Pelosi Urges Capitol Power Plant Shift Away from Coal

February 27, 2009

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In a largely ceremonial suggestion, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called today for switching a Washington, D.C., power plant to natural gas.

The move comes just days before a scheduled protest against the 100-year-old coal plant that powers the nation’s Capitol, according to the New York Times.

“The Capitol Power Plant continues to be the No. 1 source of air pollution and carbon emissions in the District of Columbia and the focal point for criticism from local community and national environmental and public health groups,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers.

The status of the plant has divided Congress for years. Environmentalists and city residents have called for it to stop burning coal, but lawmakers from coal-producing states have fought back.

It would cost $7 million to switch the plant completely to natural gas.

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Reader Comments

The protesters should go to New York City and stand in the record March snow so they can rethink their belief in junk science. The current warming trend began in 1800 at the end of the Little Ice Age. This was long before automobiles or coal-powered electric plants spewed carbon into the air. Global warming is a religion, not science.

Dave Thomas | March 2nd, 2009

Or the protesters can come down to Laredo TX where we are in a record drought and it hit 101 degrees a couple of days ago in February. They call it Global Weirding for a reason.

David | March 2nd, 2009

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