About the Campaign

Mary Ann Hitt,

Director, Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign

In 2002, we got word that then-Vice President Dick Cheney was holding secret backroom meetings with the coal industry to plan a new “Coal Rush” — a massive effort to build over 150 new coal-fired power plants across the country.

Coal plants last only about 50 years, and since it was clear that the country’s aging fleet of dirty power plants would soon be retired, industry lobbyists wanted to lock-in our nation’s reliance on coal before solar, wind, and clean power would have a chance to step in.

This made no sense to us — coal is an outdated, backward, 19th-century technology. It’s the single biggest source of global-warming and mercury pollution, and it causes hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks every year. In my home region of Appalachia, mountaintop-removal coal-mining operations have blown up 500 mountains, buried 2,000 miles of streams, and turned small towns into ghost towns. Why would we want to lock ourselves in to a future of dirty energy — especially just as new technologies and innovation are making solar and wind cheaper?

People said we were crazy to take on one of the most powerful special interests in the country. But we decided to launch a campaign that would move the conversation out of backrooms in Washington and challenge every one of these new coal plants, doing what the Sierra Club does best — grassroots community organizing, powerful communications, and litigation.

Our small, start-up campaign quickly grew into a force to be reckoned with. And I’m proud to say that, so far, together we have stopped over 150 proposed coal-fired power plants.

People said it couldn’t be done, but we are doing it. We have brought the coal rush to a halt.

Now we’re turning our efforts to making sure that the existing fleet of outdated coal plants gets cleaned up or phased out — and is replaced by solar and wind energy that’s ready to fill our energy needs, create new jobs, and jump-start the green economy.

As a new mom, I know that this fight is the single biggest thing I can do to protect my daughter’s future. But we can’t do it alone. The chance to move our nation beyond coal and toward clean energy is in our hands. Join us.