CoalFreeZone.org is a project of the Backbone Campaign in
collaboration with Sustainable Vashon. Our intent is not to inspire shame but action, by letting you in on what seems to us a dirty little secret. I.e. we are all “Coal Consumers.” That’s right – 36% of the electricity consumed on Vashon-Maury is generated by burning that dirty, climate changing, mercury poisoning, ecosystem destroying fossil fuel burnt right here in the Northwest and much of it in our own “Evergreen State.”

Last July, my illusions were shattered when I learned that Washington State’s single coal-fired power plant (TransAlta near Centralia) is the number one mercury and CO2 polluter in the state, dumping mercury on the glaciers of Rainier and creating 10% of the State’s Greenhouse gases. As a fourth generation Washingtonian, who thought my power came from hydroelectric power plants, I was shocked. (See this great article – A
Lump of Coal in Your Outlet )

All around the country and the planet people are getting creative to stabilize the climate and protect ecosystems. Many of these places get 100% of their power from coal. So, if we want them to do something where their options seem slim, we better get crackin’ where our choices are many. We hope that the Vashon-Maury community will build on the
“Nuclear Free Zone” movement of the past and start a new, yet more immediate kind of “Free Zone” – the Coal Free Zone. This is not abstract – it effects us all and we all play a part. We can be “Coal-Free” And getting there can be GREAT for our households, the local economy and the ecological health of our region.
“