TransAlta Coal Plant, Centralia , WA (image: Sierra Club)
In the fall of 2007, the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, along with five other Northwest environmental groups including Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, Washington Environmental Council, Sierra Club’s Cascade Chapter and Northwest Energy Coalition were granted the legal status to intervene in the permitting process for Energy Northwest’s proposed 680-megawatt coal-fueled Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama, Washington. The intervention was successful, and Energy Northwest withdrew its application to build the coal fired power plant. Environmental groups provided testimony regarding the contamination caused by coal fired power plants, and the public was mobilized to object to Energy Northwest’s plans that would have polluted the Columbia River and would have impacted the health of local residents.
In an effort to make Washington State a coal-free state, conservation groups are now focusing on the aged TransAlta coal fired power plant in Centralia. During the week of Earth Day, a coalition of organizations sponsored Town Hall meetings in Western Washington to discuss the environmental and public health impacts caused by coal plants, and to mobilize efforts to shut down the TransAlta plant, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, mercury pollution, and coal haze that that invades 12 wilderness areas in Washington State.
A study published in Open Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of ten scientists from the United States (including NASA), the United Kingdom and France argue that a prompt moratorium on new coal use and a complete phase out of existing coal emissions is needed by 2030 to avert environmental catastrophe. The report concludes: “The stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis.”
Rosemere attended the Town Hall meeting in Vancouver, April 21, 2010, sponsored by the Sierra Club. Panelists included Maye Thompson from Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Doug Howell of the Sierra Club, and Ted Nace, author of the book Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal. The Sierra Club has formed the Coal Free campaign with a chapter working in Washington State.
Energy Northwest has withdrawn its application for the Pacific Mountain Energy Facility (PMEC) in a letter this month saying, “Our efforts have determined that the financial and economic conditions do not support a project of this size.”
Originally slated to be a $1.5 billion coal gasification plant, Energy Northwest had amended its plans for a coal powered plant in favor of natural gas in response to environmental objections raised by the Rosemere Neighborhood Association and Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, Washington Environmental Council, Sierra Club’s Cascade Chapter and Northwest Energy Coalition.
Indiana coal gasification plant
This is a 2544-ton-per-day coal gasification plant on the Wabash River in Indiana. (Photo: Department of Energy)
Our efforts to block the coal fired power plant in Kalama have been successful. In their meeting held on September 9, 2008, the State of Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council announced that The Pacific Mountain Energy Center in Kalama is being redesigned as the Kalama Energy Project. The newly renamed project will eliminate all the gasification facilities originally planned for the site and run exclusively on natural gas.
Posted 12:15 PM, October 3, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2007
Contacts:
Brett VandenHeuvel, Columbia Riverkeeper. 503 224-3240. bv@columbiariverkeeper.org
Dvija Michael Bertish, Rosemere Neighborhood Association. 360-281-4747.
Environmental Groups Challenge Proposed Climate Polluting, Coal Fueled, Power Plant in Kalama, WA.
Seeking to stop a power plant that would spew millions of tons of toxic greenhouse gasses and other contaminants into Washington State skies, Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, and Rosemere Neighborhood Association have been granted the legal status to intervene in the permitting process for Energy Northwest’s proposed 680-megawatt coal-fueled Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama. A total of six environmental groups will intervene in objection to the proposed coal-fueled power plant, along with the State Attorney General’s Office and the Washington State Department of Ecology.
2007 NEWSLETTER
SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWSLETTER
PROPOSED COAL-BURNING POWER PLANT
On September 20, 2007, representatives of Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Audubon Society, and the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, along with a number of other concerned citizens, attended a public hearing held by Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council to voice their opinions about Energy Northwest’s proposed Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama, WA. The council took comments from the public on Energy Northwest’s greenhouse gas “sequestration plan” (view the plan at http://http:www.esfec.wa.gov/pmec.shtml).
Please join Columbia Riverkeeper, Willapa Hills Audubon Society, and the Rosemere Neighborhood Association to:
Say no to more water and air pollution and increased global warming!
The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council is holding a public hearing:
September 20, 2007, 6:30 P.M.
Kalama Community Building, 126 North Second Street, Kalama, Washington
Please attend. The Council will take comments on Energy Northwest’s greenhouse gas “sequestration plan” for the proposed Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Kalama, which would be a major new industrial polluter on the Columbia River.
Energy Northwest — a group of 20 public utilities in Washington — is planning to build a coal or petroleum coke plant in Kalama, Washington. This $1 billion, 600-megawatt facility will increase our air and water pollution, threaten habitat for endangered salmon and add to our global warming problem — the plant will produce more than 4 million tons of carbon dioxide per year … that’s like adding 700,000 cars to our highways.
Read more about it here.
