Plans for 150 New Coal Plants Scrapped

Purdue University has cancelled plans for a new campus coal plant, making the plant the 150th to be defeated or abandoned
since the beginning of the coal rush in 2001. Thanks in part to the
Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, in the last two years no new coal
plants have started construction and the industry has announced the
phase out of over 50 plants.

Purdue was the only university in the country planning to build a new
coal plant. At the same time nearly a dozen other schools have
committed to ending their dependence on campus coal plants by switching
to cleaner sources of energy.

"The way people, businesses, governments and schools think about
energy has shifted. The dirty coal status-quo is no longer acceptable,"
said Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign.
"It is clear that clean energy technologies--ones that don't spew
life-threatening pollution into our air and water--are the way to a
prosperous, secure energy future."

At the beginning of the coal rush more than 150 coal plants were
slated for construction. Today a majority of those projects have been
defeated or abandoned because of tremendous grassroots pressure, rising
costs and a slate of clean up requirements expected from the
Environmental Protection Agency.

As major sources of life-threatening soot, smog and mercury pollution
existing coal plants are coming under increasing scrutiny. Activists
with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign are working on the ground in
almost every state to phase out outdated coal plants and transition to
cleaner, cheaper options for their area.

"The pollution from these coal plants is making us sick, worsening
asthma, stifling childhood development and cutting short thousands of
lives. Phasing out coal is essential to cleaning up our air and water,
and protecting our families," said Verena Owen volunteer chair of the
Beyond Coal Campaign. "Making the switch to clean energy, like wind and
solar, is good for our health, but it will also create jobs which makes
it good for our economy too."

For more, visit www.sierraclub.org/coal .