Climate Recovery Partnership News and Events

Thumbs-Up for Clean Air

On Wednesday, the Sierra Club teamed up with University of Pittsburgh students and local environmental activists in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park to rally for strong EPA safeguards against dangerous smog pollution. Our news conference came in response to the EPA’s Tuesday decision to delay adopting stricter anti-smog rules.

Aided by Sierra Club’s 18-foot-tall inflatable hand holding an inhaler, which has been making its rounds in Club events across the country, the news conference provided a valuable chance to educate the public about the dangers of dirty air. In Western Pennsylvania alone, smog sends 10,000 people each summer to the emergency room and harms on a daily basis more than 78,000 adults and 25,000 children living with asthma.

Our efforts to make our voices heard grabbed the attention of local media, garnering coverage in outlets such as Central Public Radio, NewsRadio 1020 KDKA, and this excellent piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Darrell Sapp/Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Hands Across the Sand Returns

On June 25, one year after the BP oil disaster, Sierra Club organizers from four ecoregions—the Gulf Coast, Adirondacks to Acadia, Pacific Northwest, and Arctic—brought hundreds of participants throughout America together once again for Hands Across the Sand.

Working with several organizations, such as Oceana, Florida Wildlife Federation, and 350.org, we generated great turn-outs in key states, including the 555 people who joined hands in Florida to support a move beyond oil.

We also received great high-profile media coverage, like this TV spot from New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU, that bolstered our successful efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of dirty fuels and offshore drilling nationwide.

Good, Green Jobs in Vermont

This month, leaders of Sierra Club’s chapter in Vermont sent a strongly worded letter to Vermont's Governor and the Vermont Department of Public Service. Citing the Sheffield wind farm, which was being built without using local labor, the letter makes a strong case for approving only those alternative energy projects that create jobs in Vermont and provide livable wages and benefits to construction workers.

Governor Peter Shumlin received the letter in advance of a meeting between his administration and the Vermont Iron Workers, where he referred to our letter and committed to ensuring that green construction jobs are both good jobs and Vermont jobs.

Since sending the letter, Vermont Iron Workers Local 7 and the company responsible for the Sheffield wind farm project have come to an agreement. Iron Workers from the Union will now be working on the First Wind Sheffield wind farm project. “We would expect that this gesture of goodwill will serve as an example for future in-state renewable energy projects,” stated David Van Deusen, Conservation Organizer for the Vermont Sierra Club.

Kicking Coal Ash

Yesterday Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter sponsored “Kickin’ Coal Kickball,” a creative and fun event to promote clean energy in the Peach State. At Forsyth Park in Savannah, local residents and Club supporters turned out to play kickball and educate the public about Georgia’s need to move beyond coal.

The game provided a unique twist for the schoolyard pastime: fielders wore different colors to represent different sources of energy. Fielders wearing black represented coal, and some wore red for nuclear power; those with other colors represented clean energy. If a player kicked the ball to a fielder in black, she was out. If she kicked it to a clean energy fielder, she could round the bases and score.

State Senator Lester Jackson was also on hand to play the game and offer his support for clean energy in Georgia. The state already ranks 37 out of the 50 states in energy efficiency, and it is in the midst of an extreme drought—so residents can’t afford to have any more resources wasted on dirty, coal-fired power.

The energetic kickball game attracted the interest of local television news, which gave us some great coverage in outlets like WSAV and WTOC.

 

 

Kentucky Dirty

The Sierra Club has been very active working with the Louisville community near Cane Run where residents suffer from soot and coal ash blowing into their homes and affecting their water. After tests by state agencies and Louisville Gas & Electric  revealed that coal ash was contaminating homes in the area and putting families at heightened risk of cancer, asthma, and birth defects, the utility called a meeting with impacted citizens to try to explain the problem. Public radio in Louisville did a three-part series on the controversy, and the Louisville Courier-Journal also covered it extensively (see links below).

Following the incessant drumbeat of local media highlighting the health hazards posed by the Cane Run power plant and its toxic coal ash dump, LG&E announced in September that it will retire the 645MW coal boiler within five years. Our job, however, is only half done as we will continue to press LG&E to fix the coal dust problem and to cancel plans to expand the neighboring landfill to accept coal ash waste from other coal plants.

The Courier Journal has both a great story as well as video of LG&E trying to spin its way out of trouble.

Louisville Public Media covers the issue here and here, and has also published an excellent series devoted to exposing the truth of the coal plant’s disastrous health effects. See parts one, two, and three.

 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Takes a $50 Million Stand with Sierra Club against Coal

(Photos: 1) Illinois Beyond Coal Organizers (L to R) Christine Nannicelli, Verena Owen, and Rose Gomez. Photo by Heather Moyer. 2) Michael Brune, Mary Anne Hitt, and Bruce Nilles of the Sierra Club with Mayor Bloomberg. Photo by Kristina Hopper.)

In an unprecedented blow to the coal industry, Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $50 million to the Sierra Club to help us move America beyond coal toward a clean energy future. The gift is the largest individual donation to the Climate Recovery Partnership, and Bloomberg’s largest gift to an environmental organization.

With the GenOn coal plant of Alexandria, Virginia, in the background, Mayor Bloomberg—surrounded by media, Sierra Club volunteers, donors, and staff—announced the gift to the Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. "We all have to do our part. I wouldn't ask you to do anything I'm not willing to do myself. And I'm willing to do $50 million," stated Mayor Bloomberg. The donation will expand the Club’s Beyond Coal campaign from 15 to 45 states and double the campaign workforce.

Read more about this exciting news on Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune’s blog, Coming Clean.

Media coverage of the event was international in scope, and included the following publications:

• Sierra Club press release;
• NPR, Mayor Bloomberg Donates $50 Million to Sierra Club;
  • Piece run by WBUR Boston Public Radio; Minnesota Public Radio; KCLU – Santa Barbara Public Radio; North Country Public Radio (NY); Vermont Public Radio.
• New York Times, Bloomberg and Sierra Club Join Forces to Slow Coal;
• Rolling Stone, Michael Bloomberg Funds Guerilla War Against Big Coal;
• Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Gives Sierra Club $50 Million to Fight Coal Plants;
• Washington Post, Mayor Bloomberg gives $50 million to fight coal-fired power plants;
  • This article was republished by The Daily Caller;
  • This article was republished by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
• Reuters, Bloomberg, Sierra Club make $50 mln anti-coal move;
  • The Reuters article was republished by Solve Climate News; Mother Nature Network.

• New Yorker, Bloomberg Spends Big Against Coal;
• Time, Coal Kills Every Day's: Michael Bloomberg Pledges $50 Million to Fight the Coal Industry;
• San Francisco Chronicle, The Coal Stops Here
• Philadelphia Inquirer, $50 mill to get U.S. “Beyond Coal”;
• The Nation, Bloomberg Goes 'Beyond Coal'; Activists Step Up Protests Against Tar Sands;
• The Guardian, Michael Bloomberg got New Yorkers to quit smoking. Can he shut down coal?
• Financial News Network, Mayor Bloomberg Donates $50 Million For A Campaign To Eliminate Coal-Fired Plants;
• Market Watch, Bloomberg gives $50M to fight against coal plants;
• Business Wire, Sierra Club, Bloomberg’s ‘Beyond Coal’ Campaign Would Move America ‘Beyond Jobs’;
• Huffington Post, Bloomberg Beyond Coal Donation: New York City Mayor Commits $50 Million Toward Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal;
• National Journal, Bloomberg Targets Coal with $50 Million Donation to Sierra Club;
• BNet, How Mayor Bloomberg Will Help Close One-Third of U.S. Coal Plants.

D.C. Mayor Echoes Club Concerns

Concerned about toxic air pollution from a coal-fired power plant in nearby Alexandria, Virginia, the Sierra Club recently asked Washington, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to file a special EPA petition to force the Potomac River Generating Station to either clean up or shut down. The Club has discovered that sulfur dioxide emissions from the 62-year-old plant travel downwind to the District's Ward 8 neighborhoods, causing residents to suffer asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments.

"We're concerned about people's health,” Sierra Club’s Irv Sheffey told The Washington Examiner, “This is a tangible indicator that there's something going on in the air we need to be concerned about.”

Not only did the mayor support our proposal, but his increasing questions about the plant have helped focus tremendous attention to the plant’s health dangers. Television, radio, and online media are all spreading the news about our work to clean up our nation’s capital.

Report Proves Mining Facility is Draining Region's Water Supply

The Sierra Club and its partners, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Dine CARE, To’Nizhoni Ani, and the Center for Biological Diversity, released a hydrology study as part of our work to protect America’s waterways and bring justice to communities harmed by the coal industry.

In the study, Dr. Daniel Higgins, Ph.D. (an expert in Arid Lands Resource Sciences at the University of Arizona) details the destructive effects of a coal-mining facility to a vital local water supply. “This report reaffirms the fact that the coal industry continues to materially damage our aquifer with impunity,” said Marshall Johnson of the Navajo grassroots organization, To’ Nizhoni Ani.

Specifically, the study refers to groundwater withdrawals by Peabody Coal’s massive mining facility from the Navajo Aquifer on Black Mesa in Arizona. To date, the Office of Surface Mining has not recognized the degree of harm Peabody is causing to the aquifer, which is used by thousands for drinking water and is the source of a sacred spring.

For more information on the battle we’re waging against Peabody’s mining facility, with support from our allies, click here.

(Photo: Black Mesa Tableland with Peabody crane in background in 1972. The dialogue to move the region beyond coal has an ongoing history. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

Don’t Drink That Coke

In a unique demonstration, Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter joined with the Clean Economy Coalition for a rally at Corpus Christi City Hall in which activists poured pet-coke (charcoal briquettes) into glasses of water and delivered them to the city council in a special gift box . The action drew attention to the city’s negotiations to supply water to the huge Las Brisas power plant planned for a strip of land along Corpus Christi Bay. Over the past two years the Sierra Club has organized an active coalition of local residents, health professionals, and Club members opposed to this project.  If built, this 1,300 megawatt coke-fired plant would pump more than 9 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere and use an estimated five to seven billion gallons of water annually--a precious resource in drought-stricken Texas.

In addition to front page coverage in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the event received great treatment from local television: Check out a brief news segment from ABC affiliate KIII TV.

Knocking on the EPA’s Door

 

Last Sunday in Boston, the Sierra Club and a coalition of more than 200 health, environmental, and social justice organizations delivered to the EPA more than 639,000 comments calling for strong mercury safeguards. Together with groups such as the Environment Defense Fund, League of Women Voters, and the National Wildlife Federation, we brought comments from every state to demand protection from the mercury pollution spewed out of coal-fired power plants.

Our work grabbed the attention of the Boston Globe as well as that of Curt Spalding, Regional Administrator of the EPA’s Region 1 office in Boston. In response to the flood of comments delivered to his doorstep, Sapalding said:

"This tremendous response signals that Americans know how important it is to cut down on mercury, arsenic, and other dangerous pollutants in the air we breathe. Not only will these safeguards prevent thousands of premature deaths and cases of asthma and other illnesses, they will level the playing field for power plants already using widely available clean technology. We're relying on the continued input of New Englanders, and all Americans, to help us make these vital safeguards a reality."

Once again, our voice has been heard by those responsible for helping us move beyond coal—stay tuned!