Clean Cars Rules Are A-Comin'

This is a guest post from Ann Mesnikoff, director of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Campaign. (Are you a member of the Climate Crossroads Green Transportation Group?)

We are one day away from a new world for vehicle standards - April 1st may be April Fools Day, but when it comes to saving oil, curbing global warming and keeping billions of dollars in our pockets and our economy - the Obama Administration's action tomorrow is no prank. This is the biggest step the government has ever taken to save oil and curb global warming pollution.

On April 1, 2010 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation will make final rules for both fuel economy and greenhouse gases for new vehicles. Consistent with what President Obama announced a little less than one year ago in the Rose Garden, by 2016 new vehicles will average 35.5 miles per gallon and emit 250 grams per mile of CO2. This final rule shifts vehicle standards out of the 1970s and into the 21st century.

President Obama even mentioned the rule in a speech today:

Just a few months after taking office, I also gathered the leaders of the world's largest automakers, the heads of labor unions, environmental advocates, and public officials from California and across the country to reach an historic agreement to raise fuel economy standards in cars and trucks. Tomorrow, after decades in which we have done little to increase auto efficiency, those new standards will be finalized, which will reduce our dependence on oil while helping folks spend a little less at the pump.

So my administration is upholding its end of the deal, and we expect all parties to do the same. I'd also point out: this rule will not only save drivers money; it will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil. That’s like taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year.

Tomorrow's final rule marks EPA's first greenhouse gas standards for cars and light trucks under the Clean Air Act - an authority now under attack in Congress. Starting in 2012 consumers will have a new metric for judging new vehicles - grams per mile of CO2 spewing from the tailpipe. Cars and light trucks emit 20% of U.S. CO2 pollution and EPA's 250 g/mile standard in 2016, will keep an anticipated 950 million metric tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere. These standards will make the connection between global warming and tailpipes clear. In addition, EPA is setting standards for additional potent greenhouse gas gases associated with vehicles including air conditioning refrigerants.

EPA's standards complement the familiar miles per gallon standard from NHTSA - but we now hit the 35 mile per gallon standard called for in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act four years early with EPA's CO2 standard - intended to match the stringency of California's landmark standards. Fuel economy goes up and emissions from new vehicles will go down by 30%.

For some context, according to EPA, the 2009 fleet of vehicles averaged 26.4 mpg and emitted 337 grams per mile of CO2 - the industry now has a clear path for progress.

Both EPA and NHTSA developed separate standards for cars and trucks based on footprint - ramping up between 2012 and 2016. Consistent with the Supreme Court's Massachusetts v EPA decision - the two agencies worked together using their different yet complementary authority to achieve two critical national goals - energy security and reducing greenhouse gas pollution.

As identified in the proposed rule, under the Clean Air Act EPA brings a different approach to setting standards for vehicles and measuring compliance:

• Automakers cannot buy their way out of compliance as they can under CAFE;
• EPA can set technology forcing standards;
• EPA addresses the 4 greenhouse gases vehicles emit (nitrous oxide, methane, hydroflourocarbons and CO2);
• EPA indicated its intent to make compliance transparent – and we look forward to how EPA addresses this issue tomorrow – we all deserve a clear way to judge how automakers are complying with the law each year, something that has been lacking under the CAFE program.

The Administration has done its job setting a clear path forward for the auto industry and it is up to the industry to apply technology to deliver a full range of vehicles that emit less pollution, reduce our dependence on oil and save consumers billions at the pump - but we must also be clear that tomorrow's final rule is a first BIG step forward and that the next step must come quickly - we cannot afford decades of stagnation.

California is already working toward setting standards for vehicles made in 2017 and beyond. With new light weight materials, hybrid technology, better engines and transmissions - new standards must challenge the industry to deliver!

Faith Communities Install Solar Panels

In case you hadn't noticed yet, we've got a "People of Faith for the Environment" group now thriving on Climate Crossroads. We just blogged about this cool issue over there and encourage you to join the group to read and contribute!

Solar City gave us a heads up on this, and I definitely think it's worth showing off. Reminds me again of some of the stories in our "Faith in Action" report.

Anyway, Solar City and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno (CA) will unveil the church's brand new solar array on Sunday, March 28th. We've included some photos of the array here.

From the press release:

Solar City installed the highly visible 35-kilowatt array on the roof and grounds of the church, which was the first project of any kind to be certified by the Fresno Green Building Incentive Program.

"The church helped us write the regulations for the incentive program," said its manager, Karana Hattersley-Drayton. "It is a real pioneer."

The dedication ceremony will include a blessing by the Rev. Bryan Jessup. Built with sustainable materials and technologies, the church is a Green Sanctuary, a Unitarian Universalist congregation that "lives out its commitment to the earth by creating a sustainable lifestyle for its members as individuals and as a faith community."

The church's solar installation is expected to offset more than 71,000 pounds of carbon dioxide in its first year, the equivalent of taking roughly 51,330 cars off the road for a year. Over its first year of operation, the installation will save the energy efficient church roughly $15,500 in PG&E utility bills and provide ongoing protection against rising electricity rates.

This isn't the first array at a religious facility that Solar City has helped out with. Earlier this week they helped unveil another set of solar panels on the Our Savior Lutheran Ministries Church in Livermore, California.

How 'bout it - does your faith group have solar panels on its facility?

How the West is Winning Against Coal

This is the weekly blog post from Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign.

There is so much good news coming out of the western U.S. these days on coal and clean energy. First up – another domino fell for the Blackstone Group.

Blackstone had been funding the construction of three new coal-fired power plants in the U.S. (I've written about them before). Last month the River Hill plant in Pennsylvania was canceled - and now this week we saw the plans for Toquop change in a major way:

Blackstone subsidiary Sithe Global announced they will now build the plant as "a 750-megawatt gas plant with a 100-mw photovoltaic solar plant." This will create 1,000 jobs, and again demonstrates that coal plants are just not financially viable anymore.

Now Blackstone and Sithe Global only have one proposed coal-fired power plant left – Desert Rock in New Mexico, which we're also helping fight. Does Blackstone see the writing on the wall? Will Desert Rock see a switch or total cancellation?

Meanwhile, one of Nevada's neighbor is taking great strides toward clean energy. Yesterday Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed a bill increasing the state's renewable electricity standard. Now, 30% of the state’s electricity must come from renewable sources by 2020:

The Governor's Energy Office has predicted the program could result in as many as 100,000 homes with solar panels, small wind turbines or other energy-producing devices.

And with all that increased solar and wind power comes more jobs for Coloradans, too. To add to the job increasing potential of Colorado, the state's also discussing a bill that will phase out coal-fired power plants. The Clean Air Clean Jobs bill, or HB1365, calls for converting several outdated coal-fired power plants in the Front Range area into cleaner energy sources.  This legislation is the result of an agreement reached by Governor Ritter, Xcel Energy and other local stakeholders to significantly improve Denver and Boulder’s air quality. 

Finally in coal-free western U.S. news, Los Angeles is slowly moving towards it goal of being coal-free by 2020. The city currently gets around 44% of its electricity from coal, and last year LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced his initiative to move the city completely beyond coal by 2020. Now a proposal to fund the projects that will help achieve ths plan is facing a vote from the City Council. I encourage you to read my colleague Bill Corcoran's column on Huffington Post to get a good look at how that process is moving along.

It's a trend in the west – move away from coal and toward clean energy. Let's hope it continues!

Obama Administration Swings for the Fences on Emissions!

Guest Entry by: Branden Grubb, Energy Intern

Baseball season is right around the corner, and with the upcoming release of historic new vehicle standards, the Obama Administration is set to hit a grand slam. These standards will increase the efficiency of our vehicles, resulting in billions in consumer savings at the pump, reducing oil dependence by nearly two billion barrels, slashing global warming pollution and leading to a more competitive, sustainable auto industry (count it, those are four things!). The Administration set a goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by implementing new standards that will raise passenger vehicle fuel economy to a fleet average of 35.5 mpg by 2016 - a move that will require the Department of Transportation to work with the Environmental Protection Agency who is responsible for setting new greenhouse gas standards. The new standard will be 250 grams of greenhouse gases per mile. Kudos to President Obama - whose proposal is the single biggest step that the U.S. has ever taken to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

The current demand for reduced greenhouse gas emissions has sent automakers back to the drawing board. Considering the proposed emissions standards of the Obama Administration, automakers will be forced to create new fuel efficient vehicles. Since vehicle emissions account for one third of all carbon dioxide emissions, the U.S. needs to move forward in creating low carbon fuel and electric vehicles that will deliver results. 　Wouldn’t it be nice to develop technology that could reduce emissions to the equivalent of wiping 177 million vehicles off of the roads? Several recent studies have suggested that this is a possibility. One setback is consumers want a fuel efficient vehicle that maintains current performance standards.

Stop Government Funding of Coal

This post was co-written by Bruce Nilles and Mark Kresowik, Director and Corporate Accountability and Finance Representative, respectively, for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign.

"How good will the business judgment of companies that make high-carbon choices now look in five, 10, 20 years, when it becomes clear that heavily polluting infrastructure has become deadly and must be phased out before the end of its useful life?"
- Todd Stern, U.S. State Department Special Envoy on Climate Change

This is the quote we have on our Beyond Coal Corporate Accountability and Finance page because it sums up the problem with funding coal plants. The only thing we'd add to it is this: then why is our government still subsidizing more expensive and dirty coal plants?

It’s true, the U.S. is still actively playing an active role in the funding of coal plants - both domestically and internationally - which is contradictory to President Obama's pledge to phase out fossil fuel subsidies with the G-20. Let's talk international first.

There are two women from Sasolburg, South Africa, in Washington, DC, this week fighting for the health - physical and economic - of their community. The World Bank is currently considering a $3.75 billion loan to South African company Eskom for the construction of a 4,800 megawatt coal plant. This proposed coal plant would be the fourth largest coal plant in the world.

These two women, Makoma Lekalakala and Caroline Ntaopane, are here on behalf of more than 70 South African groups who oppose this loan, including the South African Council of Churches and Earthlife. These groups have asked the Sierra Club Beyond Coal team for help getting the U.S., the largest monetary supporter of the World Bank, to stop the loan.

The World Bank's mission is to alleviate poverty, and Eskom officials claim the coal plant is going to help the poor get access to electricity.  But hearing Makoma and Caroline describe how their community's electricity rates are tripling over the next five years in order to pay for this plant and the other planned coal and nuclear power plants proposed by Eskom, the subsidized electric rates for major industrial polluters like mining giant BHP Billion, and the harmful pollution from coal mining and burning in Sasolburg and other South African communities, we know that this loan will do anything but help the poor.  

The World Bank has no business financing coal-fired power plants.  After the Copenhagen Climate talks in December the World Bank is positioning itself to lead financial support for mitigating the worst effects of global warming.  How can the World Bank help fight climate change if its financing the problem - pollution from coal plants - in the first place?

And how can the U.S. cast away its power by abstaining, rather than voting against the loan, when the project clearly violates both World Bank rules and the Treasury Department's recently issued coal financing guidance?  The Eskom plan is designed to serve major polluters instead of getting clean energy access to low income families in Africa, many of whom live off the grid and need decentralized solutions.  

South Africa and some of the other developing countries have a point too: As long as our government is still subsidizing coal plants here at home, we’d look like hypocrites. Domestically, the U.S. is financing coal-fired power plants via the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Energy. But the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal team is leading the fight against these fossil fuel subsidies as well.

We're standing with the more than 50 electric co-op member rate-payers from Kentucky who wrote to the USDA last month asking for a formal review of RUS financial support for electric co-ops that are investing in and developing new and existing coal-fired power plants.

These 50 members are also seeing support from their peers and colleagues in eight other states, who have now made that same request. And these are electric cooperative member-ratepayers in the heart of coal country: Wyoming, Kentucky, Montana, Texas, Colorado, Alaska, Virginia, Georgia, and Kansas. Like Caroline and Makoma, they see firsthand that coal is bad for their environment and even worse for their pocketbooks. Whether you're in South Africa or Kentucky, coal will cause rate increases and the waste of federal taxpayer dollars.  

If our leaders in the U.S. and beyond are serious alleviating poverty and combating climate change, they cannot be supporting new coal-fired power plants anywhere. We must all stand together to support clean energy and stop using coal power. It is past time for the U.S. to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.  

Join us in telling U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to ensure the U.S. votes against any World Bank loans for dirty coal.

Coal News Round-Up: Photos, Smog, and Blue Sludge

Lots of coal news recently - let's start with a fun sign showing we're getting under some coal companies' skin. Doug Howell of our Coal Free Northwest campaign sent along two photos of note.

This is a billboard on I-5 in between Seattle and Portland, and outside of the TransAlta coal plant in Centralia, Washington.


Yes, of course we are fighting this plant.

The second photo Doug sent along is a little scary. "This is a 19th century horse-drawn cart full of coal," said Doug. "Check out their advertising slogan and the 21st century premonition."

 
Yeesh.

Let's move onto to some stories about great organizing and activism. On Tuesday our Big Picture and Beyond Coal folks held a National Day of Action on Smog, coinciding with the deadline for public comments on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed ozone rule.

Taking the advice of scientists and health professionals, EPA proposed new rules to lower the amount of harmful ozone, or smog, in our air.

There were events all over the U.S., and we've already seen some great news clips from the gatherings. Check it out:
Groups press EPA to strengthen smog controls, Pittsburgh Post- Gazette

Students, Sierra Club advocate for cleaner air, Salt Lake Tribune

Sierra Club, schoolchildren, lawmaker urge action on ozone limits, Deseret News

Environmentalists warn Surry coal plant will endanger Hampton Roads, Daily Press

Dozens at Arlington meeting voice support for ozone limits, Fort Worth Star Telegram

EPA readies tough new smog standard, WFAA-TV (Dallas)

Speakers urge tighter ozone standards at Arlington hearing, Dallas Morning News

Chicago's coal-free future, Clean Power Coalition lights the way, Huffington Post

Clean energy rally maintains coal agenda, Collegiate Times (VA Tech)

Group pushes VA Tech to "Go Green", WSET

EPA plans to limit coal emissions, MSU State News

Students demand clean air, fight use of coal on campus, Red and Black (UGA)

And there's still more news rolling in! You can stay up to date on what our Big Picture campaign is up to by following the website and its group on Climate Crossroads.

Finally, in other coal news, Rolling Stone ran an excellent article recently on the reality of coal ash and how toxic it is. Here's a particular eye-opening section on one coal ash impoundment the writer visited:

Back before the spill in Kingston, I visited one of the nation's largest dumping grounds for coal waste - an impoundment site called Little Blue Run, near Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Little Blue Run is a huge, eerie lake filled with ash and sludge from FirstEnergy's Bruce Mansfield coal plant, a 2,490-megawatt giant that sits on the banks of the Ohio River. FirstEnergy recycles some of the scrubber sludge from the plant into wallboard, but the rest of it gets mixed with the coal ash and pumped through big steel pipes for seven miles and emptied into Little Blue Run. The sludge has a thick, pasty texture, but it's the color of the lake itself that's spooky: a luminous, metallic blue, with swirls of emerald green.

Like the vast majority of waste ponds in America, Little Blue Run is unlined - meaning there is no barrier between this toxic metallic stew and the groundwater beneath it. According to a report by the National Research Council, coal ash typically contains 24 different pollutants — some of them deadly, even in minute quantities. In humans, the toxins in coal ash can cause cancer of the liver, kidney, lung and bladder, as well as neurological damage in children. In animals, especially fish and amphibians, they can cause developmental abnormalities. The sheer quantity of toxic metals produced by a big coal plant is mind-boggling. At Little Blue Run, for example, FirstEnergy pumps 81,000 pounds of arsenic compounds into the pond every year. In its undiluted form, a thimbleful will kill you.

Here are two pictures of that impoundment from Google Maps' satellite view.



Bizarre color, huh?

DOT Wants You To Get On Your Bike

This post was written by Ann Mesnikoff, director of the Sierra Club Green Transportation Campaign. It is also cross-posted on the Climate Crossroads Green Transportation Group.

It is a beautiful spring day in DC - perfect for biking (and walking) and a perfect day to applaud U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood's new policy on biking. Secretary LaHood blogged an entry called "My view from atop the table and the National Bike Summit."

LaHood states that "People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized."

LaHood provides these new recommendations for state DOTs and communities:

• Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
• Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
• Go beyond minimum design standards.
• Collect data on walking and biking trips.
• Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
• Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected (for example, snow removal)
• Improve non-motorized facilities during maintenance projects.

Interestingly enough, just last week, the Washington Post featured a story on bike lines soon to run down the center of Pennsylvania Avenue - the path the President strolls down on inauguration day. This is part of DC's effort to add to its existing 45 miles of bike lanes (on 1300 miles of streets). And to help you plan your biking route in DC and other places, Google just added handy bike (and walk) route options to its Google maps site.

For a country addicted to oil - Americans consume some nine million barrels of oil every day and travel nearly three trillion miles every year- devoting more attention to making biking and walking a safe and a viable option for getting around is long overdue. This also comes as interest in bike commuting is on the rise - as noted in Sierra Magazine, 720,000 Americans commuted to work by bike in 2008 - 43 percent more than in 2000. Not everyone will bike commute, but failing to invest in the infrastructure to make it choice is bad policy. LaHood's recommendations are a huge lift of zero carbon and non-oil dependent transportation.

(You can also read more about a DOT grant that is helping the Philadelphia area become more bike friendly in this Green Transportation blog post.)

PA Towns Gets a TIGER

This is a guest post by Jeanette MacNeille, president of the Millbourne, PA, Borough Council.

Some years ago near Millbourne, an ethnically diverse, tiny urban borough west of Philadelphia, a cougar was running loose. People left Big Macs in the park for its lunch, the police tried to catch it with helicopters and human nets, and parents kept tight hold on their small children. The cougar was last reported loping west on State Route 3 and was never caught. Now, Millbourne is coping with a tiger.

A TIGER grant, that is – and it's not coping at all, but rather celebrating. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council recently were awarded $23 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program to complete seven bicycle trail links in the greater Philadelphia area.

One of the links that will be completed under this American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded TIGER grant is the 58th Street Connector. This on-road buffered bike trail will connect the Cobbs Creek Bike Trail with Bartram's Garden and the East Coast Greenway, a bicycle route running from Key West, Florida to Calais, Maine.

But the effects of the grant reach even farther locally. The funds will also help Borough of Millbourne develop plans for walking and bicycling links that would connect the Philadelphia bicycling network, via Cobbs Creek Trail and other on-road lanes, with the western suburbs of the city. These plans were recently helped along by the decision of adjacent Upper Darby Township to evaluate the feasibility of using an abandoned rail right of way as a walking path. Although the spur that Upper Darby is studying does not connect to Millbourne, an offshoot of it does. If one "spur" is evaluated it is that much easier to get funding to connect to existing bike paths via the other.

When the bike and walking paths can eventually be built, it'll be easier and safer to bicycle from the western suburbs of the city to either the East Coast Greenway or to Amtrak's 30th Street Station, providing train access up and down the coast and across the country.

The development of local walking and biking trails will also provide a way for many more commuters to reach the Market Frankford Elevated-Subway Line and travel to Philadelphia via public transportation. This will help reduce particulate and ozone pollution in the area, which does not meet Clean Water Act standards, help reduce road congestion, and reduce the need for additional parking spaces in Center City.

The new bike and walking paths will in time also help customers reach a proposed transit-oriented development site in Millbourne, helping to reduce a downward economic spiral in the area. The Borough is simultaneously considering passage of the Mayor's Climate Letter. Several members of Council hope to revise the building and zoning codes to encourage "greener" building. They are conducting outreach to many of the ethnically diverse communities in the area to get input and ideas, and to reach out to new walkers and bicyclists.

The cougar was something of an unwelcome guest, but this TIGER is providing major impetus for environmentally sound changes in the tiny borough of Millbourne, and in its surrounding communities.

Cool Cities, USGBC Launch Green Building Tours Across the US

This week kicks off a fun group of tours from the Sierra Club Cool Cities Program and the U.S. Green Building Council. (Cool Cities has a group on Climate Crossroads - join now!)

Volunteers from both groups are holding public tours of green buildings across the U.S. this week to highlight the local economic and environmental benefits of energy-efficient, sustainable buildings.

Our folks down in Charlotte, N.C., already got a jump on it all by holding their tour last week and earned a great article in the Charlotte Observer. (The photo is of the building they toured. Photo by T. Ortega Gaines of the Charlotte Observer)

The tours are part of the national "Green Buildings for Cool Cities" partnership between the Sierra Club and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The project is aimed at helping cities nationwide make green building a key component of their economic and environmental recovery efforts.

The green building tour locations include Memphis, Charlotte, Fort Collins, San Jose, Indianapolis, Denver, Greater Milwaukee, and Augusta, Maine. Find a tour near you! And if there isn't one near you, then check out the partnership on the Cool Cities website to start up your own local group.

The venues range from homes, banks, schools, business offices, municipal buildings, to supermarkets, fire stations, low-income senior housing, a movie theater, and a LEED ND or neighborhood development project.

"Buildings contribute nearly 40% of global warming emissions and consume over 70% of electricity use in the U.S., so they present a tremendous opportunity as we look for ways to reduce energy costs, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution – not to mention create jobs in the emerging clean energy economy," said Glen Brand, director of the Sierra Club's national Cool Cities program.



"Green buildings efficiently use energy, water and other natural resources, protect the health of occupants, improve employee productivity and reduce pollution," said Aaron Lande, with USGBC's Sustainable Cities program. "These tours are a great way to see firsthand the realities and potential of high-performing, green building strategies."

Green buildings, according to the 2006 report "Green Building SmartMarket Report" by McGraw-Hill Construction, can reduce energy consumption by 26% and greenhouse gas emissions by 33%, compared to new structures built to conventional construction methods. Investments in green buildings on average result in 6.6% improvement on return on investment, 8% reduction in operating costs, and a 7.5% increase in building value. Improving the energy performance in existing buildings can reduce energy use by as much as 30% or 40%, with the ability to earn back those investments through lower utility bills over time.


SELECTED "GREEN BUILDING FOR COOL CITIES" TOURS

Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville
Tour of Big River Engineering and Manufacturing, a downtown Silver LEED retrofitted building housing a medical instruments manufacturer. In addition, there will be tours in seven other cities throughout Tennessee, including Nashville, Murfreesboro, Cookville, Crossville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Johnson.

Denver and Fort Collins
Tour of Denver's Wellington Webb Municipal Office Building, which is both Energy Star and LEED Gold for existing buildings certified, and designed to be 25 percent more energy efficient than a conventionally-built building. In Fort Collins, the tour will be at the Poudre Fire Authority Station #4, which is seeking LEED Gold certification.

San Jose
Tour of the Integrated Design Associates Inc headquarters, the first commercial office building in the U.S. designed to meet a net-zero energy/ net-zero carbon emissions goal.

Augusta, Maine
Tour of the new Hannaford's supermarket, the world's first LEED platinum-certified supermarket.

Brookfield, Wisconsin
Tour of Environmental Systems Inc. (ESI) facility seeking Platinum LEED certification.

LEED Green Building Certification
The national benchmark for green buildings is USGBC's LEED green building certification program. LEED provides third-party verification that a building was designed, built and is operated using strategies aimed at improving energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, indoor air quality and other building impacts on environmental and human health.

LEED rating systems exist to address all building types - from commercial and institutional buildings to homes and even entire neighborhoods - and lifecycle stages, including new construction and ongoing operations. More than 4,500 buildings have achieved LEED certification, and more than 200 localities across the U.S. use LEED as their benchmarking tool.

For more information on the "Green Buildings for Cool Cities" project, see www.coolcities.us and www.usgbc.org.

Sleepless in San Francisco -- My First Day at the Sierra Club

by Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.

There are two reasons why I haven't had much sleep the past few nights. The first is about three-and-a-half feet tall, wears diapers, has long eyelashes and a dangerously cute smile. It's our little boy Sebastian. He's 18 months old and the poor guy is getting three of his molars at the same time. During the daylight hours, all is good. But when the sun goes down and the moon comes up, the howling begins, and his mom can only nurse for so long. A few back-arching, full-throated roars would jolt anyone awake, but lately I've found it particularly difficult to get back to sleep. I'm starting a new job. The mind races. I left my post recently as executive director of Rainforest Action Network to become the next executive director of the Sierra Club. I'll be the sixth director of the Club in its 118-year history, and I'll be following people like Carl Pope, Mike McCloskey, David Brower, and Club founder John Muir. Gotta be on my game!

Today's my first day. I'm inspired and honored to be a part of such a democratic, volunteer-powered organization. From helping to protect Yosemite and millions of acres of wilderness to the more recent work of building powerful alliances with labor and impacted communities, Sierra Club volunteers and staff have played a pivotal role in many of the most important environmental victories over the past century.

But as effective as the organization has been over the past 118 years, we need to do our best work in the years ahead. The challenges – and opportunities -- are too great. Looking forward, here are a few of the projects we want to complete:

Shut Down Big Coal -- the Sierra Club and a diverse, bottoms-up network of grassroots community groups has stopped the construction of more than 115 coal-fired power plants, and we'll continue to fight the remaining coal plants still on the drawing boards. It's a good start to a much more ambitious project. Over the next twenty years, Sierra Club staff, volunteers, and our allies across the country will work to retire the existing fleet of more than 500 dirty coal plants and replace them with the efficient use of clean, renewable energy resources. Coal is the top source of greenhouse gas emissions and mercury poisoning, and according to Physicians for Social Responsibility contributes to four of the five leading causes of death in the United States. Putting Big Coal in America's rearview mirror will create more jobs, make Americans healthier, and is the single most effective thing we can do to fight global warming. Let's shut down Big Coal in this generation.

Rising Sun -- the Sierra Club Board of Directors has made a firm commitment to be a solutions-oriented organization. For example, this means we can't just work to shut down a dirty coal plant. We need answers that are reliable and affordable to keep the lights on. We must be as elegant and effective in our advocacy for tangible and pragmatic solutions as we are in our opposition to bad ideas. The flip side of coal campaigning is our work to promote clean energy solutions. We envision all new buildings becoming energy self-sufficient and carbon-neutral by 2030. Increasing renewable energy to at least 25 percent of our country's energy supply in the next 10 to15 years. Many people see fighting climate change as a moral obligation; something we have to do for future generations. We see the climate and energy crisis as not just an obligation, but also an opportunity. Creating a clean energy economy isn't just something we have to do, it's something we get to do.

Reinventing Wilderness Protection -- Draw up a picture in your mind of your favorite National Park or wilderness area, and there's a decent chance that some Sierra Club volunteer or staff member had a hand in helping to keep loggers, miners, or developers at bay. But as the earth warms and plant and animal species are placed under greater threat, our society can no longer draw a line on a map and consider an area protected. To minimize the loss of biodiversity and wilderness, we'll need to protect habitat resilience using the best available science. This entails connecting large parks and wilderness areas through wildlife corridors; restoring wetlands and other buffer areas, and building up the capacity of soils, forests, prairies and wetlands to soak up more carbon and, as we eventually reduce carbon in the atmosphere, accelerate climate recovery.

Inspired by Nature -- the Sierra Club invented adventure travel. Now we get to reinvent it. When John Muir took Teddy Roosevelt to Yosemite and the High Sierra, he helped inspire a President and generations of Americans to re-imagine their relationship to nature. Too many people today, particularly those living in urban America, don't have the resources, opportunities, or access to wilderness areas. John Muir believed that people who experience wilderness for themselves are much more likely to take personal to protect it. The Sierra Club will continue its Inner City Outings and Building Bridges to the Outdoors programs to increase wilderness access for all Americans. We must also inspire the adventure travel industry to make activism a core component of the experience, because the reverse of Muir's Law is also true: those who take action to protect wilderness are much more likely to want to have fun in it.

With chapters in every state and volunteers in every major city in the county, I could write all week about the work that the Sierra Club is doing. But I better go earn my keep. Come join us. And if you have any advice for me in my new job (or in keeping little babies asleep at night) let me know!