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Carolinas
Clean Air Coalition
NC WARN:
Waste Awareness & Reduction Network
NEWS
RELEASE
Contact: June Blotnick 704-342-9161
October 15,
2007
Jim Warren 919-416-5077
Top Climate Expert Joins Fight vs New
Coal-power in NC
NASA's Hansen brings his ‘averting
catastrophe’ message to Charlotte, Triangle
CHARLOTTE, NC – The nation’s foremost climatologist
will bring his urgent message against corporate influence over
energy-and-climate decisions to North Carolina in November. Dr. James
Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute and an outspoken proponent for
rapid reductions in greenhouse gases, will outline his five-step plan for
solving the global climate emergency at a pair of forums in Charlotte and
Chapel Hill. His leading recommendation: a moratorium on coal-fired power
plants such as one planned by Duke Energy at Cliffside, North Carolina.
The forums, called “AVERTING CLIMATE CATASTROPHE:
Power Plants or Clean Energy – Who Decides?” will be hosted by two
nonprofit citizen groups, the Charlotte-based Carolinas Clean Air Coalition
and NC WARN of Durham, and co-sponsored by other nonprofits across the
state. Mike Nicklas, an internationally recognized green architect and
leader in renewable energy, will join Dr. Hansen in laying out a societal
path that can cut global warming pollution rapidly through clean energy and
by avoiding dangerous new power plants.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Hansen has helped lead the
scientific community’s knowledge of global warming. As Hansen says, recent
evidence shows the problem is worse than predictions of even 3-5 years
ago: “The bottom line is this: business-as-usual, if it continues for
even another decade, will be disastrous … [producing a planet] without sea
ice in the Arctic; with worldwide, repeated coastal tragedies associated
with storms and a continuously rising sea level ….” Hansen also notes
that “Early stages of increased drought and
fires are already beginning in the American West”
and elsewhere.
In a CBS 60 Minutes profile in March 2006, Hansen
said, “The speed of the natural changes is now dwarfed by the changes
humans are making to the atmosphere and the surface.”
Carolinas Clean Air and NC WARN are part of a
statewide effort by public interest groups to block the new Cliffside plant
and help the state reduce greenhouse gases by aggressively ramping up
energy efficiency, cogeneration and renewables. That effort has already
stopped one of two plants Duke sought to build at Cliffside – by proving it
wasn’t needed. The second unit has suffered multiple delays and cost
overruns and is the subject of ongoing legal battles over air pollution and
water permits.
“It’s inspiring that a leading scientist like
Jim Hansen is championing the call for public action,” said June
Blotnick, Executive Director of Carolinas Clean Air Coalition. “He
realizes that due to the prominence of Duke Energy and CEO Rogers, turning
the tide here can have a great impact on the much-needed national action to
slow global warming.”
The BBC recently labeled Hansen “the grandfather of
the largest grassroots movement on the planet.” He has already weighed
in on the Cliffside fight as a private citizen – not in his official
function – with a compelling letter to the state regulators.* “In
blunter language,” he wrote, “ it
has become clear that in order to avoid creating a different planet with
disastrous consequences for humanity and other species, over the next few
decades we will need to "bulldoze" old-style power plants that do not
capture and store CO2.” The
proposed Cliffside unit will neither capture nor store CO2, with annual
emissions projected at 6 million tons.
Hansen has been openly critical of White House efforts
to muzzle him and other scientists, and over energy companies’ role in
impeding corrective measures by muddying the climate issue. He says,
“The public must lead in the solution of the global warming problem.
Special interests may have wounded our democracy, but it is still alive
and well enough.” That message coincides with evidence that in North
Carolina, both Duke and Progress Energy wield enormous and harmful control
over policymakers.
Dr. Hansen’s message is urgent but hopeful: “In
fact, the things we need to do have many other benefits … there's so much
potential in efficiency, we don't need new power plants if we take
advantage of that.”
His five-step plan includes investments in and
national standards for energy efficiency, along with curbing special
interest influence over scientists and politicians.
Mike Nicklas has for three decades proven the economic
and environmental advantages of solar energy and high-performance building
design. In just one category, his Raleigh-based architectural firm,
Innovative Design, Inc. has helped schools save more than $3.5 million
annually in energy, eliminating 340,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Nicklas is
past chair of the American Solar Energy Society and past president of the
International Solar Energy Society.
Cliffside opponents are urging CEO Jim Rogers to
cancel the plant and live up to his strong statements supporting climate
protection and energy efficiency. They emphasize that the fight over
Cliffside will only intensify if Duke starts construction early next year.
“As North Carolina continues to learn how
backward and damaging new coal at Cliffside would be, blocking this plant
is the only option,” said NC WARN director Jim Warren. “This
one new plant could negate much of the national effort to reduce global
warming pollution – and further squander our chances to solve this
unprecedented problem.”
The forums will be held at 7pm on November 16 at
Queens University of Charlotte, and at 3pm on November 17, at the Friday
Center in Chapel Hill. Admission is free but early reservation of seats is
recommended.
Event information can be found at
www.Clean-Air-Coalition.org and at
www.ncwarn.org
* See Dr. Hansen’s letter to NC regulators:
www.ncwarn.org |
