Salt Lake Valley residents gather at the gates of Kennecott's coal-fired power plant to make their demands for Kennecott and Rio Tinto to stop externalizing costs by polluting the air they breath

It was a striking sight: kids and seniors, moms and dads, returned missionaries and gay couples, singing “Clean energy today!” in unison. Around 40 folks gathered at the gates of the Kennecott Copper coal-fired power plant on Saturday morning to stand in solidarity at the Fossil Fools Day rally, making their demands for Kennecott to stop burning coal in Salt Lake Valley. Attendees ranged anywhere from under six years to over sixty years of age, and carried large, bright banners and signs painted with slogans like “people over profits” and “system change, not climate change.”

The demonstration signals the beginning of what may be a long campaign to convince the only company currently burning coal in Salt Lake Valley to switch to cleaner and renewable energy. The Fossil Fools Day rally, organized by Peaceful Uprising in concert with a handful of other local environmental advocacy groups, presented Kennecott with three simple demands from citizens who live in its vicinity: First and foremost, to immediately cease burning coal; secondly, to transition to clean and renewable energy by the year 2015; and finally, to ensure that the costs of being responsible—the price of switching to clean energy from coal—not be taken out of the wages of its worker, and instead be reflected in the price of its products. All of these are within the scope of Kennecott’s abilities, but the citizens who attended the demonstration agree that it will likely require long-term efforts to convince the company to change.

Speakers at the rally included Dr. Brian Moench, a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists and co-founder of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, and Cherise Udell, Founder and President of Utah Moms for Clean Air.  Dr. Moench offered a long list of stark facts regarding the physical impacts on citizens who live in the vicinity of a coal-fired power plant, Utah’s unique vulnerability to the effects of climate change and coal’s proven link to the climate crisis. Ms. Udell (with her two small daughters in tow in their Easter best) described the effects of pollution on Utahns, particularly children, and the short- and long-term health consequences that have been clinically linked to exposure to poor air quality. Peaceful Uprising engaged in some light street theater, as Ashley Anderson gave a satirical speech in the voice of Kennecott, wearing a huge paper mache mask.

The tone of the rally was one of frustration, but also of resolve. Toward the demonstration’s conclusion, Anderson took the stage again as Kennecott, but this time committed to the participants’ demands. He sardonically offered the company’s gratitude: “You have convinced us; and we want to thank people like you, for helping us do the right thing for Utah citizens.”

You can also read our original post for this action, containing an explanation of why we chose to target Kennecott for Fossil Fools Day.

Also, if you’d like to get involved in the future, please sign up for our action alert list.

Peaceful Uprising is excited to support a grassroots effort to elect a new Congressperson for Utah’s Second District. This is a citizen-led initiative that seeks a representative who is answerable to the people; the initiative is being introduced by a coalition comprised of citizens who have committed themselves to working for justice on climate change, healthcare, LGBT, labor, immigration, peace, and environmental issues.

The Citizens’ Candidate initiative began with a Craigslist help-wanted ad for a “Courageous Congressperson.” We received about a dozen genuine applications in response to the ad, and on On January 30, citizens of Utah’s second Congressional district gathered at our main library in Salt Lake City and ultimately voted to put Claudia Wright in the running against powerful Blue Dog (read: Republican) Democrat Jim Matheson. It is becoming an amazing story. Watch the action unfold and learn more about this historic campaign at www.claudiawrightforutah.org

Many Utahns are concerned that Congressman Jim Matheson has sold out every progressive constituency to corporate interests. The Citizens’ Candidate is about taking our political system out of the hands of corporations and putting citizens back in control. The candidate elected through answering a Craigslist ad will always remember he or she is accountable to the public interest.

Visit ClaudiaWrightForUtah.org

It has been almost a year since Tim DeChristopher and a group of colleagues founded Peaceful Uprising. Since then, we have grown to be a passionate, diverse group of about 40 people, with a broad coalition of support that includes social justice organizations, gay rights advocates, artists, state and local leaders, students, environmentalists and many more. We are the front line for the climate movement in Utah. We are committed to defending a just, livable future through empowering, nonviolent action. We will be busy in the coming year with creative, hard hitting campaigns, and training new activists who want to take a stand. See what we have been up to in the last year.

Powershift

Our first action was attending the Powershift 09 conference and Capitol Climate Action in Washington DC last March. A weekend of workshops, speeches and networking focused on clean energy, environmental justice and leadership. At the end of the weekend we joined 3000 others in shutting down the power plant that fuels the US capitol. Five of us risked arrest to blockade the gates, but luckily, no one was arrested that day. We came away from the weekend energized and empowered, ready to take on new challenges.

Lobbying Jim Matheson

Taking a cue from Gayle Ruzicka’s phone tree lobbying system, we made a phone tree of our own to lobby Jim Matheson for the ACES bill. ACES was the climate change bill that passed out of congress this summer, and before it did we made almost 300 calls a day to Matheson’s DC office, demanding he push for comprehensive legislation in line with the latest science. We also made a life size paper mache unicorn for Matheson, inspired by his support for clean coal and Van Jones’ comment that clean coal is as viable solution as having unicorns pull our cars. Matheson ignored us and took a conservative stance, (read: he sacrificed survival for business as usual) but we know he was listening.

Climate Change Kills! Flashmob Gallivan

Taking advantage of the mob mentality at the summer Twilight Concert Series, Peaceup organized a flashmob for climate justice. An estimated 300 people “dropped dead” for five minutes while a 900 square foot banner hung from the Walker Center. The Salt Lake Tribune covered the story and printed a fantastic photo of the banner. The story was picked up by the national climate movement, and put Peaceup and Utah on the map for climate activism.

350.org Day of Action

Working with a broad coalition of local groups, Peaceup organized a local festival for the 350.org International Day of Climate Action. With speakers, local music, dance and art, our event brought people together to communicate a bold message to our leaders- “climate justice is survival, now or never!” A photo of our human sculpture was delivered to both the United Nations and Utah’s senators. Senator Bennet was audibly shocked to see that 400 people gathered to spell the number 350.