The following is an October 22, 2010 memo to Sierra Club volunteers and staff members from Beyond Coal Campaign Director Mary Anne Hitt
Update on Integration of Coal and Clean Energy Solutions Campaigns
Over the course of the last two months we have been working on the integration of Clean Energy Solutions (CES) into the Beyond Coal Campaign, which Sarah Hodgdon announced in a memo this June (read the memo here: http://bit.ly/dm4YVY). As the director of this newly combined campaign, I want to provide you with an update on our progress. While we are all disappointed in the Senate’s failure to pass a climate bill, the campaign has a strategy to phase out existing coal plants – our biggest source of global warming pollution – and replace them with clean energy, by mobilizing our network of volunteers, staff, and experts that has stopped 139 proposed coal plants nationwide (and counting – see the latest here on our coal tracker: http://bit.ly/drGrIF).
The staff and volunteer leadership of the Beyond Coal Campaign are enthusiastic about the joining of these two efforts, and we have taken our first steps together by creating a combined leadership team and convening our first planning meetings. Exciting clean energy work is already well underway in many states, and we’re celebrating recent victories like Colorado’s plan to retire existing coal plants and institute one of the strongest renewable electricity standards in the nation. As we look ahead, some of the energy projects we're discussing with enthusiasm include offshore wind, PV solar, and a whole suite of conservation and efficiency initiatives.
At the same time, we recognize we have significant work left to do to fully integrate the two campaigns and better flesh out our shared vision. We look forward to working with many of you as we create a robust campaign plan that sets forth ambitious clean energy goals that are tied directly to phasing out existing coal plants.
There are many people affected by this transition, and this memo describes the new roles of CES staff and volunteer leadership, as well as the current status of existing CES programs. It does not account for the portfolios of all staff that had a relationship with the CES campaign.
Staff and Volunteers
Dick Fiddler, the volunteer co-lead of the CES campaign (and this year’s winner of the John Muir Award – congrats Dick!), has joined the Beyond Coal Campaign Leadership Team. This team consists of volunteers Verena Owen, Will Reynolds, Christine Lewis, and Rick Clewett, and staff Mary Anne Hitt, Bruce Nilles, Heather Cusick, Kim Kohl, Pat Gallagher, and Jesse Simons. This team is responsible for the Beyond Coal Campaign, which is one campaign that now includes both coal and clean energy work. Verena Owen and I co-lead this team.
I am in the process of revisiting the role and make-up of the previous delivery team, and I plan to initiate a regular staff call for core staff responsible for implementing the campaign. I plan to finalize and announce these changes by early November.
Alex Levinson is now leading the campaign’s efforts in Colorado and on renewable energy projects on private lands in California. Barb Boyle is leading the campaign’s efforts in Nevada and on renewable energy projects on public lands in California. Cammy Watkins continues to lead our project to strengthen building codes in order to improve the energy efficiency of new homes and businesses (learn more here: http://www.thirtypercentsolution.org), and she is working with the regional campaign directors to integrate that work into Beyond Coal efforts in priority states. Jonathan Kevles and Jennifer Perrone will be staffing a new research unit for the campaign, undertaking and managing research projects for efforts to replace coal with clean energy nationwide.
Projects
In addition to changing portfolios of individual staff, there are individual projects that have previously been conducted under the umbrella of Clean Energy Solutions. The building codes work mentioned above and Cool Cities are two such programs. We are working to focus these programs in areas where there is a strong nexus between the clean energy work and our effort to move priority states and cities away from coal.
We anticipate continuation of the building codes work, but within the Beyond Coal framework. Cammy Watkins and the regional campaign directors will continue to refine the state by state building code strategy and work toward implementation.
Cool Cities will continue with limited resources as we assess the program and reinvigorate the program within a Beyond Coal framework. We are enthusiastic about working with the many chapters, activists, and community leaders who have participated or accessed the Cool Cities project (learn more here: http://www.coolcities.us). Within the next month, we will convene a small team to evaluate Cool Cities and to identify a path forward for this program within the Beyond Coal campaign.
With robust clean energy work happening in Chapters across the nation, we anticipate continuing to work with and support Chapter efforts that are aimed at reducing coal use and replacing that capacity with clean energy. Our regional campaign directors will be on point to work with chapters to identify opportunities to advance this work, tapping the vast knowledge throughout the Club to advance projects and policies that will move cities, states, and our nation beyond coal to clean energy.
Finally, the Environmental Law Program has dedicated two full time attorneys, Gloria Smith and Travis Ritchie, and several other part-time attorneys, working under legal director Pat Gallagher's supervision, to advancing clean energy campaign goals with strategic legal actions. Projects currently underway include litigation challenging the Federal Home Finance Agency's obstruction of state and local property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs; interventions in numerous state-level integrated resource planning or renewable portfolio dockets (KY, LA, OH, NC, OR, VA, TVA); and interventions in energy efficiency dockets in Missouri and Mississippi. In addition, the legal program has invested heavily in assisting the Club's efforts to get large scale-renewables and transmission sited properly.
National Clean Energy Policy
In the coming months, we plan to convene members of the Beyond Coal leadership team and the DC federal policy staff to discuss national clean energy policy priorities for 2011. Given that we are currently in a rapidly changing landscape nationally, we anticipate this work will not get into full swing until we know more about the makeup of the next Congress. There will be opportunities for energy activists to weigh in on those clean energy policy priorities.
We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work to integrate these campaigns. I will continue to keep you posted on our progress through future updates. If you have ongoing concerns or would like to discuss this further, please contact me, Verena Owen, or Dick Fiddler.
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