Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People

In building the environmental and climate justice movement, activists are guided by an overriding principle: communities most affected by climate change should be at the forefront of the struggle. Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People demonstrates both the urgency and opportunity for community action with respect to coal fired power plants — an issue at the intersection between climate justice and environmental justice.

The report details the systematic study and evaluation of 378 coal-fired power plants in the United States. Each plant is evaluated in terms of its environmental justice performance (EJP), i.e., how it affects low-income communities and communities of color. The score assigned to each plant, and each company, is based on five factors, including:

• SO2 and NOX emissions
• The total population living within three miles of the plant(s)
• The median income and percentage of people of color among the total population living within three miles of the plant(s).

In addition to the ranking, the report includes discussion of the impact of the plants, examples of successful advocacy, and recommendations for the future. The report is a joint production of NAACP, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), the Indigenous Environmental Network.