Later wearing a pop-star headset
Kennedy emerged about 15 minutes later wearing a pop-star headset. He delivered an hour-long speech from the front of the church about the dangers of coal, the promises of solar and wind energy and what Americans could do to reverse the damage done by big energy companies.
The odor of rotten eggs wafted into the open stained-glass windows – a familiar smell on the Waterfront South neighborhood, which hosts a trash-to-steam plant, sewage treatment plant and other industry. The smell was a pungent example that punctuated Kennedy's speech against pollution.
Kennedy is a son if the late New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968. The talk was hosted by the Center for Environmental Transformation, a Camden-based group that runs community gardens and seeks to educate city residents and others about sustainability.
Kennedy focused on the dangers of America's continuing dependence on coal. He argued that coal isn't the cheapest form of energy, as coal advocates say, but is actually the most expensive when you tally up the environmental and health impacts of coal's waste. Companies like General Electric, Kennedy said, not only degrade the environment but Americans' way of life.
"Somebody puts pollutant into the waterway so that you can't eat the fish. That's an act of theft," Kennedy said, "They're stealing from you. They should be in jail as thieves."