Compass

Clean Air and Clean Energy Successes - And Some Rap

Who doesn’t love good news? Let’s start with something catchy– maybe a soundtrack as you read the rest of this column.

This week we released a video created by DJ Steve Porter, known for his innovative "remix" videos, featuring celebrities, sports stars, and now Michael Bloomberg, philanthropist and Mayor of New York City, and the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.

 

Creative, internet-based videos are no longer something reserved for major corporations to promote products; we’re now using this type of media to promote issues that the public cares about.

Beyond Coal will continue to lead with cutting edge social media and traditional media campaigns that energize communities to move beyond coal and build the clean energy economy. We hope people who are inspired by the energy and momentum in this video will join the cause and help move the country from coal to clean energy.

Speaking of inspiration – did you see the news yesterday from Austin, Texas?  The city announced that starting October 1st, it will meet its 400 million kilowatt hours of electricity needs wholly from in-state generated wind energy. The energy will be provided by a wind farm in west Texas and will power all libraries, fire stations, recreational centers and police stations. Austin has set a goal of buying 35% of its total energy from clean sources by 2020.

The Onion - Hilarious and Horrible

Oh, The Onion, our favorite satire site. This story they did on the Onion News Network is both funny and terrible. So of course we had to share it.

 

Sierra Club India - Democratizing Energy with Mobile Phones and Community Power

There are six billion mobile phone connections worldwide – 80% of which are in the developing world; A sizeable portion of this market, over 548 million people, own a cellphone but have no means of charging it. These un-electrified, mobile phone users mark the intersection between mobile phone and off-grid energy that is spawning a number of innovations shaping the future of rural electrification (community power and radical affordability amongst them).

 
The Green Power for Mobile program (PDF) has shown that energy access is also being driven by mobile phone providers seeking innovative ways to boost their average revenue per user (ARPU) – by providing heavily subsidized and even free clean energy charging options to their customers (because money not spent charging phones is spent talking on them).

As companies wise up to the opportunity to increase ARPU they are also providing important co-benefits by bundling their products with other services such as LED bulbs providing a tremendous opportunity to deliver on energy access goals.

Moving Planet - the Video

We've been inundating you with Moving Planet blog posts here and over on our Scrapbook blog! It's because all the events have been so fantastic. The blog posts are still rolling in, so expect more. For now - enjoy this video recap of Moving Planet from Sierra Club Productions.

 

India - Appalachia Coal Community Exchange: Day Four

(Read the other blog posts on the India to Appalachia coal delegation – Day One, Day Two, Day Three, and Soumya’s wrap-up)

“There was a deliberate decision to poison people.”

This is how Dustin Steele, Wilma’s grandson, described why he became an activist. The coal companies were ejecting slurry and waste from the mining operations back into the underground mines without notifying people that their groundwater would likely be contaminated. Cancer rates in the community skyrocketed, and even 13 and 14-year-old children were developing strange cancers. No one knew why until the situation got so bad that sludge started coming out of the taps instead of water.

The corruption and harm coal brings to the most vulnerable is the same everywhere.

Dustin’s story is repeated time and time again across the world. Amulya told us how in Odisha massive power plants used to discharge toxic coal ash directly into streams. It took years of organizing from the local community to force the companies send the waste to disposal sites, but even now leaky pipes are known to break and flood nearby villages. Meanwhile, the water is still unfit for human consumption.

Vaishali explained that in Konkan (India) they don’t even need to deal with rivers and streams. Companies simply pump water straight from the ocean and then discharge it back into the sea with all the toxic byproducts from the coal plants, poisoning fish and fishermen alike.

Minnesota Moving Planet: Bikes and Fossil Fuels

Last Saturday, September 24, Sierra Club joined MN350 to hold Moving Planet, the annual, international day of climate action on the State Capitol Lawn. Around 2:00pm, over 40 vendors and exhibitors set up their tents and tables to advocate for and support solutions to move beyond fossil fuels.

Soon after, more than 200 bikers arrived from a Mass Ride, which started at Father Hennepin Park and the Stone Arch Bridge, in support of the cleanest form of transportation and energy – pedal power!  Their 13-mile ride to the Capitol is evidence of resilience and liberation from reliance on fossil fuels.

Next, an Interfaith Procession arrived with more than 150 marchers, stating that taking action on climate change is a moral imperative.  Their picket signs and banners were in protest of crude oil and poor emission regulations, advocating for earthly compassion and divine consideration for our environment.

Bike Art Abcyclopedia: Zoom

Texas Fights for Clean Air

As I arrived in Arlington, TX for the final clean air hearing, I knew right away that this hearing would be unlike the previous two in Denver and Pittsburgh. Inside the Arlington City Hall interested and curious community members listened as their neighbors shared stories of how natural gas industry emissions are making them sick.

As more and more residents testified to EPA, the energy grew in the room.  One speaker even went on to say that “Texas is sick and tired of reckless gas drilling.”  For this very reason, many of today’s speakers were giving their first public testimony in support of EPA’s safeguard to clean up the air in Texas.

Texas is often seen as a leader in the oil and gas drilling industry.  At today’s hearing, they showed that they want to be a leader in clean air too. This area has seen an incredibly high amount of drilling creating consistently poor air quality. In fact, a recent Environmental Defense Fund report shows that emissions from the oil and natural gas industry in the Barnett Shale counties are comparable to the emissions from the 4 million cars and trucks in the metro area.

As the hearing slows down, the passion that the people of Texas have for this vital safeguard does not.  Texas is a beautiful state, and the people of this area know it.  But as the oil and natural gas industry continues to drill and pollute the air, enjoying the Lone Star State has become harder and harder.

Join the people of Texas as they fight for clean air not just here, but across the country.

-- Jason Pitt, Sierra Club Natural Gas Reform Campaign

Moving the Planet Toward Green Transportation

Perhaps it is only in DC that you can catch a snippet like this of a conversation between two people walking down the sidewalk:

“I am not against spending on infrastructure,” one says to the other.  “But we need to get rid of all of the regulations.” 

This being DC, these two could be lobbyists or Congressional staffers to just two folks who just love to talk infrastructure and hate on regulations. 

I, however, happened to be fresh from the morning’s Moving Planet event in Fairfax, VA where the Sierra Club’s Virginia Chapter, Smart Growth America, Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling, Labors’ International Union of North America, and 350.org called on Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to provide freedom of travel through funding transportation choices other than roads.

Attendees want funding for increased public transit, bike lanes, and sidewalks in order to help reduce congestion, reduce carbon pollution and move Northern Virginia beyond oil.

The event made clear that we can build infrastructure, but making it work and safe for all remains a challenge. In Northern Virginia, where congested roads are largely responsible for helping drive the Washington, DC, area to number one on the list of the most congested areas in the annual Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) mobility ranking.

Coal Country: From India to the Heart of Appalachia, Day Three

Blair Mountain: the biggest piece of American history you never heard of.

When I was in school, I never learned about the coal wars that raged in West Virginia in the early 20th century. As we gathered in Blair, West Virginia, for an Indian and Appalachian potluck, longtime resident Wilma Steele told us about how miners who tried to unionize and make a better life for themselves lost everything when the companies who owned the towns and the very houses they lived in kicked them out. And as the workers were paid in script that was only good in stores owned by the mines, they had no savings and no ability to go elsewhere.

But turning out miners and their families wasn’t enough. During the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike, the coal operators sent a train called the Bull Moose Special through the tent city to gun down the homeless miners as they slept. The violence culminated in the battle of Blair Mountain, the largest civil uprising in U.S. history. Even the government got in on the act, pitting bombers against the striking miners.