{"id":86899,"date":"2025-12-17T17:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/86899\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T17:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T17:31:08","slug":"jacksonville-advocacy-groups-deliver-coal-for-christmas-to-jea-in-rally-against-coal-rate-hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/86899\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville advocacy groups deliver \u2018coal for Christmas\u2019 to JEA in rally against coal, rate hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Local activists plan to deliver bags of coal, a coalition letter and holiday cards to Jacksonville Electric Authority headquarters on Wednesday, to protest the continued operation of the Northside Generating Station coal plant and rising utility rates, organizers said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/29\/jea-overwhelmingly-failing-on-clean-energy-transition-new-report-from-environmental-group-finds\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/29\/jea-overwhelmingly-failing-on-clean-energy-transition-new-report-from-environmental-group-finds\/\">JEA \u2018overwhelmingly\u2019 failing on clean energy transition, new report from environmental group says<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Supporters from Sierra Club, the CLEO Institute, the NAACP, Solar United Neighbors, the Florida Interfaith Climate Action Network and the St. Johns Riverkeeper will gather at JEA headquarters, 225 N. Pearl St., from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. The press conference and coal delivery are scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m., organizers said. Santa is expected to join the demonstration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Organizers said the action is intended to press JEA for cleaner air, lower bills and a stronger commitment to renewable energy, including an Integrated Resource Plan that prioritizes clean, affordable power. They plan to hand JEA small bags of coal, holiday cards and a coalition letter signed by groups urging retirement of the coal units.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Earlier this year, JEA\u2019s 541,000 customers faced a 3.7 percent increase in their overall utility bill, organizers noted, and another 5 percent increase is already scheduled to take effect in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">JEA is scheduled to release an updated Integrated Resource Plan in 2026 that will guide the utility\u2019s mix of power sources. Organizers said retiring the Northside coal units would save customers up to $500 million over 12 years, reduce harmful emissions and prevent about 112 asthma attacks each year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Speakers at the delivery will include Suzanne Sapp of the Sierra Club; Larry Zwain and John Burr of Sierra Club Northeast Florida; Deborah Thompson of the NAACP; and Leah Farrell of Solar United Neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Local activists plan to deliver bags of coal, a coalition letter and holiday cards to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,501,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-86899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news","11":"tag-jea","12":"tag-northside"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}