ATLANTA — Seven Georgia environmental and community-action groups are working together to address “energy equity,” which they say is the unfair impact on the poor from pollution, electricity rates and the location of power plants.
On Monday night, at their first public meeting to launch the combined effort, about 75 people attended to hear speakers and participate in roundtable discussions. They were recruited by the groups in the coalition: Partnership for Southern Equity, Fulton-Atlanta Community Action Authority, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, GreenLaw, Georgia Watch, Center for Sustainable Communities and Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta.
Nathaniel Smith, the chief equity officer of Partnership for Southern Equity, said their goal was cooperation rather than confrontation.
“It’s not about the good guy or the bad guy,” he said. “It’s ‘When can we come together?’”
Confrontation might be unavoidable, however.
The activists are borrowing tactics from California and other states on ways to persuade power companies and state policy-makers to close, move or convert power plants. They heard Barbara Hale, the assistant general manager for San Francisco’s utilities commission, recount the long battles over closing two of that city’s coal-fired power plants. She urged the Georgians to stick together and to accept small victories.
via Groups launch push for energy equity | The Augusta Chronicle.
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