The Western North Carolina Alliance, North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light, Southwings, Riverkeeper, and the Sierra Club are the proud founding members of the Asheville Beyond Coal Coalition.
We seek to:
- Lead a transition from the use of fossil fuel energy to a reliance on clean, safe, and renewable energy sources
- Make energy conservation and efficiency a priority in reducing energy demand in Western North Carolina
- Replace jobs dependent on fossil fuels with jobs centered on conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy technologies.
- Secure retirement of the Asheville Coal Plant and clean-up of any legacy pollution, including the coal ash lagoons
Asheville is a vibrant and healthy community working for clean energy solutions, but we still get our energy from the Asheville coal plant, now owned by Duke Energy.
The Asheville Coal Plant pollutes our air and water, and the plant’s two toxic coal-ash lagoons above I-26 and the French Broad River are seeping into the groundwater, threatening the river and our community.
Air pollution from coal-burning power plants makes our kids sick. Nationally, coal pollution is responsible for triggering 13,000 asthma attacks and more than $100 billion in health costs each year. This coal plant is too dirty and dangerous for Asheville.
The Asheville Coal Plant burns coal mined by mountaintop removal, the most devastating form of coal extraction in the United States. This practice turns forested mountains into sterile, flat wastelands, destroys streams, water quality, and wildlife. It also causes severe health impacts among nearby residents and impoverishes neighboring communities. Mountaintop removal sites in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia feed the Asheville Coal Plant. For more information on devastating mountaintop removal practices, see www.ilovemountains.org
Asheville deserves clean, homegrown energy and the Asheville coal plant stands in our way and threatens our health. There are other options. North Carolina can lead the South into a 21st-century energy economy that’s built to last. We can, and should, reward homegrown innovation, locally produced solar, and reliable offshore wind power.
Join our Asheville Beyond Coal campaign to call on Duke Energy to retire the Asheville Coal Plant, clean up the toxic coal-ash waste sites and move boldly toward a clean energy future.
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After nearly a decade of work by WNCA, 11th District Congressman Heath Schuler, and many others, the long-proposed North Shore Road along the shore of Fontana Lake was put to rest. The people of Swain County were financially compensated in lieu of the originally promised road, and pristine streams, sensitive aquatic life and public land were preserved.