EarthJustice Legal Efforts Helping Defeat Dirty Coal Plants
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 20, 2007
9:35 AM
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CONTACT: EarthJustice
Trip Van Noppen, Earthjustice, 510-550-6700
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Earthjustice Legal Efforts Helping Defeat Dirty Coal Plants:
Stock Analysts Downgrade Coal Sector
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CALIFORNIA - JULY 20 - Calls from Wall Street analysts downgrading stock in coal
companies this week can be traced in part to a multitude of recent
defeats the coal industry has received at the hands of Earthjustice, the
environmental law firm. In June, Earthjustice succeeded in stopping a
huge new coal-fired power plant planned for central Florida.
This victory over the
"landscape-disfiguring global warming bad-guys", a term used by
Citigroup analyst John H. Hill, was closely followed by withdrawal of a permit
application by a second Florida group seeking to build a coal plant and
a climate summit at which Florida charted a new energy future not based
on coal.
Today, (Thursday) coal stocks were down for a second day. HSBC cut its
rating of the sector on Tuesday. Citigroup followed Wednesday,
downgrading the sector from to "Buy" to "Hold."
Earthjustice has also been active in opposing a proposed, federally
underwritten, coal plant in Great Falls Montana. The federal agency
underwriting the plant, the Rural Utility Service, plans to underwrite
an additional seven dirty coal power plants in other states. A victory
in an anticipated Earthjustice lawsuit challenging the federal financing
of the Great Falls plant would likely affect federal subsidies for other
plants as well.
Earthjustice has also been active in challenging proposed coal plants in
Kansas and New Mexico.
Earthjustice Vice President Trip Van Noppen said, "Coal stocks are
tumbling in advance of virtually certain government controls on power
plant carbon emissions that will make it more expensive to burn coal.
Energy investors and Wall Street now understand that coal plants are not
the path to addressing global warming. As government controls are phased
in and consumers make clean energy choices, the coal industry will find
it increasingly difficult to compete. Smart investors are leading the
way on this and moving to a wide range of renewable technologies."
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