It is morally unacceptable to burn coal in New England. Together we will do what must be done to avert climate catastrophe and build the world that we need.
The No Coal No Gas campaign formed in 2019 as a regional coalition of affinity groups, partner organizations, and individual humans. We are a direct action campaign dedicated to ending the burning of fossil fuels in New England.
Climate change and air pollution from the continued burning of fossil fuels affect everyone - but the first and worst impacts are born by people in the Global South, poor folks, Black and Indigenous communities, and People of Color. Climate change is a justice issue that demands our immediate action.
Our Campaign Goals are:
1. Build unity and community
We will build a strong and resilient community of climate dissidents, bonded by love and trust. We seek to help each other weather the storms of this world while creating the world we want to live in.
2. Show what is possible
All too often, conversations around climate action are constrained by the concept of “political feasibility,” instead of being guided by moral necessity. We commit to taking moral action to do what must be done and hope to show that collective resistance and a just transition are both necessary and possible.
3. Shut down the Merrimack Generating Station
We will shut down the last coal-fired power plant in New England. By using creative, nonviolent confrontation, we will unmask the violence happening in Bow and around the world.
No Coal
The world is facing a climate catastrophe. Droughts, fires, hurricanes, and heat waves harm us here in the Northeast, and around the world. As the largest historical emitter, the United States has a moral and legal responsibility to cut emissions sooner than the rest of the world.
Individual efforts to reduce our personal carbon emissions are not enough. Just 100 companies are responsible for 70% of emissions worldwide. We cannot let massive corporations continue to destroy our climate. We cannot solve the climate crisis through individual change or through market based solutions alone.
We do not need coal in New England. Thanks to steadily decreasing regional energy demand since 2005 and the ample new cleaner energy sources joining the grid, there is energy capacity surplus in the region to handle forecasted maximum loads - even during extreme heat waves and cold snaps - without using coal.
Coal makes up less than 1% of power in New England electricity these days, but a disproportionately dirty and greenhouse-gas-emitting slice, and we think it’s absurd that we are still burning coal at all.
No Gas
Gas is not a clean alternative to coal and oil. Burning “natural” (fracked methane) gas causes climate change. Methane, the primary component of “natural” gas traps heat at 80 times the rate of carbon dioxide, making it a dangerous contributor to global warming.
We have the renewable energy solutions that we need today. A University of New Hampshire study showed that no new gas infrastructure is needed to meet our energy demands.
The companies that own the coal plant in Bow have a history of converting coal plants to gas. We must not let this happen. One such plant in New York ramped up production after being converted to gas, and is now being run to mine cryptocurrency for investor profit, a notoriously energy-intensive process. The team at this plant described it as a national model, indicating an intent to scale up their cryptocurrency spelunking processes. This would be a climate nightmare and we won’t let it happen. We will shut down Merrimack Station and ensure that no new gas infrastructure is built in New Hampshire.
