NAACP, Sierra Club, SACE To Hold Press Conference and Roundtable Discussion to Call for Clean Energy Policies and Just Carbon Pollution Standards
Contacts:
Rita Harris, Sierra Club, Memphis, (901) 497-5798, rita.harris@sierraclub.org
Madeleine Taylor, NAACP Memphis Branch, (901) 521-1343
Angela Garrone, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, (865) 637-6055 ext. 23, angela@cleanenergy.org
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – On Thursday, June 5, 2014, at 10:45am, at the Benjamin Hooks Main Library, the NAACP will be joined by coalition partners, the Sierra Club and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and community activists at a press conference and roundtable discussion to express support for clean energy policies and just carbon pollution standards for existing power plants.
Key community members will make statements about the NAACP’s “Just Energy Policies, Reducing Pollution and Creating Jobs” report, which assesses energy policy in Tennessee through a civil rights lens, and provides analysis of the state’s energy sector policies based on the environmental and economic impacts. According to the report, Tennessee lags behind other states in the adoption of wind and solar power and energy efficiency. Moving to clean, just energy policies will create jobs, lower electric bills and improve the public’s health.
Speakers will also address the June 2nd release of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first-ever proposed nationwide limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants. Last month, the government released its third National Climate Assessment that documented the alarming extent to which climate change already is adversely impacting Tennesseans, underlying the importance to take strong and just action to curb pollution from power plants before the impacts worsen.
Following the press conference, the coalition will host a roundtable discussion on ways the Memphis metropolitan area can get involved in promoting renewable energy technologies, like wind and solar power, and better efficiency to create jobs and grow the local economy, and urge residents to get behind the EPA’s proposed standards to stop the carbon pollution that is driving climate change.
What: Press conference and roundtable discussion featuring the NAACP, the Sierra Club, SACE, and community activists calling for new energy policies in Tennessee and just carbon pollution standards from existing power plants.
When: Thursday, June 5 at 10:45am
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