Club Activist's Coast-to-Coast Electric Bicycle Tour

On Earth Day, Sierra Club member Oliver Bock and acquaintances left Woodside, Calif., on electric bikes on a cross-country trip to Washington, D.C., where they met their congressional representative. Along the way they engaged with environmentalists, bicyclists, clean-energy activists, politicians, and media members to talk clean energy and transportation. They also blogged about the journey and posted pictures, which you can view here. Mr. Bock took a few minutes for a Q&A. (Photos courtesy Oliver Bock. Interview by Brian Foley.)

How long did you travel and when did you get there?

Over 3,000 miles. We got there June 20.



What did you talk about with your congressional representative?

Anna Eshoo is very concerned about green issues and sustainability. She's frustrated with trying to get what they passed last June passed in the Senate. She talked about trying to green Washington and the Mall area. And we talked about bike trails. D.C. has made strong commitments to bikes, but they don’t allow electric bicycles on bike paths. She said she would talk to (Department of Transportation head Ray) LaHood about possibly getting that changed.

Talk about electric bikes for those who don’t know about them.

There are two categories. There are ready-made bikes that typically have a torque sensor and axle that activates itself when you pedal. The motor doesn’t work if you don’t work. The other category, which is what we did, is a kit where you can buy a hub motor and wire it up. Those have throttles on them. And you pedal assist. Anytime we'd talk to anybody about electric bicycles they'd asked, "Do you charge the battery when you pedal?" It’s a legitimate question because you’re generating power with your legs. But the answer is not really. The pedaling makes the battery last longer. We were getting about 85 to 90 miles on a charge, which really surprised us. If we didn’t pedal at all, we’d get about half that. So our pedaling was enough to ease the burden on the battery.

We brought a solar panel on a support vehicle with us. But this wasn’t an off-the-grid project. I don’t think it was possible to do that. We charged using the grid. We camped a lot and found places that had power. We figured we used about 1/20th of the amount of electricity used for an electric car, just based on the weight difference. And then with pedal power it adds even more efficiency. It’s really insignificant how much energy we used.

Boilermakers Living Up to their Name at Purdue

 

There's a sad irony in the fact that Purdue University's intercollegiate athletic teams are known as the Boilermakers.

Flying in the face of a nationwide trend to wean our college campuses off coal, Indiana environmental officials have given a tentative thumbs-up to Purdue's plans for a brand new coal-fired boiler to produce steam for campus heating needs—the only new proposed campus coal boiler in the country.

As soon as they got wind of the plan, the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) at Purdue and the Sierra Club's Hoosier Chapter sprang into action, organizing Purdue students, faculty, and alumni to oppose it. That's physics professor Ephraim Fischbach, above, speaking out against the new boiler. Below, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign organizer James Gignac at a press conference at Cumberland Elementary School in West Lafayette, where Purdue is located.

 

SSC organizer Alexis Boxer, below left, says many locals were completely unaware of the university's plans. "We feel that people in West Lafayette and other communities should have a say about this because it's going to affect them for decades to come. Purdue has the ability to use their innovation to be a leader. They don't have to use coal. This is a chance for them to prove that they are leading the way with their engineering school to do great things."

With help from Beyond Coal Midwest representative Nachy Kanfer, above right, the Purdue SSC is working with other student groups like the Boiler Green Initiative to do public outreach like tabling and passing out flyers on campus. SSC and chapter activists have also contacted university officials and met with Purdue's sustainability coordinator and Vice-President for External Relations.

Success in Sierra Club's Five-Year Formaldehyde Fight

Photo by Pete Souza, courtesy of the White House

Little-noticed while the ongoing BP Oil Disaster dominated the headlines in early July was President Obama's signing of a critical piece of environmental legislation—a landmark bill that will protect consumers by enacting national standards for formaldehyde in composite wood products.

The Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act, which passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support, was signed into law July 7.

"Without the action of Congress, better regulation of formaldehyde could have taken many years longer," says Becky Gillette, above, a longtime volunteer leader for the Sierra Club's Mississippi Chapter who now directs the Club's Formaldehyde Campaign.

With Gillette spearheading the effort, the Sierra Club has been working on formaldehyde issues in earnest ever since tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents were sickened by formaldehyde poisoning in FEMA-issued trailers across the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Gillette earned the moniker "The Erin Brockovich of Formaldehyde" for her groundbreaking work uncovering and publicizing the toxic FEMA trailers and compelling congressional action. Below, a FEMA trailer park in Hope, Arkansas.

As the first organization to publicize the toxicity of formaldehyde-laden emergency housing after Hurricane Katrina, the Sierra Club has taken a lead role in fighting for better disaster assistance and stronger regulations.

Athletes Tour Gulf Coast to See Impacts of BP Oil Spill

On July 13, as the devastating consequences of the BP Oil Disaster continued to unfold, a group of athletes ranging from NFL to NHL stars to Olympic medalists joined Sierra Club activists in coastal Louisiana to tour the damage, voice their support for Gulf Coast communities, and share with their fans what they saw. Listen to some of what they had to say on this video.

Pictured at top of post (front row, l-r) Leilani Munter, NASCAR/ARCA driver; Loree Smith, 2008 track & field Summer Olympian; Stacey Cook, 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympian and member of the U.S. Alpine Ski Team; Krista Bradford Ference, X-Games snowboarder; Chanda Rubin, former World #6-ranked tennis player; Mike Richter, New York Rangers goalie and 3-time Winter Olympian; Andrew Ference of the NHL's Boston Bruins; (back row, l-r) Mike Alstott of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Ovie Mughelli of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons; Gary Morgan, 1988 Summer Olympian and holder of 17 national track & field titles.

Above, Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference. Below, an oiled pelican struggles to survive.

Photo by Julie Dermansky 

Highlighting the connection between sports, human health, and a clean environment, the athletes discussed why we need to fully clean up the Gulf Coast and move the country toward clean energy to ensure that a disaster like this never happens again.

 

"Seeing this firsthand, I was struck by the vastness of the problem," said Richter. "As athletes we understand the connection between the environment and health. We want people to realize this isn't just about the environment—it's about people, health, economy, and quality of life. This is not just a Gulf Coast problem; it's everyone's concern. It's not a 'someday' issue; it's something we have to deal with now."

 

Water Sentinels Volunteer Tests the Waters in Pueblo

 

After graduating from Colorado State University–Pueblo with a Biology degree in 2006, Jenny Kedward went to work in the environmental health field in that city. She is now Environmental Coordinator for the Health Department of the City and County of Pueblo.

An active member of the Sierra Club for the last seven years, with more than 20 volunteer leadership positions under her belt, Kedward has served as Chair of the Club's Rocky Mountain Chapter since January 2009.

"My goal is to engage more residents of Colorado in the work we're doing," she says, "especially in Pueblo and areas along the Rocky Mountain Front Range, where the majority of Coloradans live."

 

Kedward is also the coordinator and founder of the Fountain Creek Water Sentinels, based in Pueblo. Above, Kedward and Pueblo high schoolers on an outing to Fountain Creek. Below, Kedward, at left, and fellow Water Sentinels volunteers stand behind the fruits of their labors after a creek cleanup.

 

The Sierra Club's Water Sentinels Program, with 51 projects and hundreds of partner programs in 41 states, trains volunteers to collect water samples and monitor data with the goal of getting America's waterways cleaned up.

Kedward's biology training and water-testing skills came in handy when the Club's Sangre de Cristo Group started the Fountain Creek Sentinels in 2005 after horrendous sewage spills upstream from Pueblo polluted Fountain Creek.

Longtime Sierra Club leader Ross Vincent, an inveretate clean water activist and now Sangre de Cristo Group Chair, recommended Kedward to national Water Sentinels Director Scott Dye, who asked Kedward to head up the Fountain Creek program. That's Vincent, below left, with Sal Pace, district director for U.S. Congressman John Salazar (brother of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar).

 

"Through my education at CSU–Pueblo, I learned a great deal about how water works and why it is so vitally important to life on this planet," Kedward says. "And thanks to a grant from our local wastewater treatment plant, I'd spent a year doing a lot of water sampling along two of Pueblo's major waterways."

Below, Kedward trains volunteers to do water-quality testing in Fountain Creek.

Tiny Tribe Takes Stand Against Toxic Sands

The Beaver Lake Cree, a First Nations tribe of 900 living in the forests of northern Alberta, stand at the front lines of the next environmental catastrophe. Their lands are hedged in by the massive Alberta tar sands mines- vast open pits of black sand and toxic tailings ponds- that are supplying the US with 1.9 million barrels of oil a day, with plans in the works to triple production by 2025.

But the Beaver Lake Cree are taking a stand, and their tiny tribe may be the best defense against the environmental onslaught from the behemoth tar sands project.

Backed by aboriginal law expert Jack Woodward of Woodward & Co., the tribe is suing the government of Alberta and Canada for violation of an 1870 treaty the Crown made with Beaver Lake Cree ancestors, which guaranteed their right to continue to live off their land just as they always had.

The Cree’s ability to hunt and fish their native lands is considered a constitutional right, and the widespread destruction of habitat and toxic polluting runoff from tar sands mining is so widespread, the Boreal ecosystem the Cree have relied on for centuries is falling apart.

Groundwater contaminated by toxic runoff from the mines is no longer safe to drink. Fish are caught with strange deformities, and elk and deer are getting too thin to eat. The forest is checkered with wires and pipes that ferry bitumen and gas, fragmenting critical habitat and driving out game. Communities living close to the mines have seen dramatic increases in a rare form of bile duct cancer- there have been four fatal cases in the past five years in a community of nearly 1000, when this disease typically affects only one in 100,000.

If the landmark lawsuit succeeds, it will render 17,000 development leases issued by the Alberta government to mining companies null and void, putting the ballooning expansion of the tar sands on ice.

This legal case may be the best shot at checking the rampant development of the tar sands project, and deserves all the attention and support you can provide. Tell a friend, and visit www.raventrust.com to make a contribution to this tiny band of eco-warriors today!

Full House: 'Coal-Free Oregon' Generates Momentum

 

On June 23, more than 400 clean energy activists turned out at a public hearing before the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) on the future of Portland General Electric's Boardman Plant, the state's only coal-fired power plant.

 

Activists jammed the main hearing room, above, and an overflow room, below.

 

"The turnout overwhelmed PUC staff and prompted remarks from Portland Mayor Sam Adams, below, about the sea of 'Coal-Free Oregon' t-shirts," says Portland-based Sierra Club organizer Cesia Kearns, who estimated that about three-quarters of the citizens in attendance were Sierra Clubbers or supporters of the Club's Oregon Beyond Coal campaign.

 

Mayor Adams spoke at a pre-hearing press conference organized by Kearns, above at right, and fellow Sierra Club organizer Robin Everett.

Says Oregon Chapter Director Brian Pasko: "When the Mayor arrived, he wasn't expecting to come into such a packed room of people wearing yellow-and-black Sierra Club t-shirts. He turned to me and asked, 'Who are all these people?' It was pretty cool to say, 'Well, Mr. Mayor, these are all Sierra Club volunteers!'"

The Sierra Club is urging the PUC not to approve a plan for Portland General Electric (PGE) to invest half a billion dollars into the aging Boardman plant that would enable it to operate until 2040.

Connecting Educators and their Children to Nature

 

The second annual Growing Roots Teacher Workshop was held at the Camp McDowell Environmental Center (MEC) in Nauvoo, Alabama, the next-to-last week in June.

Twenty-one teachers brought along 31 of their children and grandchildren to explore, learn, and—as MEC Director Maggie Wade Johnston puts it—"just have good old-fashioned fun together!"

 

The workshop was sponsored by the Alabama Sierra Club and the Club's national Water Sentinels program.

 

"We learned how to create art through mosaics, using recycled and reused material," says Johnston, a longtime Sierra Club activist and former Alabama Chapter chair. "We studied fossils and then went to a world-famous fossil site, the Minkin Trackway site, near the camp."