Half a Coal Plant Not Half Bad (But We're Not Stopping Yet)

Today the North Carolina Utilities Commission permitted only one of Duke Energy company's two proposed 800 megawatt units at their Cliffside coal plant near Charlotte -- an outcome that the environmental community should applaud -- but with a one handed clap. The decision shows appropriate caution at a time when the threats of global climate change loom ever larger. Building new coal plants without carbon controls, like Cliffside, certainly finds many foes. The rush to bring new coal online is being called "foolish" by leading climate scientists like NASA's James Hansen, and most scientists agree that greenhouse gas emissions must be stabilized then reduced within the next decade.

Due to your letters, emails and testimonies, however, North Carolina is at least a half a step closer to a cleaner energy future. We'll look to you again as this debate continues to help us make a real quantum leap.

Hillsborough has a hybrid!

This morning I had a meeting with Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens as well as citizen activists Rich Shaw, Holly Reid, and Anne Lindsey about the possibility of its Board adopting the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement so that Hillsborough can become a Cool City.

It was a great meeting. Mayor Stevens, who was endorsed by the Sierra Club when he was elected in 2005, has the perfect vision and leadership style for his community, and the results show every day.

One thing that I was particularly pleased to learn is that Hillsborough, population of 6,162, recently purchased a hybrid for its vehicle fleet!

They bought a Chevy Silverado and it is being used by the town's Fire Marshal while he goes around to do inspections and investigate arsons.

I've been talking this year, maybe ad nauseum, about how small cities can show leadership on the environment just as much as big cities, only on a smaller scale. Hillsborough is a shining example of that reality.

Thank you to Assistant Town Manager Demetric Potts for giving me the details on the hybrid and thank you to the whole Town Board and staff for providing a model of sustainability to other communities across the state.

Play the TTA Transit Design Game

Do you use public transportation very often? If not, what would you encourage you to use it more? Wireless internet? More comfortable buses?

The Triangle Transit Authority is asking those questions in a creative web survey currently available on its website. Folks are given twenty `pennies' to spend on a variety of possible upgrades to buses as the agency makes replacements in its fleet.

Some of the items are pretty cheap. One penny upgrades include things like expanding the front of bus rack to accommodate three bikes rather than the current two or to install ten bike lockers per year at various stops around the Triangle.

Others are so expensive they will use up almost your entire `budget.' For instance putting a rear window on the back of the bus would cost 16 pennies and implementing Sunday service would require all of your money.

You can even express your support to fill the buses with B20 biodiesel.

Whether you're a public transportation user or not go and play the Transit Design Game, which will be available through Friday, March 9th. It's a great opportunity to have some fun while also giving important information to the folks who buy our buses.

Updates

As discussed here, the Chapel Hill Town Council did indeed formally express supports to its legislators for a 20% RPS. We encourage folks concerned about the environment across the state to ask their local leaders to do the same. Particular thanks to long time Sierra Club activist and Councilman Ed Harrison for his leadership on this issue.

As discussed here, the Council also unanimously approved the proposed Greenbridge development. This will likely be the most advanced environmental design of any building in the state. You can read a recent newspaper column I wrote about it here.

Thank you Chapel Hill for continuing to be a shining leader.

Urge your local government to support H77

Every year, most local governments across the state transmit a list of legislative priorities to their local leaders in Raleigh. Some of these items are intensely local, while others focus on statewide issues.

Although most counties and municipalities have already gone through this process for 2007, others have not. For instance Chapel Hill, where I live, will take this up at the Town Council meeting tonight.

Here's an e-mail I just sent to my Mayor and Council:

Dear Mayor Foy and members of Council,

I am most pleased to see in your legislative priorities 'support for legislation that
promotes development and use of renewable energy resources.'

As you may know bills to this effect have already been introduced both in the House and Senate this sessions. The Senate bill calls for a 10% Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard, while the House bill calls for 20%.

While certainly any progress is welcome, the House's bill, H77 would go much further in making statewide progress on the issue of carbon reduction we have taken so seriously locally. Incidentally, it is co-sponsored by two of our local legislators, Verla Insko and Larry Hall.

I urge you to specifically request the passage of the 20% RPS outlined in the House bill in your formal legislative priority list.

Thank you for your consideration,

Tom Jensen

Legislators take the priorities of their constituent local governments very seriously. It couldn't hurt to send your local officials an e-mail asking them to express their support for H77 to their representatives in Raleigh.

To meet or not to meet, that is the question.

Guest Post by Bill Fisk:

There is no Conservation Committee meeting at ExCom this weekend

As an organization, are we about Conservation or are we about meetings? My vote is for Conservation in all its aspects, forests, rivers, lakes, animals, air and the things that impact the aforementioned. And to best participate in Conservation, we need to plan, organize and stay informed, and that requires meetings, UGH! This from a person who hates meetings and seems to always get into positions that require meetings, and lots of them.

Why sacrifice time and energy on meetings? Because, if they directly pertain to the work we do, they will, in the end, direct us to make the most efficient use of limited time and resouces in our work with Conservation, and also because these meetings are a forum for the diverse Groups within Sierra Club to be heard. There is a bumper sticker that says "Environmentalists do it for the Future" and that is the prime reason for Sierra Club meetings.

Now that I have established that A) I don't like meetings, and B) they are an evil necessity, lets get to the core of this missive. The Ex-Comm weekends have changed from a primary focus of Conservation matters to primarily non-Conservation Chapter matters. This has not been the result of a malicious infiltration of meeting nerds, but has been a gradual slipping away of the people who were being served by the conservation meeting. We cannot have effective Conservation Meetings unless we have members willing to attend the meetings and participate in the process of planning, setting goals, and learning about the issues so the information can get back to the local Groups.

Age, personal matters, expense, all are factors in this change. Have the issues changed or have the people changed? I think we have to take those thoughts together and conclude that people changed in their view of how to meet the issues. We took the "Think Globally, Act Locally" slogan and did the latter and ignored the former. Many of us have become content to hit the 'send' button on our computers to send a prewritten email from the comfort of our living rooms, and have forgotten the "active" part of being activists, such as composing letters in our own words, making phone calls, attending meetings and workshops, speaking to the legislature, inviting others to become involved, working with colleges and businesses to form alliances, and the host of other things we can do to bring about positive change in this world. We have forgotten that 'we' are the ones who must do this work, or it will not be done.

We need to get back to doing both the local and the global work. A local item for my Group in WNC is that of the administration attempting to sell off the National Forest, for other Groups it is the OLF, and for some it is the mega-dump situation of the Coast, just to name a few. While each Group works on their own local issues, the other Groups in the state can offer their support, if we are informed. And we can, at the same time, respond to global issues such as power companies as they try to slide around on the rules in order to circumvent environmental laws and regulations. We, as an environmental group, must meet both global and local issues head on, and to do that we must be more informed and united.

Does this mean that we all must attend all the meetings that are called, NO! Because if we do, we burn out and burn out fast. But we do need to expand our numbers and have more than one person from each Group who can attend Chapter meetings. This means reaching out to our members and getting them involved. It also means getting out of our comfort zone in this reach. Maybe you have a person who only wants to deal with population, and the upcoming meeting is about the OLF. They can still have input because the reason the OLF issue has come up is the growing population of Virginia Beach, and that leads to sustainability issues, and that leads to healthcare, and that leads to-- well, you get the picture.

Now comes the plea, you knew there would be one, didn't you? The next Ex-Com weekend that is located centrally enough for all Groups to reasonably participate will have a Conservation Meeting. Fair warning, you are on notice. I plan to have updates on the Cliffside situation, OLF, widening of the road through the Croatan National Forest, and any other stealth issue that is lurking out there. Then I want to have at least one, possible two, separate sessions on big picture issues, Forest, Sprawl, Costal issues, and then a good lunch and then maybe a session on planning an event, protest, forum, etc.

Now I need to hear from you, the would-be participants of these meetings, about what you want and need from such a meeting. If you think the Conservation Meetings should be held only twice a year instead of the four times the ExComm meetings are held, or you think one meeting a year should do it, or if your opinion is that we don't need Conservation Meetings at all, I really want to hear your ideas on that, too. Without you and your input, attempting to even have a state-wide Conservation Meeting is all for naught.

Every person's opinion is valid and valued. This is not a case in which silence is golden, silence is deadly to us all.

Branching out from our Roots

Guest Post by Donna Fisk:

The success of Sierra Club in North Carolina is rooted in its grass roots. And as circular as that may sound, it is the very process of Groups responding and reacting to local events, plus the act of sharing that information and being supported by other Sierra Club Groups that keeps us a positive and vital force in conservation and the environmental movement.

While we have many members on the books, we are having some difficulty tapping into the potential activists and expertise in the outlying area of our Groups. Taking a look at the map below, you can see that in order to attend a “local” Group meeting, members might have to travel from the South Carolina to the Virginia State line. Not many grass roots can reach that far, and local issues important to south central NC may well be very different than those of north central NC. And in a larger sense, it isn’t responsible environmentally to use fossil fuels to travel that distance for a meeting.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to work around this problem, and that is through Activity Centers. Basically, an established Group permits an individual member or group of members to host Sierra Club meetings and organize events in their local area. Unlike most things in life anymore, this doesn't require a great deal of paperwork, time, or any money. All you have to do is recognize some energetic people and let them run with it! The official scoop from National is at the bottom of this post.

Interest in environmental issues is at an all time high. We need to strike while the fire is hot, find the activists in those areas that we are not reaching right now, get them involved, and encourage and support them as they grow. Give it some thought, and then get in touch with Tom Jensen and Molly Diggins for any additional information you may need.

And if you are reading this and you are one of those Sierra Club members without a nearby Group, please email and let us know that you are interested in becoming more involved. Sierra Club cannot succeed without our grass roots …and that means you!

Establishing a Sierra Club "Presence" in a Community

It is often best not to form new groups right away, but to first empower local activists to represent the Sierra Club in their community through a committee, or by designating a local spokesperson.

Chapters and groups can establish committees with a specific charge to represent the Sierra Club in a given community, or on a particular issue, or to conduct activities like outings or political programs. Individuals can also be delegated as local spokespeople regarding a range of issues or activities.

Committees or designated spokespersons can be assigned budgets, they can use membership lists appropriate to their work, they can hold periodic members meetings and speak out at public meetings, and they can use the newsletter to inform members about their work and invite participation. They can be empowered to speak on behalf of the Sierra Club regarding their charge.

Creating a local committee, or designating a local spokesperson, is often the best way to gain Sierra Club presence in an especially important geographic area that doesn’t have a large enough membership to sustain an entire group. This makes most sense in places where there are just a few committed activists who can work well with the chapter ExCom; where they are generally away from a functioning group; where they’re in a place with important elected officials or adjacent to important public lands or key pollution problems, etc.

As with all committees or spokespersons established by a chapter, they are accountable to the chapter ExCom.

Happy Paczki Day!

If you're not from the Midwest you probably have no clue what I'm talking about.

I've found that the cultural differences between southeastern Michigan, where I grew up, and North Carolina are not that great.

Except for this one day of the year.

Today is not Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday in my lexicon, it is Paczki Day!

A Paczki is a Polish sort of jelly donut. We have a huge Polish community in the metro Detroit area, and in Hamtramck, Michigan even have a Paczki Day Parade.

Learn more about the paczki here.

I have never seen a Paczki in the Triangle or even heard one mentioned, but maybe one positive of all the northerners moving down here will be that it becomes more a part of our culture.

Because I really want to eat one right now.

No, this post had nothing to do with the environment :)

What's going on in North Carolina tonight? The Sierra Club's going on!

A couple weeks ago I wrote about how I was amused to find that someone googling what's going on in Raleigh tonight? found that the first hit that came up was a post from our blog about a tree ordinance hearing in Raleigh.

Well it turns out that Raleigh is not the only place in North Carolina where the number one thing happening tonight is the Sierra Club.

This weekend folks trying to answer the question what's going on in Greensboro tonight were directed to speak out for Land for Tomorrow.

What's going on in Winston-Salem tonight? The first hit implores you to come hear me speak about making your local community a Cool City.

Someone looking for information on what to do in Chapel Hill tonight found that the second hit encouraged them to speak out for the Greenbridge development, which has been officially endorsed by the Orange/Chatham Group and will go for a final vote on February 26th.

I was talking about this to Donna Fisk, one of our wonderful leaders both at the chapter level and for the Pisgah Group in Western North Carolina, and she thinks that this phenomenon is really intended to send people a sign. I agree. The Sierra Club is what's going on across North Carolina, and if that's what google gives you on a Friday night, it's time for you to get involved!

Capital Group speaking out on Raleigh/Wake County development issues

One of the best things Sierra Club groups across the state do is take leadership on growth issues in their local communities. It's the kind of thing that's hard for our organization to really dictate from Raleigh, making the work our leaders do on the ground that much more important.

No group in the state has taken more of an interest in local development issues than the Capital Group in Raleigh, so when NBC 17 wanted to do a series of stories on growth in the Triangle, they turned to them.

One story was about the clear cutting of trees, and Capital Group Conservation Chair Tim Reed was interviewed about the group's work on that issue, which we wrote about earlier here.

It seems to be the time for working on Tree Protection ordinances across the state! When I was in Winston-Salem last week several folks there told me about the work they are doing there, and I just finished serving on a committee reevaluating our ordinance in Chapel Hill.

I guess Sierrans across the state are going to perpetuate the stereotype of us being treehuggers in 2007. No shame there as far as I'm concerned!

Tim was also featured in a story about the Planning Commission and how the development process works in Raleigh.

Cypress Group has a Blog!

Christa and I had a great trip out to Eastern North Carolina on Monday.

We started out by having a meeting with Rep. Marian McLawhorn. She has been a great friend to the Sierra Club and was very responsive to our issues. We look forward to continue to work with her in the coming years.

Next, Christa met with folks interested in getting more involved with lobbying, while I met with some folks interested in working to make New Bern a 'Cool City.'

I am looking forward to helping those folks make it happen, as I would be interested in working with people in any community across North Carolina on this important project.

We capped the evening with a speech to a large gathering of Cypress Group members. I was particularly happy to find out out that they too have a new blog, which you can see here.

Kudos to Bill All for his work in getting that started.

The Sierra Club leaders in Greenville have done a great job on Cool Cities, and it appears their community will sign on some time next month. Many folks are responsible for this but we are particularly grateful to high school senior Aaron Seyfried who got the ball rolling and has been a great leader throughout the process. It's a true Sierra Club success story.

Thanks to everyone we visited with Monday, but most particularly Bill and Ginny Kloepfer for their hard work and hospitality in welcoming us to Greenville.

Green Schools in North Carolina

Some great news in several districts across North Carolina recently about 'Green Schools.'

The Orange County Schools have saved a million dollars in just four years since they started monitoring and conserving energy. How many extra teachers do you think can be paid for with that much money?

OCS has used a consultant, which is fine, but not a necessity for schools to make big strides on energy.

The Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools have made enormous strides with their 'Down 20' plan. This is a competition between different schools in the district to see how much energy they can conserve, and it helped result in over 200k in savings last year.

Why would any district in the state not want to save these quantities of money? These are models that everyone should be trying to emulate for their bottom line and for our future.

Also, if your local district is in the process of building new schools look at this great model of green in Guilford County.

Road show goes on to Greenville

Chapter Lobbyist Christa Wagner and I will be speaking tonight to the Cypress Group in Greenville, NC. The program is at 7:30 PM at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, 131 Oakmont Drive.

Sorry for the lack of more substantive posts lately, I promise to pick it back up when I get off the road.

Hope to see a lot of folks in Eastern North Carolina this evening!

Great things in the Winston-Salem area

I was really energized by the crowd of around 60 people that came out last night to talk about Cool Cities in Winston-Salem.

Three things in particular warmed my heart:

-A 4th grader who had written a letter to Mayor Allen Joines asking that Winston-Salem become a Cool City.

-Talking with Ronda Jones, who is fighting what sometimes feels likes a lonely crusade to get the governments in Stokes County to start paying more attention to environmental issues. If there are any Stokes folks reading this please get in touch with me so that I can hook you up with Ronda. She is a gem.

-Having Jeff Switzer, one of the Foothills Group's newest ExCom members, let me know about his plans to win over Lexington and Thomasville.

Nothing makes me happier than to conquer new frontiers. There are 100 counties in North Carolina, and in most of them the Sierra Club does not have much of a presence. If you live in one of those under represented counties please e-mail me at 'tjensen' @ 'sierraclub-nc.org' I want to work with you to make things happen in your local area.

Thank you to the leaders of the Foothills Group, some of the best and most committed Sierrans in the state, for welcoming me to their community and for all of their good work.

Speaking in Winston-Salem tonight

Tonight I'll be speaking at the monthly meeting of the Foothills Group in Winston-Salem about Cool Cities.

If you're in the area, please come out:

Parkway United Church of Christ

2151 Silas Creek Parkway (opposite Forsyth Technical Community College)

7:30 p.m. Social

Enjoy refreshments and conversation; check what's new at the Membership and Conservation tables.

7:45 - 9:00 p.m. Program

Mayors in over 300 cities nationwide have signed the Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. Find out what's happening in our area and elsewhere in NC and share your ideas with Tom Jensen, Conservation Organizer for the NC Sierra Club Chapter.

________________________________________________
If you're not in the area, you should tune in to watch the UNC women's basketball team take care of Duke like the men did last night!!!

Session's off to a good start...

Last night Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford) along with Grier Martin (D-Wake) and Jim Harrell (D-Surry) introduced a bill calling for a 20% Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard.

Within a few hours, 41 more legislators, including both Democrats and Republicans, had signed onto the bill as co-sponsors!!! This gives us some real hope for progress on this issue during the current session.

Thank you to all of the co-sponsors and primary sponsors, but especially to Representative Harrison, who has provided outstanding leadership on this issue.

Do you see your legislator on the list of co-sponsors? If not send him/her an e-mail TODAY asking them to help provide leadership for a better energy future in North Carolina.

Driving in Winter Weather

When the weather is nasty, like it was across the state last Thursday, most folks don't want to drive their cars.

But life goes on even if it is gross outside.

So if you have somewhere to go and you don't want to drive the next time the weather is bad, I highly suggest using it as an excuse to take public transit.

Our chapter Lobbyist Christa Wagner and I both take Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) buses from Durham and Chapel Hill respectively to the office in Raleigh every day. It's extremely convenient, saves money, and allows us to do something productive during the morning commute.

TTA is just one of many outstanding public transportation outlets across the state.

I know a lot of the time it's hard to sustain the energy to use public transit, but the next time you don't want to risk your personal vehicle because of bad roads, use it as an excuse to take the bus. Maybe you'll get hooked!

Our apologies...

One of the interesting things you can do with your blog is see what google searches lead people to it.

Around 7 PM on Saturday night someone googled:

what's going on in Raleigh tonight?

And found that the first hit was a post on our blog about the tree ordinance hearing last month.

I imagine that person was quite disappointed! But really, is there anything more fun to do on a Saturday night than think about how to protect trees?

Or maybe I just need to get out more...

Project Gives NC Hog Farmers "Choices"

Last week's Independent Weekly "Eat Beat" column featured a project that the NC Sierra Club is part of called N.C. Choices. It is a collaboration between the Center for Environmental Farming Systems at N.C. A&T, N.C. State and the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in which they are working to promote local food production and consumption while at the same time helping farmers adopt more sustainable hog raising and pork processing practices. Currently, the project is just focusing on hog farms but hopes to expand to cattle and plant production. Check out the article and learn more about NC Choices at their website.

BlueNC on OLF

The good folks over at BlueNC have had a number of good posts recently about the Outlying Landing Field, a list of which you can find here and background information about which you can find here.

They're encouraging folks to write letters to their elected officials and local newspapers about the issue. We encourage you to do the same.

Thank you especially to Anglico and the Southern Dem for their vigilance on this important issue.

Field Notes from a Catastrophe

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change today released a much-anticipated report that analyzes whether human activity is driving global warming. When the same report was issued in 2001, man-made greenhouses gases were believed at 66% certainty to be responsible. The new report is 90% certain. You can get your socks knocked off here, though I recommend starting with an impressive piece of journalism by New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert.

Kolbert scales back the daunting facts and figures of climate change and talks about the issue in the context of individual stories in her book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe. She describes residents of an Alaskan fishing village who are forced to choose whether to stay on their melting island or move to the mainland. She criticizes the U.S. for refusing to sign the Kyoto protocol, while praising U.S. cities for working to curb emissions.

You can hear an interview with Kolbert on Sierra Club radio, by clicking through the links here to the archived edition, 1-13-2007.

You can also hear Kolbert live at the Witherspoon Cinema at NC State University, February 26 at 7 pm.