Down with Coal!

Yay! Down with coal! Here is an encouraging article in MN news...


Coal plant lifelines cut!
Fresh Energy and allies win huge victory in global warming fight

On May 9, 2008, two administrative law judges recommended that Minnesota regulators deny permission to construct and operate power lines across west-central Minnesota from the proposed Big Stone II coal plant on the South Dakota-Minnesota border. Without the power lines, the coal plant cannot be built. Fresh Energy, along with the Izaak Walton League of America-Midwest Office, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Wind on the Wires, has been fighting the proposed coal plant since its plans were made public.
The judges made two main conclusions:
the power companies proposing Big Stone II didn't show that the coal power was better and more cost-effective than renewable energy and energy efficiency (a legal requirement in Minnesota)
the power companies hadn't adequately considered the costs of global warming pollution, citing federal legislation to limit and lower global warming pollution
The judges reported their findings to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which will make the final decision on the power lines in June. If the Minnesota PUC permits the power lines and Big Stone II is built, it will mean an additional four million tons of global warming pollution every year—the same amount produced by all the cars, trucks, and trains in South Dakota each year.
Energy regulators in states across the country—Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Oregon—have all voted down coal plants in the past year. Utilities in Minnesota, including Xcel Energy and Minnesota Power, have said they will not build new coal-fired plants in Minnesota in the next 20 years because of the state’s recently passed laws requiring increases in energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy.

Article from www.freshenergy.org