Greenpeace Is Shopping for Dirty Coal-Power Plants

[eridani]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/10/14/greenpeace-buy-power-plants?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-10-14

Greenpeace, whose activists recently suspended themselves over bridges to block Arctic-bound oil drilling rigs, is now in the market for coal-fired power plants.

Don’t worry: Greenpeace doesn’t want to fire them up; it wants to shut them down.

In a letter sent to U.S. bank Citigroup, Greenpeace Sweden expressed interest in purchasing Swedish state-owned energy giant Vattenfall’s five mines and three power plants in Lausitz, Germany—home to the world’s largest reserves of heavily polluting lignite coal.

Also known as brown coal, lignite is a cheap energy source that comes with a high cost to the environment. When burned, lignite emits one-third more carbon dioxide per ton than black coal and three times more than natural gas.

“These power plants produce approximately 65 million tons of CO2 emission per year, which is more than Sweden's total annual CO2 emissions,” said Greenpeace Sweden Director Annika Jacobson.