Download our full list of legislative goals here.
Download our briefing for capitol staff here (code: PFC45$xM) and slides here.
Priority 1: Community Protection from Pollution
Communities across Texas are suffering from pollution, generation after generation. It has to stop. There are no sacrifice zones without sacrificed people. Every Texan deserves to breathe clean air and live in a healthy and safe environment. The Sierra Club prioritizes bills that will address the adverse impact pollution has on communities, especially those on the frontline which are disproportionately communities of color. A particular focus will be pollution from above-ground storage tanks and oil and gas air pollution, and enforcement of our laws.
Priority 2: Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Climate
The solutions to our climate and pollution crises are right in front of us, but our elected leaders have not kept up with the times. Advances in renewable energy, energy storage, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency need better policy support at the state level for Texas to make them real solutions. Our transmission system needs upgrading to get cleaner forms of power to and from homes and businesses. Continued funding for the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan is also a priority. The Sierra Club prioritizes bills that enable these technologies in a way that supports good union jobs and includes a just transition from fossil fuel industries.
Priority 3: Parks, Wildlife, and Land
Public land belongs to the people, but it doesn’t look that way right now. Oil and gas companies are allowed to drill in state parks, pipelines can cross critical wildlife management areas, and polluting corporations can abuse eminent domain provisions to snatch up land for corporate profit. Sierra Club prioritizes bills that will put Texas lands back on a path that protects and preserves it, and will seek fundamental reforms at the Departments of Agriculture and Parks and Wildlife to ensure adequate funding for healthy soils, wildlife and parks, and proper enforcement of pesticide use.
Priority 4: Water Conservation & Quality
There are two overarching challenges to water: ensuring there’s enough of it for people and the environment and making sure it’s clean. Right now, Texas is not doing enough to ensure either challenge is being met, though some progress has been made. Sierra Club prioritizes bills that lead to better water conservation in all sectors of the economy, bills that address unacceptable levels of water pollution in our lakes, rivers, and coastal areas, and bills that ensure adequate flows in our rivers, bays, and streams.
Priority 5: Local Democracy & Voting Rights
Our cities and counties have been under attack for too long from the Texas Legislature. We must continue to defend the right of local communities to establish safeguards for community safety and justice, and we must defend and expand the right to vote. Efforts to weaken local governments and make voting more difficult will be opposed by the Sierra Club as we seek to strengthen our democracy and local governmental accountability.