Renewable Energy and the T. B. Simon Power Plant at MSU

Many students have recently been bombarded with emails from the group Beyond Coal, discussing the major negative effects coal can have on their health and the environment. The group is referring to the T. B. Simon Power Plant at Michigan State University and the campus's dependency on using coal as an energy source.

Beyond Coal has correlated with MSU Greenpeace, with goals to ultimately retire the power plant and shift the university to be 100 percent reliable on renewable energy.

Tayla Tavor, Beyond Coal President, said the reason they have this goal is because "coal is one of the most dangerous energy sources, being one of the biggest causes for global warming."

The groups have had peaceful relations with university administration said Tavor, but now they have hit a brick wall.

President Lou Anna K. Simon has allegedly refused to meet with the activist groups said Tavor.

So the groups have began to rally and protest the Hannah Administration Building at MSU.

Tavor acknowledges that coal has the cheapest raw cost of energy, but she says the negative health effects far outweigh any economic burden.