As of spring 2012, 166 proposed coal-fired power plants have been canceled, legally barred, or otherwise stopped from going forward in the United States. That means that each year, 654 million metric tons of carbon, the equivalent of 9.5 percent of US emissions, won't be entering the atmosphere. The proposed cap-and-trade legislation would, at best, have reduced annual emissions by 16 percent as of 2020. The Beyond Coal campaign imposed, noted Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute, "a de facto moratorium on new coal-fired power plants." To be sure, the recession also caused electricity demand to plummet, as did a shift to more energy-efficient appliances, motors, and industrial processes. Coal was also hurt by its own rising costs—especially as natural gas, its chief competitor, stayed relatively cheap.
Read on at: http://motherjones.com/environment/2012/04/beyond-coal-plant-activism
Read on at: http://motherjones.com/environment/2012/04/beyond-coal-plant-activism