On Tuesday, weeks of dedicated Sierra Club organizing culminated with a public hearing on a permit for a 48-square-mile strip mine at the Kemper Mississippi Power IGCC coal plant.
The Club’s Beyond Coal activists greatly outnumbered plant proponents, and due to such a large and vocal turnout, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) was forced to extend the public hearing for three and a half hours!
Anti-Kemper activists spoke against the negative effects of the project on both ratepayers’ pocketbooks and the environment—including the destruction of the headwaters of the beloved Pascagoula River.
In a testament to our organizers’ skills, Sierra Club’s Gulf Coast Group teamed with the Gulf Restoration Network and chartered a bus filled with Mississippians from as far away as the coast (3.5 hours away) to bring them to the hearing—and our group even included the head of the Coast Tea Party!
The Club’s Beyond Coal activists greatly outnumbered plant proponents, and due to such a large and vocal turnout, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) was forced to extend the public hearing for three and a half hours!
Anti-Kemper activists spoke against the negative effects of the project on both ratepayers’ pocketbooks and the environment—including the destruction of the headwaters of the beloved Pascagoula River.
In a testament to our organizers’ skills, Sierra Club’s Gulf Coast Group teamed with the Gulf Restoration Network and chartered a bus filled with Mississippians from as far away as the coast (3.5 hours away) to bring them to the hearing—and our group even included the head of the Coast Tea Party!
