Comments from the Chair

November elections a mixed bag

The November elections brought some good news, as many of the local candidates we endorsed won new seats in, or were re-elected to, the Texas House. In total, pro-environment candidates picked up 12 seats there.

Unfortunately, in the state Senate the anti-environmentalists will enjoy a super-majority. Donna Campbell returns to represent northern Bexar County by taking every opportunity to degrade the City of San Antonio and its authority to make decisions for the greater good.

Statewide, our environment here in Texas was again sacrificed at the polls. All of the statewide winners, especially Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott, have shown consistent hostility to environmental protection and human health. From border walls through wildlife refuges, to local control of fracking next to schools, and protection of heritage oaks, environmental priorities were sacrificed at the altar of private property and corporate profit. Lamar Smith, retiring from the U.S. Congress after 30 years of successful climate denial, will be replaced by fellow extremist Chip Roy.

However, I take solace in knowing that voters chose real change in many other parts of the country, change that most often includes much more environmental protection. I also see hope for Texas in the closeness of many of the lost elections here.

Alarming new climate change reports

On October 6, 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued “a Special Report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways” requested in the “Decision of the 21st Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to adopt the Paris Agreement”.

This Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) presents the key findings of the Special Report, based on the “assessment of the available scientific, technical and socio-economic literature relevant to global warming of 1.5°C and for the comparison between global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C above pre- industrial levels.”. I urge SC members and others to familiarize themselves with the major findings.

Although there were a few days of media coverage of this report, it continues to be largely ignored by our national media, and by both major political parties and most political candidates. The graphics in this report provide a good place to start for quick understanding, to be enhanced by further reading in the report.

I would like to emphasize the following:

1. global temperatures have already increased about 1 degree Celsius (centigrade),
2. there is a huge worsening in impacts between a 1.5 degree increase by mid-century, and a 2 degree increase, and
3. any chance of limiting increases to 1.5 degrees requires huge action within 10 years to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Graphs on SPM-18 show the need for huge reductions in methane and CO2 emissions before 2030.

On Black Friday, the Trump Administration issued an inter-agency government report — one Mr. Trump says he doesn’t believe — that also confirms the severity of the developing climate crisis we face.

San Antonio is in the midst of its “Climate Action & Adaptation Plan” (CAAP) process. CPS Energy, business leaders and city leaders so far seek a fairly cautious approach, and climate deniers like Councilman Brockhouse are oppositional. We are working hard with other advocacy groups to ensure that the final plan, to be issued in first quarter 2019, will have strong actionable language with strong metrics for continued monitoring and accountability of our progress as a city.

Especially in the absence of national leadership, cities around the country (and world) are working to address this crisis. The time for action is now. Our goals are to move SA as quickly as practical to carbon neutrality and beyond, i.e. net carbon absorption (CDR as in the IPCC report), while protecting San Antonio’s most vulnerable communities (who historically are generally much lower carbon emitters) and making us a more resilient, equitable, healthier and better community for all.

CPS Energy on the wrong "path"

Our publicly owned utility, CPS Energy, had another Public Input Session on Tuesday, November 27th, for its Board to hear comments on its “Flex Path” for future energy production. Business interests emphasized their support for this plan, and the importance of keeping SA competitive to attract business and keep us growing (in her introductory comments CPS CEO Paula Gold Williams stated “growth is good” at least three times).

She and the business community want to take a wait and see, go slow, approach to our energy future, making no more renewable energy commitments, and no commitments to early closure of Spruce coal plants. One speaker used the traffic analogy of not slamming on the brakes of our fossil fuel energy too fast.

The “Flex Path” in my opinion is a recipe for prolonged business as usual, showing 50% renewable energy production not until 2040, at least 10 years too late!! It makes no commitment to address our Climate Plan needs, even though CPS is one of our largest carbon emission sources.

Most of the non-business community, including numerous Sierra Club and Climate Action SA members, spoke in support of early commitment and action to address the climate crisis we face. Our turnout overwhelmed those urging CPS to move slowly on renewables transition. You can see us in action in this video, Speaking up for Clean Energy in San Anto.

We have been staring at and racing toward the yellow traffic light for 30 years, and the light is turning red. We need action NOW!!

A different kind of holiday celebration

Our traditional holiday potluck party will be somewhat different this year. We will join together with other local activist groups to celebrate the planned shut down (Dec 31st) of our two oldest and dirtiest coal plants, Deely 1 and 2. 

Several years ago, under previous CPS leadership, we were able to obtain a commitment to shut these coal plants by 2018. Current leadership of CPS has pushed the shutdown date to the very last day of the year, and in the fall shocked environmental activists by entertaining the idea of keeping these plants open in order to profit from summer high demand days, as was done this year.

We made our shock and dismay known, and we continue to believe these dirty plants will be shut down, which is major cause for celebration. They contribute greatly to our air pollution, and to carbon emissions. We are now in non-attainment for ozone and need to take real action to improve our air quality.

The 'Dirty' Deely Coal Plant—Shutdown Getdown will occur Saturday, December 15th, 4 - 7 pm, at Gallería Guadalupe, 723 S Brazos Street. Please plan to attend. Key leaders in the Deely fight will be honored.

We will not have a party at Eco Centro on the third Tuesday, December 18th.

by Terry Burns, M.D., Alamo Group Chair

Dirty Deely Coal Plant Shutdown Celebration!

This holiday season we can add one more thing to this list of things to celebrate: the closure of JT ‘Dirty’ Deely, the oldest and dirtiest of San Antonio’s two coal-fired power plants.

Saturday, December 15^th
4 to 7 p.m.
Galería Guadalupe, 723 S. Brazos St.
RSVP

Thanks to years of hard work by San Anto’s environmental justice community—and after nearly 10 years of waiting—Deely is finally set to be closed down on December 31. In anticipation of that joyous day, Climate Action SA is hosting a community celebration, a “shutdown getdown,” and we invite you and your family to attend!

We come together to honor our community leaders who got us to this point. We gather to celebrate cleaner air, water, and land, and better health for all our communities. And while our campaign to shutter CPS’s second coal plant, JK Spruce, is just around the corner, for now we come to party. 

So, join Climate Action SA and our dozens of member organizations to celebrate this amazing moment. Come ready to eat, drink, and make merry with good people—and the sounds of The Indigenauts and Los Nahuatlatos!

Please let us know if you can attend. See you at the party!

This event is free and open to the public.

Lamar River Valley, Yellowstone National Park

This is in the northeast corner of Yellowstone, east of the Mammoth-Hot Springs headquarters area and the Tower-Roosevelt development. The Lamar Valley has been referred to as "America’s Serengeti for its large and easy-to-see populations of large animals." Here's a Wikipedia article on the valley. The valley was where the first wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone, in 1995.

Along US 212, with the Lamar River to the right, looking east. July 22^nd, 2015, 5:30 pm..

US 212 runs through this valley northeast out of the park through the Beartooth Mountains where it becomes Beartooth Highway, with spectacular mountain scenery near Beartooth Pass, and then into Montana. This section is closed in Winter due to the elevation.

The Lamar was originally known as the East Fork of the Yellowstone River. Both rise on the west side of the Absaroka Range which is the east side of the national park. They merge and flow north out of the national park; then the Yellowstone turns northeast through Montana and merges with the Missouri near Williston, North Dakota.

Bison on the Lamar River, just west of the above picture.

by Kevin Hartley, Alamo Group Outings leader

Alamo Group Goes to Solar Fest

Alan Montemayor, Greg Harman, and I manned the table on November 17, 2018 at Hemisfair Park. We handed out national brochures and had petitions available for the bag ban and Climate Change SA. We also had a sign-up sheet for email notifications. 

We had a fairly good stream of participants. There were a number of solar companies there as well.

by Gay Wright, Alamo Group Tablings Chair

Outings: The Call of the Wild

Visit the Alamo Sierra Club Outings page on Meetup for detailed information about all of our upcoming Sierra Club Outings.

The Alamo Sierran Newsletter

Richard Alles, Editor
Published by The Alamo Group of the Sierra Club, P.O. Box 6443, San Antonio, TX 78209, AlamoSierraClub.org.
The Alamo Group is one of 13 regional groups within the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.

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