Palmetto State Says No to More Nuclear Waste

A nuclear waste dump in South Carolina's Barnwell County was set to close its doors to waste from all but two states next year. But the chair of the state legislature's House Agricultural, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee proposed allowing the site to continue taking nuclear waste from the rest of the country for another 15 years. South Carolina Sierra Club Director Dell Isham, pictured above with John Edwards, says the so-called Barnwell Bill would have made South Carolina the nuclear waste dump of the country. But the chapter kicked into high gear to oppose the bill, sending out e-mail alerts, calling and writing committee members, and stepping up grassroots lobbying with personal contact as the committee vote neared. A public hearing attracted some 300 people, of whom more than 50 were Sierra Club members. And on March 28, the Barnwell Bill was defeated in the Ag Committee by a unanimous vote of 16-0. "This shows what the environmental community can accomplish," says Isham. "That political power will not go unnoticed by legislators."

Sierra Club Helps Illinois Get Cool

By a resounding 58-0 vote, the Illinois Senate passed the Illinois Cool Cities Act of 2007 on March 20. Under the act, the state will provide technical assistance to communities trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and recognize them as Cool Cities once they've adopted a reduction plan. The bill originated in discussions between Illinois Sierra Club Legislative Director Jack Darin and then-Senator-elect Linda Holmes. As Holmes began developing her legislative agenda, she asked Darin to help identify ways the state could help local governments reach their reduction goals. A meeting ensued at which Club organizer Colleen Sarna outlined the Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign, and Holmes asked Darin to help her draft a Cool Cities Act. Illinois Chapter staff and volunteers have been lobbying for the bill ever since, and their efforts paid off in spades this month. A vote on the House version of the bill is pending.

Club Reaching Out to Hunters & Anglers

In late March, three dozen Sierra Club organizers and volunteers from around the country convened at Camp McDowell in Alabama to strategize about building partnerships with hunters and anglers. "Being pro-hunting is being pro-habitat," Bart Semcer, the Club's Washington, D.C., representative for hunting and fishing programs, told the assembled organizers. Representatives from a variety of Club programs, including the Water Sentinels, Building Bridges to the Outdoors (youth outreach), and Environmental Partnetships, led sessions on building coalitions and partnering with non-traditional allies. And there was ample time for rockin' and talkin' at the end of the day: pictured below are New York clean water activist Doris Israel, Tennessee Chapter leader James Baker, Sierra Club Directors Marilyn Wall of Ohio and Robin Mann of Pennsylvania, and New York Water Sentinel Richie Israel.

Tour de Stench Featured in Rolling Stone

For the last several years, husband & wife team Aloma and Lee Dew, Sierra Club organizers in western Kentucky, have been taking citizens, reporters, and elected officials on what they call a "Tour de Stench": a van tour of the giant factory chicken farms that have proliferated there over the last decade, fouling the water with E. coli and the air with fecal dust and ammonia. Reporter Kristine de Leon recently accompanied the Dews on a Tour as part of a story for Rolling Stone magazine entitled, "The Dark Side of Kentucky." The state is now home to thousands of chicken factories, which raise nearly 300 million birds each year. The Dews, pictured above beside an illegally dumped mountain of chicken feces and dead birds, recently joined a successful Sierra Club lawsuit that held chicken giant Tyson Foods accountable for $550,000 to monitor air quality and clean up its act. Read more about factory farms here.

Sacred Peaks Spared Sewage

On March 13 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a proposal by the U.S. Forest Service and the Arizona Snowbowl ski area to make artificial snow using reclaimed sewage water from nearby Flagstaff. The plan was challenged in court by the Sierra Club and six Native American tribes, including the Navajo Nation. The court ruled that the plan would violate the sanctity of the San Francisco Peaks, held holy by numerous tribes, and cited potential health hazards from ingesting "reclaimed" snow, which the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality calls unsuitable for human contact. "This is a national wake-up call for those that try to desecrate sacred mountains like the San Francisco Peaks," Sierra Club organizer Robert Tohe, a Navajo, told the New York Times. Tohe, pictured above at a press conference with the Peaks as a backdrop, characterizes the court ruling as a victory for public health and religious freedom. The Club's Grand Canyon Chapter and Native American Environmental Justice program have worked for years on behalf of water quality and in support of Native people who hold the Peaks sacred. Read more here.

In Memoriam: Bob Hattoy

Photo by Bob Pehlam

On March 4, the environmental movement lost one of its champions, Bob Hattoy. He was 56.

Hattoy served as the Sierra Club's Southern California/Nevada Regional Director from 1981-1992, and was pivotal in gaining protections for the California desert and preventing offshore drilling along the California coast. "I think his greatest environmental legacy is the California coastline," Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope told the San Francisco Chronicle. When newly-elected President Ronald Reagan proposed opening the coastline to oil drilling, Hattoy organized a coalition of groups and individuals of all political stripes to oppose the plan. Pope calls Hattoy "the human force that pulled everyone together."

At the time of his death in Sacramento, Hattoy was president of the California Fish and Game Commission. His political career focused on the environment, but he was also a leading AIDS activist who gained national prominence when he addressed the 1992 Democratic National Convention, the first openly gay person with AIDS to stand before a national political convention. He was Bill Clinton's environmental advisor during his first presidential campaign, and served as the White House liaison to the Department of the Interior. "We have lost a pioneer, a leader and a friend," former President Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a joint statement released on March 6.

Read more here, here. and here.

The Answer, My Friend...

Responding to a student-run campaign for renewable energy at Pennsylvania's prestigious Swarthmore College, the college Board of Managers has committed to purchasing 35 percent of its total energy use from wind power sources. The renewable energy campaign at Swarthmore is part of the Campus Climate Challenge, a coalition of North American youth organizations including the Sierra Student Coalition and the Sierra Youth Coalition of Canada, whose goal is to stop global warming by reducing pollution from high schools and colleges to zero. Swarthmore will now purchase a larger percentage of its power from renewable sources than any other institution of higher learning in the state. "This goal was conscientiously sought by student groups for several years and we are very proud to realize it," Swarthmore College President Alfred Bloom told AScribe, a public interest newswire.

Club Leaders Tackle Global Warming

In February, more than a hundred Sierra Club volunteers and staff gathered in Tucson for a joint meeting of the board of directors and The Sierra Club Foundation trustees to discuss and develop the new Climate Recovery Campaign — to answer the question of how best to use the Club’s experience, grassroots volunteer network, expertise, and influence to combat global warming. Some of the Club leaders also got a chance to explore the cactus-filled landscape outside the city. (photos by Paul Craig and Matt Urban)