Bringing Calamities to Communities: Coal-fired power plants and Mirant

Mirant is the biggest peddler of dirty coal-fired power in the Philippines. Even its coal plants in the US have long been identified to be major sources of severe pollution. When Mirant brags about how clean its power plants are, should the company be believed? In April 2003, months before its main office filed for bankruptcy in the US, the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced that Mirant had agreed to settle claims valued at nearly $500 million. Mirant was charged with price gouging during California's 2000-2001 energy crisis and "profited by breaking the laws and plundering the people of California," according to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. According to the US official, Mirant was "without question, one of the worst offenders during the [California] energy crisis."1 Mirant is a company that cannot and should not be trusted.