Coal Campaign

In 2004, more than 150 new coal-fired power plants were slated for construction across the U.S.

These proposed plants threatened to overwhelm all other efforts to curb carbon dioxide emissions.    To understand coal’s devastating climate pollution,  consider the example of California’s efforts to reduce auto emissions.  The state required automakers to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new cars by 25% and new SUVs by 18%, starting in 2009. Even if every car and SUV sold in California in 2009 met this standard, the carbon dioxide emissions from only one medium-sized coal-fired power plant would negate this entire effort – in just eight months of operation.

Today, the number of new coal plants proposed domestically is less than two dozen. 

This great success is the result of a superb collaboration. These plants were generally stopped one at a time, state by state, locality by locality. A mix of national and local groups led the way, depending on the circumstances at a given site. RFF’s role has been strategic. We have helped assemble coalitions of funders and helped build systems to ensure that lessons in one state can be applied in another.  We have been hands-on, often finding and funding effective campaign directors and organizations in a number of states, and helping guide their efforts through strategic insights.

One of our contributions has been particularly helpful to activists fighting at the local level. We started the Power Plant Finance Project, which helps advocates articulate the financial impacts of new coal plants on electricity ratepayers, and the risk that these projects pose to potential investors. Our team of consultants—whose expertise ranges from economic modeling to financial forecasting to bond analysis—pulled together national data and analysis, and then conducted original research and analysis of specific plants. Their reports, and the engagement that follows, have been important tools in leading investor-owned utilities away from coal plants. 

This work filled an empty space in the movement. It required a kind of research and communications that was unfamiliar to the environmental community. Our flexibility meant we could act quickly, and could serve as a clearinghouse for information and strategy.

This work is ongoing. Specific campaigns are being revised to stop the new plants still under consideration. Other campaigns are being designed to shut down some of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants currently in operation. We remain deeply involved in these efforts, developing sound financial arguments about why coal is a bad investment, helping to raise funds to drive coal work, and providing strategic counsel and coordination.