The effort to keep Hampton Roads air from suffering from a major new source of air and water pollution for next sixty years is picking up and your help is needed. On Tuesday Norfolk is going to vote whether to join the Consortium for Infant and Child Health (CINCH), The American Lung Association, Isle of Wight County, Southampton County, the Town of Surry and many others in opposing what could be Virginia’s largest coal-fired power plant built upwind of Hampton Roads.

If you live in Norfolk you can help steer the City Council in the right direction by sending a brief note or letter their way. You can do this easily by clicking here: http://wiseenergyforvirginia.org/norfolk/

The Norfolk City Council was originally going to vote last week but an apparent misunderstanding has led to a delay that is now allowing Norfolk Southern, which would benefit financially from the coal plant, to weigh in and offer their comments on the draft resolution of opposition. Please consider coming to their next meeting on Tuesday, April 24th. Get there by 6:45 to sign up to speak against the coal plant. You can read more about this unfortunate delay here: https://appvoices.org/2012/04/12/strange-happenings-in-norfolk/?

There are also efforts in Virginia Beach and Hampton City to pass resolutions of opposition to this massive polluting coal plant.

If you live in Virginia Beach, click here to send a message to your city council: http://wiseenergyforvirginia.org/vb/
If you live in Hampton, click here: http://wiseenergyforvirginia.org/hampton/

If you know people in any of these cities, please forward this message to them so they can take action.

In addition to contributing to Hampton Roads’ ground level ozone problem the coal plant would be a major source of particulate pollution. Every year, microscopic soot-like particles from the power plant’s smokestacks are projected to cause about 442 asthma attacks, as well as 3,340 work days lost to sickness, 40 heart attacks, and an estimated 26 premature deaths across the mid-Atlantic states, according to energy industry analyst David Schoengold and the Clean Air Task Force, a non-profit air pollution research and advocacy organization. The cost of all these health problems is expected to exceed $200 million a year.

Thank you for your help. Together we can stop this dirty and unnecessary proposal from being built and polluting Hampton Roads for the next 60 plus years.

-Mike McCoy
Appalachian Voices
mike@appvoices.org

Click on the image above to download it as a pdf.