UNC-Chapel Hill Stalls on Stopping Coal Use as the Climate Crisis Inches Closer to Catastrophe
Illustration by Jon Fuller
UNC-Chapel Hillâs Cameron Avenue coal plantâits smokestack, wires, and monstrous machineryâisnât a relic of the past. Itâs alive and burning tons of coal every day, while the university, in the meantime, is in another cycle of spin around its inadequate environmental promises.
The universityâs new Climate Action Plan, released in April, declares that the school will now aim to be emission-neutralâbut not coal-freeâby the year 2040. At about the same time the school released this information, it began litigating with the nonprofit N.C. Center for Biological Diversity over its alleged violations of the Clean Air Act.Â