Renewable Energy Accountability Project (REAP) Sends Mailers to 5 So. Cal. Cities; Urges Them to Stop Burning Dirty Coal for Electricity

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Renewable Energy Accountability Project (REAP) announced today that it is mailing 100,000 postcard response brochures to key Southern Californian voting households.  The citizen action postcards will urge mayors and city councils to stop using dirty coal for generating electricity.

REAP has targeted the cities of Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Anaheim and Riverside for not setting annual goals to reduce their use of dirty coal or having a target date for becoming 100% coal free.  (Los Angeles has adopted 2020 as its goal to become totally coal free for its electricity).  

Dirty coal emissions and its toxic by-products are poisoning air, land and water resources through the world with disastrous impacts on human health and the environment. Californians pride themselves on being innovators and protectors of the environment, yet very few know how much dirty coal is burned every day by local governments to generate what most people think is clean electricity.  REAP wants to change that inaccurate perception.  

"Our message is simple. We are urging 100,000 voters to tell their local elected officials to stop using dirty coal and switch to clean renewable energy for their electricity needs," said Jim Gonzalez,  Chairman of REAP.  

Decades ago these cities entered into long term contracts with the Intermountain Power Plant in Utah to provide their electricity. This coal burning power plant is considered one of the top 20 largest coal burning polluters in the country.  According to S. David Freeman, author of Winning our Energy Independence and the former head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the urgency to rescind these contracts has never been more clear.

"To stop using dirty coal, these local utilities need to do two things. First set annual goals for reducing their dependence on electricity generated by dirty coal.  Second, meet those goals by increasing their use of clean renewable energy like solar, wind, geothermal and hydro-electric.  By truly committing to clean renewable energy they can become in a few years, cities powered by electricity that is 100% coal free."

To read the mailers on line, visit the REAP website at www.REAPinfo.org.

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SOURCE Renewable Energy Accountability Project