May Newsletter

Tell Gov. Lee to prevent utility shutoffs!

General News Across the State

Partial reopening of TN State Parks. Many Tennessee State Parks reopened on April 24th for daytime visitors, with most parks operating from 7:00 AM to sundown. New overnight reservations will not be permitted until May 15th. Rangers ask that visitors maintain social distance, and visit parks close to home rather than far away. Some restrooms will be open, but others will be closed. Check the closures page before visiting, as there are certain parks or sections than remain closed for now. 

Former TVA chairman blasts TVA for ad promotions during COVID-19 pandemic. "Four decades after heading the Tennessee Valley Authority, former TVA Chairman S. David Freeman is joining an environmental group highly critical of the federal agency and is urging TVA's biggest customer to split from America's biggest government utility. Freeman, a 94-year-old Chattanooga native who has worked as an engineer, attorney and executive for utilities in California, Texas and Tennessee, blasted TVA Wednesday for its current advertising campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Memphis where the city-owned utility is considering a split from TVA." Read full article by Dave Flessner - Times Free Press - Apr. 29, 2020.

Chattanooga plans for solar farm at Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment Plan. The City of Chattanooga is planning a $5.25 million solar farm that will provide power for Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment Plant. The plant is the largest user of power among the city facilities, costing about one half of the city's electric bill. The planned 10-acre solar farm will offset about 8% of the plant’s total power use, saving about $200,000 and paying for itself within 20 years. Read more in The Chattanoogan - Apr. 17, 2020.

No internet? No phone? No access to public hearings on proposed waste dumps in Tennessee. "Tennessee pollution regulators are still issuing permits and holding public hearings on proposed waste dumps despite a suspension of in-person proceedings amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a Knox News review shows. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation also is easing up on pollution control enforcement and monitoring actions, citing the need for “pragmatism” related to the pandemic." Tennessee conservation groups have written a letter to the state attorney general stating that TDEC must stand firm and continue to enforce codified environmental protections for Tennesseans. Read full article by Jamie Satterfield - Knoxville News Sentinel - Apr. 27, 2020.

The Sunrise Movement comes to Nashville. "On a sticky morning in September, about a hundred young people march down 5th Avenue in Nashville, Tennessee, waving banners and singing. "Which side are you on, now, which side are you on?"  The simple tune was written in 1931 to raise awareness about National Miners Union members in Kentucky who were being evicted, harassed, and killed. Later, the song was adopted by civil rights activists. Today's protesters—members of a youth-led national climate justice organization called the Sunrise Movement—sing their own version as they step. The activists are headed to Representative Jim Cooper's office and then on to the office of his brother, Mayor John Cooper. They want the mayor to declare a climate emergency, and they've decided to occupy his front lobby until he agrees to meet with them." Read  full feature by Leanna First-Arai - Apr. 21, 2020 - May-June edition of Sierra Magazine.

Coal Ash Lawsuit Updates

Events

Save the Date(s)!

Report-back: 
Conservation Education Day

Pictured below are some of the 60 members of the Sierra Club, Tennessee Conservation Voters, Tennessee Environmental Council and Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light who met with 50 legislators at this year's Conservation Education Day in February, built on the success of the previous two years. Sadie Corbutt, a member of the Chickasaw Group, made a big impact as the plastic bag lady posing with several key legislators and making an appearance at a committee hearing. The plastic bag ban bill did not pass this year, but we were able to change some votes and get closer to our goals. Each year, we establish more relationships. We need to keep that connection up throughout the year to make the biggest impact. To learn more about Conservation Education Day, contact Bill Moll, Chapter Conservation Chair (404-401-7899 or whmoll@aol.com).

Call for Nominations:
Chapter At-Large Excom

The ExCom sets the Chapter budget and strategic direction, reaches consensus on conservation positions, raises money, appoints officers and committee chairs, plans important events, and approves litigation and electoral endorsements. To accomplish all of this, the Chapter ExCom meets 6 times a year (4 electronic meetings, 2 in-person meetings) every other month, and there is e-mail correspondence between meetings. 

After receiving your nominations by July 31, 2020, the Chapter Nominations Committee will consider and recommend candidates for the ballot, which is published in the November/December edition of the Tennes-Sierran bi-monthly newspaper. Candidates may also get on the ballot by petition and are allowed space on the ballot to advocate for their election. Candidates receiving the top votes will start their 2-year terms in January 2021.

Sierra Club Election Results

Results for other candidates who ran:  
Peter Sargent             33,805     12.70%
Igor A. Tregub            26,267     9.87%      

For the data nerds:
Valid Returns by Internet         11,897  (20.80%)
Valid Returns by Mail               45,295  (79.20%)
Total Valid Returns                   57,192            
Invalid Ballots: 379
Total Ballots Distributed    703,857

Special Features

Dear Eartha: Advice from an Eco-Guru

Seems like the novel coronavirus has many of us in the grip of pervasive anxiety, what I heard somebody call “ambient sadness.” Has our planet and its people descended to a grief that will never end – people out of work, millions on unemployment, bailouts for airlines but not for citizens without health coverage, and “essential workers” being called heroes while given no pay increase and barely any PPE? Can you offer any hope, Eartha?
– A Generation Z-er Needing Hope

Dear Needing Hope,
Yes, these are the worst of times but, also, as Dickens wrote, the best of times, too! For with our anxiety, sadness, and despair comes the realization that what connects all of us and climate action is organizing with the helpers (Thanks, Mr. Rogers!). According to a recent column by the great environmentalist Bill McKibben, your generation sees no reason to have children because you see no future for the planet. You get the science, unlike many of your grandparents’ generation, despite many of them reading about Zero Population Growth in high school and college. And you are fearful because of this awareness.

But you are also building the legacy of Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise Movement. These organizations are committed to changing the status quo of non-action and are led by youth organizers. They understand that the economics which fuel our values do not inherently benefit the common folk. As Kim Stanley Robinson recently put it in an amazing piece  in The New Yorker: “Economics is a system for optimizing resources, and if it were trying to calculate ways to optimize a sustainable civilization in balance with the biosphere, it could be a helpful tool. When it’s used to optimize profit, however, it encourages us to live within a system of destructive falsehoods.”

She suggested we need a new “political economy” to recalculate our values, actions, and outcomes. Putting pressure on political candidates is always a good place to start and this is an election year of great importance.

I know I may sound like a broken record, but it’s the same voice of indigenous peoples, the labor, women’s, and #MeToo movements who also woke up to those “destructive falsehoods”: Get organized and get involved. Think globally and act locally works every single time. Pick your organization and come on out, and - just for now - stay six feet apart. Wearing my mask, my message remains: Don’t agonize, organize!

Compassionately yours,
Eartha

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