EXCERPT:
We are four Washington moms, who, on Saturday July 17, will attempt to summit Mount Rainier with a message for our Governor. Our Climb Against Coal challenges Governor Gregoire to close Washington’s largest toxic polluter and point source of deadly carbon: the TransAlta coal-fired power plant in Centralia.
We are not experienced mountaineers, but six months ago, when we brainstormed this crazy idea, we determined to meet an urgent challenge with radical action. We each have children between the ages of 3 and 6, and our kids have taught us to be loud and persistent in our demands. Today, we demand that coal burning end in Washington. The Governor’s plan to burn dirty coal for fifteen more years is unacceptable. The time to transition to clean energy is now.
We make this challenge from the top of Mount Rainier because nowhere are the effects of Governor Gregoire’s inaction on dirty coal more evident than on our state’s most hallowed landmark. Every year, as our children grow, TransAlta’s stack spews 20 trillion pounds of greenhouse gases that warm the climate and melt our mountain. Every hour of every day, TransAlta’s stack dumps mercury, a toxic heavy metal, onto its shrinking snow and ice pack. That mercury then makes its way down streams and rivers to Puget Sound.
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