- Refuse to use coal extracted through Mountaintop Removal
mining,
- Take the necessary steps to achieve a goal of 20% low-impact
renewable energy by 2020, and
- Install the best available pollution control technology
(as required by the Clean Air Act) on all power plants and
coal burning facilities.
What YOU Can Do
- Send a letter in with your next KU Bill stating that
you are willing to pay an extra $2-5 per month to feed renewable
energy into the power grid.
- Write a letter to KU’s Executives. Let them know
that you want the money you pay on your monthly bill to
go toward the development and production of renewable energies.
- Fill out the form on KU's
website expressing your concerns or call
or go down to KU and express your concerns with them
directly.
- Reduce the amount of energy you use in your own daily
life by turning off lights when you leave a room, using
energy-efficient light bulbs, and turning the A/C or heat
down.
- Share this knowledge with your friends and family.
- Educate yourself on the environmental, health, and economic
hazards of coal mining and burning, as well as on our energy
alternatives:
www.cleantheair.org
www.catf.us
www.ohvec.org/issues/mountaintop_removal
www.eere.energy.gov
www.eia.doe.gov
- Take a petition home for your friends and family to sign.
- Get involved in the fight against the environmental hazards
of your own community!
This Fact Sheet is brought to you by the Lexington Environmental
Action Project for Local Environmental Action.
LEAP into a Sustainable Future!
LEAP is a radical, local, environmental action group in Lexington,
KY. We advocate community ACTION as a form of social change.
To contact us, you may email us at:
Dave Cooper: davecooper928@yahoo.com
What are our energy
alternatives?
HYDRO POWER is produced when the energy
from flowing water is converted into electricity. The most
common type of hydro plant is a dam on a river that releases
water through a turbine to activate an electric generator.
Hydro plants can produce hundreds of megawatts of electricity.1
How can Lexington use it? Hydro plants can be damaging to
the environment if they are too large. They can kill migrating
fish and hurt water quality, but luckily there are environmentally-friendly
turbines that resolve these issues by only diverting some
of the water from streams and by not blocking the entire stream
flow. KU could transform small dams that currently exist across
Kentucky into small hydro plants, and assist landowners in
setting up small hydro systems to provide power for their
homes, farms, and businesses.
SOLAR ENERGY is produced when sunlight is
converted into electricity. In a solar electric system, sunlight
is collected and focused with mirrors to create a heat source
that runs an electric generator. One solar panel can generate
4 – 50 kilowatts of power.[1]
How can Lexington use it? Residents could ask KU to begin
using solar power to generate some of their electricity. KU
could even install a solar system to charge a whole power
plant, and assist individual residents and businesses in Lexington
with solar panel installation and maintenance. New legislation
was passed recently that allows Kentuckians who have solar
panels to feed any excess energy they receive from the sun
back into the power grid, lowering their electricity costs.
Residents could lower their bills by using solar energy, and
KU could encourage this practice.
WIND ENERGY is produced by using the energy
of moving air to power an electric generator. Wind turbines
can generate power anywhere the wind blows; some turbines
can double as communication towers.2 Just one turbine can
produce hundreds of kilowatts of electricity.
How can Lexington use it? Large wind farms are dangerous
in Kentucky’s mountains because they kill many birds
and they are hazardous to install on cliff sides. However,
small scale wind power is safe for this region. One single
turbine can power a residential area, a large farm, or a shopping
mall. KU could install small wind farms and assist individual
customers in setting up small wind energy systems for their
homes, farms, and businesses.
There are several ways in which Kentucky Utilities could
encourage the use of all 3 renewable energies described above.
They could offer their customers the option of buying 100
kWh blocks of green energy each month for about $2.75 each.
Not only would this allow customers the option of encouraging
alternative energies, it would also invite folks to think
about where their energy originates. Finally, KU could support
the expansion of recent legislation that allows residents
with solar panels to feed power back into the grid (it's called
"net metering"). This law needs to let small scale
wind and hydro systems feed energy into the main power grid,
as well. We need our public utilities to support practices
that are good for our communities!
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