BAKERSFIELD, Calif. - Local Bakersfield residents, including farmers, and farm workers, will rally today.

Since the approval of a draft permit by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District for the proposed coal plant, local residents have demanded a public hearing from the air district.

The air district claims this project will make the air cleaner through mitigation measures, but residents have discovered that many of the offsets for the hundreds of tons of new pollution will be emission reduction credits originating as long ago as 1979 and not all emissions are offset.

The rally will begin at 1 p.m., on Tuesday, Feb. 26, on the south side of the Kern County Board of Supervisors' building.  

After the rally, concerned residents will attend the public hearing and inform County Supervisors on the devastating effects such a project will have on local families and local farmland.