[act-ma] Mar1, Sunday, 1pm, Coal power plants demonstrations in MA

[Amy Hendrickson]

Dear UJP members,

Fossil fuels are driving climate chaos and war, and robbing us of a livable future.  Of all fossil fuels, coal is the dirtiest, and “clean coal” is so far a fiction.  From mining to burning to waste disposal, coal threatens our health and safety.  Coal also has the highest carbon content of all fossil fuels, and is therefore the worst global warming culprit.  Coal has the largest untapped reserve while global oil and gas reserves are declining.  Continued reliance on coal without immediate phase-out is incompatible with any modeling scenarios of reducing atmospheric greenhouse gases to a safe level in time to avert irreversible catastrophic climate change. 

The US military is the single biggest user of fossil fuels, and it spends over half of our income tax dollars – predominantly in attempts to control global oil reserves, waging wars and undermining our security in the process. Now the coal industry is trying to make the military a guaranteed liquid coal buyer for the next quarter century, an extremely expensive fuel that emits twice the carbon as petroleum. Switching quickly from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy is our only option to avert climate & economic collapses, pursue real peace & security, and create secure jobs.

In support of the Mar2 Washington DC coal power plant civil disobedience action called upon by authors Wendell Berry & Bill McKibben (http://www.capitolclimateaction.com/), where thousands of young people will be prepared to be arrested while demanding an end to coal, the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities (MCHC) is working with local activist groups to organize legal demonstrations at multiple coal fired power plants in Massachusetts.  We currently have plans to hold simultaneous demonstrations at 3 such plants on Sunday Mar 1, starting at 1pm.

The three plants are NRG (Somerset), Mt. Tom (Holyoke) & Dominion (Salem) Coal Plants.

We would like to ask UJP for endorsement of this event.  If any UJP member groups would like to join the organizing/coordinating of this event, including adding more coal power plants for demonstrations, that will be fantastic.  At the end of this email is a list of all 6 locations of coal power plants in MA.  We have a coordination conference call on Thursday nights at 9pm.  Please contact Eli Beckerman for call info (Eli, 617-821-1453, eli at securegreenfuture.org).

Please help us spread the word.  We want to let the powers-that-be know that it's not only the young people convening in DC that desperately want to stop coal.  Coal plants everywhere need to be shut down, if we are to have a livable future.

Attached is a flyer for this event, and our website for this is: http://securegreenfuture.org/stopcoal

Thank you, and best regards.

Maggie Zhou
781-316-8283

P.S., List of Massachusetts Coal Fired Power Plants:

Worcester    16544    Saint - Gobain Abrasives Inc    50041    Norton Powerhouse    327    GEN1    2.5 MW
Worcester    16544    Saint - Gobain Abrasives Inc    50041    Norton Powerhouse    327    GEN2    3.1 MW
Hampden    29868    Northeast Generation Services Company    1606    Mount Tom    22    1    136 MW
Bristol    29878    Somerset Power LLC    1613    Somerset Station    22    5    74 MW
Bristol    29878    Somerset Power LLC    1613    Somerset Station    22    6    100 MW
Hampden    39878    Solutia Inc-Indian    10417    Indian Orchard Plant 1    325211    TG    5.7 MW
Bristol    50018    Dominion Energy New England, LLC    1619    Brayton Point    22    1    241 MW
Bristol    50018    Dominion Energy New England, LLC    1619    Brayton Point    22    2    241 MW
Bristol    50018    Dominion Energy New England, LLC    1619    Brayton Point    22    3    642.6 MW
Essex    50018    Dominion Energy New England, LLC    1626    Salem Harbor    22    1    81.9 MW
Essex    50018    Dominion Energy New England, LLC    1626    Salem Harbor    22    2    82 MW
Essex    50018    Dominion Energy New England, LLC    1626    Salem Harbor    22    3    165.7 MW

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