, and standing mountains,” said, Catherine Anne. Protestors also draped a large banner from the top of the generator reading, “Stop Cliffside.”

The controversial Cliffside coal plant would emit over 6 million tons of carbon dioxide ever year in addition to toxic levels of heavy metals such as mercury, greatly exacerbating global warming and our abysmal air quality. Duke Energy is seeking to raise electricity rates in order to pay for the construction of Cliffside at a time when record numbers of families are struggling to put food on the table due to the recession.

This act of civil disobedience comes a week before world leaders meet in Copenhagen to hash out a global climate agreement. “Any agreement made in Copenhagen will be meaningless if the US continues to build coal plants such as Cliffside. It is time to tear down coal plants, not construct new ones,” said Rachel Scarano. There are currently 43 coal plants proposed or under construction in the US, though over 100 others have been canceled due to widespread protests.

Since it was first proposed, there has been massive opposition to Cliffside. In the past year and a half over 60 people have been arrested protesting the plant, and they vow to continue the fight. “Since politicians and corporations refuse to take serious action to stop climate change, citizens must step in to shut down coal plants,” said Attila Nemecz. The protest was organized by Asheville Rising Tide and Croatan Earth First! and is part of a national day of action with dozens of protests around the country including Chicago, New York City, Washington DC, and San Francisco.

Directions to site: From I-85 in Greenville, exit onto US 25/ White Horse Rd. Go South on 25 for 2 miles. Left at Augusta Rd. Protest is .5 miles down the road on right.

Press Contact: Liz Veazey  919-627-7324 ashevillerisingtide@gmail.com
Onsite Contact: Attila Nemecz 919-889-1261www.asheville.risingtidenorthamerica.org

Sign the Petition Here

Here in Riau, Indonesia, signs of the struggle to save the last of Sumatra’s forest is everywhere. Daily, the papers cover stories of timber and oil palm companies destroying forests, engaging in corruption, driving land conflicts, sponsoring violence, and marginalizing indigenous peoples.

Today, on the way to a meeting with the local NGO Elang, I passed villagers from the Kampar Peninsula, a carbon-rich and biodiverse ecoystem that is under attack by Sinar Mas’ oil palm operations and their timber division Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), on a hunger strike.

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LA Victory: Community stops power plant

A Victory For LA’s Air And A Victory for the Planet!
Communities for a Better Environment

Move over Al Gore, make room for some new environmental leaders – working class Latina mothers and high school youth from South East Los Angeles!

After 3 years of organizing, mobilizing, advocacy and lawsuits, CBE members in Southeast Los Angeles stopped a 943 megawatt fossil fuel power plant that would have emitted over 1.7 million pounds of toxic pollution per year as well as 2.8 million tons of greenhouse gases.

The strength of this exciting grassroots effort compelled the City of Vernon to withdraw their application for the power plant on September 28th, 2009. The was a life-and-death struggle since the power plant emissions could have caused as many as one dozen deaths every year. Since these facilities usually operate for fity years, literally hundreds of lives have been saved.

This was not only a local victory. By preventing the emission of more than 200 million tons of greenhouse gasses, the mujeres and youth made a major contrubution to the flight against global warming. They have also created a community empowerment model for teh other 22 California communities facing a similar threat of fossil fuel power plants.

In the immortal words of Cesar Chavez: Si Se Puede!

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
Climate Justice Chicago
How green is Chicago?

Ratcliffe Coal Action: ‘Massive Success’

October 18, 2009

Climate change activists have hailed this weekend’s direct action as a “massive success” after repeatedly breaching the fence and spending 24 hours outside Ratcliffe coal-fired power station.

Three activists are said to have recovered from injuries suffered at the hands of the police, while one more activist is believed to still be in hospital after collapsing yesterday afternoon. Footage was released last night of a protester-medic aiding a policeman taken ill at the protest (1).

Activists gathered in various points on Saturday morning, swooping on the power plant in separate groups to arrive at 1pm. Within five minutes they had already broken down one of the perimeter fences and several had entered the plant.

On Saturday night around 300 activists pitched tents in two camps outside the gates, despite attempt by police to intimidate campers by standing next to the campsite in full riot gear. The police have confirmed 58 arrests, but there are believed to be more arrestees yet to be booked in. Further action is expected to take place today.

Natasha Blair from the Camp for Climate Action said: ‘We’ve achieved what we came here to do: to show that coal has no future and there is a growing movement which is prepared to take action on climate change.”

This weekend, activists from around the world met in Copenhagen to finalist plans for similar actions during the UN climate talks taking place in December. The Camp for Climate Action has announced that they will be joining other activists in the ‘Push for Climate Justice’, which aims to take over the talks for a day.

Natasha Blair continued: “In the run up to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen this December, acts of civil disobedience to confront big business and governments that are causing catastrophic climate change are gaining support.”
Notes

1. Find the full video at: http://blip.tv/play/njSBqIoGAg

Northern Indymedia firsthand article
UK Indy media: great photos
Climate Camp live video coverage and more

commercial news
photos galoorie
Read the rest of this entry »

Australia Climate Camp
Climate Camp Day of Action Begins – Press Release

50 people peacefully blockade Peabody’s Metropolitan Colliery

Climate Camp shuts down Dendrobium coal mine – Sunday AM

Press Release October 11, 7am 2009

7.05am. Currently, four people from Climate Camp 2009 have scaled
and locked themselves onto the coal conveyor belt at the Dendrobium
coal mine near Helensburgh, NSW.

Spokesperson for the group Aimee Bull-McMahon said “We have shut
down the conveyor from this underground polluter as part of the Climate
Camp 09 three days of action. The Dendrobium coal mine, owned by
Illawarra Coal, has been disastrous for the surrounding water ways that
the local community relies on for drinking water.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Mark Tran and David Adam of the the Guardian/UK report that direct action stopped the planned new Kingsnorth coal plant in England.

Environmental campaigners were celebrating tonight after controversial plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent were shelved, as the company behind the scheme postponed the project and blamed the recession.

E.ON, the energy group, tonight effectively threw in the towel on its plans to build a new coal-power station at Kingsnorth, blaming the recession.
In a heavy blow to the government’s plans to promote energy from coal, E.ON said lower demands for electricity due to the recession had pushed the need for the new plant in the UK to around 2016.

The company said, however, that it remained committed to the development of cleaner coal and carbon capture and storage “which we believe have a key role to play alongside renewables, gas and nuclear in tackling the global threat of climate change while ensuring affordability and security of energy supplies”.

While the company described the decision as a postponement, the announcement effectively scuppers the whole project, green groups said.

Kingsnorth has been shrouded in controversy ever since inception, with protests over several years including a high-profile Climate Camp protest.

full article here
and here

South Australia Climate Camp 2009: A great success!

For immediate release 26 September 2009

Climate camp activists gathered in Port Augusta, South Australia have declared the state’s first climate camp a great success. On Friday Flinders Power announced that the coal train from Leigh Creek, the longest coal train in the world, would not run over the weekend.

On Saturday morning a crowd of 50 gathered outside the Port Augusta power stations to demand that the aging, inefficient stations be closed down and replaced with renewable energy. The power stations had been declared a “protected area” under the Protective Security Act 2007 for the period of the Climate Camp. Protesters then marched two kilometers through the protected area to a point where they were stopped by 70 police including many mounted police and a canine unit.

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Burning Forests for Electricity

By MICHAEL DONNELLY

“All technology should be assumed guilty until proven innocent.”

—David Brower

Like one might expect from a Dr. Seuss character, the Once-ler of old has morphed into the Renew-ler in these “Sustainable” times. The modern day Thneed is electrical power. His allies are a mix of industrialists, politicians and co-opted “greens.” The end result: a forest vacuumed of all life; remains the same.

Coming Soon to a Forest Near You

On a daily basis of late, plans are unveiled for new biomass “renewable energy” electricity plants nationwide, complete with State and Federal “Renewable Energy Tax Credits.” Over 100 are already up and running or approved and under construction. Another 200 are in the approval process. Ten in Michigan; six in Arkansas; three in Massachusetts; two in Georgia; three in Maine; three in Florida; …even one in swanky Vail, Colorado. If a state has trees, it has a burner(s) on the drawing board. Of all the proposals working their way through state governments, only those in Oregon have been (so far) thwarted. There, Governor Ted Kulongoski has vetoed legislation giving the renewable tax credit designation to existing Timber Industry wood-to-electricity and existing garbage burner electricity plants that sailed through Oregon’s Democrat-dominated Legislature with GOP support. On the other hand, Kulongoski and Oregon have given their renewable energy tax imprimatur to giant wind farms. For some 3550 megawatts of peak production, Oregon is handing these private wind power producers a projected $144 million in tax subsidies this biennium alone. But, that’s a different part of the story.

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(reposted from www.risingtidenorthamerica.org)

Climate Ground Zero, West Virginia, All Summer

Come to West Virginia to take direct action against mountaintop removal coal mining. CGZ will be coordinating action training camps and organizing actions against coal companies destroying the mountains and communities of WV. We will have non-violence and other trainings, a kitchen and people who can explain the corrupt practice of MTR. We are hoping to shut down the sites on an ongoing basis all summer long. But we need your help.

www.climategroundzero.org

Contact Guin at 304-854-7372, guinstigator@yahoo.com

Cascadia Summer 2009

The Pacific Northwest is looking hot for direct action this summer with plans for massive public lands logging on the table. Thanks to a scheme called the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) passed by Bush at the last minute around 25,000 acres of public lands will be cut. That

Police said 114 men and women were arrested in Sneinton Dale on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage.

Officers said they believed those arrested were planning to protest at nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station.

Police said equipment including bolt-cutters was found and they feared a threat to the safety of the site.

A police spokesman said it was thought there was a “serious threat” to the coal-fired power station, which is eight miles south-west of Nottingham. Read the rest of this entry »