Environmental Justice

Sierra Club Scrapbook

All posts tagged "Environmental Justice"

February 15, 2013

Riding the Earth Train to Washington

By Claire Currens, MN350.org

On February 15, more than 70 Minnesotans discovered that changing one word can help change the world. As they gathered at the St. Paul Amtrak station, a flash mob blossomed, singing, "Ride on the earth train" — a heartfelt adaptation of Cat Stevens' "Peace Train."

Photo courtesy of Minnesota Progressive Project

The dream of an earth train was born last November 30 as Susan and Jim Lenfestey left Bill McKibben's Do the Math tour feeling inspired and ready for action. Bill had suggested that attendees join him for a rally in Washington, D.C., in February (the Forward on Climate rally), to encourage President Obama to take meaningful action towards a clean, sustainable energy future. Susan joked, "Well, we know we can't fly. Let's take the train!"

Her offhanded joke was really a deeper reflection of a commitment to a clean energy future. Planes are one of the biggest contributors of carbon pollution, and if we are to significantly lower the carbon in our atmosphere, limiting our air travel is an excellent place to start. The train ride to D.C. will be long, but it will be a chance to enjoy the landscape, engage with other passengers, and minimize carbon emissions on a long journey. (Read more about Amtrak's commitment to environmental sustainability). Below, 350.org Minneapolis organizer Julia Nerbonne at the Earth Train sendoff.

"This is a hopeful campaign, not a doomsday campaign," said Susan Lenfestey. The group of 72 Minnesotans comes from all walks of life; the full range of the human family is on board, from one-year-olds to toddlers to retirees. Below, Minneapolis resident Terry Hokenson and Minnesota State Representative Frank Hornstein.

Others climbing aboard the train included storyteller Kevin Kling, National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich, musicians Prudence Johnson and Simone Perrin, Kate Jacobson of MN350.org, and Margaret Levin of the Sierra Club (below, speaking, to the right of the banner). They are all united by a hope and a shared sense of urgency. "We're all on the earth train, aren't we?" said author and activist Jim Lenfestey. "It's the responsibility of all of us to keep it on the rails."

Riding the earth train is about bringing forth that message, and encouraging President Obama to make clean energy and a sustainable future his top priority. That means canceling the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. If the pipeline is constructed, it will increase dependence on oil and postpone the implementation of sustainable energy sources. In order to realize this goal, these Minnesotans know they have to bring forth the political will and demonstrate widespread support. Senator Al Franken, for example, supported the president's rejection of the Keystone pipeline last year, and we need him to stand strong again. Riding the train, joining in community together instead of flying, is one of many ways they demonstrate that support.

As the flash mob reached a crescendo, a young woman named Allie Byrd (above, with braid) stepped up and said, "I'm riding the earth train because the adults aren't paying attendion." A poignant message, capturing the urgency of the issue. And while Jim Lenfestey (below) is happy to hear such conviction, he believes the responsibility cannot be placed solely on the next generation. "All of us contributed unwittingly to this problem and we need to take our responsibility seriously," he says.

That's the beautiful part of the Earth Train message, all generations have a responsibility to address the growing threat of climate change, with urgency and hope. We are all on the Earth Train, and we've all played a role in the climate crisis, however inadvertently. Instead of being burdened by guilt or fear of failure, the passengers on the Earth Train are energized and ready to ensure a clean energy future for all aboard the Earth Train.

Posted at 03:46 PM in Beyond Coal, Beyond Oil, Clean Energy Solutions, Environmental Justice, Healthy Communities | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 12, 2013

Beating the Drums Against Coal in Montana

When the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) tried to mute public opposition to the proposed Otter Creek coal mine in southeastern Montana, the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, and members of the Northern Cheyenne Nation called them on their tactics and made their voices heard.

The Otter Creek coal tracts, below, contain approximately 1.3 billion tons of coal that, once strip-mined and burned, would emit roughly 2.4 billion tons of climate-disrupting pollution into the atmosphere. Otter Creek Coal, a subsidiary of Arch Coal, has leased 616 million tons of that coal from the State of Montana.

Photo by Kestrel Aerial Services, courtesy of the Montana Environmental Information Center

The DEQ set up a "scoping hearing" in Lame Deer, Montana—home of the Northern Cheyenne tribal headquarters—to accept public comments on the Otter Creek project. But instead of allowing people to stand up and speak in public, DEQ set up an "open house" which provided information but effectively kept public comments off the record.

"The open house format features a lot of different tables where people can mill around," says Montana-based Sierra Club organizer Mike Scott. "But if people want to comment they have to go sit down with someone from DEQ instead of being heard by the public. When people get up and speak in public, it's a totally different dynamic—it can make others think about the situation differently. The open house format was a way for DEQ to make sure they were controlling all the information."

That's Scott, below at left, with Northern Cheyenne activists Martin Braided Hair and Tom Mexican Cheyenne.

The scoping hearing in Lame Deer was one of several on the Otter Creek project, all held in communities near the proposed mine, so the Sierra Club, NWF, and Northern Cheyenne knew about DEQ's open house tactic in advance. "We were able to organize the group together pretty quickly and develop a plan," Scott says.

We'll let Scott describe what ensured:

Continue reading "Beating the Drums Against Coal in Montana" »

Posted at 03:37 PM in Beyond Coal, Clean Energy Solutions, Environmental Justice, Healthy Communities, Partnerships | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 08, 2013

It's Time: Move America Forward on Climate

By Michael Marx, Senior Campaign Director, Beyond Oil

It sounds like the set-up for a bad joke: "A bright-eyed college student from upstate New York, a soft-spoken Unitarian from Santa Barbara, California, an environmental justice advocate from the Texas Gulf Coast, and a retired elementary school teacher and grandmother from Nebraska all get on the same bus…"

But it's real—an amazing grassroots movement demanding solutions to the climate crisis, gaining momentum from coast to coast in preparation for the Forward on Climate rally on February 17. The Sierra Club and 350.org, along with more than 120 partner organizations, are expecting tens of thousands of Americans to gather in front of the White House the Sunday of President's Day weekend, making Forward on Climate the largest climate-related rally in U.S. history.

Over the past few weeks, I've had the privilege of talking with activists who are organizing carpools, buses, and van rides, participating in phonebanks, building Facebook events, drumming up press coverage, and working around-the-clock to organize their communities for the Washington, D.C., rally.

The goal of the rally is to demand that President Obama move America forward on climate in 2013 with decisive action to reduce dangerous carbon pollution, phase out carbon-intensive fossil fuels, and lead the way in promoting energy efficiency and clean-energy sources. The first steps he must take are to finalize strong carbon-pollution standards for power plants and reject the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

John Bolenbaugh, a Navy veteran from Battle Creek, Michigan, will be participating in the rally. "I'm a different man than I used to be," John says. "I used to be just a normal union worker. I never thought I'd become an activist. But that all changed when I saw what these Big Oil companies were doing to my community."

In July 2010, a tar sands pipeline burst near Battle Creek, spilling more than a million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River. John worked for a Michigan-based company that was contracted by Enbridge, a Canadian tar sands oil company and the owner of the pipeline, to clean up the spill.

But after a few weeks on the job, John realized "they weren't cleaning up properly. Oil was being buried instead of cleaned up. And all that oil that was being buried could drip down into the groundwater. All these chemicals could make us sick."

John lodged complaints with the EPA, Enbridge, and his local employer about seeing the oil being buried. "No one would do anything about it," he says. "One night, I came to Enbridge and said, 'I live here, and I don't want to see this happen. Kids are swimming in the river.' The next day my boss let me go. It was a good job, and the economy is bad in Michigan. But I couldn't sleep at night, seeing all this happen."

Since losing his job, John has become an outspoken opponent of the Keystone pipeline, which would stretch 1,700 miles across American six states, carrying up to 830,000 barrels per day of toxic tar sands crude. And he is among the tens of thousands of people demanding that President Obama reject TransCanada's permits for the pipeline. Tar sands crude is the dirtiest oil on earth, with more heavy metals and cancer-causing toxins than conventional oil, and a production process that creates up to three times more climate-disrupting pollution. Tar sands pipelines are dangerous—an earlier TransCanada pipeline suffered 14 spills in its first 12 months of operation.

John says he's traveling to Washington, D.C., to tell President Obama: "I've seen the damage from a tar sands oil spill. It's killed people and poisoned our water and land. If you allow this pipeline to be built, Mr. President, it will happen again. There will be a spill along the pipeline route, and it could be above the aquifer that gives us 30 percent of our water in the Midwest. We can't let this happen."

John's voice—along with those of the New York college student, the Santa Barbara churchgoer, the Texan environmental justice activist, and the Nebraska grandmother—is going to ring out loud and clear on February 17. President Obama must lead our nation in the transition to a clean-energy economy that will create jobs, clean our air and water, protect our wild places, and improve our health. It's time to move America Forward on Climate.

Posted at 12:37 PM in Beyond Oil, Clean Energy Solutions, Environmental Justice, Healthy Communities | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 12, 2012

L.A. Commits to Solar

On December 6, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed a landmark agreement to purchase power from a solar project to be built on the Moapa River Indian Reservation in Nevada—the first-ever commercial solar project on Native American lands. The project will provide power to more than 110,000 L.A. homes.

"Today, we're signing the largest solar contract in the history of the L.A. Department of Water & Power," Villaraigosa said. "Our contract with the K Road Moapa Solar Project will provide 250 megawatts of solar power. That's enough energy to power over 113,000 homes." Below, Villaraigosa with Sierra Club leaders and Moapa Paiute President William Anderson at the ceremony. Sierra Club President Allison Chin is next to the mayor.

The Sierra Club has been actively promoting the agreement between the City of Los Angeles and the Moapa Band of Paiutes, and partnering with the tribe to retire the dirty Reid Gardner coal plant, which sits immediately adjacent to the Moapa reservation about an hour northeast of Las Vegas.

"This groundbreaking agreement is great news for everyone involved," said Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Club's Beyond Coal campaign. "From the Moapa Band of Paiutes, who are building the solar farm on their land; to the residents of Los Angeles, who will reap the benefits of cleaner electricity; and to all Americans demanding a transition to clean energy; we salute the grassroots organizing by local citizens and strong leadership from city officials that brought this project to fruition."

Chin, above with Villaraigosa, spoke at the event. Sierra Club Communications Director Bob Sipchen, below, an L.A-area native and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist formerly with the Los Angeles Times, was also on hand for the ceremony.

"The Moapa Solar Project will be a boost to the Paiutes and the Sierra Club's ongoing efforts to replace coal with clean energy in southern Nevada," Chin said. "Paiute families are suffering from high numbers of asthma attacks, heart conditions and even cancer that's associated with coal pollution from the Reid Gardner plant."

Below, Chin with educator & Angeles Chapter volunteer Wendy Legacki, and Club organizers Jasmin Vargas and Aisha Farley.

Continue reading "L.A. Commits to Solar" »

Posted at 06:48 PM in Beyond Coal, Beyond Oil, Clean Energy Solutions, Environmental Justice, Healthy Communities, Partnerships | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 06, 2012

Spokane Speaks Out Against Coal Exports

Eight hundred people turned out in Spokane on December 4 to the fifth of seven "scoping hearings" across Washington State on the environmental review process for a proposed coal export facility at Cherry Point, 400 railroad miles to the west on the Washington coast.

"Of the 800 people who came to debate the merits of the Gateway Pacific Terminal, I'd estimate at least 700 were opposed," says Crystal Gartner, a Spokane-based organizer for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. "A sea of red 'No Coal Exports' t-shirts dominated the hearing venue."

The Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Exports campaign, working as part of the Power Past Coal coalition, has been organizing opposition to the coal export terminal and the vastly increased number of coal trains that would transport coal in open cars from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana to the coast.

Sierra Club organizers Crystal Gartner, Mike Scott, Krista Collard, Marc Heileson, and Cesia Kearns

Over the past year, Sierra Club volunteers and staff in Spokane have gone door-to-door to hundreds of homes, made phone calls to thousands of local residents, and collected over a thousand petition signatures opposing the coal export terminal in advance of the December 4 hearing.

"Spokane is the choke-point for all rail traffic in the Inland Northwest," Gartner says. More than 60 coal trains a day carrying coal in open cars would pass through the city if the coal export terminals now being proposed are built.

Continue reading "Spokane Speaks Out Against Coal Exports" »

Posted at 06:29 PM in Beyond Coal, Clean Energy Solutions, Environmental Justice, Healthy Communities | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 30, 2012

The Indianapolis Two Thousand

That's right, the Indy 2,000—as in two thousand petitions the Sierra Club delivered to Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) on November 28, marking the official launch of the Club's Indianapolis Beyond Coal campaign. The petitions call on the electrical utility to retire its Harding Street coal plant, one of the dirtiest coal-burning power plants in the nation.

[Click on the image above to watch a video about the Harding Street plant.]

Indiana Beyond Coal organizer Megan Anderson, below at center, holding stack of petitions, was among the roughly 50 activists who rallied in downtown Indy and delivered the petitions to IPL headquarters.

"The Harding Street coal plant is less than seven miles from the heart of Indianapolis," Anderson said. "We collected the petition signatures over the past two months. Right now everything is on the line—decisions being made right now will determine our energy future for decades to come."

Photo courtesy of NUVO News

The Harding Street Station, as the plant is officially known, is the largest source of carbon pollution in Indianapolis. The Clean Air Task Force attributes 75 deaths, 120 heart attacks, and 1,300 asthma attacks each year to the plant's toxic emissions.

"While other utilities across the country move toward clean energy solutions like wind power and energy efficiency, IPL wants to charge customers millions of dollars to stay dependent on coal and continue to expose Indianapolis to toxic coal pollution," Anderson, at left, said at the November 28 rally.

"These upgrades will fail to address dangerous carbon pollution and coal ash. Indianapolis has a better vision for a clean energy future that protects both our health and our utility rates."

Anderson spearheaded the petition drive and recruited Sierra Club members and others to be "letter captains." Leading up to the petition delivery, Club volunteers and staff held phone banks, produced fact sheets, did online and social media outreach, and tabled and canvassed with volunteers at events in Indianapolis and other locales around central Indiana to gather petition signatures.

Continue reading "The Indianapolis Two Thousand" »

Posted at 06:09 PM in Beyond Coal, Clean Energy Solutions, Environmental Justice, Healthy Communities | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 31, 2012

Huge Turnout in Washington State for Hearing on Coal Export Terminal

On Saturday, October 27, an estimated 2,000 people stood in line for hours in the pouring rain in Bellingham, Washington, to participate in the first of seven public hearings to gather public feedback on the proposed Cherry Point coal export terminal near Bellingham.

"Citizens opposing the terminal overwhelmingly dominated the hearing," says Cesia Kearns, an organizer with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. "Only about 30 people spoke in favor of the project, and most of them were Gateway Pacific Terminal staff."

The Sierra Club and its partners in the Power Past Coal coalition have been preparing for over a year for the "scoping hearings," which will define the scope of the environmental impact statement for the Cherry Point terminal. The Club and its allies succeeded in securing multiple scoping hearings throughout Washington State.

"We set out on to make this a state-wide and regional fight, and to take into account all the impacts of the proposal, from mine to rail and port to plant," says Kearns. "We've made the scoping hearings a major priority, focusing especially on the first hearing in Bellingham, which has now set the tone for the other hearings."

The Club has been working for the last year-and-a-half to educate the public in the Pacific Northwest about the risks and folly of transporting more than 100 million tons of coal a year in open train cars from Wyoming and Montana to five proposed coal export terminals on the Washington and Oregon coasts. To date, Seattle, Portland, and numerous other cities and locales in Washington and Oregon have passed resolutions opposing the coal export terminals.

Continue reading "Huge Turnout in Washington State for Hearing on Coal Export Terminal" »

Posted at 03:32 PM in Beyond Coal, Clean Energy Solutions, Environmental Justice, Healthy Communities | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 18, 2012

A Clear Energy Choice in Chicago

The choice is clear.

Less than three months after Chicago turned off two coal plants that were harming the health of local communities, voters will have the chance to give a nod to clean energy this November. A referendum on the ballot – if approved – would allow the city to purchase its energy from different sources, such as residents who generate power from clean energy.

"We are trying to enlighten and inform as many people as possible on this, and of course, we only have a few months to do it," 20-year Sierra Club activist Rose Gomez said last month. "Our coalition is made up of nearly 20 different organizations and everyone is reaching out and working with the same effort to get to as many votes as possible."

To help push the referendum past the goal line, Sierra Club activists joined the Chicago Clean Power Coalition in launching Chicago Community Energy Choice, a campaign to mobilize voters and city leaders to make clean energy a top priority. Earlier this month, campaign organizers helped turn out 100 volunteers at City Hall, who delivered 3,000 petition signatures to the desk of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The event featured speakers from Blue Green Alliance, Respiratory Health Association, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, and Solar Service.

"Not only could Chicago see significant cost savings by using its collective bargaining power, but the city could also see a new energy plan crafted with a focus on clean, renewable power," said Christine Nannicelli, a Sierra Club organizer.

Continue reading "A Clear Energy Choice in Chicago" »

Posted at 12:03 PM in Beyond Coal, Clean Energy Solutions, Diversity, Environmental Justice, Healthy Communities | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 10, 2012

Monument to a National Treasure

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

By Leslie Fields, Sierra Club Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships Director

On October 8, on a gorgeous early autumn day in the oak-dappled foothills of California's Tehachapi Mountains, President Obama formally designated the César E. Chávez National Monument. The designation is the fourth of Obama's presidency, but the first-ever national monument dedicated to a Latino.

Below, the president with Helen Chávez at her late husband's gravesite at Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz (Our Lady Queen of Peace), or La Paz, in the town of Keene, California, site of the new national monument.

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

"César Chávez was a true labor and environmental champion whose work helped result in the passage of landmark laws that protect our air, water, land, and—most important—people," said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. "His work helped link people's health and the environment, and his fight for environmental justice is one that the Sierra Club remains committed to today."

César Chávez was one of the forefathers of the environmental justice movement, which includes where people live, work, play, go to school, and worship. The farmworker movement led the way for better working conditions, chemical/pesticide policies, housing, improved health and education outcomes, immigration status, and access to justice.

President Obama greeted the crowd, estimated at 7,000, with an exhortation of "Si, se puede"—the motto of the United Farm Workers: "Yes, it can be done"—and they roared back with a chant of, "Four more years! Four more years!"

Screen shot from official White House video

The ceremony took place at La Paz, Chávez's former home and later the headquarters of the United Farmworkers, which Chávez and fellow labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta co-founded in 1962 as the National Farm Workers Association. Huerta was among those on hand for the President's speech, in which he acknowledged Huerta by name.

"Today, La Paz joins a long line of national monuments stretching from the Statue of Liberty to the Grand Canyon—monuments that tell the story of who we are as Americans," President Obama said. "It's a story of natural wonders and modern marvels; of fierce battles and quiet progress. But it's also the story of people-of determined, fearless, hopeful people who have always been willing to devote their lives to making this country a little more just and a little more free.

"One of those people lies here, beneath a rose garden at the foot of a hill he used to climb to watch the sun rise. And so today we celebrate César Chávez."

Continue reading "Monument to a National Treasure" »

Posted at 04:17 PM in Diversity, Environmental Justice, Resilient Habitats | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 27, 2012

Interview: Rafting with Inner City Outings

Sierra Club's Inner City Outings is made up of 52 groups across the country that connect 14,000 kids with outdoors experiences. Bill Weinberg, who has been an Inner City Outings rafting guide for 25 years, took some time to answer questions about his experience.

How did you first hear about ICO?

I had been a volunteer with Sierra Club Service Trips when we were invited to scout trips on the Klamath and Salmon rivers in Northern California. The river rangers took us on four days of rafting to scout work locations. I ended up leading these trips for three years in the early 1980s. After several folks I was working with got involved with ICO rafting I finally applied and made the switch from Service Trips.

Before ICO, did you have any experience with kids?

No, and it was the part of volunteering with ICO that scared me the most. However, I thought it would be good experience for when, or if, I became a father.

Continue reading "Interview: Rafting with Inner City Outings" »

Posted at 09:34 AM in Diversity, Environmental Justice, Inner City Outings | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

User comments or postings reflect the opinions of the responsible contributor only, and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting. The Sierra Club accepts no obligation to review every posting, but reserves the right (but not the obligation) to delete postings that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate.

Up to Top