ACTION ALERT - CALL THE GOVERNOR TODAY AND ASK FOR A HALT TO BUILDING NEW COAL PLANTS - 515-281-5211

By Plains Justice

On Tuesday, May 15th, New Jersey's LS Power plans to apply for their permits to build a 750MW coal-fired power plant just east of Waterloo, Iowa.  This plant will pour out carbon dioxide equivalent to nearly a million new cars on Iowa's roads for its 40-50 year lifetime.  We are in a desperate fight to reign in global warming and this plant will dig us a hole that all our best efforts can't remedy.   The plant will also pollute eastern Iowa's waters with heavy metals, including hundreds of pounds of mercury annually, which settles into rivers and lakes and bioaccumulates in fish across a wide region.  There are already points on the Iowa and Cedar Rivers where an adult can eat only a few 6 oz. servings per month of game fish and stay under EPA's safety level for mercury.  The plant will destroy prime farmland, tap the local aquifer, and invade a wetland.  Finally, the heavy metal-laden coal ash waste will go into an unlined, abandoned quarry south of Waterloo, in an area with such a high groundwater table that nearby residents can't dig basements.
 
The Governor has a chance to put a delay on the permitting process but today is the best day for it.  Call the Governor at 515-281-5211 and ask him to tackle global warming solutions and put a temporary stay on the permitting process for new coal plants until the legislature has had a chance to act on the Climate Change Advisory Council's recommendations for greenhouse gas reductions in Iowa.  If permitted, the two coal plants proposed by LS Power in Waterloo and Alliant Energy in Marshalltown, along with the 790 MW behemoth MidAmerican just built in Council Bluffs, will result in a 60% increase in Iowa's global warming pollution since 1990.  If we're going to stop global warming and move our energy economy forward, these plants cannot be built.  CALL THE GOVERNOR TODAY - 515-281-5211.

Thank the Governor for his powerful statement about global warming on April 27th: "Global Warming is a real danger that threatens our very way of life, and it is our responsibility to take any and all steps that we can to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and hope to curb global warming."

Let Governor Culver know that you want him to continue his leadership on this important issue.  We want to see Iowa be the true renewable energy capitol of the world, but that means saying "NO" to new dirty coal.  Each of these plants will cost more than $1 billion.  Let's put that cash into renewables and efficiency.

Thank you very much for your efforts, you are an invaluable part of this campaign!

Please forward this message, it is urgent.

Carrie La Seur, Ph.D., J.D.
Plains Justice
319 3rd St. NW
Mount Vernon, Iowa 52314
319-560-4729
http://www.plainsjustice.org