Thousands of Youth Descend on D.C. to Demand New Climate Change Policy

By Jessica Lee, Indypendent. Posted March 2, 2009.

Target Dirty Energy

Within sniffing distance of Capitol Hill looms the Capitol Power Plant, a small facility that partially fuels Congressional buildings. For years, local residents have complained about the 60,000 tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants that settle down on their neighborhoods. Approximately 49 percent of the power produced is by burning coal.

Despite the weather, more than 2,500 people have registered to risk arrest Monday afternoon in an effort to block the entrances of Capitol Power Plant. Capitol Climate Action, a diverse coalition of more than 90 groups, hope that this symbolic action will just be the first in a massive movement of people taking dirty energy into their own hands this year. According to the website SourceWatch, more than 90 non-violent protests and acts of civil disobedience against coal mining, processing, shipping and burning have occurred worldwide since 2004.

Perhaps as a way to take steam out of the action, U.S. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) released a letter Feb. 26 directing the Capitol Power Plant to take necessary steps to reduce the amount of coal used while preparing to completely switch the plant to natural gas by the end of 2009, a cleaner burning, but still dirty, fossil fuel.

“Taking this major step toward cleaning up the Capitol Power Plant’s emissions would be an important demonstration of Congress’ willingness to deal with the enormous challenges of global worming, energy independence and our inefficient use of finite fossil fuels,” Pelosi and Reed wrote in a letter to Acting Architect Stephen Ayers.

“People in D.C. have been fighting against the plant for years, it is very dirty and located in a poor neighborhood. They haven’t had much success until now,” said Adrian Wilson, a San Francisco-based environmental organizer with the Capitol Climate Action coalition. “The fact that three days before the action, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid wrote letter for plant to be switched from coal to natural gas shows the power of direct action to make change quickly.”

The Capitol Climate Action coalition quickly issued a press release Feb. 26 and indicated that regardless of the letter, the massive act of civil disobedience would still take place Monday.

“Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid’s dramatic action shows that Congress can act quickly on global warming when the public demands it, “ said Greenpeace Global Warming Campaign Director Carroll Muffett.

“This action is not just about this power plant, it is about the 600 coal-fired power plants across the Untied States,” Wilson said. “This action is going to be a great first step because it will help us expand the small army of direct action activists who are trained and experienced and who are willing to put their bodies in the way of the coal industry. It will be this way until every coal power plant is off-line in the United States.”

“We see that Congress is willing to get coal out of their backyard,” said Nell Greenburg, communications manager with Rainforest Action Network. “Let’s see if it can get the industry out of their back pocket.”

See more stories tagged with: harry reid, nancy pelosi, greenpeace, coal, james hansen, rainforest action network, power shift, clean coal, capitol hill, capitol power plant, capitol climate action, sourcewatch, stephen ayers, ashley fallon, energy action, rosemary ortiona, caitlin maloney, hofstra university, students for a greener ho, loyola college, carroll muffett

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