We support the Act to Phase Out Coal Burning in Massachusetts because we believe that moving beyond coal and toward renewable energy is essential to restoring climate equilibrium.

The coal-burning power station at Mount Tom in Holyoke, Western Massachusetts, generates 146 megawatts of electricity, provides around 50 jobs, and contributes almost $2 million in taxes to the community. But it also dumps over one million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, making our climate less stable and our future less secure.

So we want Mount Tom and the other coal-burning power stations in Massachusetts to repower to cleaner energy. By endorsing the bill we are saying yes to:

a step-by-step approach to switching from coal to cleaner energy by 2020;

aCommunity Repowering Fund to help with the transition away from coal, safeguarding the livelihoods of the people who work in coal-fired power stations and the surrounding communities; and

switchingto natural gas only if the repowered plantemitsas little CO2 aspossible.

It's time to switch from coal to cleaner energy in Massachusetts, and quickly. So we support the Act to Phase Out Coal Burning in Massachusetts and we ask our state legislators to do the same.

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