Clean Air For Virginia

Many citizens in Virginia are breathing air that does not meet Federal Clean Air standards. Cars, industrial processes, and electrical power generation from coal and gas all contribute to this problem.  The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club is currently working to both stop the construction of additional coal burning power plants in Virginia, and to clean existing polluting power plants with state of the art technology.

 

In addition to global warming gases, coal burning emits sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain; nitrogen oxides, which form ground level ozone (smog); fine particles, which contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and air toxics such as mercury. In addition, extraction of the coal leads to destructive mountaintop removal.