FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    11/21/09
Contact: Zoe Beavers 304-854-7372
Email: news@climategroundzero.org

PETTUS, W. Va. – Early this morning two concerned citizens, Dea Goblirsch and Nick Martin, locked down to a drill rig on Coal River Mountain’s Bee Tree mountaintop removal site, effectively stopping blasting. Two others, Grace Williams and Laura Von Dolen, joined them in direct support, holding a banner with the message “Save Coal River Mountain”.

These nonviolent protestors have taken this action to bring attention to the extreme danger facing residents of the Coal River Valley from blasting near the Brushy Fork Impoundment. They plan to stay locked down until law enforcement removes them.

The last remaining partners in the construction of the Big Stone II coal-fired power plant announced yesterday that they would not continue the project. They proposed a 500 to 600 megawatt expansion of an existing coal burning power plant located near Milbank, South Dakota. The expansion would have been built on the shores of Big Stone Lake, headwaters to the Minnesota River, near the Minnesota border.

“We are excited to see that the economic realities have finally been acknowledged,” said Darrell Gerber, Clean Water Action Program Coordinator. “Not only was this project bad for public health, the Minnesota River and the environment it would have been bad for the pocketbook of many rural communities.”

The conversion of the Riverside coal-burning power plant, operated by Xcel Energy, from coal to natural gas will be commemorated tomorrow at a public ceremony on site in Northeast Minneapolis. Riverside is located on the Mississippi River between North and Northeast Minneapolis. The coal plant has been operating since 1911 and was the largest single source of air pollution in Minneapolis.

Changes made to the way the plant operates and the switch from dirty coal to more clean burning natural gas will cut dangerous air pollution substantially:

This fall the Senate is expected take up a climate and energy bill that would establish a new agency within the Department of Energy to administer federal loan guarantees for private "clean" energy projects. The bill, the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009 (S.1462), was passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in June.

Ottertail Power-- proposer and developer of the multi-utility coal power proposal Big Stone II-- today announced its withdrawl from the project. This news means the coal plant expansion project is likely dead.