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Loading...Pennsylvania Residents Fight To Close Dirty Coal Plant
People in Pennsylvania are getting sick. No, it’s not a flu outbreak or e. coli in the spinach. These people are falling ill and dying because the air they breathe has been poisoned by government subsidized coal-fired power plants.
Last year, a 12 month study by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found that over 14,000 more people died from heart disease, respiratory disease, and lung cancer in Pennsylvania between 2000 and 2008 than national mortality rates predict. Even adjusting for those who smoke, that’s still a more than 10 percent higher mortality rate overall. Several studies have linked this accelerated disease and mortality rate to excessive air pollution.
While the source of the state’s air pollution might be hard to pinpoint while walking through the streets of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, it’s easy to spot while driving along Rte. 22 in Indiana County, where clouds of soot and smoke billow from the stacks of the coal-fired Homer City power plant, one of the dirtiest power plants in the nation.
The outdated and inefficient Homer City coal plant is one of the largest emitters of harmful sulfur dioxide in the United States — responsible for 660 asthma attacks and 43 premature deaths every year, according to the Clean Air Task Force.
Last week a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the EPA to hold the owners of the plant accountable for their past violations of the Clean Air Act.
In response to the judge’s decision, Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter Conservation Chair Thomas Au issued the following statement:
“This judicial decision is a threat to residents of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey who want to breathe clean air and a slap in the face to everyone who has suffered unnecessarily from asthma attacks, respiratory disease, and heart attacks for nearly two decades because of the dirty and dangerous Homer City coal plant…It is past time for General Electric, the owner of the Homer City coal plant, to replace the power from this polluting behemoth with energy efficiency and clean energy.”
Take Action: Help the citizens of Pennsylvania fight back against the Homer City Coal Plant by signing the petition below.
Related Reading:
Victory! Rand Paul’s Assault On Clean Air Defeated
Retrofitting Coal Plants Considered Risky Investment
Big Coal vs. Nature and History
New Coal Plants Fail To Provide Promised Jobs
Image Credit: Flickr – elibeck
Read more: air pollution, Clean Air Task Force, coal plant, epa, general electric, mortality, pennsylvania, power plant, sickness, sierra club
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+ add your ownRobert O.
12:10PM PST on Dec 7, 2011
Thanks Beth.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/pennsylvania-residents-fight-to-close-dirty-coal-plant.html#ixzz1fyHV3JbX
Living in Pennsylvania has its advantages. Its a beautiful State. But the under mining is all around us and it is so sad to see the ground tore to threads. Now we have the Oil lines going through :( Whats next ?
Keep fighting..............
Petition signed, and it's time to close all dirty coal plants, and replace them with clean solar, wind, geothermal, and biogas power plants like Germany is.
Signed. This might have a chance. I hope.
Dear people of PA. Thanks for taking up the fight. We're right over the border, in NJ, and the toxic fumes have made it all the way to Northern Bergen County!
Signed & shared.
signed!
Foul toxic air affects the whole planet in the end.
Don't you realize that big business see people, animals and the environment as simply expendable?
Thanks Beth.
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