This is a BIG DEAL!
We just stopped massive coal mining plans in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana in its tracks!
A federal judge has struck down two U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) resource management plans that failed to address the public health consequences of allowing massive amounts of coal, oil, and gas production from public lands and minerals in the Powder River Basin.
This is significant as over 43% of all coal produced in the U.S., and over 85% of all federal coal produced in the U.S., comes from the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana.
A huge thanks to our partners at Western Organization of Resource Councils, Montana Environmental Information Center, Powder River Basin Resource Council, Northern Plains Resource Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Earthjustice and Western Environmental Law Center!
#WeAreGuardians#AForceForNature#KeepItInTheGround#Climate#ClimateChange#ClimateAction#ActOnClimate#NoNewLeases#ClimateJustice#Coal#CoalMining#Wyoming#Montana#montanamoment#PowderRiver#PowderRiverBasin
Hawaii received its last shipment of coal for the AES Hawaii power plant in Campbell Industrial Park on July 27. This is the state's only coal-fired power plant and the largest single source of electricity for the island of Oahu. The power plant will shut down all operations by September 1 as Hawaii moves to 100% renewable energy.
Its replacement power projects are behind schedule due to supply chain issues and other delays. According to Sandra Larsen, Hawaii’s market business leader for AES Corporation, residents will likely have to pay more for electricity during the transition.
Larsen said, ‘We still have a few curves in the road to negotiate because the short-term challenge here is that as we close this coal plant in September, we don't have as many renewable projects coming online immediately. And so the reality is that residents here on Oʻahu are going to see higher costs in the short term.’
AES Corporation plans to move away from coal entirely by 2025 and will begin construction on a new solar-plus storage facility on the island of Maui.
#news#hawaii#coal#renewableenergy#climate
‘The Very Fire They Sit Beside’
Europe has a coal problem.
Germany gets around a third of its power from coal. Nine of Europe’s top ten biggest carbon emitters are coal-fired power plants. The continent’s biggest coal plant, Bełchatów, has the same annual carbon emissions as an entire country.
Coal is the single biggest contributor to climate change worldwide, yet there are still over 250 active coal power plants in Europe today.
A stone’s throw from some of Europe’s major tourist hotspots, historic villages are under threat of demolition and water, soil and air are compromised by heavy metal and chemical pollution. People are paying for coal with their health, their homes, their taxes - and their futures.
Photographer Dan Wilton journeyed across the continent, meeting the communities shaped by the coal industry and now bearing its legacy.
Photo and caption by: @danwilton
#climatechange#coal#clientearth#theveryfiretheysitbeside
Energy, energy, energy. We certainly can’t live without it, yet our need for it seems intertwined with destruction. Germany has long depended on coal for its energy production, and though the government has ambitious and accelerated goals for the country’s transition from fossil fuels to renewables, it won’t be able to phase out coal completely until 2030 at the earliest. In western Germany near Cologne there’s an open-cast coal mine called Garzweiler that supplies lignite coal to the nearby Neurath power plant that is the second biggest emitter of CO2 in Europe. The mine covers 31 square kilometers and produces about 35-40 million tons of coal a year. Villages have been razed and residents forcibly resettled since the outset. Today that process is continuing, with what’s left of the hamlets of Lützerath and Immerath to very likely disappear within the near future. Five more villages, including Keyenberg, are slated for demolition, though remaining residents are hopeful they will be spared after all. In Lützerath a lone farmer, Eckhardt Heukamp, was holding out, but finally moved out following a court decision a few weeks ago. Activists remain in a camp in Lützerath that includes tree houses and will likely put up a struggle against eviction. #gettyimages#gettyimagesnews#photojournalism#coal#energiewende#alledoerferbleiben#luetzerath#garzweiler#tagebau#coalmine#fossilfuels#globalwarming#climatechange#rwe#dji#instadrone#djimavic2pro#kohleausstieg#braunkohle