Jane Dale Owen: Ardent Advocate for Clean Air in Texas

Jane Dale OwenDid you know Jane Dale Owen? If so, you probably have positive fond memories of her. An ardent supporter of clean air in Texas, particularly the Houston Ship Channel, she devoted large sums of her time and wealth toward efforts to clean up Texas for working families. She passed away just over a year ago, unfortunately, but her legacy lives on in the work of many non-profit organizations, including Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter. Perhaps what's most remarkable about her life is that she used her family's considerable wealth from the oil industry to address the pollution her family's business created.

From Joe Romm's blog post in ThinkProgress from a year ago:

She was a granddaughter of Robert Lee Blaffer, one of the founders of Humble Oil and Refining Company, which consolidated with Standard Oil to become Esso (S.O.) which became Exxon, which became ExxonMobil. She used her oil wealth to support a variety of efforts to reduce pollution from oil production. And she used her shares to support shareholder resolutions aimed at helping protect the environment and public health...

Jane’s great love was people — their health and well-being — especially in her home of Houston. She moved back some 15 years ago to to spend more time with her aging parents...

She felt a special obligation since the family had been major players in the oil business to take action. She launched CLEAN (Citizen’s League for Environmental Action Now) to “find solutions for Houston’s environmental problems” with the help of “prominent scientists, medical doctors, environmental specialists, concerned citizens and representatives from several environmental groups.” I’ve been on the board for a number of years.

Jane included the Sierra Club, both the national office and the Lone Star Chapter, in her will to help educate Texans not only about the pollution problems our state, particularly in the Houston area, suffers from, but the solutions to those problems, such as solar, wind, energy storage, energy efficiency, and effective pollution regulation.

We are humbled by her generosity, and endeavor to honor her memory for many years to come through our work to improve Texas for this generation and future generations.