People Power Is Winning
Mary Anne Hitt, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign
I must have one of the best jobs in the world, because almost every week a story of a big victory in the fight against climate change comes across my desk. I’m the director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, a grassroots rebellion that has been called one of the most successful environmental campaigns in history, thanks to our progress in moving the US electric grid from coal to clean energy over the past decade. The Beyond Coal campaign will be featured in the Years of Living Dangerously season finale with America Ferrera this December, when we’ll be headed into a new year, a new Presidential Administration, and crucial time for our climate.
As a mom of a six-year-old, I know that the decisions and actions about climate over the next five years could make or break the safety and security of the world she’s inheriting. Here are three important things you need to know as we head into that pivotal time — and one important thing you can do right now.
WE ARE WINNING…
… and we have a lot more work to do. Coal-fired power plants are the biggest source of climate pollution. Over a decade ago, grassroots activists from over 100 organizations banded together to successfully stop 184 new coal plants from being built in the US. In 2009, we began working to retire the existing US coal plants and replace them with clean energy.
So far, we’ve won retirement of 45 percent of US coal plants (242 plants and counting), and those pollution reductions will prevent over 6,000 premature deaths and 100,000 asthma attacks every year. Coal has fallen from providing half of US electricity a decade ago, to a historic low of one-third today, opening up market space for a booming renewable energy industry. US carbon emissions are also at a historic low, and we created the space for President Obama to put forward a plan to keep reducing power plant climate pollution, called the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of our nation’s Paris climate commitment.
Fueled by grassroots power, this major shift in how we make electricity in America has sparked a worldwide transformation. In fact, we just reached a big milestone — for the first time in history, renewable energy has surpassed coal as the biggest source of global electricity capacity.
At the same time, we have a lot more work to do. We’re still burning a lot of coal in the US, with 55 percent of plants still chugging along. Our climate is still at great risk, and people are still getting sick from the pollution that comes from mining and burning coal. So we’ll keep working hard to accelerate the shift from coal to clean energy, leapfrog gas in the process, and provide an economic transition for communities historically reliant on fossil fuels, in this race against time for our climate and our families.
PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP MATTERS
The next US President will take office at a crucial time when the window to act on climate is closing and a powerful people’s movement is in the streets calling for social and environmental justice. The Sierra Club is calling on the 45th President to seize this leadership opportunity, champion a shift away from fossil fuels, and put the US on a path to 100 percent clean energy for all that creates new jobs and economic opportunities for all communities.
There’s a lot the President can do, including protecting downwind communities and ending the era of coal-fired power plants that lack the full suite of modern pollution controls, tackling the climate pollution from natural gas, and ending fossil fuel leasing on the federal lands owned by all Americans. Please click here and join us in calling on the next President to be a bold climate leader!
PEOPLE POWER MATTERS MOST
The most important thing I’ve learned over the past decade with the Beyond Coal Campaign is that people power can accomplish anything. Over and over again, we’ve seen grassroots groups push powerful interests to do things no one thought possible.
When it comes to saving our climate, it’s now or never. We have everything we need to turn the corner in the next decade — the technology, the policies, and the strategies. The deciding factor will be people power. Together, we will determine how bold our President’s leadership will be, how many coal plants are retired and clean energy projects are launched, and how many conversations there are about climate change at dinner tables and cocktail parties.
I’ve seen David beat Goliath hundreds of times, I’ve seen grassroots heroes transform how electricity is made in America, and I’ve seen our elected officials step up to lead the world when the people demand it. The time is now, and we need each and every one of you, so that we can pass a safe world onto our kids. Join us.
Mary Anne Hitt is the director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign.
