Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 3.21.2008

The Sierra Club and other grassroots groups are greening the traditionally blue-collar Detroit area by pushing the "holy trinity" of alternative energy sources: solar, wind, and efficiency. "There's a real groundswell of support for these types of things," said Ed McArdle, above left, of the Club's Southeast Michigan Group. "Efficiency is the cheapest power plant in the world."

Iowa Sierra Club activists Make Carberry, second from left, above, and Mark Kresowik hand-delivered more than 200 letters from Iowa residents to Governor Chet Culver protesting a proposed coal plant on agricultural land in the town of Waterloo, and another in Marshalltown. "We need to look at renewable alternative energy and energy efficiency," said Carberry, second from left, above. "Those are the two answers to global warming, not coal plants."

Club members rallied with residents of Waterloo and Marshalltown at the Iowa capitol to urge a moratorium on new coal plants in the state. "It's the first time citizens from both communities have coordinated an event to protest these proposed plants," said Club organizer Josh Jones, second from right, above. Waterloo resident Jeri Thornberry is pictured speaking at the rally, below.

Photo by Juliana Williams, courtesy of Iowa Sierra Student Coalition

Bills promoting the recycling of bottles, cans, plastic bags, and electronics have stalled in the Arizona legislature. "They think there's a choice between being friendly to business and the environment," said Grand Canyon Chapter activist Sandy Bahr, above right. "I think that's a false choice." Bahr was also in the news commenting on illegal groundwater pumping and off-road vehicle abuses.

The Los Angeles City Council voted to nix a proposed 5,523-home project on some of the last open space between Los Angeles and the outlying city of Santa Clarita. Sandra Cattell of the Club's Angeles Chapter said the hillside site is too steep, too ecologically valuable and too prone to wildlife for the proposed development "This is a one-of-a-kind type of place," she said. "There shouldn't be any type of development up there."

Public concerns over global warming have caused many utilities to cut back on plans for coal-burning power plants in this country, yet the U.S. has become a major exporter of coal for the first time in years. "Any rise in coal use around the world is bad news for the environment," Sierra Club coal expert Alice McKeown told the New York Times. "The U.S. needs to be a leader on global warming, and increasing our coal exports is moving in the wrong direction."

Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign, will speak on the Club's support of natural gas as a cleaner alternative than crude oil and coal—while emphasizing that renewable sources are the cleanest and most efficient choice of all—at Hart Energy Publishing's Developing Unconventional Gas Conference on April 1 in Fort Worth.

The executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is backing a proposed radioactive waste dump on the New Mexico border, six miles from the town of Eunice, N.M. Club organizer Cyrus Reed says the concerns of Eunice residents are being ignored. "[T]he applicant has not met the basic requirements of Texas law to prove that the geology and hydrology of the site will keep this highly radioactive uranium and thorium waste away from residents' lungs, groundwater, crops and livestock," he told the Houston Chronicle. Lone Star Chapter Director Ken Kramer said the site is being treated as if it were a standard hazardous waste landfill and not a disposal site with long-term radioactive waste material.

In Lakeport, California, the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Lake County Board of Supervisors, the cities of Lakeport and Clearlake, and local groups gathered more than 6,000 signatures to present to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, protesting his proposal to close the county's only two parks. The coalition plans to collect 10,000 signatures in time for the sixth annual Park Advocacy Day on April 7. Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed terminating…er, closing 48 of California's 278 state parks.

Also in Lakeport, citizens presented a petition with 700 signatures to the city council urging preservation of the last open space on the town's main street with a view of Clear Lake, the largest natural lake entirely within California. "There has been talk of putting a high-end hotel there," said Club volunteer leader Cheri Holden. "I'm hoping [the Lakeport School District and Lakeport City Council] will hear their constituency and acknowledge the general public's feeling that the property remains open."

Elsewhere, the Sierra Club hosted a Green Beer event on St. Patrick's Day in Seattle, released a Sustainable Energy Independence for NYC report in New York City, gave an award to the mayor of St. Cloud, Minnesota, for his efforts to reduce the city's pollution, petitioned on behalf of endangered Lake Superior fish, promoted recycling in Blacksburg, Virginia, light-rail transit in Pittsburgh, and public transportation in Georgia, and opposed a new coal-fired power plant in North Carolina.