Bloomberg Philanthropies will invest an additional $30m to help reduce US reliance on coal, Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday.
The $30m will go towards expanding the environmental lobby group the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, the former New York mayor said in a piece for CNN Money.
Bloomberg’s investment in fighting Big Coal will now total $80m. In 2011, Bloomberg Philanthropies gave $50m to the campaign. The initial grant was used to expand the Sierra Club’s campaign to 45 states from 15.
By closing down coal-fired power plants and focusing on clean energy, the US could save 5,500 lives a year, Bloomberg said.
“In fact, closing just a single plant can prevent 146 asthma attacks, 47 heart attacks, and 29 premature deaths a year, according to the Clean Air Task Force ... Coal is still killing 7,500 people annually,” he wrote.
“That’s 7,500 too many, but it’s down from 13,000 just four years ago, when Bloomberg Philanthropies teamed up with the Sierra Club to set an ambitious goal: retiring one-third of the US coal fleet by 2020.”
In a video released along with the announcement, Bloomberg Philanthropies reported that the Beyond Coal campaign had surpassed that goal and more than 185 coal-powered plants had been shut down or shifted to cleaner energy so far.
“We cannot and we will not stop there. With this new investment, a clean energy economy is in our sights, and dirty coal is a thing of the past,” said Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s executive director.
With the new investment, the campaign aims to retire half of US coal-powered plants by 2017, and to retire all coal and gas by 2030.
“We know that coal’s defenders will howl. But the fact is, moving off of coal is good not only for our nation’s public health, but also for our economic health,” said Bloomberg. “The dirtier the air is, the harder it is to attract talented people, the harder it is is to attract capital investment. Clean air is an economic catalyst because it is a human magnet.”
At least some of those howls have come from within Bloomberg Philanthropies itself. In January, Elaine Chao resigned from the foundation’s board after she learned of the plans to increase investment in the Beyond Coal initiative. Chao is the former US secretary of labor and the wife of US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
Months prior to her resignation, McConnell told reporters that Chao would not resign from her spot on the board.
“They do a lot of good things. They do some things she does not approve of, and she doesn’t approve of their efforts in the coal industry,” he said in August.
Probable Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, too, resigned from the foundation’s board at the end of 2014.
“Governor Bush was honored to serve on the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which does a lot of good work across the world,” Kristy Campbell, spokeswoman for Bush, told Tampa Bay Times. “Governor Bush and Mayor Bloomberg have great mutual respect for one another. While they disagree on several policy issues, both share a passion for improving education in America. As a board member, Governor Bush did not vote on or approve individual projects or programs.”
The day before Bloomberg’s announcement, Bush criticized Barack Obama’s strategy to reduce the use of coal while at a breakfast with a group of veterans in Colorado Springs.
A coalition of funders including the Hewlett Foundation, John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, Yellow Chair Foundation, Grantham Foundation and Sandler Family Foundation aim to help match Bloomberg’s $30m grant.
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