Let's go Coal-free - today!

I just got an email from Bill McKibben about the big Coal-Free protest today (see capitolclimateaction.org/) at the coal-fired Capitol Power Plant, which I've written about elsewhere. He asked me to go to 350.org/Coal-Free/ to sign a petition of support that says:

I share your vision of a coal-free future and a safe climate, not only in Washington DC--but all over the world. I stand in solidarity with the coalition of citizens working for a clean energy future for the entire planet.

As I've mentioned many times before, President Obama doesn't get it yet that coal is really dirty! The protest is to help him also understand this important part of the environmental message that he's otherwise been quite receptive to, and working actively to improve. He has two lovely daughters who will be inheriting the mess we've made. Here's some more from McKibben's email:

Here's the backstory: Washington DC has seen its share of big protests over the years, and most of them center on the White House, the Mall or the Capitol.
But today's event is just a few blocks a way from the White House at the the Capitol Power Plant--a dirty symbol of the dirtiest business on Earth, the combustion of coal.
In that one plant -- owned and operated by our senators and representatives -- you can see all the filth that comes with coal. There are the particulates it spews into the air and hence the lungs of those Washington residents who enjoy breathing. There are the profits it hands to the coal industry, which is literally willing to level mountains across West Virginia and Kentucky to increase its fat margins. And most of all there is the invisible carbon dioxide it spews each day into the atmosphere, drying our forests, melting our glaciers and acidifying our oceans.

So please go to Washington today - if you live nearby - to join the protest, and all the rest of us can sign the petition at http://www.350.org/Coal-Free/ to show our solidarity!
Here are some pictures from the headquarters and power plant - and later from the action itself.