Elizabeth Dickinson for Mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota

Clean Energy Now!

Speech by Elizabeth Dickinson at Clean Energy Now! Lawnsign Kick-off Rally

April 13, 2002

Thanks to Pastor Tim Johnson of Cherokee United Church here on the West Side for his wise words and lovely prayer.

Thank-you all for caring enough about clean air and clean water to join us on this beautiful day. Thanks to all my neighbors who volunteered their time planning and expediting this event. And especial thanks to Cliff Timm who fronted the money for the signs. There is absolutely no way we could've ordered the signs on time without his gift. Cliff, raise your hand. Let's all give him a round of applause. Seniors rock!

Our coalition is just a bunch of overextended, underfunded volunteer neighborhood and environmental groups — but there are a lot of us. Who are we? We are our own West Side Citizens Organization, the Southeast Como Improvement Association, the Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition, the Hamline-Midway Coalition, Windham Park, Friends of the St. Croix, Merriam Park, the Women's Cancer Resource Center, the North American Water Office, Clean Water Action Alliance, and Sierra Club — and more groups join each day. And if you can give at least $2 for your sign, we can order more signs and go into more communities.

I'm a neighbor just like you. In 1970 at the very first Earth Day, I was nine going on ten, as we used to say. Grownups were promising that pollution would stop and America passed the Clean Air Act in 1970 and the Clean Water Act in 1972. Coal-burning plants were grandfathered out of the Act because it was assumed they would be phased out. As we all now know, that never happened. I'm here because the job isn't finished and because I don't want any kids here who are ten years old to have to be dealing with this when they're in their 40's.

We're all here because Minnesota is addicted to coal. The use of the word addicted is intentional. 75% of Minnesota's electricity comes from coal — not gas, not oil. It comes from coal — just about the dirtiest fuel we could use.

I can think of no more important topic than the preservation of clean air and water for our future and our children's and grandchildren's future. You don't have to think about it long to realize that it may be the most basic right that we share with humans and other species — the right to breathe clean air and drink clean water. The first thing we do when we come into this world is breathe, and it's the last thing we do before we leave. Don't let anyone marginalize this issue. This is not a special interest. The need for clean air and water crosses across all political, social, economic, gender, and ethnic boundaries. And it may be the only issue that we have in common with all species on earth.

That's a sobering thought, as we are the only species who can harm the environment.

The reason our coalition is here is that we want Xcel to clean up their dirty, ancient, grandfathered coal plants by repowering them to gas. What's really wrong with coal? Even our own Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says that coal is the dirtiest fuel we could use. Let's use the High Bridge coal-burning plant — right here — as an example.

The High Bridge plant bought 340,000 tons of sub-bituminous coal from the Northern Antelope Strip Mine in Wyoming last year. I'm sure you've seen pictures of what strip mining does to the earth, and rape is not too strong a word.

Next the coal had to be brought here by train, using more energy. Xcel would like to tell you that sub-bituminous coal is less polluting than regular coal; what they're leaving out is that they then have to burn more of it to create the same amount of energy. Not only that, but the next time you see a coal train, consider this: the energy from two out of every three boxcars of coal is lost in waste heat due to the inherent inefficiency of coal-burning.

And what do we get when the High Bridge does burn coal? Well, we don't even personally get the benefits of this supposedly cheap energy since most of the energy is converted to steam and sent to Rock Tenn off of Route 94. But we certainly pay the health costs.

There are four main pollutants that come from coal. Nitrogen oxides, which cause smog, are one. Last year the Twin Cities had a number of smog alerts; it was the smoggiest it has been at any time since the 1970's. Clearly, our air quality is deteriorating.

Sulfur dioxide is another byproduct of burning coal. Sulfur dioxide forms particulate matter — little tiny toxic particles that travel deep into your lungs and other organs. This particulate matter causes acid rain, and can cause asthma, in addition to all kinds of other respiratory diseases, strokes, heart attacks, and more.

Another pollutant from coal-burning is carbon dioxide, which causes global warming, which triggers more floods, tornados and other extreme weather patterns, negatively influencing crop yields, water quality, and recreation. There is no doubt about this. The International Panel on Climate Change, which counts the research from the scientists from over 100 countries, says so. The only doubt about it is how fast it's occurring — pretty fast or really fast. Our own local weatherman, Paul Douglas, has said, "Even professional skeptics will have to lift their heads out of the sand and look at the science. The data is overwhelming and convincing."

The next toxin we're worried about is mercury. High Bridge emits over 40 pounds of mercury each year, and in its worst year, Riverside emitted 130 pounds. That doesn't sound like a lot, you say? 95% of the Minnesota lakes tested had enough mercury in them to trigger a fish alert. There is a 99% chance that the fish you catch in a Minnesota lake has some mercury in it. It only takes 1/70th of a teaspoon — I'm going to repeat that — 1/70th of a teaspoon, far far less than a pinch of mercury, deposited in a 20-acre lake over a couple of years to trigger a fish advisory. Pregnant women and small children should not eat more than six ounces of fish a week. That's the equivalent of a single small can. Why? It can cause brain damage to children, folks. Brain damage. And there is no available technology to remove mercury from coal or fish.

In addition, there are over 60 additional poisons, including heavy metals, volatile organic chemicals, mutagens, and carcinogens that come from coal. I'd like to tell you more about them, but there's not a lot of information. But friends with chemistry degrees tell me that all of them are capable of harming our nervous systems, and our endocrine systems. When they're tested — which is not often — they're never tested together for cumulative effects and interactions. It's a toxic chemical soup and we're the guinea pigs.

More people die each year from illnesses related to coal-burning than die from either homicide or drunk driving. Think about it, if the homicide rate goes up, there's public outcry and more police are on the streets. If more folks die from drunk drivers, there's public outcry and the legal blood alcohol limit is lowered. What happens when more people die from coal-burning? Nothing so far — unless there's a public outcry.

Who are the living people affected by coal-burning?

There's a neighbor on the West Side of St. Paul whose family has lived there for generations. His entire family suffers from respiratory problems. His father died in his arms from a respiratory disease. And his daughter, who plays many sports, has asthma. We know now smog from coal plants causes asthma and that athletic kids are more at risk because they breathe in more air.

And there's a grandmother called Louise Olsen who lives near the Riverside plant and she has asthma. In very real terms, her quality of life is compromised. Every day it takes six hours to clear her lungs. This makes her virtually unemployable. Because she is unemployable, she has no insurance. Her normal medications and doctor visits cost her $4000 to $6000 out of pocket a year. It takes a monumental effort for her to get from a sitting to a standing position. She can't go out walking, she can't do housework, she can't be the grandmother she wants to be. And on days when the pollution is worse and the air inverts, she has to go the emergency room. This is what she says: "Sometimes, it takes pure courage to remember to breathe, and defiance to try to keep on breathing."

I would submit to you that Minnesota was so concerned about smoking — a voluntary activity — that Minnesota won a legal case against the tobacco industry. And yet there sits the High Bridge and Riverside in St. Paul, belching out all kinds of toxins we have no control over — and Minnesota has done nothing about it.

So why the heck in the year 2002 are we still using a 19th century technology like coal? Real simple. It's money. Xcel is squeezing every last dollar from an old investment.

But the answer is equally simple. Frankly, this is what drives me crazy about it. Because we're not wild-eyed radicals asking for a technology that doesn't exist. Repowering to natural gas eliminates 90% of the toxins we're worried about. Xcel's new TV ad campaign says, "There's a lot of tomorrow in what we're doing today." I don't know what age they think they're living in. Most of us are living in the 21st century. All we're asking from them is that they move from 19th century coal technology to 20th century gas technology.

And don't let Xcel tell you that it's too expensive. They'll say that like you, the poor homeowner, that they can only afford to upgrade their home a little bit at a time. That's the wrong analogy. If you go to the emergency room with all of your bones broken and a collapsed lung, the doctor doesn't say, "Well, we can only afford to fix one or two problems now, but come back in 30 years and we may be able to finish the job." And don't let Xcel tell you jobs will be lost. Natural gas is more efficient — and energy efficiency yields two to ten times as many jobs per dollar invested than old outdated technologies like coal.

Of course, I want to see more wind. NPR did a story which said the entire energy needs of the nation could be met with the wind energy of three states. We should be racing toward wind energy. But in the meantime, we must stop burning coal now. We must eliminate the worst pollutants now, pollutants that are destroying our health and the health of the planet now.

And it should be easy. Even Ron Elsner, the Xcel project engineer, said in a public information session last January that it would be easy to repower some of these coal-burning plants to natural gas.

And this is where we need your help. We must send a strong message to Xcel and our legislature, that we want Clean Energy Now. In July, Xcel is going to present their voluntary plan for cutting emissions — we want the plan to be repowering to natural gas, and we need people to write and to testify.

Next year, our fine representative Carlos Mariani is reintroducing a pollutant bill that would make all these dirty plants come up to current emission standards. We need more people to testify. We want the legislators to be left in no doubt about what Minnesotans think. You don't have to be an expert to testify. All you have to do is care and be willing to say you don't want any more coal-burning. All you have to do is care — and just say "no" to coal-burning.

We have to be honest here. The scheduled times for citizen testimony are almost always last minute and inconvenient. That makes it all the more powerful when people do turn up. Legislators need to be educated, and we have a particular power when we testify and educate them. The environmental groups can't do it alone, bless them; and the legislators should not always see the same familiar faces. And remember even if we don't show up, the lobbyists for the corporations always will. We the citizens are needed now, more than ever, to speak up on behalf of the environment.

We also need people to watch the papers, to write letters to the editor when this bill comes up, to keep it in the public eye. And most especially in an election year, please make sure that the person you vote for has taken a pro-environment stance. And when those legislators come up for re-election, check with environmental groups to make sure their voting record remains pro-environment. Clean Water Action, Sierra Club, and other groups keep tally of voting records.

I believe that any of us who live near a coal-burning plant have a moral responsibility to speak out against coal-burning. Unless you communicate your disapproval, coal-burning will continue and grow because the companies who burn it assume you don't care unless they hear from you. Unless your legislators hear from you, they assume you don't care where your energy comes from.

They all assume you don't care.

As Representative Jean Wagenius said to me in an e-mail several months ago,

"I know it is discouraging. On the other hand logic never seems to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Rather the 'noise' has to rise to a certain level before a polluter will move and it is noisier than it has ever been on this issue thanks to you and many others. I am confident that Xcel's customers don't want to be polluters and when they understand that the company that they buy electricity from hurts people when it produces electricity, Xcel will change. What you are doing is important and it will make a difference."

Please, please help us "make a difference." There are a lot of grey moral issues out there. This is not one of them. The only thing grey about this issue is the smoke coming from Xcel's stacks. If clean air and clean water are in your top ten list of the most important issues facing our nation today — and especially if they're in your top three, then you do have a moral imperative to speak up. If you — and I am talking to every one of you as my neighbors — if you don't speak up, through apathy or powerlessness, not only will nothing change, but the pollution will continue and worsen. It is only the noise of our collective voices which will make the difference. Because together, our voices are stronger than any corporation's voice. But we need all of your voices now.

Because in spite of everything, today is a celebration. It is a celebration of what communities can do when they band together. So let's lift our voices now.

What do we want? Clean Energy! When do we want it? Now!

Receive
News & Updates