The Delta Chapter is the Sierra Club in the State of Louisiana.

The Delta Chapter is 3,000 of your neighbors supporting the work of the Sierra Club in Louisiana. We advance the cause of protecting Louisiana's environment in a variety of ways, including lobbying the state legislature in Baton Rouge, sponsoring a Mercury Public Education Campaign, raising public awareness about climate change, and working to keep the Atchafalaya Basin, America's greatest river swamp, wet and wild. In addition, we encourage our members to get outside and enjoy our beautiful planet.

The Sierra Club's members and supporters are more than 1.3 million of your friends and neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet. The Club is America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization.

Newly revised Green Building brochure now available

This is the newly revised brochure (PDF 386 KB) about building green created by members of the Gulf Coast Restoration Taskforce.

Letter from the Delta Chapter Chair

March 4, 2009

Congressman Charles Boustany
1117 Longworth House Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20515-1807

Dear Congressman Boustany,

This is to express our appreciation for the meeting in the Longworth House Office Building on Feb 26, 2009 with you and Ryan Evans, Legislative Correspondent. The meeting was attended by me as Chair of the Delta (Louisiana) Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Cynthia Sarthou, Executive Director of the Gulf Restoration Network. We work together as member participants in the Clean Water Network. The Clean Water Network (CWN) is a coalition of more than 1,200 public interest organizations across the country, representing more than 5 million people, working to strengthen and implement federal clean water and wetlands policy.

We hope to obtain your support for The Clean Water Restoration Act, introduced last year as H.R. 2421 and S. 1870. We are greatly concerned that internal documents obtained by Chairman James Oberstar of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Chairman Henry Waxman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, indicate that USEPA has dropped or de-prioritized over 500 Clean Water Act enforcement cases since July 2007 because of questions about whether the waters that the polluters discharged into are still covered by the Clean Water Act. It appears that EPA was using a restrictive interpretation of Rapanos v. United States to issue guidance in 2007 that resulted in greatly reduced jurisdictional coverage for the Clean Water Act.

Information obtained by CWN shows that in Louisiana 24 percent of the population is served by source water areas receiving flow from streams that would not be protected under this more restrictive interpretation of Clean Water Act jurisdiction. We are also concerned about the impact that increased water pollution could have on the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia problem (The Dead Zone) and gulf fisheries. We strongly believe that Congress must act to fix this problem and we ask for your support for Clean Water Restoration Act legislation when it is re-introduced.

The second subject of our discussion was the continued funding of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SWSRF) and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). Our concern comes from the fact that funding for the State Revolving Funds for water infrastructure had been seriously declining over a number of years. We want to voice our support for adequate funding for these very important water infrastructure programs.

We very much appreciate the meeting and this chance to express our concerns for Clean Water nationally and in the State of Louisiana. I would be happy to follow up with any additional information or discussion that may be helpful to you in considering these important issues.

Sincerely,

Haywood R. Martin, Chair
Sierra Club Delta Chapter

Letter to Governor Bobby Jindal

Hon. Bobby Jindal, Governor
State of Louisiana
PO Box 94004
Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004

Dear Governor Jindal:

On March 26, 2008 I sent you a letter expressing appreciation for your early issuance of two executive orders, one dealing with the decision-making process relative to coastal restoration programs, and another dealing with energy efficiency in state government. Energy efficiency and conservation are of great interest to the Sierra Club, given the compelling evidence of the link between combustion of fossil fuels and global climate change that could seriously impact the State of Louisiana.

We are suggesting that the governor’s office take a leadership role in guiding the State of Louisiana to a cleaner and greener economy. This can be done by setting an example in operation of state government, and by making it known that Louisiana is open for business in creation of business opportunities and new jobs in fabrication and installation of clean energy technologies.

We know from the example of other states that with the right mix of incentives and leadership, the public will respond to a wide variety of pro-conservation measures, especially when they ultimately save consumers money. We know further that in the not too distant future that the most dynamic economies will be those that see no contradiction between economic growth and a clean, healthy environment.

We proposed in our earlier letter that you could provide excellent example and create a positive image of the Governor of the State of Louisiana as being a leader in clean energy by making the Louisiana White House into an environmentally friendly Governor’s mansion. Installation of solar panels or other energy conservation measures would get positive attention statewide and nationally. We are confident that companies selling cutting edge energy conservation technology would welcome the opportunity to show off their wares at the Louisiana Governor’s mansion. Another measure that would follow through on your executive order and improve the visibility of your administration on these issues would be for you to direct your administration to include energy efficiency in the annual budget review process for state government.

Thanks for your consideration of these suggestions. We have not received a response to our March 26 letter to you. Please take this opportunity to let us know if you will act on these proposals, and what you are doing to enable energy conservation and clean jobs in our state.

Respectfully yours,

Haywood Martin, Chair
Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club

FEMA trailer resident gives birth to severly handicapped baby

The Delta Chapter and the Sierra Club Gulf Coast Restoration Taskforce continue to advocate for residents of Formaldehyde prone Toxic FEMA trailers, here is one mother's nightmare experience...
Jennifer Donelson (who lived in Gulfport MS before and after Hurricane Katrina) talks about her experience spending the early months of her pregnancy with son Wesley in a FEMA trailer with high formaldehyde levels. Jennifer wants to warn parents that if babies exposed to formaldehyde in the womb or early life start turning blue, they may later stop breathing like her son Wesley. An apnea monitor may save their lives.

WBRZ News Channel2 in Baton Rouge shows how to recycle Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFL's)

Follow this link to see a recent news article produced by WBRZ 2 in Baton Rouge about how to recycle Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs. The Sierra Club is represented by our very own Jeffery Dubinsky who discusses why we don't want to throw these bulbs into the trash.

http://media.swagit.com/s/wbrz/The_Advocate/07222008-51.html

Taking the tops off mountains at the flip of a switch

by Jea Yoon Lee

Everyone knows that electricity comes from power plants. Some know that 40% of the electricity in the U.S. comes from coal-fired plants. Fewer know that an estimated 7-10% of the country’s total coal production comes from mountaintop removal (MTR) mines in Appalachia. Unfortunately, many Louisiana consumers are linked to MTR through their utility companies which use MTR coal.

First developed around the 1970’s with the innovation of massive dragline equipment, MTR is a method of coal mining which entails razing the tops of mountains with dynamite to reach the thin seams of coal buried underneath, and then dumping the crushed remains of the land into valleys. MTR is the cheapest method for coal companies because it is speedy and requires fewer employees than underground mining. The exponential growth of Americans’ energy consumption and the rising demand for low-sulfur bituminous coal found in central Appalachia has led to increased MTR mining in the past decade. So far, MTR has destroyed over 800 square miles of mountains and 1,200 miles of streams across Appalachia, according to the EPA’s 2005 Environmental Impact Statement.

The tragedy of MTR is not just the abstract notion of “losing” mountains, forests, and streams, however. For West Virginians, Virginians, Kentuckians, and Tennesseans living near the mines, it means undrinkable, rash-inducing water full of arsenic and mercury, flying boulders and earthquakes caused by the blasting, and dramatic depreciation of property value. They also live in the shadow of impoundments -- dams which hold back the wastewater created by washing the debris off coal. Eight years ago in Kentucky, one broke and released a torrent of over 300 million gallons of thick, toxic sludge which destroyed homes, farmlands, and 100 miles of waterways.

For the rest of us, more MTR leads to burning more coal, which diverts resources away from alternative energy sources and greater reliance on coal-powered plants, which leads to even more MTR. That means dirtier air, more acid rain, and more global warming emissions.

According to some estimates, about 4.8% of the coal used in Louisiana power plants may come from MTR mines. Utilities such as Cleco Power LLC, Entergy Louisiana, and Southwestern Electric Power are all connected to MTR mining because some of their plants purchase coal from companies that operate MTR mines in Appalachia. (For more information on your community’s connection to MTR, visit www.ilovemountains.org/myconnection.)

Rising gas prices opens the prospect of a coal-to-liquid industry which would lead to an even greater reliance on coal. The coal industry is peddling the false solution of converting coal into liquid fuel, but the reality is worse than being topless in Appalachia. Not only does it take one ton of coal to produce just two barrels of fuel, but burning liquid coal also releases double the global warming emissions per gallon as regular gasoline. Replacing 10% of our nation’s transportation fuels with liquid coal would require increasing coal mining by over 40%.

Coal is not the solution! Currently there are plans for constructing 87 new coal power plants, each with an expected lifespan of 50 years. Is an additional 50 years of reliance on coal even a viable option for our planet? Let us oppose the irreversible, irremediable practice of MTR, and instead invest in solar, wind, and geothermal power.

MTR requires filling valleys with vast quantities of mining waste. Filling streams with waste was illegal under the Clean Water Act, and advocacy groups used the law to protect the mountains and streams. Rising to the defense of coal companies, the Bush Administration changed the rules, effectively legalizing the filling of streams with waste. Sierra Club and other groups are urging Congress to enact the Clean Water Protection Act, which would reverse the rule change, once again prohibiting the filling of streams with MTR waste. Please join our efforts by asking your utility company not to use MTR coal and urging your Representative to co-sponsor the bill. For more information on how you can help, visit http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/mtr/.

Jea Yoon Lee is an apprentice with the national coal campaign in Washington, DC.

Morgan Freeman partners with Sierra Club on Storm Readiness Public Service Announcements!

Be sure and check out the web page. A majority of the materials were provided by the Delta Chapter and it's partners.

At the beginning of June, Morgan shot these in a partnership with Sierra Club and the non profit hurricane preparedness organization he founded, PLAN!TNOW. While I know everyone is familiar with Morgan's work in films like Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby and Driving Miss Daisy, you should also know that Morgan is considered one of the very top celebrity names for advertising and marketing purposes. An article in last Sunday's New York Times on celebrity advertising trends, identified Morgan as the 4th most valuable celebrity endorser - only behind Tom Hanks, Will Smith and Michael Jordan.

The video piece will be distributed to almost 350 television channels throughout the gulf coast region and along the eastern seaboard as well as to environmental and celebrity websites and blogs, where it will be available for air until November 30th, (the official end of the 2008 hurricane season). The print piece pictured here will be distributed broadly to national and regional magazines for the same time frame. There will be a second print and video combination which we will edit to be available after this.

These pieces have been designed to play a part of the early stages of the Climate Recovery Campaign and our work to build Climate Strong Communities.

This project was a true team effort and we wish to thank everyone in Media/Communications and Advancement who helped bring this project to fruition.

http://www.sierraclub.org/getprepared/

PDF Flyer (387 Kb)

The Louisiana Environmental Briefing Book is now available.

The Louisiana Environmental Briefing Book has just been released. It was produced to educate Louisiana legislators on environmental issues in our state that affect us all. Even if you are not in the Louisiana legislature, it is worth reading because it is chock full of timely information about environmental issues in our state that every concerned citizen needs to be aware of.

The Environmental Briefing book was produced by:

• Sierra Club, Delta Chapter
• The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN)
• Coalition to Restore Costal Louisiana
• Alliance for Affordable Energy
• The Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN)
• Louisiana Bayoukeeper
• The Atchafalaya Basinkeeper
• The Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper
• The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation
• The Green Zone Task Force
• The Louisiana Audubon Council (LAC)
• MQVN Community Development Corporation (MQVNCDC)
• The Land Trust for Southeast Louisiana
• Say Yes to Clean Energy and No to Coal and Nuclear Coalition
• Mercy Corps

Read the Louisiana Environmental Briefing Book at the Louisiana Environmental Briefing Book Website: http://labriefingbook.org/ or download the large PDF file (2.89 Mb). It's a huge file but well worth the download time, only a couple of seconds on a broadband connection.

Louisiana's Mulch Madness

Cypress forests are the state's best defense against hurricanes. So why are loggers clear-cutting the last trees?

Dean Wilson slams forward the throttle on his 18-foot aluminum bateau—a flat-bottom skiff that he welded together himself—and catapults us downriver. It's April and I'm in the Atchafalaya Basin, the nation's largest swamp—1.4 million acres (roughly 10 times the size of Chicago) wedged between the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico in southern Louisiana... Read More>>

So begins an article featured in the March/April issue of Mother Jones magazine.

Got You Tube?

The Sierra Club does. Check out the Club's You Tube page. You might even learn a thing or two; like how to install a programmable thermostat, or a low flow shower head or how to compost in your own backyard. Good stuff just in time for Earth Day.

The Save Our Cypress Coalition website has a whole new look!

To learn more about sustainable alternatives to cypress mulch, to see the complete list of coalition members, to ask Lowe's, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart to stop selling cypress mulch, and much more, visit www.saveourcypress.org.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the website and to all who are part of the Save Our Cypress campaign.

The Save Our Cypress Coalition is comprised of over 160 conservation groups, religious organizations, businesses, gardening clubs, and civic organizations. The Delta Chapter is a proud member of the coalition.

We finally did it:

Created a blog of course. What were you thinking? Anyway you can find the "Official Blog of the Delta Chapter of the Sierra Club" here. If you want to learn more, see the heading titled "Delta blog:" on the left side of your screen.

Up to Top

Tell us what you think:

Conservation and other Campaigns:

FOR OUR FAMILIES, FOR OUR FUTURE!

The Delta Chapter is 3,000 of your neighbors supporting the work of the Sierra Club in Louisiana. We advance the cause of protecting Louisiana's environment in a variety of ways, including lobbying the state legislature in Baton Rouge, sponsoring a Mercury Public Education Campaign, raising public awareness about climate change, and working to keep the Atchafalaya Basin, America's greatest river swamp, wet and wild. In addition, we encourage our members to get outside and enjoy our beautiful planet.

The Sierra Club's members and supporters are more than 1.3 million of your friends and neighbors. Inspired by nature, we work together to protect our communities and the planet. The Club is America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization.

Up to Top