Coal

Coal Ships Blocked As Rising Tide Activists Form Line Across Channel

November 24, 2024 Alex Bainbridge, Isaac Nellist and Chloe DS, Green Left. Resist! Australia, climate crisis, Coal, Flotilla, kayaktivism

The Rising Tide “People’s Blockade” of the world’s largest coal port at Muloobinba/Newcastle began on November 19. The protestival is demanding: “No new coal and gas projects; 78% tax on fossil fuel export profits to fund workers’ transition; and end coal exports from Newcastle by 2030”.

‘As The Coal Age Ends’: UK Announces Ban On New Mines

November 18, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Coal, emissions, False Solutions, Mining, net zero, United Kingdom (UK)

In a landmark decision, the United Kingdom’s energy secretary Ed Miliband has announced the banning of new coal mines in Britain, as part of the country’s drive to reach net zero. The UK government has committed to introducing legislation to restrict the licensing of future coal mines by amending 1994’s Coal Industry Act, a press release from the UK Government said. “Coal mining powered this country for over 140 years and we owe a huge debt to workers who kept the lights on for homes and businesses across the country. Now the UK is in prime position to lead the way in phasing out coal power around the world, which remains the single largest contributor to global emissions,” said Energy Minister Michael Shanks in the press release.

Colombia Halts Coal Sales To Israel Until Genocide In Gaza Ends

June 9, 2024 Ana Perdigón, Orinoco Tribune. Resist! Benjamin Netanyahu, Coal, Colombia, Embargo, Genocide, International Court of Justice (ICJ), Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity

The Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism published a decree according to which the country will stop selling coal to Israel in an attempt to pressure Tel Aviv to stop its genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “This decree will enter into force after five calendar days… and will remain valid until the orders of provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice in the process of applying the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip are fully complied with,” states the decree published on Friday, June 7.

Power Plants To Parklands

June 1, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! Coal, Community, Michigan, Parks, Power Plants

There are currently more than 200 coal-fired power plants in operation in the United States, but the country has been scaling back since reaching its coal generation peak in 2011. By the end of 2026, the U.S. is projected to have retired half of its coal capacity. Coal plants emit toxic pollutants into the air, water and soil, leaving a legacy of contamination that must be cleaned up after their decommission. But what happens to coal plants after they shut down? Michigan’s Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) sees retiring coal plants — once viewed as industrial scars on the landscape — as “canvases for the creation of new greenways, parklands, wildlife habitat, and clean energy development,” a press release from ELPC said.

Climate Activists In New England Celebrate ‘The End Of Coal’

April 17, 2024 Siobhan Senier, Waging Nonviolence. Resist! climate crisis, Coal, Direct Action, New England, Victory

On March 27, Granite Shore Power, or GSP, announced that it will “voluntarily” stop burning coal at its Merrimack and Schiller Stations in New Hampshire by 2028. Major news outlets have been hailing the news as the “end of coal in New England” and casting GSP as a leader in the transition to clean, renewable energy. Insofar as media have acknowledged the role of outside pressure on GSP at all, they have mainly cited a lawsuit by the Sierra Club and Conservation Law Foundation for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. But activists know better: Nonviolent direct action gets the goods.

Newcastle Port Blockade: One Of The Biggest Climate Protests In Australia

November 25, 2023 Jordyn Beazley, The Guardian. Resist! Australia, climate crisis, Coal, kayaktivism

It felt more party than protest as hundreds of people paddled into the Port of Newcastle on kayaks, surfboards and pontoons in what organisers hope will be the biggest civil disobedience action in Australia’s history. On shore people stood shoulder to shoulder on Saturday, waving at the protesters, who will occupy the channel for 30 hours to stop coal exports from leaving Newcastle. Some were dancing along to a band and waving Extinction Rebellion flags. Others gave the protest a comical air, such as Helen Child, who dressed up as Clive Palmer with a sign that said “Let Them Eat Coal”. But for all its frivolity, the message the organisers Rising Tide hope to send to the government is serious.

In Turkey, Villagers Fight Deforestation In Coal Mine Project

September 28, 2023 Murat Bay, The Real News Network. Resist! Coal, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Defenders, Mining, Turkey

Akbelen forest, western Turkey. Local villagers and environmental activists try to stop the expansion of a coal mine. Just three months after strongman President Erdoğan was re-elected, people flocked here from all over Turkey to try to save the remaining woodland. The protest is a symbol of a wider struggle to protect the environment in Turkey, from companies which often enjoy close relations with the government. The coal giant Limak Holding is a typical example. President Erdoğan dismissed the protesters as ‘marginal’, opposed to the country’s economic development. Despite a nation-wide outcry, the forest clearing continues with the protection of the Turkish security forces.

Climate Activists Arrested After Shovelling Coal From Train

April 16, 2023 Guardian Staff and AAP, The Guardian. Resist! climate crisis, Coal, Direct Action, Fossil Fuels

Dozens of people have been arrested after protesters scaled a train bound for the Port of Newcastle and began shovelling coal out of its wagons. The train was brought to a standstill a few kilometres from the port while passing Sandgate, near the Pacific Highway, about 10am on Sunday. About 20 people linked to so-called climate defence group Rising Tide climbed on to the train and used shovels to unload coal from the laden wagons, while another 30-odd provided support inside the rail corridor. A banner hung from the train read: “Survival guide for humanity: no new coal.” A spokesperson for the group said about 50 people were arrested and moved out of the rail corridor.

Greta Thunberg Detained At German Village Menaced by Coal Mine

January 19, 2023 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Resist! climate crisis, Coal, Direct Action, Germany, Greta Thunberg, Mining

Greta Thunberg was one of the climate activists detained Tuesday during the struggle to protect the German village of Lützerath from being swallowed by an expanding coal mine, the second time this week that the Swedish climate campaigner has been detained during the protests. Images revealed Tuesday showed German police physically carrying Thunberg away from the edge of part of the mine, as DW reported. Police told Reuters that she was being held with other demonstrators who would all be released later in the day. “Greta Thunberg was part of a group of activists who rushed towards the ledge. However, she was then stopped and carried by us with this group out of the immediate danger area to establish their identity,” a spokesperson for the police of Aachen, Germany, told Reuters.

After 18 Months, Striking Warrior Met Miners And Families Hold The Line

October 8, 2022 Ericka Wills, Labor Notes. Resist! Alabama, Coal, Strike, Warrior Met

A somber bell toll broke the silence outside the West Brookwood Church in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The white-gloved hand of Larry Spencer, International Vice President of Mine Workers (UMWA) District 20, solemnly struck the Miners’ Memorial bell as the names of victims of mine-related deaths were read aloud. “As we gather this evening for our service, it is appropriate that we remember in the past twelve months over 2021 and 2022 there has been tremendous heartache as the result of mining accidents across this country,” Thomas Wilson, a retired UMWA staff representative, announced from the podium. “Twelve coal miners’ lives have been snuffed out—also, 19 metal and non-metal miners—for a total of 31 fallen miners since we last gathered.”

Coal Workers In Australia Are Taking Their Destiny Into Their Own Hands

October 7, 2022 Léo Roussel, Equal Times. Organize! Australia, Coal, Just transition, Worker Rights

The coal industry is to Australia what the Second Amendment of the US Constitution (granting citizens the right to bear arms) is to the United States: it would be hard to imagine the country without it. With fossil fuels still accounting for 92 per cent of Australia’s energy mix, including 29 per cent for coal in 2021, the industry is still vigorously defended by lobbies, even in parliamentary circles and the corridors of ministries. Australia’s conservative former prime minister Scott Morrison famously held up a piece of coal in Parliament in 2017, when he was finance minister, admonishing his colleagues not to be afraid of it. When he became prime minister, he also directly surrounded himself with lobbyists like John Kunkel, former vice-chairman of the Minerals Council of Australia, who he appointed chief of staff in 2018.

As Illinois Coal Jobs Disappear, Some Are Looking To The Sun

May 28, 2022 Kari Lydersen, In These Times. Create! Coal, Illinois, Just transition, Solar Energy

Matt Reuscher was laid off a decade ago from Peabody Energy’s Gateway coal mine in Southern Illinois, in the midst of a drought that made the water needed to wash the coal too scarce and caused production to drop, as he remembers it. Reuscher’s grandfather and two uncles had been miners, and his father — a machinist — did much work with the mines. Like many young men in Southern Illinois, it was a natural career choice for Reuscher. Still in his early 20s when he was laid off, Reuscher “spent that summer doing odds and ends, not really finding much of anything I enjoyed doing as much as being underground.” By fall of 2012, he started working installing solar panels for StraightUp Solar, one of very few solar companies operating in the heart of Illinois coal country. He heard about the job through a family friend and figured he’d give it a try since he had a construction background. He immediately loved the work, and he’s become an evangelist for the clean energy shift happening nationwide, if more slowly in Southern Illinois. With colleagues, he fundraised to install solar panels in tiny villages on the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua, and he became a solar electrician and worked on StraightUp Solar installations powering the wastewater treatment center and civic center in Carbondale, Illinois — a town named for coal.

Protest Against Company’s Climate-Busting Court Action

May 27, 2022 Enfield Dispatch. Resist! climate crisis, Coal, Oil and Gas, United Kingdom (UK)

Environmental campaigners staged a protest outside Enfield Power Station against what they claim is an “attack on democracy” by the site’s owners. Global Justice Now activists marched to the energy plant in Brimsdown as part of a national day of action against fossil fuel companies driving up climate costs. Enfield Power Station is owned by German company Uniper, which is currently taking legal action again the Dutch government over its decision to phase out coal burning by 2030. Uniper opened a coal plant in the Netherlands in 2015 and is demanding compensation for the revenues it will lose from closing it, reported to be £774million. Energy companies are able to seek such compensation under an international agreement called the Energy Charter Treaty, to which the UK is signed up.

Bull Mountains Victory And The ‘Social Cost Of Carbon’

April 29, 2022 Dave Jones, Resilience. Educate! Carbon emissions, Coal, Environment, Montana

Roundup, Montana - Some rare good news came down from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently. In a 2-1 decision, the court rejected an Environmental Assessment (EA) that would have green lighted expansion to the Bull Mountains underground coal mine near Roundup, Montana. The court majority held that the EA provided no scientific reasoning to support its conclusion that the expansion would have no significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. A Trump appointee on the 3-judge panel dissented on grounds that courts “are ill-equipped to step into highly politicized scientific debates like this.” As a result of the 9th Circuit decision, four environmental groups — 350 Montana, Montana Environmental Information Center, Sierra Club, and WildEarth Guardians — will be allowed to continue their lawsuit challenging the environmental review in Montana federal court.

Activists Released After Blockade Of Manchin Coal Operation

April 11, 2022 West Virginia Rising, Popular Resistance. Resist! Blockade, climate crisis, Coal, West Virginia

Grant Town, WV, Monday April 11– Sixteen activists who were arrested on Saturday for blockading the coal-fired Grant Town Power Plant that burns coal waste to profit US Senator Joe Manchin were released from jail overnight. On Sunday, activists returned to the plant for a Palm Sunday service to continue their call for Manchin to stop blocking passage of the federal Build Back Better bill. On Saturday, hundreds of West Virginia residents and climate change activists protested outside of the plant for several hours on Saturday to bring light to the fact that not only has Manchin been stalling efforts to address climate change, but he is also personally benefiting from the continuation of fossil fuels that are creating climate chaos in US communities– including the ones he represents.

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