Sierra Club Conservation Policies

Energy Conservation and Renewables

Energy conservation must be made a major national goal. We must establish federal, state, and local policies, as well as encourage personal attitudes that will promote more efficient energy use and better conservation of energy resources. The following steps are some of many that should be pursued with vigor:

Land-use controls and urban designs to reduce transportation demands.
Efficient and attractive public transportation systems and smaller, more efficient private vehicles.
"Total energy" systems, which usefully employ "waste" heat.
Energy-efficient buildings designed to lower requirements for artificial heating, cooling, and lighting.
The direct use of pipeline quality gas instead of electricity generated from such gas for heating, and the use of heat pumps where practical.
Products with longer lives, lower average energy demand, and greater efficiencies. These features should be specified on product labels.
The recycling of materials and reuse of containers, and the elimination of unnecessary packaging.
The use of renewable energy sources, such as solar energy, wind power, and geothermal power.
Improved energy conversion, storage, and transmission efficiency.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, January 20-21, 1973

The Sierra Club urges immediate enactment of legislation by each of the United States to prohibit any franchised electric or gas utility, either publicly or privately owned, from engaging in any form of advertising conceived, designed, or intended to cause any increase in the consumption of electricity or gas, and to prohibit any and all other activity, on the part of such utilities, to promote use of gas or electricity.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, May 2-3, 1970

The Sierra Club believes that in the short and long term, energy conservation should be a stronger national and international goal and that it can be achieved with little, if any, meaningful change in material standards of living. Indeed, stress upon conservation holds significant promise of improving the quality of life for everyone. Further, conservation-induced lower energy demands is a prerequisite to substantial reliance on renewable resources.

The Sierra Club recognizes that as the petroleum age quickly closes and the transition to renewable resources is made, easily transportable vehicular fuels will be a necessity, but not which will require degrading our air, inland water, or continental shelf waters. We believe a closer look should be taken at technologies that can, in the short run, produce such fuels without the gross dangers of [the] "synfuel" alternatives [currently being pushed by the Carter administration]. We urge deeper consideration of:

solar power development for, among other applications, the production of hydrogen;
economic biomass conversion under sensible environmental controls;
secondary and tertiary oil development in existing fields under sensible environmental controls;
an environmentally acceptable electric car, until mass transit is available;
development of unconvention natural gas to free up other oil resources; and
replacement of oil power plants with environmentally controlled coal plants to free up other oil resources.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, July 21-22, 1979

Solar Energy

The Sierra Club believes that solar energy can become an important source of power for our society. The Club supports federal, state, and local incentives for the commercial production and installation of small-scale residential and industrial solar collection systems, where the technology is already proven. The use of solar heating and cooling systems in new government buildings is encouraged by the Club whenever possible.

The Club supports increased federal and state funding for research, development, and demonstration in solar energy applications, with emphasis placed on the development and deployment of decentralized systems for both heating and cooling and for generation of electrical power.

The Sierra Club supports the construction and testing of a limited number of demonstration central station solar-electric power plants, providing that during the demonstration phase, the environmental, social, and economic impacts are completely evaluated and publicly presented by an independent body of panel not directly associated with the building of these plants.

The Sierra Club acknowledges the probable benefits of central station solar power plants over conventional nuclear or fossil-fuel plants. These benefits include minimal air pollution, a minimal transportation support network, the elimination of hazardous chemical or radioactive wastes, and the elimination of mining. While recognizing that a solar- electric power plant may use as little as 30% of the land used by an equivalent fossil-fuel or nuclear plant when mining lands are included, the Club is nevertheless concerned about the widespread and indiscriminate deployment of large-scale solar power systems because of the potential for requiring large areas of presently undeveloped land and for facilitating the continuing and escalating waste of energy in this country.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, April 1-2, 1976 [replaces solar energy policy of December 13-14, 1975]

The Sierra Club recognizes President Carter's personal interest in solar energy and urges him to announce an ambitious national goal for solar energy that will challenge the capabilities and capture the imagination of the American people. A national commitment to provide 25% of U.S. energy needs from solar energy by the year 2000 is a desirable and attainable objective, and specific policies and programs should be adopted to this end. In the 96th Congress, the administration should accordingly endorse and actively support creation of a Solar Energy Development Bank, additional tax credits for passive solar design and use of solar energy in industrial applications, maximum efforts to promote solar energy at the state and local level in partnership with research, development, and commercialization of promising but heretofore neglected solar technologies.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, February 3-4, 1979

Retrofitting Residential and Commercial Buildings

Residential and commercial buildings use a substantial fraction of the nation's petroleum-derived fuels, and offer the fastest and most cost-effective opportunities to reduce the nation's insecure petroleum imports. Yet, there are so many institutional barriers that impede the nation's ability to capture the potential benefits derivable from eliminating the unnecessary waste of energy in these buildings.

Therefore, the Sierra Club calls on Congress to undertake a massive initiative for the purpose of retrofitting all feasible residential and commercial structures to conserve energy usage. This initiative should include tax credits of at least 50% of a project's costs, or other provisions that would make the federal government a major financial partner in every owner's or user's efforts to conserve the nation's diminishing energy supplies.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, July 21-22, 1979

Energy Research and Development

The Sierra Club urges Congress to provide for the expenditure of at least $2 billion per year for a period in excess of five years for federal research and development, with emphasis in the following areas: geothermal, solar and fusion power; energy conservation and more efficient utilization of energy; hydrocarbon extraction and conversion problems; stripmining reclamation; nuclear safety; nuclear waste management; biological and medical research related to energy sources; and instrumental for monitoring pollution.

Adopted by the Board of Directors, January 12-13, 1974