Sierra Club Endorses Muriel Bowser for Re-election, Jeremiah Lowery for DC Council At-Large & Kenyan McDuffie for Ward 5
DC chapter of nation’s largest environmental organization vows
to continue work with allies to take on climate change
WASHINGTON, DC – The DC Chapter of the Sierra Club is proud to announce endorsements of Muriel Bowser for mayor, Jeremiah Lowery for DC Council at-large and Kenyan McDuffie for the the Ward 5 DC Council seat. The Sierra Club has worked with all three on climate change and other pressing environmental issues in the District and looks forward to continued productive relationships with each to make DC a greener city.
In her first term, Mayor Bowser has committed DC to meeting the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and pledged to make DC carbon neutral by 2050. "Zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will not be easy, but if we are serious about climate change, we must make it happen," said DC chapter chair Mark Rodeffer. "Mayor Bowser has set us on the right path. But much more work remains to be done, and we look forward to continuing the progress we've made so far." Since coming into office in 2015, Mayor Bowser has finalized the largest municipal wind power purchase agreement of its kind in the United States and launched the largest on-site municipal solar generation in the country, with solar arrays on 50 government sites, including schools, recreation centers, police facilities and other buildings.
Mayor Bowser has been a steadfast supporter of mass transit, making an ironclad commitment to provide DC's share of $500 million in dedicated, annual funding for Metro from DC, Maryland and Virginia. After years of delay, she got the DC Streetcar up and running and has consistently budgeted money to extend the Streetcar across the Anacostia River, despite the DC Council continually slashing funding for the Streetcar. Under Mayor Bowser, DC has also begun to transition the DC Circulator to an all-electric fleet.
The Bowser administration has taken steps to increase recycling and composting in DC, including setting up the Office of Waste Diversion within the Department of Public Works, creating an expanded and uniform list of items that are recyclable in DC and launching an interactive website to highlight zero waste efforts.
In the at-large Council race, the Sierra Club is supporting Jeremiah Lowery, who has made 100 percent clean energy a cornerstone of his campaign. Lowery has served on the executive committee of the DC chapter of the Sierra Club and founded the chapter's Environmental Justice Committee. "The Sierra Club will mobilize our thousands of members in DC to support Jeremiah," Rodeffer said. "And once he's in office, we look forward to working with him to transform DC into a clean energy economy, creating thousands of green jobs and eliminating our reliance on fossil fuels."
In Ward 5, the Sierra Club again endorses Kenyan McDuffie, who chairs the DC Council committee with jurisdiction over public utilities. McDuffie has co-sponsored legislation requiring 100 percent renewable electricity in DC by 2050 and he has an excellent green voting record on the DC Council. "We plan to continue working with Councilmember McDuffie to eliminate fossil fuels not just from electricity generation, but from the entire energy sector," Rodeffer said. The Sierra Club endorsed McDuffie in the 2012 special election he won and in his 2014 re-election campaign.
The Sierra Club previously announced endorsements of Brianne Nadeau in Ward 1, Mary Cheh in Ward 3 and Charles Allen in Ward 6. The Sierra Club has not yet endorsed candidates in the races for attorney general and chairman of the DC Council, but hopes to make additional endorsements before the June 19 primary.
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Contact: Mark Rodeffer, mark.rodeffer@sierraclub.org
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The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than three million members and supporters active in 63 chapters across every state, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. The DC Chapter, with more than 10,000 members and supporters, is a volunteer-driven, people-powered movement for action on the local environmental and public health issues impacting District residents. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild and open places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying and legal action.