Club and Allies Ramp Up Pressure to Retire Aging Chicago Coal Plants

The Sierra Club and the Chicago Clean Power Coalition teamed up to organize rallies and press conferences in Chicago on February 15 and 21, ramping up the pressure on Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Midwest Generation to retire the aging Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants.

That's Sierra Club activist Abby Toms, above at left with fellow members of the Chicago Youth Climate Coalition at the February 21 rally. Below left, a Chicago mother for clean air; at right, Chicago Sierra Club volunteer leader Tony Fuller. The "I am one of the 42" t-shirts refer to the 42 Chicagoans whom studies show die prematurely each year due to pollution from the Fisk and Crawford plants.

The Sierra Club's Chicago Group, Illinois Chapter, and Beyond Coal Campaign have been working in coalition with local allies to educate the public about the health risks of coal-fired power plants and retire the Fisk and Crawford facilities. Chicago is the only U.S. city to have two coal plants within its borders, and one in four Chicagoans live within three miles of the plants' smokestacks.

Club Tells New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward: 'We've Got Your Back'

I did not expect to see sleek modern spaceship-like homes with solar panels and platinum LEED-certification in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, where floods wiped out most of the community during Hurricane Katrina.


One of the 75 Make It Right platinum LEED-certified houses in the Lower 9th Ward.

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I was also surprised that one important element of the community’s vision is the restoration of Bayou Bienvenue, a cypress swamp bordering the Lower 9th that has been degraded by salt water intrusion.

I was in the Lower 9th with a contingent of Sierra Club and Sierra Club Foundation board directors, staff, and local leaders on a tour led by Environmental Justice Organizer Darryl Malek-Wiley. We started with a press conference at Bayou Bienvenue, where Club Executive Director Michael Brune recognized the work of Tracy Nelson and the Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED) in pushing to rebuild the community in an environmentally sensitive way and with broad input from its residents.

From left, at a press conference overlooking Bayou Bienvenue: Robin Mann, Sierra Club president (in beige jacket); Tracy Nelson, CSED director; Aaron Mair, Club board member; Micheal Brune, Club executive director; Charles Allen, former CSED director; Allison Chin, Club board treasurer; John Taylor, local bayou expert; Lane Boldman, Club board member; and Darryl Malek-Wiley (with the white beard). “The Sierra Club has your back,” Brune told the community leaders. (Photo by Jim Dougherty.)

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Brune also said that he had recently sent a letter to President Obama in support of “full restitution by BP” for its 2010 oil spill and the maximum penalties under the Clean Air Act. (The trial opens March 5.)

From the windy press conference on a recently constructed wooded dock overlooking the bayou, we went to visit the 70-plus houses built by Brad Pitt’s Make It Right and a smaller group of home built by Global Green. Malek-Wiley said that the homes were a collaboration with a group of internationally acclaimed architects, like Frank Gehry, and the local residents, who wanted more sustainable homes. The average monthly electricity costs in these new homes is $50-$60 per month compared to the city average of $150-$200.

Here's how you can help restore Bayou Bienvenue.

— by John Byrne Barry

Getting Students Involved in New Jersey

By Victoria Pan, New Jersey Chapter's High School Coordinator

One of our “success stories” includes the Students Saving Energy “Meet and Greet” event. The SSE meet and greet was held in October at the Ridgewood Public Library. It was a great opportunity for students from various high school environmental clubs throughout North Jersey to come together to learn more about our campaigns and brainstorm ideas for how they can make their schools more sustainable.

In addition, teachers, Sierra Club members, and representatives from other organizations like Youth Now participated as well.

We provided many resources, ideas, and supplies for clubs to take home so that everyone could start off the year on the right foot. There were guest speakers and refreshments, and everyone received a free reusable bag, too. Our goal was to create a strong network of students that work together to take action in our communities. We were able to engage many of them in becoming a part of the Sierra Club, especially in community environment functions.

After the event, we made sure to get feedback from students and maintain communication. This event was definitely an impetus for a new and exciting youth energy conservation movement.

Purdue Students Turn Up the Heat for Renewable Energy

Student activists at Purdue University collected more than 1,000 public comments in less than two weeks, urging the university to move off coal and incorporate more renewable energy into the school's new Comprehensive Energy Master Plan. The university is in the midst of a public comment period regarding the plan, which was released in mid-January.

Above, students deliver the comments on Valentine's Day. Below, some of the 30 six-foot-tall windmills that students installed in the campus quad.

"The Energy Master Plan outlines a gradual transition from coal to (mostly) natural gas while still maintaining a coal-fired boiler on campus," says Alexis Boxer, Sierra Student Coalition (SSC) organizer for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. "Purdue needs to make a much stronger commitment to renewable energy."

Inner City Outings: A Time for Imagination

Lara Guttadauro was an Inner City Outings leader before she became a mother.

So when her daughter entered elementary school, Lara decided to combine the two, bringing the rewards of the Sierra Club program to her child's classroom. Now nearly every Wednesday after school, Lara and other parents take about a dozen kids on an outdoor adventure -- whether it's a mile-long trail loop or the local aquarium.

"It's so enjoyable to see the kids outside playing," Lara says. "We can walk two blocks to a playground where the kids play for two straight hours. They interact and use their imagination. The girls will put together dirt and leaves, come up to you, and offer it as a cupcake. This is the time for them to have fun and be creative."

Lara is one of the several volunteers across the country that brings Inner City Outings to life. ICO encompasses 50 groups that lead more than 800 trips for 14,000 kids each year. In many cases, kids in ICO live in crime-ridden areas without access to the outdoors.

One Activist's Vision Becomes Community Article of Faith

Longtime Sierra Club member Jan Freed of Los Angeles has for years been making efforts to conserve energy and reduce his environmental footprint. But the former high school science teacher had a larger vision: that his synagogue, Temple Sinai in Glendale, California, go solar.
 
After the synagogue had an energy audit a couple years ago, Freed asked Mark Lavender, the president of the congregation's lay leadership, what they were paying monthly for electricity. "We'd installed compact fluorescent bulbs," Freed says, "but still our electricity costs were way too high."

Fast-forward to January 29, 2012, when Glendale Temple Sinai dedicated its new 125-panel solar array, which will produce up to 44,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year and ultimately save the congregation an estimated $1,000 a month.

Above, the new Temple Sinai solar array nears completion. Below, members of the congregation ceremonially cut the cost of their monthly electricity bill. That's Freed in red shirt, right of center.

“We are all here because of the vision of one man who started us on the path of true environmental sustainability,” said Rabbi Richard Schechter, below left, at the solar array dedication ceremony.

Surveying the Scene in Montana

By Owen Weber, Montana Chapter Secretary

The Montana Chapter conducted a survey of its membership last year that turned out to be a very successul project and a learning experience. It was our intent to create a survey that would help the chapter identity issues important to members and create a list of potential volunteer leaders that the chapter could develop in its effort to build leadership across the state. We developed the survey using surveys done by other chapters. The survey comprised 21 questions with some multiple choice, some rated, some yes-and-no questions, and some short answer ones.

We gave members a month to respond. We extended the deadline two weeks after getting a lot of responses. All data were compiled into a database and we contacted respondents who offered their contact information.

The response rate was incredible. The Chapter mailed a survey out to every member (1,998) and we received 110 responses -- a 5.5 percent response rate on a lengthy survey where members had to fold the survey, seal it, attach their own postage, and mail it back. So far with the data compiled, the chapter has been able to hold a house party based on responses. We have added folks to committees and we are trying to help others in remote areas develop strategies for outreach.

One major factor for our success was following up with phone calls with respondents who provided a phone number. But there were challenges with following up with members who were on the fence about actually wanting to volunteer. A national staffer and myself developed a chapter summary of what the chapter had been up to as well as where the chapter wanted to go. During calls we also focused on what the respondents had said they were interested in. Using the summary as well as their interest, we would tell the respondent about openings for volunteer leaders within their desired areas and ask what they would be willing to commit to.

Developing a plan for following up is critical for success. Make sure you know what you are going to ask your respondents and be willing to meet folks face-to-face. Be sure to thank them for their time for completing the survey. And don't be deterred if folks can't volunteer even when they said they could on the survey, Ask them what they can do now and when they can participate at a later time.

Have a success story to share? We'd like to hear about it. Go to the Success Stories project on the Sierra Club's Activist Network and let others learn from your experience.

Club Helps Preserve Strong Florida Fertilizer Regs

On February 3 in St. Petersburg, the Florida Sierra Club held its fifth press conference in 11 days to protest a bill in the state legislature that would have scuttled local fertilizer regulations during the torrential rainy season, June through September. That's Sierra Club organizer Cris Costello, above, speaking to the media.

Three days later, the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation killed the bill, prompting the House to table HB 421, its version of the measure. Asked if it was dead, the bill's chief sponsor replied, "In three letters, yes."

Longtime Sierra Club staffer Frank Jackalone calls the victory against Big Fertilizer, Big Pest Control, and Big Turf a true grassroots success story.

At the St. Petersburg press conference, Club activists rallied behind Costello, holding signs and displaying photographs taken by Pinellas County staff showing lawn care companies applying fertilizer while it was raining—a recipe for runoff pollution.

Photo courtesy of WTSP Channel 10 News

"Despite the provisions of the local ordinance and despite basic common sense, these companies sent employees to apply fertilizer during a rainstorm," Costello told WTSP-TV News, the local CBS affiliate. "The rainy season ban is the backbone of meaningful fertilizer management."

The St. Petersburg rally followed similar media events on January 23 in Sarasota, Fort Myers, Clearwater, and Stuart. That's Club organizer Katie Parrish, below, speaking in Fort Myers.

Hawai'i Chapter: Don't Forget Your Bag

The 50th state might become the very first state in the country to bag the bag if an idea the legislature is currently weighing becomes law. Last week, the Sierra Club's Hawai'i Chapter joined a coalition outside Honolulu's capitol building and covered the lawn with plastic bags, giving state legislators a visual sense of our country's massive bag problem.

"A plastic bag is almost like the modern day tumble weed," says Robert Harris, Chapter Director. "Being a marine state, we have to be more vigilant about eliminating them before they get into the ecosystem."

The bill being considered would target all bags -- paper and plastic -- and tack on a fee of ten cents that would go toward restoring and protecting watersheds and rainforest areas that get trampled by invasive animals -- goats, sheep, deer, pigs. Supporters believe a state-wide bag fee could raise about $20 million a year.

Don't like the idea of a fee? No problem. Bring your own bag.

"Bags are the low hanging fruit in terms of our waste stream," Harris said.

Last week's rally received a big boost from Diana Sellner, a local Girl Scout who mobilized help as part of her bid to earn the Gold Award, the scouting program's top award. Soon after she began, environmental groups, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, and retailers hopped on board. 

Club Mobilizes Public to Block Bryce Boondoggle

Photo by Niles Urry, courtesy of EnviroNews

The last Friday in January, the Sierra Club held a rally and press conference outside the Bureau of Land Management's office in Salt Lake City and hand-delivered sample copies of 210,126 email comments to the BLM state director's office. That's Club organizer Tim Wagner, below, delivering the comments.

The comments were in opposition to a proposal by Alton Coal Development to expand its operations by leasing and strip-mining more than 3,500 acres of federal land a mere 10 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park, below, which many consider to be among the U.S. Park Service's crown jewels.

Photo by Jean-Christophe Benoist

"The mine expansion would effectively turn this region—arguably the prettiest part of Utah—into an industrial zone," Wagner says. "Bryce Canyon is one of America's great beauty icons, and a strip mine right outside the park is not what Utahns or the rest of the nation wants to see."

Dan Mayhew, conservation chair for the Sierra Club's Utah Chapter, points to the heavy truck traffic the mine expansion would bring—more than 300 trucks a day when round-trips are factored in.

The Club's Resilient Habitats and Water Sentinels programs have trained local activists to test streams in the area to expose the coal industry's assertion that strip mining won't affect water quality.

"We want to see the U.S. move away from coal," Wagner says. "Allowing a 20-to-35-year strip mine to occur is a huge displacement of clean energy opportunities."