Washington - U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) praised New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today after the Mayor's philanthropic organization announced a $50 million commitment over four years to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign.
"When it comes to coal plants, their toxic emissions, and their carbon pollution driving global climate change, Mayor Bloomberg gets it," said Menendez. "It is wonderful that he has the wherewithal and the wisdom to help Sierra Club combat climate change and clean up the air that New Jerseyans and New Yorkers breathe."
Primarily because of dirty, old, out-of-state coal plants, every county in New Jersey is non-compliant with the Clean Air Act's air quality standards for soot and smog. For example, the aging Portland Generating Station, located in Pennsylvania just across the Delaware River from Warren County, NJ, emitted 30,000 tons of sulfur dioxide in 2009, almost three times the amount of sulfur dioxide emitted in 2009 by all seven of New Jersey's coal plants combined. Such pollution from out of state coal plants prematurely ends the life of over 500 New Jerseyans every year.
Mayor Bloomberg's commitment to helping end such pollution comes at a time when Republicans in Congress are united in their attacks on the Clean Air Act.
The aims of the Beyond Coal Campaign are to stop the short-sighted construction of new coal plants that will increase air pollution, retire old coal plants which for decades have emitted massive amounts of sickening air pollution, and work with communities to protect against devastating coal mining that levels entire mountains and destroys entire watersheds.
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