Your readers probably know the Sierra Club if they regularly pick up the Statesman. We’ve been in Texas for 50 years and have always fought for clean air, clean water and the preservation of our natural wonders. Our state chapter office is in Austin, and our local Austin group — all volunteers — organizes nature outings and works to make the city cleaner and more affordable.
We work on Texas issues. Texans donate to us because they realize that our state and its people face a crisis caused by the burning of fossil fuels. They believe they should breathe clean air and drink clean water, and that if a corporation fouls the air or water, or causes earthquakes that cracks the walls of their houses, those corporations should be held accountable. They recognize that pollution makes us sick and disrupts the climate. They also want their lawmakers to act in their best interests rather than the interest of the oil and gas lobby.
Some of our donors give just $5. Others give much more — like Jane Dale Owen. Jane lived in Houston and used her oil wealth to help clean up the pollution her family’s business caused. Jane’s grandfather was one of the founders of Humble Oil, which eventually became ExxonMobil. She wrote the Sierra Club into her will, including specific funds for the Lone Star Chapter, because our volunteers and staff have developed technical expertise and a decadeslong record of success working on air quality issues in Texas
The need to tackle the climate crisis is increasingly accepted and articulated at the highest levels, as seen with Pope Francis’ historic encyclical, the words of the Dalai Lama and an unprecedented agreement among the world’s major developed economies at the most recent meeting of the G7, which includes the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Japan.
You can’t fight polluters without advocating for solutions. Good thing Texas has an abundance of alternatives to fossil fuels. Many of our 100,000 members and supporters in Texas, and 2.4 million nationwide, are so deeply committed to developing the clean energy economy that they have put their money where their mouths are by both supporting our advocacy efforts and investing in clean energy through the private sector. They are in good company, too, as the vast majority of the American public prefers clean energy solutions that create jobs over dirty, dangerous fossil fuels.
Texas has abundant renewable resources and the innovation capital to continue to clean up the energy industry. Texas’ wind energy is an unqualified success story that has put clean energy on the grid and lowered power bills. Solar has now become so affordable that it is among the cheapest options for utilities. Energy-storage technologies are the next piece of the clean energy puzzle in Texas that our leaders must allow to develop.
And as you’ve seen in the Statesman recently, we’re doubling down on our efforts to advocate for policies that prioritize equity and provide working families and low-income Texans access to the benefits of the clean energy economy.
Our goal is to make sure our leaders do what’s best for Texas and those who will inherit it. The self-serving smears of mercenaries won’t change that.
James is director of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter.