Hunters Point Activists Celebrate Victory over PG&E

After a long, protracted struggle with energy company PG&E, residents of
Hunters Point, community activists and members of Environmental Justice
group Green Action defied the stereotype of environmentalism being for
white people concerned about deforestation with a celebration to mark
the recent shutdown of a plant linked to an array of serious health
problems.

Residents of Huntersview housing project provided spaghetti, corn, BBQ
and trimmings for an eager crowd of celebrants and curious community
members who played jump rope and basketball, ate food together and
listened to speeches made by women who had invested years of time into
the struggle to force PG&E to stop hurting people who live in view of
their outdated, crumbling power plant.

"I was working as a concerned community member for about three years,"
said local resident Marie Harrison, "until about five years ago, I
started working with Green Action. These people actually put the
campaign into high gear by showing us who to go after and how to get our
message across."

Most activists agreed that the victory is an important one, but only a
first step, the next one being the closure of the Mirant Power Plant in
Potrero Hill. Both plants cause an inordinate amount of toxic
discharge and both are similar in that they are obviously allowed to
operate so near people because of the relative powerlessness of
unorganized people in poor neighborhoods. No one would expect to see a
power plant being opened in Danville or Mill Valley.

for more information, please refer to recent postings on indybay about
the ongoing struggle to shut down the power plant.

recent articles:

CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE 1

CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE 2

CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE 3