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The Success of our Spring Outreach Drive
The month of April is Earth Month and, in honor of that, Sierra Club volunteers
worked hard to talk to their neighbors and friends about Padre Island. At least
30 volunteers made phone calls, worked at tabling events or walked their
neighborhoods and spoke to over 850 people in Corpus, Austin, and San Antonio
about the drilling on Padre Island National Seashore. Ten volunteers have come
in to help enter the petitions into our database. Several other volunteers
helped out with the Padre Lunada. This is what real, old-time grassroots is all
about. Sierra Club would like to thank everyone who got involved this spring.
We would especially like to thank our 20 Doors Captains: Mona Mehdy of Austin,
and Kelly Lyons and Martha Fabrique of San Antonio.
Southern Plains Wild Heritage Issues:
Songs to Save the Seashore
Padre Lunada
Calendar
Take Action
More Resources
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Photo courtesy Chris Wilhite.
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Songs to Save the Seashore
We've done a great job this spring growing our grassroots. Now it's time to get
in touch with the grasstops. Sierra Club is hosting a great benefit to stop the
drilling on Padre Island National Seashore. The benefit at Antone's in Austin,
Texas, will feature some of the best singer/songwriters in Texas and abroad.
Those include Michael Fracasso, Eliza Gilkyson, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny
Irion, Dale Watson and Carolyn Wonderland with Ruthie Foster. This will be
another night to remember for Sierra Club's Padre Island Campaign. For more information,
visit our Songs to Save the Seashore webpage.
Tickets are $25 and are available online at
Front Gate Tickets or by phone at 512-389-0315 and in person at
Waterloo Records and all Frontgate Outlets.
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It happened at the Padre Lunada!
Over 35 people attended the Padre Lunada, talked to visitors at Padre about the
drilling, cleaned up several bags of trash on the beach, and ate a pot of
vegetarian chili and about 60 crabs. The moon was full, the weather was cool...
it was a beautiful time. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate this campaign
with us.
The following day while packing up, volunteers were witness to one of the big
convoys hauling heavy equipment to and from the drilling sites. During the
Alternative Spring Break, we saw convoys of dump trucks (25 trucks in one day)
carrying material to reclaim an old well. This goes to show that the convoys of
trucks associated with oil and gas drilling on Padre Island National Seashore
drive not only when new wells are drilled, but when existing wells are worked
on. Twenty trucks a day is the limit on any new drilling. But over the course
of time, each well begins to add up.
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Wild Heritage Calendar
First Thursday Tabling and Street Canvass
Thursday, June 2, 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Jo's Hot Coffee
1300 S. Congress, Austin, Texas
First Friday Street Canvass in S.A.
Friday, June 3, 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Meet at Madhatters Tea House
320 Beauregard, San Antonio, Texas
Songs to Save the Seashore
Sierra Club Benefit for Padre Island
Wednesday, June 8, 8:00 pm - midnight
Antone's, 213 West 5th St
Tickets $25;
available online at
Front Gate Tickets
or by phone at 512-389-0315 and
in person at Waterloo Records and all Frontgate Outlets
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Take Action
Action of the Month!
Summer Block Parties
Folks tend to trust their friends, relatives and neighbors. So, Sierra Club
would like to invite volunteers to host block parties this summer to educate
folks about the drilling on Padre Island and to take action to stop the
drilling. Contact Chris Wilhite to sign up: 512-472-9094 or
chris.wilhite@sierraclub.org.
Street Canvass
One of the most effective ways to reach a broad audience is to take a clipboard
and walk the streets during a local festival. In Austin, volunteers have
gathered overfour-hundred petitions by speaking to people at the First Thursday
event on South Congress. A similar event happens every First Friday in the King
William neighborhood in San Antonio. Call Chris Wilhite to sign up and receive
clipboard packet today.
Write Letters to the Editor
Earth Day is coming up which means it a perfect time to write letters to the
editor of your local newspaper about Sierra Club's Earth Day activities and
about putting an end to the drilling on Padre Island once and for all. Folks
who get their letters printed will receive valuable prizes from Sierra Club
(redeemable through Chris Wilhite at 512-472-9094 or by email at
chris.wilhite@sierraclub.org). Sample letters can be found below in the
Resources section below.
Padre Petition
STOP THE DRILLING! Protect Padre Island National Seashore
The Sierra Club and a growing number of individuals and allies are proposing a
real solution that will be a win-win for everyone, including the Texas school
fund that benefits from oil and gas revenues at Padre Island. Why doesn't
President Bush, on behalf of the American people who own the park, buy the oil
and gas rights at PINS and retire them forever - just as he proposed to do a
few years ago at Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida. With a buyout, the
park visitors win, the Park Service wins, local businesses win, the Texas
schoolchildren's fund wins, oil and gas interests win, and this valuable and
irreplaceable coastal wild land and the wildlife that it contains will remain
as it was intended to remain - a priceless legacy for our children and
grandchildren. Sign the petition
Other Actions:
Educate your local decision-makers
Now is the time to start setting up appointments with the district offices of
your Congressional Representative to educate them about how drilling on Padre
is bad for America, how a federal buyout of the oil and gas rights under Padre
Island National Seashore would help stop the drilling, and that thousands of
people like you are behind the effort to stop the drilling. Contact Chris
Wilhite if you would like help setting up a meeting with your local
decision-makers.
Write a letter to the Land Commissioner
Urge Jerry Patterson to support a federal buyout of the oil and gas rights
under Padre Island National Seashore. A sample letter is provided below.
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More Resources:
SAMPLE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
(These are samples. In order to get your letter printed, please use one or more
of the talking points below to draft your own letter.)
Dear Editor,
Earth Day is coming up on April 22. Perhaps the biggest Earth Day gift to Texas
national park visitors that Gale Norton, President Bush's Secretary of the
Interior, can give is a federal buy out of the oil and gas rights under Padre
Island National Seashore. This is a national park and drilling just shouldn't
be here.
Padre Island National Seashore is the longest stretch of undevloped barrier
island in the world and home to several threatened and endangered species.
While the beach is one of the most popular spots in Texas, attracting 700,000
visitors per year, the prairies behind the dunes represent one of the wildest
places in the state.
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton should step up and do the right thing for
the President's home state and put an end to the drilling once and for all.
Sincerely,
(YOUR NAME)
Dear Editor,
I hope that President Bush will remember Texas and its great natural heritage
this Earth Day. I especially hope that the President will realize that it's
just not worth it to America to drill Padre Island National Seashore.
There is only enough gas under the Park to provide a single day's worth of
fuel. And the vast majority of BNP drilling profits will go to foreign
investors in Asia and Australia. Should Texans -- and all Americans -- be
expected to sacrifice our natural heritage for this? There is a better way.
Tourism to the national seashore alone generates about $40 million for the
local economy every year. We can meet our nation's energy needs by investing in
cleaner, quicker, safer technologies, supporting the local economy in
sustainable ways, and protecting irreplacable natural treasures like Padre
Island.
Sincerely,
(YOUR NAME)
Dear Editor,
I am appalled that the Bush administration is allowing our beautiful Padre
Island National Seashore to be desecrated by petroleum companies for a single
day's worth of natural gas. Why on earth wouldn't a presidential administration
with roots in Texas do the right thing and protect Padre forever by buying out
the oil and gas rights. Further, why won't the Texas Land Commissioner do the
right thing and support such a federal buyout of the gas rights? We need to
stop the drilling on Padre once and for all.
Sincerely,
(YOUR NAME)
SAMPLE LETTER TO TEXAS LAND COMMISSIONER JERRY PATTERSON:
The Honorable Jerry Patterson
Texas Land Commissioner
P.O. Box 78711-2873
Austin, TX 78711-2873
Dear Commissioner Patterson:
As an American who loves Padre Island National Seashore, I am writing to ask
you to help protect this great national park.
The seashore is a national treasure, and crown jewel in the natural heritage of
the Lone Star State.
I am outraged to hear that the park has been opened to "an aggressive drilling
campaign" that could last 30 years and litter the park with well sites, roads,
fences and pipelines. I have recently heard that the Bush administration has
approved a third drilling well on the seashore. I am astonished to learn that
park visitors and endangered sea turtles will have to share the beach with
18-wheeler trucks. The seashore is too special to turn it into petroleum
superhighway.
I am writing to ask you to support a federal buyout of the mineral rights below
Padre Island, specifically by estimating the cost of a buyout. With your long
and distinguished career in Texas government you could also act as a liaison to
President George W. Bush, who supported a buyout of mineral rights below a
national park in Florida last year. A federal buyout is a win-win solution to
the national seashore, its visitors, the local economy, and the Texas school
fund. This buyout would give the money to the school fund upfront rather than
holding it hostage to incremental payments dependent on gas drilling. The Bush
administration would serve our country well by buying out those mineral rights
and emphasizing renewable energy instead of petroleum production.
Please, Commissioner Patterson, do the right thing, for our families and our
future. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
(Your name)
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