Gov. Gregoire must lead Washington beyond its reliance on coal

IN the fight against global warming, all eyes are currently on Gov. Chris Gregoire and the proposed deal with TransAlta, the multinational corporation that operates the Centralia coal-fired power plant. We applaud Gov. Gregoire's leadership on curbing climate change, pushing for a strong renewable energy standard and putting a cap on carbon emissions. Now it's time to address one of our state's dirtiest polluters, the coal plant in our backyard.

Washington state can continue to be a leader in clean energy and conservation. But scientists recommend that we need to take aggressive action quickly, within the next decade, to cut pollution and that includes the state's coal pollution. Religious communities are united in their call to protect human health and air quality in our state. Together, we call on Gregoire to stand up for cleaner energy options like wind and solar power and energy efficiency.

We support the governor's call to action, as she stated in her recent Seattle Times opinion piece ["Positioning Washington for climate leadership," April 7]: "By acting now, we will declare our energy independence and create job growth that the world will envy. When this recession ends, Washington must be ready to take new, bold steps to address climate change. We can't let fear drive us into inaction that we and future generations will regret."

In that spirit, we call for meaningful carbon reductions now, and that starts with ending our reliance on coal, a dirty and outdated power source. Burning coal creates more global-warming pollution than any other fixed energy source, releasing toxins into our air, water and communities, especially Mount Rainier National Park. Coal-fired power plants, our dirtiest energy source, make up 17 percent of our state's energy mix.

There is a growing consensus among religious leaders that climate change is the most important moral issue of this generation. Every major religion has a statement on climate change calling for immediate action to reverse its ill effects. People of faith have an obligation to our children and future generations to solve global warming, and the first step is reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and coal.

If we allow human-caused environmental disasters like climate change to destroy ecosystems and cause our human brothers and sisters to lose their homes or means to feed themselves, we have truly failed to love our neighbors as ourselves. There is a saying in the faith community: "If you love the Creator, love Creation."

TransAlta's plant spews 1.4 million tons of toxic waste a year and is the state's largest single-point emitter of global-warming pollution. Now, this multinational corporation wants a deal that would allow it to keep spewing toxins into our air and water without even dealing with the global-warming pollution. It would weaken standards for nitrogen oxide, which creates haze, destroying the pristine beauty of Mount Rainier National Park.

The deal would also fail to establish any enforceable standards for mercury, a toxic substance that pollutes our air and water, causing heart disease in adults and brain damage and mental retardation in unborn children and infants.

We call on the governor to provide for an open, public forum to discuss the TransAlta plant's role in meeting our climate-change goals before signing any agreements. She should continue to protect public health and the environment by toughening clean-air standards and creating a plan to move Washington beyond coal by 2018.

We can all work together to invest in new clean-energy sources within the state to meet our rising demand for electricity and to stimulate the economy by creating quality jobs for thousands across the state and especially for affected workers in Centralia. Gov. Gregoire, help lead us to this ambitious vision by creating a road map to move Washington beyond coal by 2018.