The Greenpeace Coal Plant Protest
It's important to understand why Greenpeace did this today, and targeted the Bridgeport coal plant --
Bridgeport Harbor is an aging, inefficient plant -- it's 40 years old -- and it isn't necessary to provide power to Connecticut's grid. Yet it emits 3 million tons of carbon emissions every year, as well as 2,800 tons of toxic sulfur dioxide, 2,200 tons of nitrous oxide, and 50 lbs of mercury. The coal plant literally casts a shadow upon a low-income section of Bridgeport, where 1 in 4 residents have asthma. Health experts estimate that at least one death a year in the city can be attributed to the coal plant's noxious emissions.
Furthermore, all the coal that the 400 MW plant burns is imported from Indonesia, where it is mined by workers who enjoy low wages and few human rights, at an estimated cost of $79 million per shipment. Essentially, the plant epitomizes all that's wrong with coal-power in modern America -- it spews copious amounts of carbon emissions, poses an immediate risk to public health, is inefficient, expensive, and old
Not the kind of news Bridgeport would like to be recogbnized for - but a very important issue that has been around too long.
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