To Go with story by Joshua Melvin: 'Torn': Living with America's top greenhouse gas polluting power plant
Patricia Hallmark, 72, a retired chemical plant worker, speaks with AFP at his home near the Miller coal Power Plant in Adamsville, Alabama on April 11, 2021. - Patricia Hallmark, who worked on the plant's clean up crew for years, said it's dirty, dangerous work. She'd shut the place down tomorrow. "It's bad for the environment, it's bad for people working in the place," said 60-year-old Hallmark, who still lives a mile from the plant and wakes up some days to a coating of ash on her car. "It ain't worth (losing) your life over." The James H. Miller Jr. site faces no immediate shutdown threat and has the backing of many locals because of the jobs it offers -- despite sending about as much planet warming carbon dioxide into the sky last year as 3.7 million cars. The plant highlights a key problem in counteracting climate change -- even for people who have accepted it is happening, the threat can be overshadowed by pressing daily needs like paying bills. That ongoing battle will bring together world leaders this week in Washington as President Joe Biden works to revitalize a global effort left in chaos by his predecessor Donald Trump. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)