Despite what you may read on coal company billboards, coal-fired power
plants are one of our nation’s largest–and dirtiest–sources of energy.
Although these plants already produce about half of our electricity, there
are plans on the drawing board to build over 150 new plants in the next
few years. With new laws to fight global warming expected on the horizon,
the coal industry is in a rush to build as many new plants as possible
before pollution safeguards are in place.

The Sierra Club has launched a national campaign to stop this rush to
dirty coal. Working with allies across the country, about forty-five of
the 150 planned plants have already been stalled or stopped completely. In
Pennsylvania the presently targeted plants are:

• Beech Hollow (Robinson Twp, Washington County): 250 MegaWatts (MW).
  Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) plant using waste coal. Estimated annual
  CO2 output: 1,625,000 tons.
• Greene County: 525 MW, CFB plant using waste coal. Estimated annual CO2
  output: 3,412,500 tons. The permit application by Wellington Development
  has been challenged by GASP, National Parks Conservation Association.
• Northampton County: 110 MW, co-generation plant. Estimated annual CO2
  output: 715,000 tons.
• River Hill Power (Karthaus Twp, Clearfield County): 290 MW, CFB plant
  using waste coal. Estimated annual CO2 output: 1,885,000 tons. $600
  state-backed tax-exempt bonds.

For more information on these proposed coal-fired plants, see the “Coal
Plant Tracker”.