Coal-fired Power Plants

America must move quickly away from our dependency on coal, the worst power source that currently supplies over half our electricity. Coal-fired power plants operate for 50 years or longer, and many aging plants are nearing the end of their lives.

Now is the time to replace the generating capacity of these aging plants with renewable energy sources. But the U.S. Department of Energy, corporate interests, and the coal-based electricity industry have plans to build well over a hundred new coal-fired power plants—which, if built, will continue to spew millions of tons of greenhouse gases for decades to come.

The True Price of Coal

Coal-generated power is artificially cheap. The true price of coal must account for both environmental and human impacts. If the costs of preventing and remediating these impacts were included, the price of coal would skyrocket.

A true price for coal would allow sustainable energy sources, like wind and solar, to compete on a level playing field, gain market share in the U.S. energy portfolio, and reduce global warming emissions. That's why Earthjustice is working to halt more coal dependency, reduce mining and disposal impacts, and make renewable energy resources—not coal—the "cheapest" energy source we have.

Learn more about the true price of coal:

 Cancer: Coal's Hidden Cost

 Coal Ash Pollution Contaminates Groundwater, Increases Cancer Risks

 Water impact in Pennsylvania from coal plants (PDF)

 Stopping Taxpayer Financing for New Coal Plants

Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against by the Rural Utilities Service, who wanted to invest billions of our tax dollars in new dirty coal plants without considering affordable wind power alternatives. Bowing to our legal pressure, the RUS reversed its decision.

 Stopping Mountaintop Removal  Coal Mining

Mountaintop removal has buried or choked 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams, and damaged hundreds of square miles of forests. Earthjustice is taking legal action at the federal level to end this destructive practice; in 2007 alone, we stopped five mines and established legal precedents to slow down our headlong rush into building more coal plants-and making global warming even worse.

 Learn more about Mountaintop Removal and what you can do to help stop it

 Watch a video about Mountaintop Removal and the people it affects

 Blocking New Construction of Polluting Coal Plants in Florida

Earthjustice stopped utility plans to build the Glades Power Park (near the Everglades in South Florida), which would have become the nation's largest new coal-fired generator.

Instead of using available technologies to reduce electricity demand, Florida Power & Light wanted regulators to let the company saddle its customers with expensive, outdated, and dirty coal technology. We said no, and the state agreed.

 10/11/07
Judge Tells Big Coal: Stop Burying Appalachian Streams
Residents successfully stop plans to bury streams, destroy homes in West Virginia

 06/05/07
Florida Commission Vote Kills Proposed Coal-Fired Power Plant
State takes a major step towards protecting against harmful global warming pollution