Beyond Coal

The Beyond Coal movement is a campaign by environmental group the Sierra Club to promote renewable energy instead of coal.^[1] Their primary objective is to close coal power plants in the United States, including at least one-third of the country's more than 500 coal plants by 2020, and to replace them with renewable energy sources. The campaign is also active in other countries; for example, they are trying to prevent the construction of the Kosovo C thermal power plant near Pristina, Kosovo; to this end, they have collaborated with academic and Obama administration climate advisor Dan Kammen.^[2] Other objectives include keeping coal in the ground, specifically in Appalachia and the Powder River Basin, where the majority of American coal reserves are located,^[1] and preventing coal from being exported from America.^[3]

The campaign has received at least $80 million from Michael Bloomberg and his philanthropic foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies.^[4] During the early Presidency of George W. Bush, an energy task force convened by Dick Cheney advocated the construction of 200 new coal plants in the United States, warning that if they were not built the entire country would face load shedding as California had just seen. During the Bush administration, the Beyond Coal campaign prevented 170 of the 200 plants from being built.^[5]