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Accelerating the US Coal Phase Out: Leading by Example in Paris and Beyond

Accelerating the US Coal Phase Out: Leading by Example in Paris and Beyond

Full Title: Accelerating the US Coal Phase Out: Leading by Example in Paris and Beyond
Author(s): Sierra Club
Publisher(s): Sierra Club
Publication Date: November 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):

The climate change crisis and the public health impacts of coal mining and coal combustion in power plants together call for an urgent acceleration of our power grid from a high carbon, heavily polluting energy system to a low carbon, clean energy future.

For the past dozen years Sierra Club and our allies have been working to stop the construction of new coal-fired power plants, phase out and replace the existing coal fleet with clean energy, and ensure a fair and equitable transition for workers and communities affected by the ongoing transformation of the US power sector. From 2002 to 2010, the primary focus of our Beyond Coal campaign was to stop the rush to build more than two hundred proposed coal plants; we successfully stopped 90 percent.

Starting in 2010, after the US Senate failed to pass comprehensive climate legislation, known as the Waxman-Markey bill, we built out a national campaign with the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies and other partners to circumvent a gridlocked Congress and work directly in states and with local community groups to secure the retirement of fully one third of the US coal fleet by 2015. Earlier this year as we neared our 2015 goal, Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged an additional $30 million — on top of $50 million pledged in 2011 — to the Beyond Coal campaign, enabling us to commit to a new target: by 2017 locking in the replacement of half of the US coal fleet with clean energy no later than 2025.

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