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THE WITNESS
This guess post was written by Sue Sturgis for the Institute for Southern Studies’ online magazine, Facing South.
This is a critical moment for North Carolina’s energy future, as a packed public hearing held in Raleigh this week showed — and there are growing concerns that the politician who might get to make key decisions about it has significant conflicts of interest. Continue reading
Greenpeace ship Esperanza on an Arctic expedition to study unexplored ocean habitats threatened by offshore oil drilling.
No matter how you choose to break bread and give thanks this Thursday, here in the Greenpeace office we’re thankful for one thing: YOU. Without your continued support, we wouldn’t be celebrating these critical victories for our environment, our health and our future generations.
So we’re raising our glass to you this week!
We can continue to fight the good fight while celebrating amazing victories along the way. Enjoy this list of what we can all be thankful for this holiday season.
Cheers! Continue reading
A wind farm in Iowa that provides energy for 75,000 homes
History took place in Chicago on November 6th as voters paved the way for the largest city-led people power initiative in the country. By pooling together demand for electricity and leveraging the city’s buying power, Chicago residents could see both emissions reductions and cost savings within months. This relatively new concept, known as community choice aggregation, has caught on quickly. Chicago joins hundreds of communities across Illinois, California and Ohio who are saving money while supporting renewable energy and proving that ‘Cleaner is Cheaper.’
This victory follows another historic victory for clean air in Chicago: the October closure of Chicago’s two coal plants, Fisk and Crawford and Cincinnati’s choice of a cleaner alternative to Duke Energy. This aggregation paves the way for a clean energy future to replace these plants. Mayor Emanuel’s administration has rightly incorporated efficiency, renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions and nuclear waste considerations when considering suppliers. To secure the promise of clean power, you can encourage the Mayor’s Office to make the most of renewables and efficiency by leaving a public comment.
Greenpeace Semester students and local volunteers display a banner in front of the Potomac Generating Station.
I’m from Virginia. Dumfries, Virginia to be exact. Virginia is coal country. I grew up with our local coal plant destroying air quality, poisoning the water, and bringing those long coal trains to town. Though the Possum Point Generating Facility switched to natural gas some time ago, there are still a lot of legacy issues — at least the coal trains don’t come anymore.
But that facility isn’t what’s on my mind right now.
Yesterday marked the official retirement date of the coal-fired power plant in Alexandria, Virginia – the Potomac River Generating Station, also known as the “Mirant Plant” (after the old owners). Continue reading
Greenpeace flies over the Duke Energy Marshall coal plant outside Charlotte.
Where fluffy, white clouds once drifted over the soft, mossy peaks of the Blue Ridge mountains, black smoke curled around the mutilated mountainsides I explored as a girl growing up in Western North Carolina. I found the trailhead of a hike my brother and I had often enjoyed together with our dogs running ahead of us, looking back with tongues wagging before taking off like furry bullets. That familiar path was now hidden under ash, the creek that once trickled alongside now suffocated by dense sludge. Continue reading