Death Factories

On June 23rd, over 400 people attended the Public Utilities Commission hearing in downtown Portland to discuss PGE's plan for the continued operation of the Boardman Coal Plant. The Oregon Beyond Coal Campaign sent a strong message to both PGE and the PUC with the vast majority in attendance supporting the early closure of Boardman and rejecting PGE's 2020 plan. Among the crowd testifying for clean energy and the first to speak in front of the PUC was mayor Sam Adams. Dozens of students came out representing 10 different schools across Oregon that passed resolutions to close Boardman in 2014.

Sierra Club Beyond Coal and Sierra Club Student Coalition together presented nearly 3,000 petitions calling for a 2014 shutdown of the coal plant.

There was some really good press...KGW 8, KOIN 6, KBOO, the Oregonian, and blogger Dennis Newman of Natural Oregon.

All in all is seemed like what could be deemed a successful night for us environmentalists. Now we're just waiting for the verdict.

One of the speakers that night, Lloyd K. Marbet, the Executive Director of the Oregon Conservancy Foundation, knew he wasn't going to be able to cover all his points in the two minute time frame that he had, so he made copies of his testimony. He handed them out to the PUC as well as to anyone in the crowd who wanted one. Within, his testimony was this article written by James Hansen titled Coal-Fired Power Stations Are Death Factories. Close Them.