Coal-Free UNC bookended Wednesday’s campus Energy Task Force meeting with two events, one to sway opinion through song and the other through intellectual testimony.
In between the rally and the panel discussion, university energy consultants told the task force that it would take significant legislation to drive up the cost of coal and decrease the expense of green energy to make alternative energy economically feasible for the campus.
A dozen members of Coal-Free UNC, which has been campaigning since last year to quash burning coal at UNC’s Cogeneration Plant, sang a parody of the school’s alma mater and fight song with coal free lyrics at the Old Well.
“I’m a Tar Heel born, I’m a Tar Heel bred, and breathing coal, I’m a Tar Heel dead,” they caroled to the six journalists and two onlookers in attendance.
After the boom box died down, the Coal-Free UNC leaders walked across the street to South Building and delivered two letters to Chancellor Holden Thorp’s office. One signed by 43 faculty members calls on the campus to end coal use by 2015. The other asks Thorp to meet with students on coal. Administrative assistant Barbara Leonard received and logged the letters, which will be passed on to Thorp, she said.
Read next week’s Independent for a breakdown of the Energy Task Force meeting and more on the panel discussion.
Continue reading past the jump for an audio recording of the coal-free alma mater and the full lyrics.
See the clouds of air pollution
over Chapel Hill …
Burning coal is no sulltion
to our power bill!
Natural gas would be much cleaner,
biomass would too …..
Make us proud to be a Tar Heel,
keep our skies clear blue!
(and here comes the fight song)
I’m a Tar Heel born,
I’m a Tar Heel bred,
And breathing coal,
I’m a Tar Heel dead.
So it’s rah-rah Carolina-lina
Rah-rah Carolina-lina
Rah-rah Carolina, DON’T BURN COAL
