Local group seeks to hold President Trump, Duke Progress Energy accountable
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on January 23, 2017 11:59 AM
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Members of the Down East Coal Ash Coalition pose for a photograph before a Dec. 15 public hearing.
The Downeast Coal Ash Coalition will be planting a red dogwood tree and holding a prayer vigil at 5:30 this evening across the street from the H.F. Lee Plant entrance.
The event is being hosting in collaboration with a statewide movement, North Carolina Statewide Day of Action for Climate Justice born from the North Carolina Climate Justice Summit.
"Downeast Coal Ash is a coalition that has been dealing with some of the Duke Energy plant coal ash that has been causing the deaths of many people out in that area," Downeast Coal Ash Coalition spokesperson Bobby Jones said.
"We are collaborating with them because we see the real consequences of the lack of concern for our environment."
Jones said the event is largely in memorial to those that have died "as a result of poison in our environment."
"This event will honor the people who have died as a result of poison in our environment and acknowledge that they did not die in vain," he said.
"It is also a kind of rebirth, if you will, of a community that has greater awareness about what we mean to each other interdependently, and a greater awareness of who is driven by individual greed and corporate greed. It has forced us to come together as a community in a more interdependent way. This event also symbolizes the rebirth for events for that."
Planting the tree is also another way for the community to show respect for the environment, Jones said.
"It also symbolizes our rebirth, and our new will to fight," he said.
The Goldsboro event is in collaboration with the summit's Statewide Day of Action for Climate Justice, said Jodi Lasseter founder of the N.C. Climate Justice Summit.
"Coming into this new era in 2017, with a new administration, not only at the federal level but at state level, we wanted to have a statewide action to talk about what are the solutions that we can be moving toward in our own communities regardless of the national landscape and state," she said.
"What are those things we can control at the local level? Different things will be highlighted at the different areas. In Goldsboro, they will hone in on coal ash due to the contamination from coal ash. At the Goldsboro event they will be focusing on youth leadership. They will have a vigil and join in prayer to lift up those that have been suffering and struggling."
Events will be held in Asheville, Boone, Carrboro, Charlotte, Durham and Raleigh. All the events, including the one in Goldsboro, are designed to raise awareness about the importance of the environment and the acknowledgment of climate change.
"Each event has its own flavor but all about how we move forward in a just world where a climate and people's needs are prioritized over profit," Lasseter said.
The Day of Action is in coordination with the People's Climate Movement, which is a nationwide, grassroots initiative in which events will be held across the country in the first 100 hours of President Donald Trump's administration.
The nationwide movement is largely focused on setting a resistant tone for any rollbacks on climate change initiatives by the new administration as well as rollbacks that they feel would harm labor unions, immigrants, women, Muslims, LGBTQ people and the working-class.
Jones said though the Goldsboro event is in coalition with these groups, that he wants to keep the focus of the event on the community and the issues that surround it.
"We are focusing more so on our community and focusing on our emphasis that are germane to here," he said.
"We don't intend to go back for any reason. We clearly embrace efforts and direction of a better environment, a more just and caring environment whether it is dealing with climate change, poverty or racism. It is hard to be interdependent by having a shot gun approach for caring for our community."