The Sierra Club Coal-Free UNC Campaign is using a meeting of UNC’s Energy Task Force and St. Patrick’s Day as pegs for a green rally Wednesday afternoon.
The group will gather at 1:30 p.m. at the Old Well on Cameron Avenue, just blocks away from UNC’s coal-fired cogeneration plant that heats and cools the campus, to sing the alma mater and fight songs with “coal-free lyrics,” according a press release.
The task force, which is meeting for the second time since Chancellor Holden Thorp established it in January, is charged with reviewing campus energy and determining if there’s a better, faster way to achieve carbon neutrality. UNC has signed a pledge to achieve that status by 2050. That’s not soon enough for the Sierra Club and their student members who, as part of the rally, will submit a formal letter asking for a meeting with Thorp.
The task force is scheduled to meet from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in room 3020 of the Steele Building.
Later that evening, the Coal-Free UNC will host a forum during which faculty members will discuss the current state of coal production and use and the future of energy creation. That event starts at 7 p.m. in Peabody Hall.
