Environmental Week in Review

I don't know if this will be a weekly feature, but when there's a lot going on I'll try to provide a review.

Cliffside Hearings

There were hearings in Charlotte on Wednesday and Shelby in Thursday.

In Charlotte the hearing was prefaced by a press conference attended by about 100 people with a variety of talented speakers including National Sierra Club President Lisa Renstrom!

Nearly 300 people attended the hearing itself, so many that the fire marshal had to ask about half of them to leave! Numerous speakers addressed the cost overruns, global warming and health impacts that are endemic with the Cliffside proposal and told the Commission there has to be a better way.

The Sierra Club group in Charlotte organized many of the speakers and folks who turned out in support, and the chapter office in Raleigh helped with message crafting and talking points. A special thanks to Chatham Olive for his outstanding work on the ground there.

Charlotte Observer coverage

There are still two more opportunities to make your voices heard- speak at the hearing on Wednesday in Raleigh or write the Utilities Commission. For more information, please visit our website.

Land for Tomorrow

Sierra Club members spoke strongly in support of preserving North Carolina's beauty at hearings in Greenville, Asheville, and Greensboro over the last week.

Our speakers in Greenville won over the Daily-Reflector!

The Asheville Citizen-Times is on board as well, probably in no small part to the great testimony given by Sierra Club Conservation Chair Bill Fisk!

Catharine Sutherland, our wonderful new chair for the Piedmont Plateau Group, gave this report from the Greensboro hearing:

"Kim Yarbray and I attended the hearing at GTCC in Jamestown last night and were delighted to be surrounded by throngs of primarily like-minded citizens, from farmers to ex-farmers to directors of many local Parks & Rec departments to students to homebuilders (yes, even they can be Green!). the auditorium was standing-room-only by 7:30 pm with a rough guess of 250-300 in attendance. luckily, Kim insisted on arriving as early as possible so we got our pick of seats and also managed to be listed among the first 50 speakers. i spoke as a Sierra Club representative, Kim spoke on behalf of wilderness everywhere! It was truly energizing and inspiring - and a huge Relief - to see so many conservationists under one roof!"

Many thanks to Catharine and Kim for speaking out.

Thank you to all of the members who wrote and spoke out this week on this issue!