June Newsletter

Thank your local utility & urge them to Round It Up!

Please contact your LPC to thank them if they have suspended shuoffs, and also to urge them to develop an opt-out “round it up” program before a new state law restricts their ability to do so at the end of 2020. The LPCs have already received letters from the Chapter on these points, but member action is absolutely essential to the success of our request.

Fast Facts:

• “Round it up” programs round up the customer’s monthly bill to the nearest dollar, so average cost to the customer is only $6 per year.
• Participation rates in opt-in programs are typically 1.5-5%, compared to 50-85% participation in opt-out programs. When Memphis Light, Gas, and Water changed from opt-in to opt-out in 2018, the revenue generated annually jumped from $40,000-50,000 to about $1 million.

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News Across the State

Regulators deleted and altered radiological test results on coal ash from Kingston spill. "A state agency responsible for protecting Tennesseans admitted to Knox News it altered and deleted radiological data in test results on coal ash leaked from the Kingston power plant following a massive spill of the toxic substance in 2008. The tests ordered in early 2009 by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation detected radium and uranium in the coal ash from the spill. But in the public report on the toxicity of the spilled coal ash, a Knox News investigation shows the agency deleted a reading for radium – one of the most dangerous radioactive metals – and slashed readings for uranium by 98%." Full article by Jamie Satterfield - Knoxville News Sentinel - May 15, 2020.

Sohn: Rep. Steve Cohen asks House leadership to protect TVA's IT jobs, cybersecurity during national emergency. "TN congressman Steve Cohen wants Congress to block an effort by the Tennessee Valley Authority to outsource the public utility's IT and cybersecurity services to foreign workers, a move that would displace about 108 TVA workers in Chattanooga and Knoxville next month. Yes — next month — during the worst national economic downturn since the Great Depression." Read opinion by Pam Sohn - Times Free Press Opinion - May 15, 2020.

Confirmed: Bicycle & pedestrian activity surges during safer at home. Bike/Ped Memphis just released a data-filled report examining changes in bicycle and pedestrian activity in Memphis during the COVID-19 period. One street saw a 61% increase year-over-year in bicycle traffic. Very interesting report- Read full article here. 

Greenhouse gases saw a dramatic 17% plunge due to coronavirus lockdowns, a sudden decline likely without precedent. "A study of the pandemic’s effects on the global energy system finds that lockdowns, reduced driving and flying, and industrial cutbacks earlier this year drove emissions down to 2006 levels. The plunge is equivalent to more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide that never made its way into the atmosphere. But the drop in emissions, which reached its lowest level in early April, is believed to be temporary. Experts see greenhouse gas levels bouncing back later this year as the world gradually reopens."  Read more by Chris Mooney, Brady Dennis, John Muyskens - Washington Post - May 19, 2020.

Black Lives Matter. Executive Director Michael Brune released a statement  on the murder of Breonna Taylor. “The Sierra Club refuses to idly stand by as our Black and Brown neighbors and friends are massacred by racist policing and we will continue to stand in solidarity with our partners fighting for a more equitable and just planet.” Read the full statement.

TVA getting more power from renewables than coal this year. "For the first time in more than six decades, the TVA got more power from renewable sources than from burning coal during the first 3 months of 2020. With electricity sales down due to the mild weather and COVID-19 virus shutdowns, TVA used its coal-fired power plants to generate only 12% of its power needs in the past quarter." Full article by Dave Flessner - Times Free Press - May 6th, 2020.

OPINION: MLGW will save Memphis millions if they leave power provider TVA. "News reports and expert studies agree that leaving the Tennessee Valley Authority will save Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) $300 to $400 hundred million dollars per year. That is more than enough to justify the expense of changing power providers for a cleaner, lower-cost alternative." Keep reading article by Herman Morris, Guest Columnist - Commercial Appeal - May 14, 2020.

Coping with Quarantine

Get outdoors with our virtual backgrounds. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to work from home during shelter-in-place, you can share your love of the outdoors while teleconferencing indoors by using one of our free virtual backgrounds. How about majestic mountains and turbines (see below)? From desert to tropics, we’ve got you covered.

Legislative Updates

Happy Birthday, Sierra!

Events

While in-person Sierra Club activities between now and June 14th are canceled, here are opportunities for virtual trainings. 

Grassroots Accelerator for Women. Want to take your environmental leadership to the next level alongside a group of incredible women leaders? The Accelerator is a partnership between the Sierra Club and Women's Earth Alliance that recognizes the key role women play in responding to the climate crisis. Women’s leadership is more critical than ever as our communities struggle to address challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis. Applications are being accepted through June 8th.

Grassroots Network Webinar: Choosing an Issue. As environmental advocates, we know the key to creating and winning campaigns is choosing the issue. But, when there's so much we could be working on, how do we pick an issue best suited to our entity (team, chapter, group, program) right now, given its capacity and resources? How do we "cut" or frame the issue in a way that will garner the support needed to win? And how does taking on a particular issue affect our team/entity/organization? In this 90-minute webinar , we will explore these questions and learn key criteria to help teams focus on issue(s) that can have real impact and be winnable. Although we have designed this webinar with volunteer leaders in mind, all Sierra Club leaders - volunteer and staff alike - are welcome. Thurs., May 28, 7:30 PM ET / 6:30 CT. Register here.

Grassroots Network Team Leaders / Grantees Open Space. This will be our third Open Space meeting, and responding to our conversation in April, we'll be focussing on virtual team online collaboration. Andy Heaslet, Campfire Community Content Specialist, will be joining us to help us learn more about how Sierra Club teams at any level can use Campfire Community as a collaboration space. Wed., June 3, 7:30 PM ET / 6:30 CT. Register in advance for this meeting.

Environmentalists Tend to Have Bad Voting Records- and Lie about It

Tennesseans have historically placed a high value on our natural environment. The Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter contact list, about 70,000 environmental supporters’ names, might sound like a lot of voters.

However, the Environmental Voter Project, founded in Boston by Nathaniel Stinnett, looks at voters’ habits and patterns. His research showed that in the 2016 presidential election, about 68% of registered voters turned out to vote nationally—but only 50% of environmentalists turned out to vote. In the 2014 midterms, only 21% of environmentalists voted.

The TN Chapter now has access to the Voter Activation Network (VAN), which enables us to compute the turnout of environmentalists in Tennessee which we’ll be calculating for 2016 and 2018. Whatever that turns out to be, we want to improve it in 2020.

A lot of the work will need to be done later in the year. However, there are two steps that we can do now to improve our voting impact in November:

1. If you haven't yet, register to vote. Encourage and assist folks in getting registered. 

2. People who are already registered need to check their registration status to make sure it is correct. (Officials can accidentally delete registrations of people with similar names who have died or moved.)

I encourage you to take these steps now to get ready for the State/Federal Primary and State/County General Election on Thursday, August 6, 2020 (the voter registration deadline for that election is Tuesday, July 7, 2020). The State/Federal General Election is Tuesday, November 3, 2020 (the voter registration deadline is Monday, October 5, 2020).

Call for Nominations:
Chapter At-Large Excom

The ExCom sets the Chapter budget and strategic direction, reaches consensus on conservation positions, raises money, appoints officers and committee chairs, plans important events, and approves litigation and electoral endorsements. To accomplish all of this, the Chapter ExCom meets 6 times a year (4 electronic meetings, 2 in-person meetings) every other month, and there is e-mail correspondence between meetings. 

After receiving your nominations by July 31, 2020, the Chapter Nominations Committee will consider and recommend candidates for the ballot, which is published in the November/December edition of the Tennes-Sierran bi-monthly newspaper. Candidates may also get on the ballot by petition and are allowed space on the ballot to advocate for their election. Candidates receiving the top votes will start their 2-year terms in January 2021.

Special Features

Dear Eartha: Advice from an Eco-Guru

Dear Eartha,

I really enjoy getting around my neighborhood by walking or riding my bike. I love that I’m getting some fresh air while also not burning fossil fuels. But some parts of town lack sidewalks and lanes for safe walking and riding. How can we make transportation safer for pedestrians?
—Eager to Walk

Dear Eager,
Yes, let’s walk and bike—six feet apart for now. Safety on the scale of systemic change comes in the form of citizen action. And that’s where an international organization called Vision Zero, started in Sweden in 1997, takes us to the next level.

The Vision Zero Network asks citizens of the world to consider this: If one plane crash is one too many, why are thousands of traffic deaths tolerated? Pedestrian deaths are on the rise around the world. Distracted drivers and distracted pedestrians don’t equal safe streets. But working together systematically does, especially with added awareness during the COVID pandemic as more of us take to the streets, parks, and open air. Vision Zero’s premise has more of us demanding that our city streets become safer.

Walk Bike Nashville recently hosted a forum on the Vision Zero plan for Middle TN, modeled after Portland and Seattle. Designers and engineers are being asked to envision and create cities where pedestrian safety is a priority. Methods to slow or eliminate traffic include roundabouts, narrow street design, closed off areas (such as the Beale Street blocks in Memphis), as well as signage, sidewalks, and reflectors embedded in asphalt. 

Data collection is another tool to get car drivers to slow down. In their ‘Impossible Crossings Project,’ Walk Bike Nashville studied the top 50 pedestrian crash locations and published the results to draw attention to the problem. A city begins to change from car-centric to walk/bike-centric by talking to citizens, law enforcement, and seeking a culture of safety through design and engineering solutions.

One member of the Nashville Vision Zero panel said, “It’s okay to get mad about pedestrian deaths.” Too often the parts of town with the poorest citizens, often underserved and underrepresented, have the most dangerous crossings. Many factors are involved: use of busses, more traffic lanes on highways, & funding diverted to wealthier sections of town. So get mad by supporting your local organizations who are working to make city streets safe for all citizens. Keep biking and walking because you’ve become aware and invested. And that’s a good sign.

Takin' it to the streets, as always,
Eartha

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