From Credo: Tell Southern Company: Stop leading the nation in climate pollution.

     Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency released a major report on the biggest sources of climate change pollution in the United States -- and two dirty coal plants in Georgia are at the top of the list.¹
The plants are both owned by Atlanta-based Southern Company, which also owns the third biggest polluter, a coal plant in Alabama.

Southern Company's response to the EPA's report was outrageous, claiming that "the company is a leader in environmental research, development and implementation." But the facts don't lie, and
Southern Company needs to know that Georgia residents want the company to clean up its act by drastically reducing its pollution and investing in clean energy.

Tell Southern Company: Georgia residents deserve clean air. Invest in clean energy and stop leading the country in climate pollution.
    
     The two Southern Company coal plants at the top of EPA's list -- Plant Sherer in Juliette and Plant Bowen near Cartersville -- dump a combined 43 million metric tons of climate pollution into the air each year.² That's a massive contribution to climate change, and it needs to stop.
     In addition to the greenhouse gases Southern Company's dirty coal plants in Georgia pump into the atmosphere, the plants are also huge sources of other forms of deadly air pollution like mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.
     According to a recent report by the Clean Air Task Force, pollution from these two coal plants alone causes 330 premature deaths and more than 5,000 asthma attacks annually.³

Tell Southern Company: Georgia residents deserve clean air. Invest in clean energy and stop leading the country in climate pollution.

     To make matters worse, while Southern Company's dirty coal plants are killing Georgia residents and making them sick, the company has spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to weaken and block environmental regulations.⁴ In fact, Southern Company had more lobbyists working to defeat Congress' 2009 climate change legislation than any other company.⁵
     It is far past time for Southern Company to end its role as one of the worst polluters in the United States and begin investing in cleaner sources of energy that can fuel our economy without destroying the plant and harming public health.


Tell Southern Company: Georgia residents deserve clean air. Invest in clean energy and stop leading the country in climate pollution. ( http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/southern_company_georgia/?r_by=33466-3594457-orTRUmx&rc=confemail )


1. Southern Company Plants are 3 Biggest Greenhouse Gas Emitters, Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1/11/12

2. EPA Report Reveals Top Ten Greenhouse Gas Emitting Power Plants in U.S., Climate Progress, 1/12/12

3. Death and Disease from U.S. Power Plants, Clean Air Task Force

4. Southern Company Lobbyists, Sourcewatch

5. Southern Company Dominates the Climate Lobbying Scene, Grist, 7/1/09



"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."