Emma Colman works on Sierra Club’s efforts to move companies beyond the use of coal. Beyond Coal is a national campaign calling for the retirement of the U.S. coal fleet by 2030. Since 2010, a coal plant has retired every 17 days in the United States. Beyond Coal has played a role in retiring over 350 coal plants, preventing over 150 coal plants from being built, and closing 7 coal export terminals in the U.S.
Coal mining destroys mountaintops and dumps rubble and toxic waste into streams. Burning coal is responsible for soot and smog that result in over $100 billion in health costs each year. Coal plants release toxic mercury into the air and leave behind dangerous coal ash pollution. Moreover, coal-fired power plants are responsible for one third of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions each year.

Thanks to the work of Emma Colman and others, electricity generated from renewables surpassed coal in the United States for the first time in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Monday. Renewables also surpassed nuclear generation in 2022 after first doing so last year.