07/05/11
Michael Berg
Missouri Sierra Club Clean Energy Jobs Tour in Franklin County
On Thursday June 30th, 75 Sierra Club members and supporters toured the CG Power
Systems plant in Washington, MO; CG Power Systems makes transformers that are
used in wind generators and solar collectors. The goal of the tour was to see
firsthand that renewable energy can create good, family-wage jobs here in
Missouri. CG Power Systems employs about 480 workers at its facilities in
Washington, MO.
The Sierra Club organized this tour in response to action by the Missouri
General Assembly which curtailed the development of renewable energy in our
state. During the 2011 session, the General Assembly overturned a Public Service
Commission rule that would have required utilities such as Ameren to meet its 15
percent renewable energy standard (mandated under Proposition C that was passed
in November 2008) by counting electricity that was either generated or consumed
here in Missouri. By nullifying this rule, the General Assembly is allowing
utilities to buy renewable energy credits from anywhere in the world in order to
meet its renewable energy targets. When the wind generators are located in China
instead of here, the Missourians do not enjoy the benefits of clean energy –
including both local jobs as well as cleaner air.
Before touring the transformer plant, the Sierra Club members went to the
proposed site of a toxic coal ash disposal pit next to Ameren’s Labadie power
plant. The site is in the floodplain of the Missouri River. Leaders from the
Labadie Environmental Organization pointed out the proposed location, which is
currently being used to grow corn. Eighteen years ago, during the great flood of
1993, this photograph shows the entire area of the proposed coal ash pit
underwater.
If the coal ash pit is allowed to be built, it will threaten the health of
Labadie residents as well as the hundreds of thousands of people who live
downstream from the plant in St. Louis county and St. Louis City. Renewable
energy and energy efficiency are what we need to reduce our state's dangerous
dependency on burning coal. CG Power Systems is part of the clean energy economy
that we need for the future of Missouri.
“Today, we were able to see, with our own eyes, the potential for renewable
energy to create good jobs right here in Missouri,” said John Hickey, Missouri
Chapter Director for the Sierra Club. “Now, Sierra Club members will roll up our
sleeves and redouble our efforts to expand the development of wind and solar
energy in Missouri.”
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