Greetings, Sierrans!
Happy Spring! All due respect to the winter holiday season, but for us, this is truly the most wonderful time of the year. The days are warmer and longer, nature is in bloom, and Earth Day is just a few weeks away!
To celebrate the season and the planet, the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter is hosting our first ever Earth Jam on April 19!
Celebrate Earth Day with live music, local vendors, food, games, and art at Waller’s Coffee! Hosted in collaboration with our partners Black Voters Matter and Poder Latinx, this family-friendly event is the perfect way to honor our planet and build community.
Earth Jam will feature live performances from local musicians, a market of local vendors featuring sustainable and handmade goods, delicious food and drinks, art and activities for all ages, and more!
📅 April 19, 2025
🕙 10 AM - 3 PM
📍 Waller’s Coffee, 240 Dekalb Industrial Way
✔ RSVP for Earth Jam at this link
We're also looking for some volunteers to help set up, manage game stations, run our tables, and clean up. If you're interested in helping out, sign up here.
Clean Energy Committee
Every three years, Georgia Power has to prepare an Integrated Resource Plan, also known as an IRP. The IRP outlines how Georgia Power will generate the electricity it will sell to its customers for the next 20 years, including whether that electricity comes from clean, renewable sources or from dirty fossil fuels like coal and fracked gas.
Sierra Club wants to help customers throughout the state understand what is included in Georgia Power’s approved energy plan, and what happens next.
Our experts, attorneys, organizers, and volunteer leaders reviewed the IRP and gave the proposal a grade across multiple categories. You can read our analysis at this link, but here's a spoiler: Georgia Power wants to keep burning fossil fuels and seems to have very little interest in clean energy or climate change.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) had its first set of hearings on the IRP this week. Read more about the hearings (and see Chapter Organizer Keyanna Jones Moore in action!) in this news article from the Georgia Recorder.
And speaking of Keyanna, props to our her for a successfully organizing a rally outside the PSC and recruiting folks for public comment! Keyanna was joined by representatives from partner organizations Georgia Conservation Voters, Black Voters Matter and 9 to 5 Georgia. Together, they turned out over 20 activists for public comment on the IRP.
After public comment, Keyanna and the other organizers led a rally outside of the PSC offices, where community members spoke out about the need for affordable, clean energy and the failure of the PSC to adequately represent the people of Georgia. Participation in the IRP Process is one of the avenues of engagement for which Keyanna is training community members as part of the national Beyond Coal Campaign.
The chapter is actively educating communities about the function of the PSC. Through a series of community presentations, Keyanna is highlighting the disproportionate energy burden carried by Black Households, and the real costs of using fossil fuels to power our energy grid.
Energy Burden
Kick-off Earth Month with us at the DeKalb Green New Deal Festival and Concert for Climate Justice on Saturday, April 5! The event will start with an interactive community workshop and end with a concert featuring an array of music from JFly and Friends.
The Sierra Club Georgia Chapter has been asked to table for this event, and Chapter Organizer Keyanna Jones Moore will participate in the Climate Justice panel discussion.
We're asking volunteers to help us by engaging community members at our table. Tabling will take place in two shifts from 3-8pm (this time includes set-up and break-down). Volunteers can table for any amount of time. Sign up to volunteer at this link.
Legislative Committee
Thanks to everyone who attended our "Under the Gold Dome" Advocacy Day at the Georgia Capitol last week! We had great turnout and did some good work lobbying for strong environmental policy.
The Georgia Legislature's 2025 session is set to end next Friday, April 4. Unfortunately, many of the bills we've been fighting to pass failed to advance before the key Crossover Day deadline.
However, there are still some bad bills out there that we'll be fighting to stop, like SB 28, the latest anti-regulation bill in Georgia. The bill would completely upend Georgia’s regulatory process, making it more difficult to keep health, safety, and environmental protections in place while also giving more power to state legislators to block rules that implement the laws that they just passed.
SB 28 requires state agencies, like the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Division, to review all its rules every four years. These arbitrary reviews would be costly, waste time, and prevent these agencies from making sure the rules are followed.
SB 28 has passed the Georgia Senate, but has not yet received a vote in the House, so there is still time to act! Use this link to send a message to your state representatives and ask them to vote NO on SB 28!
Outings
We can all agree that getting outside can do wonders for our mental and physical health. The Sierra Club Georgia Chapter is proud to have a robust outings program that helps folks get on the trail, but we need trained leaders to plan and supervise these trips.
Interested in becoming an outings leader? Learn more and get trained by contacting Chapter Outings Chair Grant Brown.
Transportation Committee
The Sierra Club Georgia Chapter celebrated Transit Day at the Georgia Capitol last week to advocate for stronger public transportation! Pictured here are, from left to right, Laura Calderon (Georgia Transit Association), Jason Lathbury (Sierra Club Georgia Chapter Transportation Chair), Matt Stigall (Advance Atlanta & A Better Cobb), and Jeremiah Jones (PropelATL).
If you want to get more involved with the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter's transportation work, email Transportation Committee Chair Jason Lathbury.
Here's a few environmental news stories you may have missed this month:
- The Macon Telegraph - Georgia legislators make 2nd effort to turn Ocmulgee Mounds into a national park, preserve
- GPB - New podcast launched that investigates last year's BioLab fire
- Savannah Morning News - First public input available for Savannah-to-Atlanta passenger rail project with Georgia DOT
Centennial Group
The Centennial Group, representing the Northwest Atlanta suburbs, meets the first Thursday of each month. Meetings can be attended in person at Life University in Marietta or virtually via Zoom.
The Group's March meeting featured special guest Jeriene Bonner-Willis, President of Cobb Branch of NAACP. She led a discussion highlighting the partnership that NAACP and Sierra Club's Centennial Group have shared for many years as we work for environmental equity, safety, and civil rights.
The Centennial Group also has an active outings program, and a recent hike to on the Gold Branch Trail along the Chattahoochee River (see photo above) was a bit chilly, but fun nonetheless!
The Group's next meeting will be held on April 3 and will feature a presentation about Appalachian history and how the area has been shaped by its natural resources. Click here to RSVP for the April 3 meeting.
Greater Gwinnett Group
The Greater Gwinnett Group will be meeting at a new location: The historic Wynne-Russell House located at 4684 Wynne Russell Dr., NW, in Lilburn.
The Group's next meeting will be held on Thursday, April 10. Sierra Club Staff Attorney, Isabella Ariza, will be our guest speaker speaking on the Georgia Power “Integrated Resource Plan” and hearing before the Georgia Public Service Commission, what it means to Georgians, why the Sierra Club is involved, and what you can do if you want to participate in the process. Fellowship begins at 6:30 in person. The meeting itself starts at 7:00 pm and is a hybrid in person/zoom format meeting. Click here to RSVP for the April 10 meeting.
We continue to attend the Gwinnett County Sustainability Commission monthly meetings to give input to and support their efforts. We are pleased that the county has funded a new Program Analyst position to assist the Sustainability Officer.
Our Group will be tabling at an Earth Day event on April 9th at the University of North Georgia in Gainesville from 10 AM to 2 PM. On April 17 at 10 AM, we will do stream monitoring and possible trash pickup, depending on the weather, at Martin Farm Road on the Suwanee Greenway. Join us!
Metro Atlanta Group
At the Metro Atlanta Group's meeting on March 13, we learned about energy burden, its root causes and negative effects — especially on Black and lower-income households — as well as some solutions. Many thanks to Chapter Organizer Keyanna Jones Moore for the informative and energizing presentation!
Want to dive deeper on energy burden? Check out reports, resources, and even games (for learning and dialogue) at the Georgia Tech Climate and Energy Policy Labs energy burden website.
Mark your calendar for our next meeting, coming up on Tuesday, April 29, at Manuel's Tavern featuring a conversation with co-authors Jonah McDonald and Zana Pouncey about their new book, "Hiking Atlanta's Hidden Forests: Inside and On the Perimeter." Learn more and RSVP at this link!
Middle Chattahoochee Group
Volunteers from Sierra Club's Middle Chattahoochee Group led a team of folks participating in the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper's annual "Sweep the Hooch" event last week. The team collected more than 150 bags of trash! Great work!
The Group's April hike will be focused on spring wildflowers on the Mountain Creek Loop in FDR State Park. Join us on Sunday, April 20, to enjoy the springtime bloom! Click here to RSVP.
Savannah River Group
Join the Savannah River Group for a hike through Tallulah Gorge on April 26. Two miles long and 1,000 feet deep, the beauty of the falls can be seen through a rim trail and several overlooks for an easy two-mile hike. If desired, participants in excellent condition will also have the opportunity to descend to the gorge floor on a strenuous hike down 594 steps and then back up! SRG Outings Leaders are meeting at the Unitarian Church in Augusta and carpooling to the trailhead. Click here to RSVP for the outing!
You can find all of our upcoming events on the Sierra Club Georgia Chapter's online calendar. Click the links for each event to RSVP and learn more.
- April 3, 7 PM: How Appalachian history is shaped by the region's natural resources
- What: Join the Centennial Group for their monthly meeting featuring a history of the Appalachian region. This event includes in-person and Zoom options.
- Where: Life University Graduate Studies Building (1250 Life's Way, Marietta, GA).
- April 5, 9:30 AM: Kayak Augusta Canal
- What: Paddle down the Augusta Canal with your friends at the Savannah River Group! There are kayaks available to rent near the meeting point. Beginners welcome!
- Where: Savannah Rapids Pavilion (3300 Evans to Locks Rd, Martinez, GA).
- April 5, 3-7 PM: DeKalb Green New Deal Festival and Concert for Climate
- What: Join us at the DeKalb Green New Deal Festival! The event will start with an interactive community workshop and end with a concert featuring an array of music from JFly and Friends.
- Where: Rainbow Park (3171 Rainbow Dr, Decatur, GA).
- April 10, 6:30 PM: An IRP update from Sierra Club's attorney
- What: The Greater Gwinnett Group's monthly meeting will feature guest speaker Isabella Ariza, who will give us an update on the IRP process and the hearings where she represented the Sierra Club. This event has in-person and Zoom options.
- Where: The Historic Wynne-Russell House (4684 Wynne Russell Dr., NW, Lilburn).
- April 15, 6:30 PM: The health of Chattahoochee River's fish
- What: Join the Middle Chattahoochee Group on Tuesday, April, for its monthly meeting featuring Dr. Mike Newbrey giving a presentation about the health of the fish in the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries.
- Where: Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center (3535 S Lumpkin Rd, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA).
- April 19, 10 AM - 3 PM: Earth Jam - Party for the Planet
- What: Celebrate Earth Day with Sierra Club Georgia Chapter, Black Voters Matter, and Poder Latinx on April 19th at Earth Jam: Party for the Planet! Join us at Waller's Coffee for a day of live music, local vendors, food, games, and art!
- Where: Waller's Coffee (240 Dekalb Industrial Way, Decatur, GA).
- April 20, 2-4:30 PM: Mountain Creek Loop Hike
- What: Join the Middle Chattahoochee Group for a moderately challenging, 3.2-mile hike in FDR State Park near Pine Mountain. Features clear creek, mountain laurels, and spring wildflowers.
- Where: FDR State Park Campground (2970 GA-190, Pine Mountain, GA).
- April 26, 8 AM - evening: Tallulah Falls Hike
- What: Meet the Savannah River Group at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta and carpool to north Georgia for a hike along Tallulah Gorge! We will leave the falls no later than 5 PM for the drive back stopping for dinner along the way.
- Where: Meet at Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta (3501 Walton Way Ext, Augusta, GA).
- April 29, 7-9 PM: Hiking Intown Atlanta's Hidden Forests
- What: Join the Metro Atlanta Group for it's April meeting featuring a conversation with co-authors Jonah McDonald and Zana Pouncey about their new book, "Hiking Atlanta's Hidden Forests: Inside and On the Perimeter."
- Where: Manuel's Tavern (602 North Highland Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, GA).
It's our spring fundraising drive! If you haven't yet made a donation to support the Georgia Chapter, please consider making a gift a today! Click here to donate!