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Congregations and Coal: Faith & the Riverbend Coal Plant

August 8, 2013 By chris

Facing the coal plant, smoke stacks and power lines looming over the sign of this church, I thought of the position of communities of faith as they face the energy realities of the future.

Congregations and Coal: Faith & the Riverbend Coal Plant

August 8, 2013 by chris

Standing on the lawn of a small church facing Duke Energy’s recently decommissioned Riverbend Coal Power Plant, I reveled in the irony of an intern for North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light finding such a perfect image portrayal to remind me of the side-by-side presence of faith communities and big business in our state.

Jesus and Power PlantI travelled to the power plant just outside of Charlotte to attend a press conference for the release of “Closing the Floodgates: How the Coal Industry is Poisoning our Water and How we can Stop it”. This extensive report, written as a collaboration between the Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, Clean Water Action, the Beyond Coal campaign, the Environmental Integrity Project, and EarthJustice, reviewed hundreds of discharge permits for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The conclusions and findings of the study were striking, and reinforce the importance of committing to clean, renewable energy for the sake of the planet.

The two most shocking findings, to me, were that close to 70% of the plants monitored are allowed to dump unlimited amounts of arsenic, boron, cadmium, mercury and selenium into public waterways, and that nearly half of the plants studied are operating on an expired permit. The pollutants listed are highly poisonous for human health and aquatic ecosystems.

The report names coal-fired power plants as the number one point source for water pollution in the country and urges the EPA to select its most stringent option for new standards to be applied to the coal industry. Find the EPA’s five options in the “Closing the Floodgates” report, or this one-page summary on proposed legislation from the EPA itself.

RFKjrNC faith voices must come together to reject coal power plants and continued fossil fuel dependence. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spoke at the press conference as the president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, reminded us that some of the worst offenders of water pollution are right here in NC. Both the Asheville plant and Riverbend plant are the subject of litigation brought by NC DENR in the past few months.

Facing the coal plant, smoke stacks and power lines looming over the sign of this church, I thought of the position of communities of faith as they face the energy realities of the future. The beauty of faithful commitment to climate work and care for creation, lies in the communities and social movements it fosters. United in interfaith Creation Care work, we stand against climate destroying energy production and for renewable, sustainable energy and lifestyle practices. Reports like “Closing the Floodgates” are a perfect opportunity for the faith community to join with advocacy and activist groups working for the same goals. Let us come together. Let us honor our faithful commitment while honoring the efforts and work of others, recognizing that our efforts are part and parcel with one another.

— Joey Shea, NCIPL Intern

Keep on the lookout for action alerts from NCIPL on writing a public comment for DENR on their settlement with Duke that is unsatisfactory and props up the coal industry in NC.

Filed Under: Blog, Uncategorized Tagged With: coal, congregations, faith, power

Recent Poll Shows North Carolinians Want More Clean Energy

July 26, 2013 By nancy

Most North Carolinians oppose fracking, favor clean energy and think current regulations are sufficient or should be stronger. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released the North Carolina poll results on […]

Recent Poll Shows North Carolinians Want More Clean Energy

July 26, 2013

polls1Most North Carolinians oppose fracking, favor clean energy and think current regulations are sufficient or should be stronger. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released the North Carolina poll results on July 15, 2013.

From the mountains to the beaches, it’s clear that North Carolinians take special pride in their state, and see state environmental safeguards as protecting our heritage and ensuring that our children can enjoy this place we know and love,” said NRDC senior attorney Luis Martinez, who is based in Asheville.

Among the poll’s key findings:

  • 61% say state environmental standards and regulatory standards do more good than harm for the state.
  • More than 75% say current standards and safeguards are “about right” or “too weak.”
  • 55% oppose fracking.  Opposition was strongest in the triangle at 59%, followed by the easternmost and westernmost parts at 55%; Charlotte, 53%; and in the Triad, 48%.
  • An overwhelming majority favor supporting and developing clean renewable energy from solar, wind and other sources.  About 56% oppose attempts by some lawmakers to eliminate the state’s clean energy standard which requires utilities to get at least some of their energy from clean, renewable sources.  Regarding various sources of renewable energy: 68% favor solar; 56% wind; and 50% offshore wind energy.

 

“These polling results justify what we’re experiencing in our communications with congregations,” says Susannah Tuttle, Director of NCIPL.  “North Carolinians are incredibly proud of our quality of life in this great state. NRDC’s report inspires and encourages us all to advocate for what we value. Investments in clean energy sources protect what we love, which is clearly a public priority for North Carolina.”

Filed Under: Blog, In the News, Uncategorized

Environmental Groups Push for Stronger EPA Regulation of Toxic Poisons from Coal-Fired Power Plants Routinely Dumped Into U.S. Waters

July 24, 2013 By nancy

After 3 decades of delay, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to set long-overdue standards to limit the dumping of billions of pounds of toxic pollutants from coal-fired […]

Environmental Groups Push for Stronger EPA Regulation of Toxic Poisons from Coal-Fired Power Plants Routinely Dumped Into U.S. Waters

July 24, 2013

After 3 decades of delay, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to set long-overdue standards to limit the dumping of billions of pounds of toxic pollutants from coal-fired power floodgates-375plants into U.S. waterways and drinking water sources.

On Tuesday, July 23, 2013, in a press conference held on the banks of Mountain Island Lake near Charlotte, NC, a coalition of environmental organizations and clean water groups released a national investigative report analyzing the multiple options comprising the proposal titled Closing the Floodgates:  How the Coal Industry is Poisoning Our Waters and How We Can Stop It.  Environmental experts from The Environmental Integrity Project, The Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Earthjustice and the Waterkeeper Alliance reviewed data from 386 coal-fired power plants across the country and found that the Clean Water Act has been almost universally ignored by for almost three decades by power companies and permitting agencies.  The report found that:

At least 5.5 billion pounds of water pollution is released into the environment by coal-fired plants every year, including nearly 80,000 pounds of arsenic alone.  Coal-fired power plants dump more toxics into our waters than the other top nine polluting industries combined.

Tens of thousands of miles of rivers are degraded by this pollution.

The EPA has identified more than 250 individual instances where coal plants have harmed ground or surface waters.

Nearly half of the 386 power plants studied are operating with expired Clean Water Act permits.  53 have permits which expired 5 or more years ago.

Over 30% have no requirements to monitor or report the discharge to governmental agencies or the public.

70% have no limits on toxic substances such as arsenic, boron, cadmium, lead, mercury and selenium.

71 plants were dumping toxics into rivers, lakes, streams and bays that have already been declare impaired due to poor water quality.


CLOSE TO HOME

In Belews Lake, just one decade of coal waste dumping eliminated 18 or the 20 fish species and left dangerous levels of contamination more than 10 years later.

In Hyco Reservoir, coal plant dumping led to a $864 million fish kill and selenium levels in blue gill 1,000 times greater than normal.

A survey of waters affected by nine power plants in North Carolina found contamination all across the state exceeding human and aquatic life standards for arsenic, antinomy, cadmium, selenium and thallium.

The report calls the Catawba River, the French Broad River and the Cape Fear River “Coal Rivers:  Duke Energy’s Toxic Legacy in North Carolina.”  Groundwater monitoring revealed leaking at every single one of the 10 coal-burning power plants in North Carolina.  Three of the reservoirs on the Catawba are heavily polluted.  Duke Energy is allowed to dump approximately 8 million gallons per day of scrubber sludge and ash water into Lake Norman with no limits on arsenic and water.  Lake Norman provides drinking water for many nearby towns.

Coal ash was pumped for many years into two unlined ash ponds that are leaking toxic metals into Mountain Island Lake, the sole drinking water source for more than 8000,000 people in the Charlotte area.  Even though the Riverbend Station is no long operating, it continues to pollute and monitoring is inadequate.

The G.G. Allen, further down the Catawba, has no enforceable limits on discharges.

The Duke Energy L.V. Sutton power plant on the Cape Fear River has recorded in its own discharge monitoring reports that it discharged 603 pounds of arsenic to the river, along with 526 pounds of selenium in 2012 alone.  Leaks from the coal ash ponds into groundwater have been documented.  The river below the Sutton plant has high levels of nickel and copper and is considered unsafe for harvesting aquatic life, even though it is a popular sportfishing lake.  Fish in the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the river have been found to contain high levels of mercury.


ACTION IS REQUIRED

The report goes on to report that the technology to eliminate coal ash wastewater completely already exists and is cost effective.  The EPA estimates that ending toxic dumping from coal plants would cost less than one percent of annual revenue for most coal companies.

Unfortunately, EPA’s proposal includes many options.  The report mentioned that the EPA proposal came back from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) with new, weaker options.  Some of these would do little to control dangerous dumping.  Only “Option 5” would set “zero discharge” standards that would require plants to clean up almost entirely.

Environmentalists across the country are speaking out, including Robert Wendelgass, Clean Water Action’s president and CEO:  “The EPA must end the power plant industries’ free pass to pollute into already damaged waterways and other vital waters that are sources of drinking water for millions of Americans.”

Many local events will be held across the country, from a “toxic lemonade stand” in Pennsylvania to a “Miss and Mr. Toxic Water Swimsuit Competition in Missouri and a fish-less fry in Illinois.


WHAT CAN YOU DO? 

  • Read the report.
  • Send the report to as many people as you can, including your local news media.
  • Tell the EPA to choose option 5 during the public comment period which ends September 20.
  • Tell as many people as you can to tell the EPA to choose option 5.
  • Post the report and EPA link to your website, facebook, and twitter.  Use the following hashtags:  #notoxicwater, #kickcoalash, #protectcleanwater, #swimdrinkfish
  • Cross post the many news stories that will appear across the U.S.
  • Create and participate in public events to raise awareness.

Filed Under: Blog, In the News, Uncategorized

2013 Walk for Our Grandchildren

July 24, 2013 By nancy

This summer dedicated activists walked 100 miles from Camp David to Washington, DC.  to ask President Obama and other policy makers to take strong action to keep the majority of […]

2013 Walk for Our Grandchildren

July 24, 2013

2013 Walk for Our Grandchildren 1This summer dedicated activists walked 100 miles from Camp David to Washington, DC.  to ask President Obama and other policy makers to take strong action to keep the majority of fossil fuels in the ground.  They are demanding climate action now!

As they walked, they talked to the people in the communities along their route. They are listened for their concerns and ideas about how together we can respond to the dangers posed by fossil fuels. And then they took this message to the White House.

The first stop on the second day of the walk was Myersville, MD, the site of a proposed gas compressor station on the edge of town.  The citizens are organizing to keep their town from being a key site in the fracking infrastructure.  As Greg Yost wrote in his blog, “Today’s experience proves the point: the struggle against the carbon extraction economy is all one fight. Fossil fuels cause damage when they’re taken from the ground, when they’re moved, and when they’re burned. Whether it’s tar sands, fracked gas, offshore drilling, or coal ripped from the ground, there’s somebody, somewhere paying a high cost for all this “cheap energy.”

They arrived in Harpers Ferry, VA on day 3, where the number of walkers tripled.  Steve Norris, one of the Walk’s originators, used its history to make a connection.  Greg Yost said in his blog on the third day, “Steve pointed out that just as our nation now finds itself addicted to carbon-sourced energy and in desperate need of deliverance, so it once was also addicted to slave-sourced fuel. The commitment, courage, moral seriousness, and sacrifice exhibited during Emancipation, a struggle for the very heart and soul of the nation, serves as a model for us now.”

The walkers arrived at Lafayette Park across the street from the White House on July 27, coinciding with Summer Heat, a week of action across the nation to address global warming and carbon pollution.

A Rally for Independence from Fossil Fuels took place that day at the Joan of Arc Statue.   The Rally featured leaders from the iMatter Kids vs. Global Warming Campaign, including Nelson Kanuk, an Alaskan Native and a member of the Yup’ik Eskimo Tribe, who has already lost his home to sea level rise. Bill McKibben, a founder of 350.org, was the Rally’s keynote.

A Ceremony based on the Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels invited participants to make a commitment to act on our children’s behalf.  After the Rally, the iMatter youth moved with all attendees to the White House to present the President with the Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels and messages from people on the Walk and across the country about their concern about rapidly progressing global warming.

 

Filed Under: Blog, In the News, Uncategorized

In the Shadows of Riverbend

July 24, 2013 By nancy

Across the street, a small, unassuming, idyllic Catholic church faces the Duke Power Riverbend Coal Plant at the center of litigation and outrage in response to consistent pollution and lack […]

In the Shadows of Riverbend

July 24, 2013

Closing the FloodgatesAcross the street, a small, unassuming, idyllic Catholic church faces the Duke Power Riverbend Coal Plant at the center of litigation and outrage in response to consistent pollution and lack of effective coal ash pond treatment. For a new intern at NCIPL, the physicalized contrast contained powerful irony that drove home the nature of our relationship as faithful North Carolinians with utility companies; we will always be living side by side. While utilities provide us the basic comforts of modern life, we see the destructive nature of their work and feel called to act and react against it.

Such was the impetus behind the press conference on Tuesday July 23 that unveiled a major report revealing the damaging toxic pollutants being leached into groundwater and waterways from the discharge from coal plants and the seepage from unlined coal ash impoundment ponds. The Sierra Club and Waterkeeper Alliance, among others, wrote the report and officially released it outside the Riverbend coal plant outside of Charlotte, NC to a crowd of about 40 people.  They called on us all to act with them to get the EPA to pass its most stringent (many would say appropriate) set of proposed laws to limit or eradicate pollution from the single largest point source of water pollution in the country–coal-fired power plants.

Read more here.

More on the gathering, speeches, and atmosphere of the day coming this Friday from NCIPL’s intern Joey Shea.

Filed Under: Blog, In the News, Uncategorized

OBAMA’S CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

June 25, 2013 By chris

The President has shared his plan to respond to our moral obligation to leave a healthy and sustainable future for our children and grandchildren in response to the threat of climate change.

OBAMA’S CLIMATE ACTION PLAN

June 25, 2013 by chris

Flag and turbine

President Obama has shared his plan to respond to our moral obligation to leave a healthy and sustainable future for our children and grandchildren in response to the threat of climate change.

READ OBAMA’s CLIMATE ACTION PLAN
We need to let President Obama know how enthusiastically we support his Climate Action Plan and that we appreciate his leadership. We will do all we can to make his plan a reality and we will accept his request to speak up at church groups, and to push back on misinformation. Please take a moment to thank Mr. President for amplifying our call for action on climate and for making a promise to protect our children from catastrophic climate disruption.

THANK THE PRESIDENT http://bit.ly/19Dnwa2

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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