Listening to Willie - On the Road Again
By Elaine Giessel, chair, Sierra Club Kansas Chapter
Each year I snap a photo of my first crocus to push up through last Fall’s dead leaves. Inspires me to start planning my next road trip. And, as the COVID crisis winds down finally, it’s encouraging that we will all have more opportunities to socialize again at our meetings.
Speaking of road trips, the Kanza Group is hosting a program this month on KDOT’s EV charging program. And check out the Topeka Group’s program with Representative Lindsay Vaughn on the crisis with our Kansas water resource management. Both meetings are virtual, so save energy for a real road trip later.
February saw Kansas Sierra Club leaders on the road, schmoozing with EPA officials, reaching out to our members across the State and assisting local communities with environmental threats.
I commuted recently to Topeka where I had the pleasure of meeting in-person with the ExCom members of that Group. They have plans to focus on solid waste reduction and water issues this year and could really use more members in the Topeka area to help implement their projects.
Kudos to the Southwind leaders who drove from Wichita to Hays, KS, and met with their far-flung members at the Sternberg Museum, just to get acquainted and to see the amazing fossils there.
Ty Gorman, our tireless Beyond Coal Campaign representative, invited me to join him in Alma, KS. We attended a photo-op with EPA administrators to celebrate Biden’s “Investing in America” grant program that provided the Wabaunsee School District with funds for two electric buses. Ty participated on a panel with a lot of utility “suits.” It was he who reminded EPA, the other panelists and audience about the impacts of diesel pollution on our most vulnerable communities. Ty also visited Wichita to discuss sustainability, made the road trip to Hays with the Southwind leaders and met with the leaders of the Wakarusa Group in Lawrence. He’s involved in a lot of work with our EJ partners in Kansas City, KS, as well.
Zack Pistora, in addition to being a fulltime lobbyist this time of year, has presented legislative updates in person to Kanza and Southwind Groups. He met with the Students for Environmental Action (SEA), which he once led, at K-State in Manhattan. He worked with a neighborhood in Eudora on a proposed quarry, the permit for which was ultimately denied. And he drove to Easton to meet with the folks there on a landfill fire that is causing local air pollution.
Zack, Ty, and I have been working with a group of citizens in McLouth (north of Topeka) on a proposed crypto mining facility to be sited on a nearby gas field. With input from Felix Revello, Chapter Conservation Chair, and Air Quality Chair Craig Volland, we have collaborated on preparing testimony in opposition to the project. Zack and I drove to McLouth to listen to the citizens’ concerns and toured the town with one of our members who first raised the alarm. I drove to the Jefferson County Planning Commission meeting in Oskaloosa to deliver our comments in person. We won’t know the outcome for a while.
While we do not have the capacity and expertise to help everyone who reaches out to us, we can easily justify getting involved if the issue is closely aligned with our own priorities. We are more likely to address a concern raised by a member or supporter, but in virtually all cases we listen and help direct appropriate local action. It’s what we do to save the planet.
The highways are icy as I write this. A native South Texan, I don’t do ice. But the first flowers of spring do bring hope. I can’t wait to get on the road again…listening to Willie Nelson.