The local fishing community are among the strongest opponents of the proposed expansion to Tanjung Jati-B. The Fisherman Association of Indonesia and the North Jepara Fishermen group have complained of reduced catches since the plant has been in operation. Furthermore of damage to the coral reef; collisions between fishing boats and coal transport barges and the lack of filters for water intake so fish are sucked into the cooling system. The fishermen have also complained that the coal company has failed to meet the standards it had set when Units 3 & 4 were opened in 2007 (see this webpage in Bahasa).

Air pollution, health impacts In 2015, Greenpeace and Harvard University modelled the health impacts of air pollution from coal-fired power plants in Indonesia. The findings were extraordinary: Existing coal-fired power plants in Indonesia cause an estimated 6,500 premature deaths every year. Each large new power plant with a 1000 megawatt capacity, is expected to result, on average, in the deaths of 600 Indonesians every year. With Indonesia's plans to build over a hundred new coal-fired power plants, this death toll could rise to 28,300 people every year if all plans are implemented.

The risks include strokes, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and cardiovascular and other respiratory diseases.  It is not only the old who are at risk.  Indonesia's coal industry is believed to be causing the deaths of about 100 young children every year, from acute respiratory infections. Of particular concern is toxic particulate matter (PM2.5): microscopic particles which are small enough to enter the bloodstream and are linked to respiratory illnesses and lung damage.

The Tanjung Jati-B power plant is estimated to be responsible for 1,020 premature deaths per year, according to the Harvard research, even though the power plant was assumed to meet national environmental standards. Young children are at risk. Tanjung Jati-B causes the deaths of an estimated 20 children under five every year, because of respiratory infections caused by air pollution from the plant.

Water usage Tanjung Jati B operates a cooling system using salt water from the ocean, the Java Sea. This has less impact on local water resources than a freshwater system, but its effect cannot be discounted. Once-through cooling systems take water from nearby sources, in this case, the Java Sea, circulate it through pipes to absorb heat from the steam and discharge the now warmer water to the ocean. A 500 megawatt sub-critical coal-fired power plant would draw around 500 million m3 of water a year, so Tanjung Jati-B is currently withdrawing about 2,500 million m3 from the ocean.

The thermal impact from coal power plants on ocean ecosystems have been documented over many years, including by the UNEP. The discharged water is warmer than the sea, and is having an impact on local fishermen, who have spoken out strongly against the expansion of Tanjung Jati B. They say the company has failed to meet the standards in its EIA for Units 3 & 4, including failing to put a filter on the water intake pipe so that small fish were getting sucked in, reducing the fishermen's catches.

Indonesia's coal production reached 392 million tons in 2015, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. Nearly three quarters of this production was exported, so it is not only generating huge greenhouse gas emissions at home, it is generating them overseas. The country has plans to expand its coal-fired power generation, even though coal use has already doubled in the past decade. This will rapidly increase emissions and bind the country to a carbon-intensive form of energy for years.