Courtesy Phil Coleman
“If the 100-plus coal plants currently proposed are built, the global warming pollution pumped into our air will make all our other efforts to reverse climate change irrelevant.”
– Greg Haegele, Sierra Club Director of Conservation
The public is clamoring for energy that is “Clean & Green,” and the coal industry would like us to believe they can provide it. But contrary to the claims trumpeted in their $35 million advertising campaign, coal is neither clean nor green. Mining coal devastates the environment, sickens miners, and ravages communities; burning coal is highly polluting; and containing the massive amounts of carbon emissions and toxic waste left behind is at present a pipe dream. In addition, “Pennsylvania’s #1 Fuel for Electricity” is currently our state’s single largest contributor to global warming
Although the industry’s misleading advertising campaign and its powerful
lobby are a hindrance to the development of genuinely clean energy technologies,
the Sierra Club is fighting back. In the articles at right, we penetrate
the smokescreen obscuring the truth about Big Coal, and tell you how our
Club is working to clear the air.