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Dear {{ user.first_name|default:”Friend” }},
State authorities are about to vote on a plan to give big power companies a pass to build new polluting gas-fired power plants in Southern California. They’re called “natural gas plants,” but they’re anything but natural.
The gas they burn for energy is extracted through methods that foul our state’s limited water resources. Particulate matter and ozone emissions from these plants are known to worsen asthma rates.1 And as if our communities weren’t polluted enough, these power plants are typically built near Latinos and other working-class families.2
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of California could vote on this plan as soon as this week. If the commissioners hear from enough of us about how Latino families and other communities are bearing the public health costs of these polluting plants, we’ll be able to thwart their approval.
The PUC is in the process of deciding how to replace power from the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. As the LA Times recently editorialized, the truth is that we don’t really need new natural gas plants.3 Renewable energy sources like solar and energy conservation, among other clean alternatives, are far better solutions. This is what our Latino community in Southern California would prefer. A recent poll released by The Sierra Club jointly with Presente.org showed that Latinos support a replacement strategy favoring clean renewable energy over polluting power plants.4
The utilities’ dirty secret is that they make money from big bloated power plant projects.5 So they have every incentive to push for new gas-fired power plants, damn the impacts to our communities or whether it’s the right choice for our future. So why should we ever think that trusting the big utility monopolies like Southern California Edison and SDG&E to make the right choice is good enough?
The repercussions of building new gas-fired power plants go beyond just Southern California. Building these new polluting plants would take the state of California backwards on its climate change pollution reduction goals6, just at a time when our country is being ravaged by record droughts, wild fires, and extreme storms.
Thanks and ¡adelante!
Arturo, Roberto, Jesús, Erick, Erica, Refugio, Luis, and the rest of the Presente.org Team
P.S. Can you donate $5 to support our work? We rely on contributions from people like you to see campaigns like this through.
Sources:
1. Why We Don’t Need New Dirty Power Plants. California Environmental Justice Alliance. November 10, 2013.
2. EPA’s Proposed Standards for Natural Gas Plants Fail President’s Climate Goals. Sierra Club’s Compass. October 22, 2013.
3. The Best Way to Replace San Onofre’s Power. LA Times. February 13, 2014.
4. New Poll: Southern California Customers Oppose Plan to Replace Nuclear with Gas Plants Due to Climate Change, Air Quality Concerns. The Sierra Club. January 8, 2014.
5. Solar Panels Could Destroy U.S. Utilities, According to U.S. Utilities. Grist. April 10, 2013.
6. Replacing The San Onofre Nuclear Plant. The Sierra Club’s The Planet. November 22, 2013.