South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford yesterday became the third governor in a matter of days to renounce coal when he announced his opposition to a coal plant planned for the Pee Dee River area in Florence County. The Governor’s announcement follows similar recent decisions by Michigan’s Governor Jennifer Granholm and Wisconsin’s Governor Jim Doyle to start moving their states beyond coal.

The head of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources also publicly opposed the Pee Dee coal plant today, citing numerous concerns about the plant’s impact on the environment and the quality of life in nearby communities.

The Santee Cooper, Pee Dee coal plant is one of the largest new coal plants proposed in the nation. Each year the facility would release 93 pounds of toxic mercury into a nearby river already suffering from high levels of mercury contamination.

The Pee Dee coal plant would also emit enough global warming pollution to undermine efforts by other states to reduce greenhouse gasses, prompting the  Attorneys General of eight states—California, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont—to write in opposition to the plant.

“Like officials from all over the country, Governor Sanford recognizes that this plant would hurt the state’s economy even as it threatens the health of residents. It has become increasingly clear over the last few weeks that pushing forward with business-as-usual coal projects simply doesn’t cut it anymore,” Bruce Nilles, Director of the Sierra Club’s Move Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement.

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