Sierra Club isn't lone opponent of coal plants

By Brian Moench
Published: Sunday, April 27, 2008 1:15 a.m. MDT
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On April 16, the Deseret News ran a very misleading article regarding the Sierra Club's role in the ongoing statewide battle over whether to build more coal-fired power plants. The article implied that the Sierra Club took total credit for delaying the construction of the Intermountain Power Unit No.3 and Bonanza coal plants and that state legislators were battling primarily the Sierra Club in their effort to commit the state to ongoing fossil-fuel dependency.

This assertion is not true. There are much larger forces at play here with regards to whether these projects get built, something that the story failed to even mention.

Meanwhile, it is regrettable that a vocal minority of legislators remain dogmatic in rejecting the overwhelming scientific evidence linking our personal and planet health to reducing, not expanding, fossil-fuel combustion. As the number of coal proponents and climate change deniers steadily shrinks worldwide, it is imperative that mainstream media provide balanced stories and factual information in lieu of perpetuating the myth that it is just "environmental wackos" who are heeding the warnings of the entire, peer-reviewed scientific community.

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The U.S. Supreme Court, with a majority of conservative judges, told the EPA over a year ago that it should start regulating CO2 as a pollutant, and the EPA last month announced it was embarking on a rule-making process. President Bush finally acknowledged last week the perils of global warming, and all three presidential candidates are committed to addressing these scientific realities. Polls show that over 80 percent of Utahns support clean, renewable energy options in lieu of more coal. Even the Deseret News editorial board has declared that new coal power plants can no longer be part of our energy future.

The Utah Sierra Club is only one of dozens of diverse organizations, mainstream businesses and health groups, representing thousands of citizens, that are recognizing the health and climate imperatives of obtaining our energy from clean, renewable sources instead of more coal. Unfortunately, some legislators seem to equate personal virtue with a tenacious devotion to fossil fuels, a position requiring wholesale denial of evidence from all scientific disciplines including climatology, biology, geology, physics and public health. It even contradicts recent studies focused on business opportunities and future economic health.

I am not a member of the Sierra Club, but we should all be grateful that for years the Sierra Club has been begging us to listen to the scientists who study the consequences of environmental degradation. Thankfully the public is starting to listen. It's time for all state legislators to do the same.

Dr. Brian Moench is president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.

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