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Boycott to Stop Cliffside Set to Begin on January 20, 2008

On Sunday night, January 20, 2008, at 9 p.m., people throughout North Carolina and in bordering states will turn off their house lights for 15 minutes in the first of a planned series of demonstrations to flex the muscle of utility rate-payers who are determined to stop the construction and operation of Duke Energy's proposed new coal-burning power plant at Cliffside. People will light a candle or battery-powered LED lantern in their window in a display of solidarity.

Groups coordinating the boycott are calling for a redirection of public energy policy that will lead away from increased energy consumption and new polluting coal and nuclear plants. The boycotting ratepayers are promoting policies to create meaningful economic incentives for people to reduce energy consumption, to invest in the smart use of power through energy efficiency, to become more conservation conscious and to invest in independent renewable energy systems such as solar electric, solar hot water and wind energy systems to meet future energy demand.

DOWNTOWN ASHEVILLE VIGIL

In Asheville, NC , the Canary Coalition, Mountain Voices Alliance, and Nuclear Information and Resource Service will be staging a battery-powered, LED candle-light vigil from 8-10 p.m., on January 20, 2008, at Pritchard Park.

"It makes no sense for the utility industry to build new polluting power plants in the year 2008," says Avram Friedman, of the Canary Coalition. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has informed the world that we have probably less than ten years to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we're going to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. That means we have to take steps to reduce over-all energy consumption.  We have to focus on becoming much more efficient with our energy usage, and not just continue, business-as-usual, wasting our resources and over-producing more energy to compensate.  Duke Energy's plan to expand its coal-burning power plant in Cliffside ignores the reality of climate change and would squander nearly two billion dollars that should instead be used to further efficiency efforts and develop renewable technologies." 

Friedman explains, "We're targeting Duke Energy and Progress Energy in this boycott, because, not only are these energy corporations planning to build new coal and nuclear plants, but they are using their financial and political power to influence public policy in a counter-productive manner. Last month they lobbied heavily in Congress to successfully defeat a minimal national Renewable Portfolio Standard for public utilities that would have required a small percentage of their power to be produced from renewable resources. In North Carolina, utility funded political action committees flooded legislative candidates with 1.7 million dollars in campaign contributions over the last two election cycles to pass laws favorable to the industry, but to the detriment of public health and the environment."

Mary Olson, Southeast Regional Coordinator for Nuclear Information and Resource Service supports this coordinated action and intends to spread the Boycott to many communities that are faced with new nuclear or new coal power plants.

Olson says “Business as usual is over – we can either invest and work like crazy to move to sustainable systems – or we will be at the mercy of rolling disasters that threaten the fabric of our lives. We can either take action together NOW to make a world worth living in – or we can keep our head in the sand and be hit by the wave resulting from the ignorant behavior of the last several generations in the industrialized world – primarily the USA. Anyone who is worried about sacrifice just does not get what is happening!”

Olson will be traveling in Florida this month where six new nuclear power reactors are being developed and will enlist community participation in the Boycott plan there as well. Many Floridians are Progress Energy customers.

Among the measures that passed in the 2007 NC legislative session was a provision to allow utility companies to charge ratepayers for construction work in progress (CWIP) on new coal and nuclear power plants, a practice that had been banned since 1982, when utility customers were charged millions of dollars for three nuclear plants that were never completed. 

"CWIP removes the financial risk of building new power plants from utility company share-holders, placing it on the shoulders of rate-payers, while easing the way for new construction, whether or not it's advisable," says Friedman.  

"As part of the boycott we'll also be asking people to divest from corporations, banks and other lending institutions that have major investments in the construction of new coal and nuclear power plants. We expect the first demonstration, on January 20, to be relatively small, but significant. But, we will be working for it to grow quickly as more community groups, consumer groups, civil rights organizations, members of the scientific and medical communities, the academic community and all people of conscious begin to understand what we're doing and join in the effort."

Battery-powered LED candles will be distributed at the Pritchard Park vigil, on January 20.

For more information visit the following websites:

The Canary Coalition, www.canarycoalition.org;

Mountain Voices Alliance, www.mvalliance.net;

Nuclear Information and Resource Service, www.nirs.org.

-News provided by Canary Coalition