Six Hundred Rally in Helena 'For the Love of Montana'

On President's Day, the Sierra Club teamed up with other environmental and citizens groups to host the largest legislative event of the year in Helena, the state capital. That's Sierra Club volunteer Gita Wohlsein and Club organizer Brad Hash, above, at the rally.

The event, For the Love of Montana, was organized "to help and preserve Montana's clean and healthful environment and the laws that protect it." The Montana Sierra Club scheduled its annual Lobby Day to coincide with the rally.

"Freezing temperatures, gray skies and several inches of newly fallen snow were no deterrent to the more than 600 Montanans who poured onto the state capitol lawn to rally for clean air, clean water, clean energy, and to challenge the clot of anti-environmental bills now appearing before the legislature," says Brad Hash of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign.

 

Fellow organizers Mike Scott and Bob Clark worked with Hash to mobilize members and volunteers from around the state. "It's important that we stand strong not only for state laws that protect Montana's natural heritage," Hash says, "but also for EPA's role in regulating the toxins spewing from industrial sources such as our giant Colstrip coal-fired power plant."

Clemson to Go Off Coal, Eliminate Carbon Emissions by 2030

When Clemson University announced on February 18 that it would be replacing the school's outdated utility system and eliminating the use of coal, it became the 12th campus to make such an announcement since the Sierra Student Coalition launched its Campusus Beyond Coal campaign.

The following was originally posted on the SSC blog by Campusus Beyond Coal representative Kim Teplitzky (above):

After a year-long effort by students, Clemson President Jim Barker announced the university will be investing in several university upgrades including ending the use of coal on campus! The campaign, spearheaded by Students for Environmental Action at Clemson, has been working with the administration to stop burning dangerous coal in the campus steam plant situated near the aptly named “Death Valley” — the university’s football field.

Ending their use of coal is just phase I of several planned utility upgrades over the next five years and a significant step towards meeting the university’s commitment to reduce their overall carbon emissions to zero by 2030.

Students are excited and looking forward to another address by the President planned for next week at their "Solutions for the Next Decade" teach-in where they hope to hear more details for the transition.

"Clemson is making strides in becoming more aware of sustainability and taking concrete steps to reduce its carbon emissions," says graduate student and SEA leader Holly Garrett. "Nowhere is this more evident than in President Barker's announcement to begin Phase 1 of taking the campus coal plant offline. This will catapult Clemson toward our goal of becoming a carbon neutral campus by the year 2030 and we are very excited to hear yesterday’s announcement."

"This decision to move our university beyond coal shows that the university is really listening to the concerns of students and faculty who want a cleaner, healthier campus, and demonstrates our dedication to environmental, economic, and social leadership," says CU Beyond Coal leader Rose Kinane. "I’m very proud to go a university that is committing to building a clean energy future. Now we hope to see the university continue to invest in solutions like efficiency for our buildings and renewable energy projects that will make our school a 100% clean energy institution."

Citizens Lobby for a Coal-Free Washington

Hundreds of citizens descended on the Washington State capitol in Olympia on February 15 to support clean energy and a coal-free future for the state. That's University of Washington graduate student Chris Gamble, above, speaking about the need to transition away from coal.

The occasion was the Environmental Priorities Coalition's annual Lobby Day, where people from around the state come to the capitol to lobby on the legislative priorities of the environmental community. Atop the agenda this year is ending Washington's reliance on the TransAlta Coal Plant.

"We had a fantastic lobby day and hearing," says Robin Everett, below, of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign. "Over 500 people turned out to let legislators know that coal is harmful to our health and environment and it is time to transition from the TransAlta coal plant to clean energy."

Environmentalists, doctors, students, and faith leaders spoke in support of shutting down TransAlta as soon as possible. "We filled up the hearing room, the overflow room, and the Senate Chambers," Everett says.

Hundreds Turn Out to Support Clean Power in Chicago

The Sierra Club helped turn out an estimated 250 citizens on February 14 for an ad hoc hearing at Chicago's City Hall to support the Clean Power Ordinance, proposed by Alderman Joe Moore to address air pollution from the city's aging Fisk and Crawford coal-burning plants. Below, the Crawford plant.

Photo courtesy of ABC7 Chicago

Representatives from the health, environmental, and social justice communities gave testimony before a packed chamber of supporters. "It was amazing," says Sierra Club Beyond Coal organizer Christine Nannicelli, below. "The work to pass this ordinance in has brought together a broad coalition of community groups under the banner of the Chicago Clean Power Coalition."

Clean Air Advocates Pack EPA Session in Atlanta

Sierra Club members and many other clean air advocates attended en masse the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Listening Session with Environmental and Environmental Justice Organization Representatives on the agency's proposed carbon pollution protections this past Tuesday in Atlanta.

This is the second session - the first one took place in Washington, DC - out of five that the EPA is holding in order to collect information about its proposed safeguards to protect Americans from the carbon pollution emitted by power plants and refineries.

The session in Atlanta was overwhelmed by more than 100 activists concerned about clean air and calling on EPA to create stronger standards to protect people from the dangerous carbon pollution.

Club Addresses Environmental Justice Legacy of Coal in Southwest

[The following essay by Sierra Club Environmental Justice organizer Andy Bessler, above, originally appeared on February 15 in the High Country News.]

I have been busy this year chasing my two young ones around the house trying to get giddy little happy people to take a few moments from their daily joy to drink some water, gulp vitamins and brush their teeth before bed so they can stay healthy. The need to play is often prioritized over their health, but they get it and do it.

As the future of coal is discussed in many communities and utility board rooms, I am equally busy chasing decision makers playing around and avoiding the healthy choices of brushing up on the EJ issues that, if addressed, would bring us to that elusive sweet spot of addressing coal's dark legacy and dangerous pollution while bringing more jobs and brighter tribal economies with a clean energy future.

For the owners and key decision makers of the large coal plants in the Southwest like the Navajo Generating Station on the shores of Lake Powell, a child's creativity and simple ideas might really help our national dialogue around the transition from coal to renewables.

The Salt River Project, a huge Phoenix-based utility that manages the generating station, has been hosting meetings across the state with diverse stakeholders including the Navajo, Hopi and Gila River Nations; tribal NGO's like the Black Mesa Water Coalition and the Forgotten People; conservation groups like the Sierra Club and Grand Canyon Trust, Department of Interior, Central Arizona Project and their big irrigators.  One participant told a story about his granddaughter viewing one of the slides of the huge generating station smokestacks on his computer. When discussing what Granddad was doing, she nodded her head and said, "Why can't they just put a big cork in those smokestacks?"

Club Goes to Bat for Ratepayers, Fights Coal 'Boondoggle' in Mississippi

On February 14, the Sierra Club went back to court in its ongoing battle to stop Mississippi Power from proceeding with plans for a controversial new $2.4 billion coal-fired power plant in Kemper County.

"It was a big day for our campaign against the Kemper County Coal Plant and mine," says Club organizer Louis Miller, above at lectern, introducing Mississippi Sierra Club Vice Chair Rose Johnson.

"We organized a press conference before the hearing in which we had a robust and very diverse crowd of approximately 70 people including speakers from small businesses, community groups, Kemper citizens, a Gulfport city councilwoman, and the Gulf Restoration Network, which co-hosted the event."

The event drew the Mississippi Business Journal, the Biloxi Sun-Herald, and we were the lead story on WLOX's news programs as well as their homepage.

Citizens wore lapel stickers stating "Dirty Expensive Unnecessary" and held flip-flops inscribed with the names of two PSC commissioners' who reversed their decision last year and allowed Kemper to move forward.

Club Works With Labor, Tribal Partners to Protect Vermont Forests

Last fall, the Vermont Sierra Club decided the time was right to launch an ambitions forest conservation campaign and build a broad-based movement within the state to support it.

On February 9, the chapter's Our Forests Our Future campaign was officially endorsed by the Vermont Workers' Center, which includes many affiliated labor unions including the 10,000-strong Vermont AFL-CIO. Below, a Workers' Center rally in Montpelier, the state capital.

"The Workers' Center is essentially the Vermont labor movement," says local Sierra Club organizer David Van Deusen, below. "It's by far the strongest grassroots group in the state, and now they've expressed interest in helping us train our volunteer organizers."

The Club has also enlisted the support of Abenaki tribal leaders in Vermont. "The Abenaki have sent representatives to many of our meetings, and they're very interested in playing a strong role in our efforts to conserve forest land in the Northeast Kingdom," says Van Deusen. "And it's not a one-way street. Just as the Abenaki have been supporting our campaign, the Vermont Sierra Club has been active in supporting them on their issues. It's a true partnership."

Our Forests Our Future is part of the national Sierra Club's Resilient Habitats campaign. "We're moving forward by reaching out to non-traditional allies," says chapter chair Zak Griefen. "This diversity gives us strength. We look forward to collaborating with both new and established allies to preserve and expand biological corridors throughout the state."

"Of course, we had to do this the Vermont way," Van Deusen quips. "Instead of creating new forest protections through federal acquisitions, we'd like Vermonters to build a mosaic of town-owned conservation forests. Locally-owned, Vermonter-owned, open to the public—this is our aim and intention."

Big Support for Wildlands & Wildlife in Puerto Rico

On February 5th the Sierra Club of Puerto Rico and coalition partners turned out 533 people to the state government's public hearings on the proposed fragmentation of the island's Northeast Ecological Corridor (NEC).

The 3,200-acre NEC was designated as a nature reserve in 2008, only to have that protection removed by the succeeding governor the following year in order to allow for large-scale development in the area, including nearly 5,000 residential and tourist units and four golf courses.

The Corridor, a top priority for the Puerto Rico Sierra Club, is one of the most important nesting grounds for the critically endangered leatherback sea turtle, and more than 50 rare, threatened, endangered, and native species are found in the NEC.

"The day of the hearing was amazing," says Puerto Rico Sierra Club coordinator Camilla Feibelman, below. "We had a bus come from San Juan with 50 people, and when they arrived we held a demonstration at the base of the building. We marched up seven flights of stairs chanting, then walked into the hearing room silently with our placards raised."

The room was so packed there weren't enough chairs, so volunteers rushed to rent 100 extras. "The government's panel started to present their plan, but at a certain point people's emotions overflowed and the crowd started to chant and clap," Feibelman says. "Meanwhile the leader of the government panel played the perfect villain, asking people to stop repeating themselves."

Scrapping of Purdue Boiler Marks 150th Canceled Coal Plant

When Purdue University announced on February 3 that it was canceling plans for a new campus coal plant, the significance reverberated far beyond the university and the town of West Lafayette, Indiana. The nixing of the Purdue plant marked the 150th coal plant to be defeated or abandoned since the beginning of the "coal rush" in 2001.

 

The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign is largely responsible for the fact that no new coal plants have started construction in the United States in the last two years, during which time the coal industry has announced the phase-out of more than 50 plants. That's Purdue alum Gerry Van Horn below, speaking out against the new plant.

 

The Sierra Student Coalition, a key player in the Purdue fight, received an extra measure of satisfaction when the university's Board of Trustees announced that they were instead approving the leasing of land for a new wind turbine farm.

Alexis Boxer, Sierra Student Coalition organizer with the Campuses Against Coal campaign, has been working since last spring with Purdue students, faculty, and West Lafayette community members activists to challenge the administration's decision to install a new coal boiler on their existing on-campus coal plant, below.