NC students plan protest against campus coal plant

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Students at the University of North Carolina are mobilizing to pressure school leaders to stop using coal to power a campus power plant.

Students, neighbors and faculty members plan to highlight the issue Tuesday at the site of the school’s coal-burning plant.

They’re hoping for an appearance by James Hansen, the director of NASA’s main climate research center and a pioneering voice warning that humans were causing the Earth’s climate to heat up.

Hansen was scheduled to speak on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus Monday night.

The protest is part of a nationwide campaign by the Sierra Club targeting coal-based power at colleges. Student organizers say colleges have a social obligation to cut and eventually eliminate coal use in favor of renewable energy.

On the Net: Sierra Club Coal-Free Campus

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