The Coming of the Coal-Free Campus When you think about the
typical college campus, a towering coal plant belching
pollutants like mercury and fly ash is probably not the first
thing that comes to mind. At more than 60 colleges and
universities across the country, though, that’s just what you’ll
find. Virginia Tech’s coal plant burns more than 43,000 tons of
coal each year, for example, and students often wake to find ash
coating their windows. But college students across the United
States are asking their schools to clean up their act. More than
30 campuses have teamed up with the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal”
campaign to move their schools toward 100 percent clean energy
solutions. Already, 16 student groups have gotten commitments
from their schools to become coal-free. According to coal
campaign coordinator Kim Teplitzky, several more campuses look
poised to join the ranks when the academic year begins in the
fall. Five-plus years of student organizing paid off in 2010,
when Cornell University announced pla