By the Numbers

174 million: The number of Americans under heat advisories on July 4. During the first half of 2024, every month was the hottest on record, owing to fossil-fuel-induced climate change. 

463: The number of miles between Los Angeles and San Francisco that recently received environmental clearance for the long-planned high-speed railway line.

385: The number of coal plants the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign helped shut down as of July, when the retirement of the Painesville Municipal Plant in Ohio was announced. 

$2.8 billion: The amount of money the US Department of Agriculture is spending to address maintenance and infrastructure backlogs on public lands and at tribal schools. 

1.2 million: The number of acres in California and Oregon designated by the Biden–Harris administration as critical habitat for the threatened Pacific marten.

Alerts

Future Forest

The Biden–Harris administration has made conserving old-growth forests a pillar of the president’s legacy. Yet conservation groups say the US Forest Service could do more to protect mature forests, a.k.a. future old growth. The agency is seeking feedback on its National Old-Growth Amendment until September 20. Tell the Forest Service that we need a rule that prevents logging across a diverse age range of trees so there will be old-growth forests for generations to come.
» Take action: sc.org/future-forest

More Monuments, Please

As of July 2024, President Biden had designated at least five national monuments. Communities in Southern California say he needs to add another to his list: Chuckwalla National Monument. At over half a million acres, the proposed area would be protected against development and honor tribal sites in the California desert. The monument would connect vital wildlife hot spots, including Joshua Tree National Park and the surrounding mountain regions. Call on President Biden to designate this national monument and expand Joshua Tree National Park today.
» Take action: sc.org/chuckwalla

Victories

Road Closure

In June, the Biden–Harris administration said no to a plan to build a road through the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, citing “irreparable impacts.” This is likely a key roadblock for Ambler Road, a 211-mile-long artery first proposed during the Trump administration. The road, including a 26-mile-long stretch in the preserve, would have threatened Alaska Native subsistence practices as well as Arctic ecosystems and wildlife such as wolves and caribou. 

Insufficient Funds

The District of Columbia Public Service Commission denied a funding request from Washington Gas for a $672 million pipeline project called ProjectPipes. The PSC determined that the project runs counter to DC’s electrification goals and ordered the utility to file a more limited pipeline replacement proposal instead. “This decision marks an important turning point in DC,” said Katie Meyer, the clean energy campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s DC Chapter. “By rethinking the scope of ProjectPipes, the PSC is preparing to align utility spending with the need for an electrified future.” 

Winning Wind

This past summer, the Biden–Harris administration announced the approval of its ninth offshore wind project. Once complete, the Atlantic Shores South Project, off the coast of south New Jersey, will bring America’s total offshore wind capacity to 13 gigawatts of energy, enough to power 5 million homes. The nearly 200 wind turbines would help New Jersey significantly in reaching its goal of 100 percent renewables by 2035.

Check It Out 

The Sierra Club Board of Directors has selected its new executive committee. They are Allison Chin, president; Shruti Bhatnagar, vice president for conservation; Patrick Murphy, vice president of chapters, groups, and volunteers; Cheyenne Branscum, treasurer; and David Scott, secretary. 
Learn more: sierraclub.org/board-directors/meet-board.

Chapter Corner

Law & Order

The Vermont Chapter has had a busy legislative session, supporting two climate-related bills in the Green Mountain State. The first is the Climate Superfund Act, a first-in-the-nation law that requires fossil fuel companies to pay for the damages caused by climate change. The second bill reforms the state’s Renewable Energy Standard, which now compels utility providers to switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. Chapter staff sent action alerts, made phone calls, and joined a working group that helped craft the language of the law. Thanks to grassroots advocacy from partner organizations, lawmakers in both chambers of the state legislature passed the measures with veto-proof majorities, allowing the bills to become law despite the objections of the governor. 

Back Off, Big Oil

Members of the Los Angeles Chapter fended off an oil-industry-backed referendum that would have repealed a landmark 2022 California law prohibiting oil companies from building within 3,200 feet of someone’s home. Chapter staff from the Signal Hill community went house to house, knocking on over 1,000 doors, to inform residents about the measure, which most people said they had no idea about. Seeing opposition grow, Signal Hill Petroleum, which spent millions of dollars to get the referendum on the ballot, withdrew the measure this past June. 

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Campaign Updates

OAK Seeds

The Outdoors for All campaign worked with over 130 partner organizations to host Outdoors Alliance for Kids Week in Washington, DC. OAK Week brought together almost 100 participants, including youth leaders from around the country, to meet with the Biden–Harris administration and participate in advocacy training. Half the group got a chance to visit the US Capitol to meet congressional staff and elected representatives to advocate for increased access to nature and expanded outdoor recreation programs. “The work we do is made possible only through our combined efforts and the connections we hold,” wrote Jackie Ostfeld, the OAK steering committee founder.

Grizzly Outcome

In May, the Sierra Club’s Conservation & Outdoors campaign helped deliver over 100,000 petition signatures to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, asking the agency to keep grizzly bears listed under the Endangered Species Act. Montana and Wyoming filed petitions to delist the bears, but such a move could undermine decades’ worth of recovery efforts, as has happened with gray wolves, by turning over management to states that have allowed the wanton killing of predators. “This is a critical moment for securing a sustainable future for grizzly bears, not for stripping away the protections that have saved them,” said Nick Gevock, the Sierra Club’s field organizing strategist for Northern Rockies Wildlands and Wildlife.