Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 5.16.2008

Warm weather brings out the gardeners from coast to coast, but two Chicago suburbs have banned the sale of lawn and garden fertilizers containing phosphorus, which runs off into Lake Michigan, promoting excessive growth of algae and choking off aquatic life. "In recent years, there has been a growing awareness about the problem of nutrient pollution—too much phosphorus and nitrogen in the water," Ed Hopkins (above left), director of the Sierra Club's environmental quality program, told the Chicago Tribune. Last month, after traces of the powerful insect repellant DEET were found in Chicago's drinking water, Hopkins told the Trib's main competitor, the Sun-Times, that the EPA should be more aggressive in keeping contaminants out of water supplies.

Due to community concerns in Detroit, Marathon Oil is finding it more difficult than anticipated to get an air-quality permit from the state for a nearly $2 billion refinery expansion, even though the company claims it will add more than 900 jobs to the local economy boost domestic oil production by 15,000 gallons a day by 2010. "The bottom line is those are temporary construction jobs," said Sierra Club environmental justice organizer Rhonda Anderson (above center). "There will be less than 100 permanent jobs and only a few entry-level jobs. It's not right that people have to choose between a good job and clean air. That's not the American way."

The coal industry is mounting an all-out marketing campaign touting "Clean Coal" as the best and cheapest source of energy for the nation, but many see the campaign as a desperate bid for public support as the prospect of a more environmentally-friendly administration looms, and with it the likelihood of federal limits on carbon dioxide emissions. "When they say 'clean coal,' the first question that comes to mind is have they invented a new product that actually solves global warming, because right now that doesn't exist," Bruce Nilles (above right), director of the Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign, told Salon.com. "It is a figment of their imagination. The Clean Coal campaign is the latest example of trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge."

Florence, South Carolina, recently became the seventh city in the Palmetto State to sign onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement after civic leaders learned about the Club's Cool Cities program. South Carolina Sierra Club chapter director John Ramsburgh emphasized that cities can cut millions of dollars from their budgets by investing in efficiency. "Clearly, we have been hearing that energy efficiency and renewables are not just good for the environment, they're good for the economy," he said. "That's what the Cool Cities program is all about."

Last week the Sierra Club and partner groups announced a landmark deal to protect the largest contiguous parcel of land designated for conservation in California history—240,000 acres on the privately-owned Tejon Ranch, in the mountains south of Bakersfield. "There is, in my opinion, no other place like it in California," said Sierra Club senior regional representative Bill Corcoran (above, speaking), who helped negotiate the deal. "For Southern California, this is the equivalent of the Lousiana Purchase."

Earlier this year we reported on Carbonrally.com, a website and real-life game that lets teams from around the country compete to see who can reduce their carbon footprint the most. This week, Carbonrally popped up in Time Magazine online, where Sierra Club environmental-advice columnist Bob Schildgen, a.k.a. Mr. Green, praised the game's fun, competitive approach. "Global warming is an abstract idea that's hard for people to connect to," said Schildgen. "It's good to start at the basic level, with real numbers."

It must have come as a shock to many Kentuckians to learn last week that some $400,000 of their tax dollars are given each year to the coal industry for public campaigns that promote mining, including mountaintop removal. "The state should not be in the business of promoting propaganda for the coal industry," said Dave Cooper, chair of the Sierra Club's Bluegrass Group. "I drive around the country with a slide show to educate people about the damage caused by mountaintop removal mining. Funny, but I receive no government funding for my work at all."

In South Dakota, the Oglala Sioux Tribe is conducting an environmental study of mountain lions after learning that the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation may contain a breeding population. The Sierra Club and other groups have kicked in nearly $6,000 to keep study crews in the field for another year. All wildlife, including mountain lions, needs large areas of stress-free habitat, Sierra Club organizer Jim Margadant told the Greater Dakota News Service. "We got going on the project because of the huge contiguous acreage of wildlife habitat involved here. A large, stable predator population is healthy and maintains those habitat areas in better shape than an area without natural predators."

The polar bear became the first animal to win protections because of global warming when the U.S. government announced on May 14 that it would list the polar bear as a threatened species. But conservationists and others charged that listing the planet's apex predator was a hollow gesture so long as the Bush administration refused to use the Endangered Species Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions or curb Arctic oil and gas development. "Drilling would inundate polar bear habitat with pipelines, well pads, boat traffic, ice-breaking vessels, and seismic blasting," said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. "Allowing destructive energy development in polar bear habitat is akin to diagnosing someone with lung cancer and then handing them a lit cigarette."

Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 5.2.2008

On May 1, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, above, rejected an ultimatum by the state legislature to approve two new coal-fired power plants in the state. "It's great to see a leader get the big picture," said Kansas Sierra Club leader Bill Griffith. "Governor Sebelius is a rare breed of politician who examines long-term policy implications and truly does what is best for the citizens she represents." Last month Sebelius vetoed a bill to approve the project. The Senate overrode her veto on May 1, but the House fell four votes short of doing so. "Today's vote solidifies Kansas as a true leader in the fight against global warming and opens the door for a new economy based on clean energy technologies," the Kansas Sierra Club said in a statement to the press.

Longtime Mississippi Sierra Club activist Becky Gillette, above, who broke the story about Gulf Coast hurricane refugees being poisoned by formaldehyde in FEMA-issued trailers, was the subject of a lengthy profile in USA Today. After a local FEMA manager alerted his supervisors in 2006 about the problem but was told "not to worry about it," Gillette organized the testing of 69 FEMA trailers and mobile homes, 60 of which showed high levels of the toxic gas, forcing the agency to act. "For the longest time, it looked like they would never admit it was a problem," said Gillette.

The Sierra Club's burgeoning alliance with hunters and anglers made headlines this week. The partnership, said national Sierra Sportsmen organizer Jon Schwedler, is long overdue. "We've come full circle. John Muir was encouraged to start the Sierra Club by Teddy Roosevelt, a sportsman. Sportsmen were some of the first conservationists, and have always been an important part of the Sierra Club." Associate Press Secretary Kristina Johnson told reporters that the newly-launched SierraSportsmen.org will help connect sportsmen across state lines on conservation issues.

Seattle vaccine scientist David Sylvester was about to apply to graduate school when he decided instead to embark on a 15-month bicycling and hiking tour of the continental United States with his best friend, a shepherd/husky mix named Chiva, to raise awareness and money for protecting the environment and preventing animal cruelty. "Hiking with Chiva is my biggest passion in life and I love to bike," the 26-year-old Sylvester said. "This is about following my dreams and living by the principles of public service and outdoor adventure." Sylvester plans to summit the highest peak in each of the lower 48 states en route. His charities of choice are the Sierra Club and the Humane Society.

The Sierra Club made a big splash on and around Earth Day, the biggest coup arguably being CBS Early Show's seven-minute feature on location in the Everglades, which included an interview with the Club's Florida field rep Jon Ullman and national publicist Orli Cotel. Ullman spoke of the risks facing the Everglades and why it's so important to protect this national park. After correspondent Dave Price presented some Earth Day tips, Cotel handed him a compact fluorescent bulb and said, "if every family in America just changed five of their lightbulbs to these, it would be the same as getting ten million cars off the road."

Also on Earth Day, the Sierra Student Coalition at West Virginia University gave a Toxic Tour of Morgantown, which contains the highest concentration of power plants in the nation. Co-organizer Christy Hartman said students can "go home and tell their parents about it. Focus on the solutions, too, because it's not all gloom and doom. There are a million opportunities to address the problems we face, which is why we're out here." For a lighter take on the tour, check out this 1-minute YouTube video, and note the subtle message just before the end.

Sierra's green living guru Bob Schildgen, author of "Hey Mr. Green," popped up in a McHenry County, Illinois, newspaper story about the environmental implications of colleges and high schools that now require graduates to buy gowns as opposed to renting them. Mr. Green comes down solidly in favor of renting. "It's not that much trouble to launder a graduation gown," he said.

In Arkansas, Sierra Club forest specialist Tom McKinney urged a slowing of prescribed burns that would torch more than 200,000 acres of Forest Service lands in the state. Much of the forest doesn't need fire to rejuvenate itself, he said—the wet climate rots dead trees and leaves, unlike western forests in drier climates. McKinney advocated a return to burn levels of the 1980s, about 20,000 acres a year.

Fast-growing Bakersfield, California, which lost more than 30,000 acres of rich farmland to development between 1994 and 2004, has recently begun to rethink the wisdom of yet more sprawl. In an April 30 op-ed, the author asked whether an already-approved 79-acre development was worth the traffic, bad air, and loss of agricultural lands. No, said local Sierra Club leader and air quality specialist Gordon Nipp: "Hold off, figure out what to do about the traffic situation, and give the community a chance to say what they want."

A California grandmother who led Sierra Club outings for 25 years has recently been leading far tamer "Sex on the Mountain" hikes on Mount Tamalpais, Marin County's much-beloved local landmark. What? Tame X-rated tours? "I talk mostly about insects, and I throw in a couple of flowers, how they keep the gene pool wide," said 77-year-old Nancy Skinner. "Then I talk about genetics, that sort of thing." Skinner is the Mount Tamalpais Interpretive Association's official historian.

Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 4.18.2008

When the Otter Tail Corporation of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, proposed expanding its Big Stone II coal-fired power plant, the Sierra Club and tribal partners held a press conference outside Otter Tail's annual shareholder meeting on April 10. And to the surprise of Club organizer Cesia Kearns, who put the event together, a man identifying himself as "Mr. Otter" showed up to help promote renewable energy to Big Stone II's project manager. Kearns said Otter Tail should diversify its energy systems with greater use of wind and solar resources. Native American author and environmental activist Winona LaDuke urged that instead of a coal plant, Otter Tail should build a 1,000-megawatt wind farm. Above, Kearns, Peggy Peters of the Sisseton Wahpeton tribe's environmental protection council, LaDuke's son Gwae, LaDuke, and Mr. Otter.

A barrage of criticism greeted President Bush's April 16 call for "realistic long-term and intermediate goals" for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The Sierra Club was widely quoted in the media, including these representative samples from ABC and CNN. "The president is throwing a Hail Mary to polluters in a last-ditch effort to stave off any meaningful action on global warming," said Club Executive Director Carl Pope.

Longtime Sierra Club activists/lobbyists Neil Herring and Mark Woodall were featured in "Creative Loafing," an online "green guide" to all things cultural in Atlanta, atop its list for Georgia's 2008 Green Team. "Together they've fought hazardous-waste incinerators and big-money road projects, pushed for the preservation of Georgia's coastline, and rallied against the Southern Company's proclivity for coal-fired power plants," Creative Loafing wrote. Asked why it's important for the environmental community to have a presence at the Capitol, Herring replied: "Because the business industry lobbyists at the other end of this building would rape this state. The last source of wealth in Georgia is taking it from air, water and land."

In a national first, two adjoining counties have passed tandem resolutions to sign on to the Sierra Club's Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration, a county-level initiative to combat global warming on a regional level and create new jobs in the green economy. The Cool Counties initiative is part of the Club's Cool Cities program—there are now 30 Cool Counties and nearly 1,000 Cool cities nationwide. Multnomah & Clackamas Counties, which comprise most of Greater Portland and are home to nearly 30 percent of Oregon's population, have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Club organizer Christine Caurant urged other counties to sign on and make Oregon the nation's first "Cool State."

Susan Brown of Dearborn, Missouri, says she joined the Sierra Club because she wanted the free backpack that was being offered to new members. Soon she was talking with Platte County commissioners and speaking at public hearings about the importance of regulating emissions from a local coal-fired power plant. Now she is a leader in helping curb the spread of old-coal technology in the area, and she serves as chair of the Concerned Citizens of Platte County, a group that had previously fought against factory farms operating without health permits. All because she needed a backpack.

The mayors of three Detroit suburbs, Berkley, Ferndale, and Royal Oak, will attend the monthly Sierra Club & Beer event at the Berkley Front Bar on April 24  to talk about why local governments should act on global warming. Club organizers of the free organic beer event said the three were invited because they have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection agreement and joined the Sierra Club's Cool Cities initiative. All three cities have insulated buildings, bought energy-saving furnaces, and studied downsizing city cars from gas guzzlers to hybrids or electrics. "I'm looking for more and more mayors to sign this," said Ferndale Mayor Craig Covey.

Los Angeles Times reporter Judy Pasternak, who has covered both the smog and science beats (among others) in 23 years with the paper, wrote on April 14 that, "Every time a new coal-fired power plant is proposed anywhere in the United States, a lawyer from the Sierra Club or an allied environmental group is assigned to stop it." The coalition, which includes the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Integrity Project, claims 65 victories over the last three years, and the Sierra Club is coordinating opposition to about 50 additional power plant proposals. "We have a national presence, so we're sort of mission control," said Pat Gallagher, director of the Club's environmental law program. The goal: "We hope to clog up the system," said David Bookbinder, the Sierra Club's chief climate counsel. "It's putting pressure on Congress to put together a comprehensive plan."

Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 4.4.2008

The city of Owensboro, Kentucky, unveiled its first hybrid vehicle in an April 1 ceremony at City Hall. Twenty Sierra Club volunteers in Be Cool, Go Green t-shirts were on hand, and city officials sported the shirts as well. "The city is now officially embarked on a course that is both prudent and far-sighted," said Ben Taylor, chair of the Club's Pennyrile Group. Mayor Tom Watson signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement earlier this year. Club activist Lee Dew said the city's efforts will show that people can save money by using energy more efficiently. Pictured above, from left, are volunteers Donnie Mayton and Ben Taylor, Club organizer Aloma Dew, volunteer Carol Mark, city Facilities Maintenance Superintendent (and local Cool Cities director) Lelan Hancock, Mayor Pro-tem Al Mattingly, and Lee Dew.

A coalition of states, cities, and environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, took its fight to federal court to compel the federal government to act on global warming. The coalition wants to EPA to regulate global warming emissions from new cars and trucks or prove that such regulation is unnecessary. David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club, said that while the EPA has been talking about a holistic approach to climate change for years, "in fact, they have done absolutely nothing but stand in the way of everyone else's efforts." Read Bookbinder's statement to the press.

The controversial border fence with Mexico was headline the news this week after the Department of Homeland Security announced that 30 environmental laws would be waived to expedite construction of 267 miles of fence, outraging elected officials and citizens in the border region. "Waiving longstanding laws that protect the environment and our cultural heritage would undermine decades of work to establish a vibrant wildlife corridor and would be a devastating blow to ecotourism," said Lone Star Chapter director Ken Kramer. Club organizer Oliver Bernstein said going around NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) "pulls the carpet out from under community participation."

The Club's Honey Island Group helped organize the collection of more than 20,000 pounds of hazardous materials from over 500 households in southern Louisiana's St. Tammany Parish, near New Orleans. Sixty-two Club volunteers pitched in to collect latex- and oil-based paints, batteries, tires, computer and office equipment, cell phones, and toxic liquids like kerosene, turpentine, and lamp oil.

The city of Detroit is deliberating whether to keep burning the more than 1 billion pounds of waste the city generates each year. Twenty years ago the city built the largest municipal waste incinerator in America, which now costs the city nearly ten times as much per ton as nearby counties pay to landfill their garbage, and which spews toxic chemicals and gases on the surrounding community, which is primarily poor and black. Sierra Club environmental justice organizer Rhonda Anderson sees the incinerator as a threat to the health of those living near it and a symbol of backward thinking. "If we are not able to start looking at things differently," she said, "the little people at the bottom are going to stay there—at the bottom, looking up."

The dubiously-named Alabama Family Farm Preservation Act—also known as the "Hog Bill"—purports to protect hog farm operations from municipal ordinances or resolutions that might deem such operations a public or private nuisance. "To call it the 'Family Farm Protection Act' is completely misleading," said Alabama Chapter volunteer Bryan Burgess, who pointed out that the average waste lagoon for hog urine and feces at hog facilities in the state contains about 5 million gallons of untreated raw sewage.

Dominion Power wants to build a coal-fired power plant in southwestern Virginia that would not only spew carbon emissions but would further ravage the state's mountains to provide coal to feed its furnace. Sierra Club representative Dave Muhly calls the project "a disaster masquerading as an energy solution." Not only has Dominion admitted that the proposed plant is not "carbon capture compatible," Muhly said, it also ignored the consequences of increased mountaintop removal mining on those Southwest Virginia communities that would continue to see their natural heritage blown up and buried.

Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 3.28.08

On Wednesday, the Sierra Club showed up in two New York Times stories, one on the emergence (and evolving definition) of "green collar jobs," like the workers installing solar panels above, and one on the Club's partnership with Clorox to promote the Green Works line of natural cleaning products.

The Sierra Club launched the Power 2 Change campaign in New Hampshire and eight other states earlier this week. New Hampshire Chapter Chair Jerry Curran said the energy choices candidates and voters make this year can move the country toward a clean energy economy that creates jobs, saves money, and solves global warming.

Two proposals to build huge solar energy facilities in California's Mojave Desert are being characterized as the latest "Gold Rush" as various utiliities and government entities apply for permits to install photovoltaic panels on BLM land. The Sierra Club estimated roughly 110 square miles of the Mojave Desert could be developed for renewable-energy projects.

Responding to the PlaNYC, New York City's new sustainability plan, The Sierra Club said it was "a great start," but "you can do better," -- that the plan should focus more on more high-efficiency vehicles and mass transit rather than on developing biofuels.  Meanwhile, the state said it would look into "smart metering," a Club proposal that would reward consumers who schedule energy use during off-peak periods.

In Ft. Collins, Colorado, the Sierra Club is fighting a proposed dam on the Poudre River -- local Club leader Mark Easter said the "era of big dam building is over. Or was over, until this thing reared its big, ugly head."

And in Utah, the fruits from the decade long Legacy Highway battle have finally ripened -- the rail system long pushed by the Sierra Club is gaining support now, even from parties that were major opponents over Legacy Highway.

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.

Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 3.14.2008

Communities in the Chicago area are using a mixture of beet juice and salt to mitigate damage from road salt that has caused chloride levels to spike in local waterways. Illinois Sierra Club leader Paul Mack, pictured above left taking water samples in the west branch of the DuPage River, found chloride levels that violate state water quality standards. "[The salt] is so prevalent it can be tasted," he told the Chicago Tribune.

After the EPA tightened smog standards this week—though not by as much as environmentalists hoped—counties across the nation found themselves out of compliance with federal regulations, including Hamilton County, Ohio, where Cincinnati is located. "Hamilton County has had a smog problem forever, and this is one of the reasons why we oppose new highways being built," Ohio Sierra Club leader Enid Nagel, second from left, above, told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

The EPA says Honolulu has been violating the Clean Water Act by not treating wastewater twice before releasing it into the ocean. The city requested permission not to clean wastewater a second time, but the EPA denied the request—a decision the Sierra Club supports. "They take the chunks out... but it's really not a lot of treatment," said Hawaii Sierra Club Director Jeff Mikulina, second from right, above. "We're putting into the ocean some... pretty nasty stuff." Watch Mikulina in this March 12 segment from Honolulu's KGMB9 News.

Martin LeBlanc, above right, director of the Club's Building Bridges to the Outdoors program, was largely responsible for a $1.5 million appropriation last year by the Washington State legislature to fund nature education for the state's youth. The Club and 235 other groups have applied for a combined $8.9 million to fund outdoor education next year. "There will likely be a recession," Leblanc said. "We want to get a source of sustainable funding."

There were many mentions in the media this week of the "Good Jobs, Green Jobs" conference in Pittsburgh, coordinated by the Blue-Green Alliance, a partnership of the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club. More than 80 organizations participated in the first-ever national forum on green jobs and the economic and employment benefits of a clean energy future.

A measure now before the California legislature would strip the California Coastal Commission of its ability to self-initiate appeals of local-government development decisions and restrict it to hearing appeals brought by other individuals or groups. "We believe the legislation is terribly misguided," said Sierra Club coastal programs director Mark Massara, explaining that it's difficult for the public to track everything and grasp the implications of key decisions that could harm coastal ecosystems or restrict public access.

In Mississippi, a measure in the state legislature would allow the Public Service Commission to decide whether energy companies can raise customers' rates to fund the construction of a nuclear reactor and a new coal plant. Mississippi Sierra Club organizer Louie Miller, who opposes the bill, said he was unsure how House Public Utilities Chairman Tyrone Ellis felt about it. "From what I see at the Capitol, the energy lobbyists are walking around seemingly as clueless as I am on the man's intentions. Maybe that's a good thing and he can't be bought."

The EPA is concerned about the presence of pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water supplies around the country. An Associated Press report found that drugs have been detected in drinking water in 24 major metropolitan areas. New Hampshire Sierra Club organizer Kurt Ehrenberg laid much of the blame on the Bush administration for not doing more to help states get a leg up on the issue, calling the problem an example of "the unintended consequences of human activity" the federal government needs to address. "We need a more active Environmental Protection Agency to learn more about this and find solutions."

State legislators in Oklahoma are considering weakening a law prohibiting large hog farms from locating within three miles of church camps and recreation sites. Oklahoma Sierra Club director Billie Brown told state lawmakers at the Capitol that the law has worked well for at least 10 years to stop "the intrusion of corporate hog factories."

Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 3.7.08

In West Virginia, Sierra Student Coalition is hosting a "Save the Ales" party to highlight the urgency of addressing global warming. "While global climate change has already affected polar bears and seals, climate change is also expected to severely impact hops production, a main ingredient in all beer," said the SSC's Heather Sprouse. Global warming has disrupted the hops-growing regions in Germany and the Czech Republic and higher prices are ahead for imported beers.

New Hampshire Chapter Director Cathy Corkery wrote an op ed in the New Hampshire Union Leader blasting the Forest Service plan, backed by Senator Judd Gregg (and the Union Leader), that would allow timber sales in the Than Brook roadless area of White Mountain National Forest (above), the most substantial incursions into roadless areas east of the Rockies. "Gregg’s claims that clear cutting the forests now will save the North Country economy are false. North Country leaders have said again and again that they want to move forward and diversify and reinvent the local economy, not live in the past. Giving a handful of guys with chainsaws temporary jobs clear cutting the Whites is not going to do that."

New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel called problem-plagued $1 billion Meadowlands redevelopment next to Giants Stadium in East Rutherfield,  "the Baghdad of redevelopment.'' Tittel also voiced the Club's support for a proposed wind farm off the Jersey shore as "the first step to really implementing the governor's global-warming initiative."

A University of Washington report concludes that when air conditions in the Columbia River Gorge are at their worst, Portland General Electric, Oregon's only coal-fired power plant, is responsible for more than half the particulate pollution, prompting the Club's Nat Parker to call the report a "smoking gun."

Kansas City Power & Light, which made an agreement with the Sierra Club last year to build 100 megawatts of wind energy by the end of 2010 and 300 by 2012, has postponed plans to build a wind farm this year, but says it will still abide by the agreement.

Following an interview of Carl Pope in the Oil and Gas Investor magazine, the business press has been abuzz with stories saying that the Sierra Club had changed its position and come out in favor of the U.S. natural gas industry. Pope did say that the Club "favors producing all [the natural gas] that the U.S. can put out," but everything he said in the interview was consistent with existing Club policy, and it was a mischaracterization to interpret Pope's statements as an endorsement of the entire industry."We recognize that gas is cleaner than coal or oil but is still not as preferable as renewables and efficiency," clarified Pope.

After more than a year of monitoring the Upper Verde River in Arizona, Sierra Club Water Sentinels have found heightened levels of nitrogen and phosphate as well as common detergent compound that, said Yavapai Group chair Tom Slaback, acts as "an endocrine disruptor known to cause sex change in fish and hormonal changes in other organisms." The Club has called on local cities to change their current practice of applying treated sewage sludge near waterways.

In a CBS News story on how green a President John McCain would be, Debbie Sease, the Sierra Club's legislative director, said McCain's record on environmental issues is wildly erratic. "We never know where he's going to come from," she said. "As a general rule, on land and conservation issues ... he tends to be pretty good. But he's a doctrinaire conservative on the role of government in protecting people from pollution."

Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 2.29.08

Longtime Mississippi Sierra Club activist Becky Gillette, above left, who led the fight against toxic FEMA trailers on the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, has earned a new moniker: The Erin Brockovich of Formaldehyde. In a bizarre twist, Gillette had scarcely relocated to the Arkansas Ozarks when tornadoes struck the state earlier this month, and FEMA is sending victims unused trailers ordered for Katrina and Rita evacuees.

Next door in Mississippi, avid hiker, traveler, and youthful environmentalist Travis Hunsicker, above center, was featured in a Voice of America news story, "Tupelo, Mississippi: Cool City," for spearheading citizen efforts to green his hometown.

South Dakota Chapter activist Mahala Bach, above right, handed out compact fluorescent light bulbs and spread the gospel of energy efficiency at a "Being Green" forum in Rapid City. "When people are informed about environmental issues," she said, "they want to do the right thing."

Montana Sierra Club organizer Bob Clark was taken aback when an angry blogger, seething after a federal judge agreed with the Club that timber sales must be subject to environmental analysis, wrote: "If you know a Sierra Club member, please feel free to set their home on fire." Clark, who keeps a file of death threats in his office, responded, "He's connecting dots that don't exist."

In California's Sacramento Valley, life member Eric Rey and his company Arcadia Biosciences are crafting "green" rice that thrives on half the standard dose of nitrogen fertilizer, a source of global warming emissions on a par with all the world's automobiles.

Further south, the Club is fighting to protect the Tejon Ranch, still a working farm and ranch and at 270,000 acres the largest contiguous parcel of privately-owned land in California, from industrial overdevelopment by the Tejon Ranch Company, which has recently built three massive warehouses on the property. "There is no other place like this in California," the Club's Bill Corcoran told the New York Times. "What is needed is a conservation plan for the entire ranch."

In another Times story, on how upstart Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is shaking up the state's famously brazen political culture by ramming through a series of ethics bills, Delta Chapter lobbyist Darrell Hunt called the move "huge. This is a sea change. This will seriously, dramatically change things."

Speaking at a Madison, Wisconsin, town hall meeting, National Coal Campaign Director Bruce Nilles and fellow Club organizer Jennifer Feyerherm promoted renewable energy and urged an immediate move away from coal. The State and the University of Wisconsin are embarking on a feasibility study of energy options compelled by the recent settlement of a Sierra Club court challenge.

Kansas Chapter leader Tom Kneil advocated a cap on greenhouse gas emissions after a spokesman for Sunflower Electric, which is seeking to expand a coal plant in the state, questioned whether regulating CO2 is a good idea. "Really, utilities don't have a carbon footprint, their customers do," the Sunflower rep said. Also in Kansas, chapter lobbyist Tom Thompson urged state lawmakers to do more to promote conservation and renewable energy sources instead of passing incentives for nuclear power.

The Massachusetts Sierra Club is fighting a proposal by developers to conduct environmental reviews of large development projects behind closed doors. "There's no valid reason that we can see to exclude the public from that part of the process," said chapter director James McCaffrey.

In Connecticut, where many housing developments and community associations have bylaws prohibiting outdoor clotheslines, the Club is supporting a "right to dry" bill that would allow people to dry their laundry outside. "The real driver to this is the global warming crisis we face," said chapter leader Martin Mador. "This bill goes to what an individual can do—it doesn't force anyone to use a clothesline."

And in a riff on James Carville's famous exhortation to candidate Bill Clinton in 1992, Club Executive Director Carl Pope authored a piece on the Huffington Post entitled, "It's Green Jobs, Stupid."

Sierra Club Newsmakers -- 2.22.08

On Wednesday, the Sierra Club launched a national grassroots campaign urging Dynegy, a Houston-based company planning to build coal plants in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada and Texas, to shift its investments away from coal and into cleaner energy sources. Call-in events in 20 states generated thousands of calls to Dynegy headquarters. "Many companies, states and cities across the country are already moving beyond coal. Just last year increased wind development added $9 billion to our economy. Dynegy has an opportunity to really be a leader in the new energy economy," said Alex Levinson, director of the Sierra Club's Clean Energy Solutions Campaign.

Business Week reported that while the formation last year of U.S. Climate Action Partnership -- which comprises 4 environmental groups and 27 U.S. corporations (including General Electric, General Motors, and Duke Energy) -- has endorsed cuts in global warming emissions of 60 percent to 80 percent by 2050, behind the scenes they are also supporting efforts that will make it nearly impossible to meet those goals. Pushing for more coal plants, for example. "If you're serious about stopping climate change, you don't dig the hole deeper by building new coal-fired power plants," said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's coal program. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called the removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list a remarkable comeback story, but Club spokesperson Melanie Stein called the delisting premature. "This is like declaring victory at mile eighteen in a marathon,” she said.

Used to be that the arguments against nuclear power revolved around their potential dangers, but in the wake of a proposal by Progress Energy to add a second reactor in Wake County, North Carolina, opponents like Molly Diggins, director of the Club's North Carolina Chapter, are focusing on their staggering costs. "We think that nuclear will sink under its own weight," she said. "Nuclear is the least likely option to be built, due to the financial risk."

Plans to build 22 miles of concrete levees on the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County, Texas, to ameliorate flooding and discourage illegal immigration traffic, face opposition from environmental activists. “Every environmental problem that was associated with the fence is the same or worse with this (concrete) wall idea,” said Jim Chapman, chair of the Club's Lower Rio Grande Valley Group.

On its editorial page, the Capitol Times in Madison, Wisconsin, backed a state bill, supported by the Sierra Club's John Muir Chapter, that would prohibit retail stories from distributing non-biodegradable plastic bags to customers. They're debating a ban on plastic bags in Maui too. And a similar ban in Annapolis, Maryland, supported by the Sierra Club failed last November, but now the council is considering a measure to distribute reusable bags to residents.

Chris Wilhite, director of the Sierra Club Rhode Island Chapter, and George Nee, treasurer-secretary of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, jointly penned an op ed in the Providence Journal about how renewable-energy and energy-efficiency could "jolt Rhode Island back to life" and "create a whole new generation of good-paying manufacturing jobs."

It took Matthew Schwartz, a Club outings leader from Broward County, Florida, five hours of bushwhacking through Big Cypress National Preserve to find a Florida panther paw print in the swamp muck. But the panther track underscores the Club's opposition to ORV use in the Bear Island region of the preserve.

In suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul, promoters of a region-wide transit system are giving free coffee to commuters this week in selected bus stations, courtesy of the Sierra Club and several other community groups and coffee vendors, and in Corpus Christi, Texas, Pat Suter, chair of the Club's Coastal Bend Group, and her teammate Phyllis Yochem, competed with 15 other teams in the Coastal Birding Challenge, a bird counting game to raise money for a local bird and animal rehabilitation center. The winning team identified 107 species in a 24-hour period.