Podcasts about Beyond Coal

Aura Vasquez (she/her) is an Afro-Latina Colombian immigrant, community leader, organizer, and justice-oriented policy expert. She has worked extensively with the Los Angeles City Council, impacting legislation across Los Angeles county and the broader state of California. Aura's efforts towards a more equitable and environmentally mindful society have led to successful campaigns, including the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. She has partnered with dozens of organizations and hundreds of individuals, demonstrating solidarity for causes that she sees as ‘interconnected,' including affordable housing, renewable energy, immigration reform, amongst many more.  Recently, she began consulting companies to advance environmental regulations in the business sector. No matter what sector, campaign, or cause Aura is advocating for, she does so in a way that's accessible to the public so everyone's voice is heard.  We at Closing the Gap podcast acknowledge that Los Angeles lies on unceded Tongva land.

On this West Virginia Morning, U.S. attorneys investigate a suspected timber theft and a discussion about West Virginia's energy future. The post Investigating Timber Theft And The Beyond Coal Campaign, This West Virginia Morning appeared first on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Traralgon residents fear the Coalition's proposal to build a nuclear plant nearby will drive down property prices, but some also see it as a chance for an economic boost when the coal power station closes.

Our love for the world around us and our passion for protecting that world can come from many different places. It can come from a connection to the land, or a magical experience we had with other people in a particular place, or our sense of awe from the beauty of the living creatures that inhabit these ecosystems. But that love and passion can also come from seeing or experiencing the destruction of the same ecological web, from pollution in the air that rains down onto a playground, or the clearing of a wildlife habitat to make way for a fossil fuel pipeline.Dave Cortez has been organizing for environmental justice in Texas for the better part of two decades. He lives in Austin now, but the love and passion that guides him came from the Rio Grande, the Sierra Madre Mountains and the high desert of West Texas. And from fighting a copper smelter and other threats to the land, air and water in and around his native El Paso. Dave has a fierce love for his El Paso Community. But cutting his teeth as an environmental justice organizer in his hometown wasn't easy. Dave is now Director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, where he's bringing his El Paso roots and years of experience on the streets and in the communities around Texas to the Sierra Club's statewide campaigns.I've known Dave for many years and used to regularly attend environmental justice meetings in Austin that he helped organize. I've seen him rise from an on-the-ground organizer to the leader of the Texas chapter of one of the oldest and largest environmental organizations in the world.Our conversation tracks his education as an environmental justice organizer. From the playgrounds of El Paso to the gentrifying neighborhoods of Austin, his story reflects the changing nature of the American environmental movement and the exciting possibilities of more robust connections between community-based frontline environmental justice struggles and the large and powerful environmental organizations with nationwide influence.You can listen on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms.Please rate, review, and share to help us spread the word!Dave CortezDave Cortez is a 3rd generation El Pasoan now based out of Austin where he lives with his partner and six year old daughter. He grew up and learned organizing on the frontera, where industrial pollution, poverty, gentrification, racism and the border wall are seen as intersecting issues. Dave serves as the Director of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, and has been organizing in the Texas environmental movement for 18 years. Dave is supporting staff and volunteers across Texas who are organizing for power by centering racial justice and equity alongside frontline communities directly impacted by polluting industries.Quotation Read by Dave Cortez"There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives. Malcolm knew this. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew this. Our struggles are particular, but we are not alone. We are not perfect, but we are stronger and wiser than the sum of our errors. Black people have been here before us and survived. We can read their lives like signposts on the road and find, as Bernice Reagon says so poignantly, that each one of us is here because somebody before us did something to make it possible. To learn from their mistakes is not to lessen our debt to them, nor to the hard work of becoming ourselves, and effective. We lose our history so easily, what is not predigested for us by the New York Times, or the Amsterdam News, or Time magazine. Maybe because we do not listen to our poets or to our fools, maybe because we do not listen to our mamas in ourselves. When I hear the deepest truths I speak coming out of my mouth sounding like my mother's, even remembering how I fought against her, I have to reassess both our relationship as well as the sources of my knowing. Which is not to say that I have to romanticize my mother in order to appreciate what she gave me – Woman, Black. We do not have to romanticize our past in order to be aware of how it seeds our present. We do not have to suffer the waste of an amnesia that robs us of the lessons of the past rather than permit us to read them with pride as well as deep understanding. We know what it is to be lied to, and we know how important it is not to lie to ourselves. We are powerful because we have survived, and that is what it is all about – survival and growth. Within each one of us there is some piece of humanness that knows we are not being served by the machine which orchestrates crisis after crisis and is grinding all our futures into dust. If we are to keep the enormity of the forces aligned against us from establishing a false hierarchy of oppression, we must school ourselves to recognize that any attack against Blacks, any attack against women, is an attack against all of us who recognize that our interests are not being served by the systems we support. Each one of us here is a link in the connection between anti-poor legislation, gay shootings, the burning of synagogues, street harassment, attacks against women, and resurgent violence against Black people. I ask myself as well as each one of you, exactly what alteration in the particular fabric of my everyday life does this connection call for? Survival is not a theory. In what way do I contribute to the subjugation of any part of those who I define as my people? Insight must illuminate the particulars of our lives." - Audre LordeRecommended Readings & MediaTranscriptIntroJohn Fiege  Our love for the world around us and our passion for protecting that world can come from many different places. It can come from a connection to the land, or a magical experience we had with other people in a particular place, or our sense of awe from the beauty of the living creatures that inhabit these ecosystems. But that love and passion can also come from seeing or experiencing the destruction of this same ecological web: from pollution in the air that rains down onto a playground or the clearing of wildlife habitat to make way for a fossil fuel pipeline.Dave Cortez has been organizing for environmental justice in Texas for the better part of two decades. He lives in Austin now, but the love and passion that guides him came from the Rio Grande, the Sierra Madre mountains, and the high desert of West Texas—and it came from fighting a copper smelter and other threats to the land, air, and water in and around his native El Paso. Dave has a fierce love for his El Paso community but cutting his teeth as an environmental justice organizer in his home town wasn't easy.Dave Cortez  Two of my close family members worked at the plant. My dad's brother worked at the plant and then worked at Chevron on the other side of town. And then his brother in law, worked at the plant and retired. And here I was, this younger punk, you know, sort of just not super close to the family, showing up at events and they asked what I'm doing and, oh, they think I'm a paid protester, you know, forget my education, forget what's at what I'm actually saying. You know, it's, deep cultural assimilation. It's deep colonization, sort of this Stockholm syndrome that develops out of poverty and repression. It's horrific, and it's sad to watch. People fiercely defend the only thing that has helped them in their eyes and not be able to acknowledge the harm that's been done. It's not different from, you know, addiction in that way, or depression.John Fiege  Or domestic abuse. Dave Cortez  Exactly. It's heartbreaking. It still hurts me to talk about. John Fiege  I'm John Fiege, and this is Chrysalis.Dave Cortez is now Director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, where he's bringing his El Paso roots and years of experience on the streets and in the communities around Texas to the Sierra Club's statewide campaigns.I've known Dave for many years and used to regularly attend environmental justice meetings in Austin that he helped organize. I've seen him rise from an on-the-ground organizer to the leader of the Texas chapter of one of the oldest and largest environmental organizations in the world.Our conversation tracks his education as an environmental justice organizer. From the playgrounds of El Paso to the gentrifying neighborhoods of Austin, his story reflects the changing nature of the American environmental movement and the exciting possibilities of more robust connections between community-based frontline environmental justice struggles and the large and powerful environmental organizations with nationwide influence.Here is Dave Cortez.ConversationJohn FiegeWell, you grew up in El Paso in Far West Texas, and it's right on the border of Mexico and New Mexico. Can you tell me a bit about growing up there, and your family and how you saw yourself in relationship to the rest of nature.Dave Cortez  I've got a little picture I'm looking at my my very first demonstration. It's a bunch of kids, kids meaning college kids, my my age at the time, about maybe 22, 23, and a big peace flag and we're hanging around what was called Plaza de Los Lagartos, Plaza of the Alligators. And we're there I think we're protesting, must have been continuing invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, but you know, I keep it up. And I keep pictures of the mountains of West Texas, the edge of the Rockies is what cuts into the central central part of El Paso, the Franklin Mountains. And then you have the Rio Grande, the heart and soul of that land. And on the other side of the river, those mountains continue into the Sierra Madres all the way down to the coast. It's majestic. It's, you know, that land is as colonized as is its people. You know, it's been, the river has been dammed up upstream in New Mexico, and two reservoirs to provide water for agriculture and farming and things like that, recreation. It was the only area of water that we we had access to when I was a kid. We would drive up to Truth or Consequences and load up on nightcrawlers and whatever other tackle and bait, and then take my dad's car and drive along somewhere, find a good spot. And fish from the shore for a couple of days at a time, camp, and, you know, that was a desert lake. It was wild for me, because we didn't have water, you know.John Fiege  So tell me about what you did. Dave Cortez  Well, we would just go up there. That was, that was our place to go get get access to water, you know, away from the desert, you know, growing up in El Paso, you just, it's It's dry, it's desert, we get, we used to average nine inches of rain a year, it's down now, you know, but the Rio was, it's always been sacred and it was special, it was a place you could go and see water. Not all year round, but most of the year and see it flowing and you look in any direction, away from the mountains, and you can see what feels endless, but it's actually you know, two or more hundred miles to the horizon, you see Thunder heads 30, 40, sometimes 45 or 50,000 feet high way far away, you think maybe you hope maybe those might come your way, maybe we'll get lucky and get a little bit of rain. Most times they don't. But with that sometimes you're blessed with the outflow that carries the smell of creosote, a native plant in the region that everybody's come to call the smell of rain. And, you know, even if you don't actually get the rain yourself, you might get some of those breezes and some of that wonderful smell. And it's, it's life giving, it's restorative. As a kid, you know, I was fortunate that my family made an effort to take us out into the desert quite a bit, we would go chase storms, we would watch lightning, my father would turn the AM radio to a blank station so we could hear the the lightning on the radio, the static pop. And we got a real kick out of that and we'd go off roading and find spots and park and you know, just hang out. And that was a pretty common thing for a lot of folks around town is just to get out into the desert. You know, my my heart and soul and my spirit is connected to that land, it is part of that land, I draw strength from those mountains, from that river. I worry about moving further away, what that might do to me, how how that might be a strain. Even just being here in Austin 600 miles away, it feels very far. You know, my family was middle class, I call it 80s middle class. And, you know, both my parents worked. I have two older siblings. And you know, we were all in public school and doing our thing. You know, everything seemed, you know, like The Wonder Years kind of situation. And you know, you don't when you're young, if you're fortunate, you don't see a lot of the issues around you. It wasn't until my teens, my parents split. And I was living with my mom and started to see a lot more other sides of life, some of the struggles, and just kind of notice more about the town, about the culture. But it was really when I moved back to El Paso after college, here in Austin at St. Edward's, where I studied political science and philosophy and environmental policy. When I moved back, it all started to come together how much I missed, how much I was removed from about my community and my culture in my youth. You know, so the language is the biggest example. We did not speak Spanish in my family. It was something my parents spoke to each other when they needed to talk about something that we didn't need to know about as kids. John Fiege  Right, right. Dave Cortez  You know, we didn't know about our indigeneity we weren't raised around that, we didn't know about the cultural connection to the land. I think in some way the spirit in my family drew us towards it. We would go spend time around those things, but we didn't really have conversations about it. And the biggest thing I didn't know about was how heavily polluted and contaminated the air was growing up. I tell a story about going into middle school. This time I was in in private school and Catholic school. Just being out on the playground it's a you know, concrete schoolyard kind of situation. And you run your hand on the on the railing and there's yellow chalk-like stuff and you don't think twice about it because it's like chalk. Or it's dust. Well, you know, in that part of town, downtown El Paso, it's because of the copper smelter. We had a 110 year old lead and copper smelting operation called Asarco that was less than two miles away from where I was going to school. And you know, you move on, maybe, you're a kid, maybe you wash your hands, maybe you don't. And it just, you know, when I moved back, I thought of that--I thought of all the times, I used to play in the dirt, like every other kid in El Paso does, you know, you don't got Barton Springs to go to or Greenbelt Creek, you play in the dirt, dig tunnels, and that stuff gets in you. And that's loaded with heavy metals, arsenic, cadmium, lead, you name it. It was it was a huge shock for me to learn that the land that I was around as a child, and the air that I was around as a child was just heavily contaminated. And I knew nothing about it. John Fiege  But what was the experience like when you were actually in college and getting more heavily into activism? Like what was motivating you? And how did you see yourself in relationship to other folks?Dave Cortez  Right on. Well, I can't leave out that the reason I came to Austin was because of my older brother and my older sister. I had never seen green, like this town, when I came to visit my sister in the summer. So I just was blown away, everything was green, there was water, it rained, I just felt like an oasis and I wanted to come here. So I went to St. Ed's, which ended up being, you know, expensive as hell, but really cool in the sense of, you know, an opportunity to learn, to be away from home. You know, and so, I didn't really know what to make of this town when I was here. I didn't know what to make of the people, the students, but by the grace of the Creator, in serendipity, I was thrown into a class on social movements. And that's a study in the 1960s. And so, you know, I developed a really foundational experience learning about the broader politic of American civil society, in that case, which blossomed into deeper learning around political theory and rhetoric, dating all the way back to some of the Greek philosophers, and modern day political thinkers, but I really got a ton of wild information into my head. In 2006, it wasn't here in Austin. It was on North Padre Island. The Austin Sierra Club was organizing a trip, there was a woman I liked at the time. And we were were fancying each other and were like, "Hey, let's go camping. I don't know what a crawfish is. But they're doing a crawfish boil. And they say they're going to clean up the beach." So we grabbed my SUV when we went and set up, and it was awesome to be out there around all these people we didn't know, you know, offering us free food and beer and just, you know, associating on this beach. And that, I really loved. Folks might not know this, it's like 60 plus miles of primitive Beach, outside of Corpus Christi. But I didn't quite understand what we're really doing until the next morning, right at dawn, when I was awoken by these huge sounds of tractor trailers hauling right by the water right in front of us. Just a caravan of them driving down to the other end of the beach to do gas drilling. You know, we get out of the tent, and we're watching this and I mean, you just want to, you know, throw something at those trucks, you know, and go put your body in front or something like "What the hell's going on?" And you're just watching the rubber, the plastic, you name it just fall off these trucks. And in their wake is just a mass of debris, and trash. And this is all in endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle habitat, its nest a nesting area for the Kemp's ridley sea turtle. And that's why we were there. And so, you know, right after that we all commiserated and got to work and picked up more trash than I think, you know, I've ever picked up. And I'm still shocked that that was allowed. But that's really where I started to take a turn and understand more about how the state facilitates this destruction, the destruction of the land and for the profits of few. And shortly after that I graduated, and that was it for my time in Austin.John Fiege  So after you graduated from college, you went back to El Paso, and you became an environmental justice organizer for El Paso, ACORN. And it was shortly after your time there in 2009, that right wing activists did a big hit job on ACORN and brought down the organization in the US for the most part. An ACORN was was a powerful community organizing group at its height, and it had this unique community based organizing model. Could you talk a bit about the ACORN organizing model and how it, possibly, I assume, became part of your organizing DNA?Dave Cortez  Just like learning about the 1960s is a pillar of my practice. The  work with Acorn is right there with it. You know, it shaped me, maybe it's just because it's one of the first things I learned about, but it'll be with me, as long as I do this work and have breath in my lungs. You know, some people were quick to point to that it's built out of the school of the Industrial Areas Foundation and Saul Alinsky model of community organizing, and yeah, that's true. But, you know, I didn't know any of that. I didn't, you know, I was, I was just taken in by these folks. There was a guy, recovering addict, just trying to make his money doing his canvassing while I was hanging out at a coffee shop, kind of where I was living in El Paso, the university. And there's my day off and I'm out there hanging out. There's this dude, his name was Ken. Ken let me know how they were planning to reopen the ASARCO copper smelter, the big 120 820 foot tall smokestack that I grew up around, and I was shocked. And, and that's, you know, like I studied all these things. And I was like, wow, I cannot believe that that's right there, my mom lives over here, you know, she works there, I live over here. And, you know, I told them, whatever I can do to help: get more letters, spread a petition around, whatever I can do. And they invited me in to meet the team, which was a small team. And the first task they gave me was actually nothing to do with that it was just to go distribute information about free tax prep, helping people in a really poor community, not far from where I went to middle school in which is not far from the smelter, get access to tax prep, in English and Spanish. And at the time, I had a, I had a mohawk. I covered that thing up real fast. I wore a straw cowboy hat and went door to door knocking on people's doors, let them know about this. And Jose Manuel, the the lead organizer at the time, the director saw me and, you know, was into it. And, you know, they offered me a job after a few days of that. And the job was doing the same thing, plus inviting people to come to a community meeting about the reopening of ASARCO. So here's a way that we can help you. With some, you know, with your money, basically, your your bottom line, and also, there's a situation happening, that can affect and will affect your your health and well being, and the safety of your family. At the time, I didn't realize that there was a very intentional strategy there. But that strategy is essential to the work that we do as environmentalists and in climate justice activists around the country, and here in Texas, people are struggling, and you got to find ways to help them directly with what they're struggling with day to day, which is often their pocketbooks. And so if you can do that, you're going to build some trust, you can build some relationships, and then you might be lucky to talk to them about another bigger, more complicated issue.John Fiege  That seems to be, like, a really beautiful definition of the difference between environmental justice organizing, and traditional environmental organizing, where environmental justice organizing, you have to start with the community, and make sure everybody you know, you have to deal with everything, you can't just isolate an environmental issue. Would you agree with that?Dave Cortez  Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't know where that came from. I again, I'm not a I've read all the books about these things, but that, the model that was picked up by so many organizations and NGOs is is you know, it's it's almost like counter revolutionary, it's almost counterproductive. Like you're intentionally trying to marginalize your base in silos, you know, so, so whatever we do, you know, I try to espouse that in folks, some of the work we've done around Austin and other parts of Texas, that's the route we go, talk about bills, talk about bills every time and then, you know, start to figure out what else is going on, you know. With ACORN, a major flaw in the national model was that they would want to sign people up to be bank draft members, like you, you'd push a card onto them, "Hey, send this card in with your bank info or something. And we'll sign you up, you know, so you get access to our help." And obviously, I didn't do that. And as the work evolved, and we got more people canvassing and doing the work, we didn't do that either. It went against our values. Now, if there were middle class people, people with more means, yeah, we'd asked them to do that, too.John Fiege  To contribute a certain amount each month.Dave Cortez  Yeah. But we also did things differently, in the sense of, we organized, we found, you know, folks who are highly motivated by the issues, students, artists, residents in the nearby communities who wanted to contribute, and contribute their time, That theory in the ACORN model of, you got to get people financially bought in to be committed, I think can be challenged and there's lots of ways to get people plugged in. And so, one other key here was, you know, I wasn't brand new, this work wasn't brand new. There had been people fighting ASARCO before I was involved, obviously, and it had ebbed and flowed in terms of how much community opposition from just, like, working class people was centered. There was a lot of wealthier folks, politico types, you know, people who worked for legislators or senators or city people, you know, academics, things like that. And there was a handful of working class people in a smattering of workers from plant workers. So our job was really to find more just like students and people in the impacted communities, but it had been going on for so long that people were really drained. You know, parents who, whose children had MS as a result of this or had other health problems, they eventually backed off because it was just too exhausting to go up against the machine of the Texas State Government and go testify, and struggle, and they just couldn't do it anymore. You know, so we had to find new people and inject new life. You know, we made it a point to work with some of the younger folks to start a--not really an acorn chapter--but just a group on the campus called students for reform. And those kids are amazing, a couple dozen students, Chicanos, for the most part, all going off to do awesome things in their lives. But for three, three years, four years, they they led the fight, they're on campus challenging the administration to disclose more information and trying to represent student opposition to the reopening of the smelter.John Fiege  I was looking up some articles about ASARCO. I found this this one 2010 article from John Burnett, who's a NPR correspondent based in Austin. So he talks about in 2009, the US Justice Department announced the settlement of one of the largest environmental bankruptcies in US history, in which ASARCO would pay a record $1.79 billion to settle claims for hazardous waste pollution in you know, at 80 sites, as many as 20 states, including the copper smelting operation in in El Paso. And he quotes some interesting community members like an 82 year old former maintenance worker named Miguel Beltran, who says, "you can't get a job here in El Paso compared to ASARCO, ASARCO is the best place to work. We were just like a family." And John Burnett, also quotes an anti-smelter activist named Debbie Kelly, who says, "They marketed very well. And the people of El Paso were brainwashed believed that this was the most wonderful thing El Paso could possibly have, this tall polluting contaminating smokestack." And this is this classic tension and environmental justice organizing. The big polluter in town is often the biggest and best paying employer as well, especially for folks with limited education. And these working folks often side with the company in some ways, and then at some times, kind of accepting the environmental problems for the economic opportunities. And the smokestack itself is this shining symbol of progress and prosperity that goes way back to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. What was your experience with this tension between economic opportunity and environmental health in the organizing, and how that was represented in the media?Dave Cortez  Well, let's take a few cracks at it, because it's a big question. You know, I'll start with my family, two of my close family members worked at the plant, my dad's brother worked at the plant and then worked at Chevron on the other side of town. And then his brother in law, worked at the plant and retired. And here I was, this younger punk, you know, sort of just not super close to the family, showing up at events, and that's what I'm doing and "oh," they think, "I'm a paid protester," you know, forget my education, forget what I'm actually saying. You know, it's, it's deep cultural assimilation. It's deep colonization, sort of this Stockholm syndrome that develops out of poverty and repression. It's horrific. And it's sad to watch, you know, people fiercely defend the only thing that has helped them, in their eyes, and not be able to acknowledge the harm that's been done. It's not different from, you know, addiction in that way.  Or, or depression in that way. John Fiege  Right.  Or domestic abuse. Don't talk about it. Dave Cortez  Domestic abuse. Exactly. You know, it's heartbreaking. It still hurts me to talk about. But, you know, that was the case. And you know, in that situation, just try and make peace with your family just, you know, get through the gathering. And you go on in, you know, some of my family was very supportive, you know, like, "yeah, that stuff's bad, and we should do better." You don't get investments in the well being of a community that like say, in Austin and all this money flooding here and STEM education being invested in and, you know, pre K access and, you know, nature based education and Montessori education, things like that. All of this is part of that, that conflict that pushes you to try and find the best thing you can for your family. And any of the workers that I organized alongside say the same thing. They were so proud and happy--Daniel Adriano another sort of lead visible face against the reopening of smelter, he's a former steel worker, you know, he tells a story about like, his dad worked there, his uncle, his cousins, you know, it was just like a family thing, like everybody, if you could get a job at ASARCO, you knew you'd be okay. You could raise a family, maybe even your wife or your spouse, your partner wouldn't have to work. But, you know, behind that, that Golden Gate, there was a lot of things that people weren't being told. You know, things like, maybe you shouldn't be taking your work clothes home and washing them. Right. They sent people home to wash, and that's very common in heavy industry in the 80s 70s 80s and 90s, you know, these these companies do that. In Danny's case, his kids got sick, you know, and they developed health problems. And he points to that as part of the reason washing his clothes in the same machine with, as his kids clothes. His wife feels guilt about that. Heavy guilt. John Fiege  Yeah. That's hard. Dave Cortez  You know, it's violating. You know, they had them--that settlement came because they, well, in part because ASARCO was caught for illegally incinerating hazardous chemical weapons waste materials from Colorado, in the smelter in these men weren't told about it. And they shoveled this stuff in there and were exposed to, you know, not recycled waste, just direct waste from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wow facility, a weapons manufacturing facility, Dow Chemical weapons manufacturing facility. That stuff was burned and they were exposed. You know, it's infuriating. And once they learned that, and they were falling ill and they had some evidence, they tried to organize other workers, let them know former workers let them know what was going on. And, and they encountered the same thing that I encountered with my family: just like this, this wall of acceptance, this willful ignorance. You know, I don't know about that, you know, just like denial, denial. And that was really hard on them. They got ostracized, they lost a lot of friends. You know, and so they found allyship in other people whose families had been sick, residents on the other side of the river in the Colonias, whose children had been severely sick, who were bleeding every night because of bloody noses and heavy metal contamination. You know, they found allyship with Debbie Kelly in the current place, which is sort of a wealthier neighborhood, you know, the educated, more white affluent folks who didn't want the smelter around. And this, that's how the "Get the lead out" coalition really came together it was--you just had these different interests aligned around this lack of justice, but the worker piece was always--and the economic piece was always always, you know, the straw that would break our back. And when ASARCO hired a PR firm, Teresa Montoya, to build their campaign, their marketing campaign to reopen the smelter, that was their big thing. I want to work for ASARCO I want to work for ASARCO and they march out all these Chicanos and throw them in front of a plant in their hard hats and talk about the good jobs and the pay. You know, it's tough to compete with. I know the people in Port Arthur, in Corpus Christi, even down in Brownsville, you know, and you name it. John Fiege  It's the same story everywhere. It's the same story.Dave Cortez  In Appalachia, as well, with the coal miners. Absolutely. The amount of energy it takes to fight Goliath. You know, you never have enough you never have enough resources. You got a PR firm In, you know, this facility was owned and run ASARCO, Grupo Mexico owned by Carlos Slim, at the time the wealthiest man in the world, you know, like, you're never going to have enough just to stop the bad thing. How are you going to strategize and organize in a way where you're talking about building the good, and replacing it with something better and taking care of these people? It's doable, it absolutely is. But at the time, when you're in the sock like that, it's very hard to pivot. And it's very hard to motivate people who have resources to give you those resources to bring on people to pay them to do that work. It's a boxing match, take your hits, and wait for the time to throw a punch. You know, and I think one thing that really hurt people hurt ASARCO a lot, was when it came out that at their operations in Arizona, El Paso and elsewhere, in the 70s and 80s, they had been using health standards, health assessment screenings that were based on a false standard that black men and brown men had a 15% higher lung capacity than white men, therefore, they could be--they could work 15% longer, they could be exposed 15% more than white men. And that came out. And you know, we had some incredible, dedicated educated volunteers who were digging this information up, who were, you know, putting it to the to the news outlets. And without the news outlets putting that information out there, like the New York Times that put it out about the hazardous chemical weapons waste, you know, we wouldn't have been able to really punch back. But that stuff came out and then we could organize with it. We made materials out of it. I made sure everyone knew that, you know, this is the kind of crap that this place was built on, no matter what they say now you can't trust them. John Fiege  Right. Yeah. And this--another thing that John Burnett brought up in this NPR story is, he quotes some longtime community members who said that when the winds were blowing to the south toward Juarez in Mexico, the smelter would crank up production and send pollution directly into Mexico where they could, they could do nothing to regulate it or stop it even worse than in the US. And that's a pretty insidious and cynical route around US environmental regulations. American companies have this long history of sending their polluting factories and jobs overseas. But in El Paso, they could just send the pollution directly to Mexico while keeping the plant and the jobs in the US. Were you able to do any cross border organizing in El Paso to combat this kind of flagrant disregard for air pollution in Mexico?Dave Cortez  I wasn't able to myself, or it wasn't a choice I made to do myself on the broader scale. Marianna Chu, who worked at the time for the Sierra Club, and as an independent activist and organizer did a whole hell of a lot and deserves a ton of credit. Marianna, and others were also were able to build relationships in the Colonias and get to talk to people that were, you know, the definition of directly impacted, right on the other side of the river. You know, you drive through, you pass on I-10, and you look to the left where you're passing through downtown, and it's just colonias and that's Colonia Felipe and some students who we'd found and became acquainted with at UTEP and were filmmakers and they were able to get over into the colonias and document the lived experience of some of these folks, and it's horrific, and they made a short film, I'm happy to share called The Story of Cristo and it's a little boy, you know, who's like that, he's bleeding, bleeding every night, because he's got heavy metal contamination, two years old. You know, and that story spread. You know, it was similar to other families all throughout the Colonia. Dirt roads, just full of metal, not a lot that could be done unless there was funds provided for it. And part of that settlement in relation to the chemical weapons waste was that ASARCO would give money to an outfit in Mexico to pave those roads. You know, that's it. Accept no wrongdoing. No, no responsibility. We don't admit nothing but, here, take this and leave us alone.John Fiege  Literally, sweeping it under the rug. They're just laying asphalt over the dust.Dave Cortez  Absolutely. I mean, that's that's absolutely right. And, you know, one interesting intersection here with with the colonias there was, as we marched towards the end of 2007 and 2008. You know, we're still fighting the plant, it started to become more and more dangerous and people were less responsive, and less receptive to being interviewed on camera with our comrades, and the gangs, were starting to move in to the Colonia and control things more. And that was that it wasn't safe anymore you can, the last thing you should be doing is driving over there with a camera. And so those stories sort of drifted away, those folks. And we weren't able to really work with them a whole lot more, because the narco war was starting to take root.John Fiege  Because it's, it's how it's the same thing they do to fight you, they give your neighbor a job, and then and they get your neighbor working against you. Dave Cortez  Absolutely, I mean, you know, you're not going to go toe to toe with the same weapons, you got to find a way to find their weak spot and cut them at that weak spot. And, you know, I learned that, I learned that in this fight, you know, we weren't scared of these people. We weren't scared of their minions. We weren't scared of the, you know, the former workers who wanted the plant to open. We weren't scared of them. They tried. Everybody tried to intimidate you, you know, but I'll start with, with that part, first, as a critical strategy. My, you know, 23 year old high energy, Mohawk wearin' self, right, like, I thought I knew it all and was ready to go, just like against that jerk down on Red River Street in Austin. And, you know, the first public meeting, debate, whatever, that we helped organize, some of those, those workers were there outside and they were, you know, they pick a smaller person, a woman to argue with, and she ain't scared of them. But you know, soon enough, there's, there's four or five of them around her and oh, man, you know, machismo is something all of us from the border suffered from and that kicked in hard. You just get into it with these guys. But, you know, that is not the way, that is not the way. You know, arguing and fighting, especially with the people, even though they're trying to get you to do it. The people who want a job in these facilities, the community members who just want a better way for their life, you cannot let the people at the top pit us against each other. That's why it's so important to be anchored in community talking about the nuance, you know, how to step and where, what to look out for, and really trying to build together, it has to be at the forefront.John Fiege  Isn't that the history of American industrial capitalism, that for it to work, the, the industrialists need to pit various groups of people against one another, whether it's along lines of race, or income, or religion, or geography, or immigration status, or, or whatever. Like, that's, that's how it works. You need to divide people by those things, so they don't get together and they don't, they don't form a allegiances.Dave Cortez  That's right. That's right. I mean, it's, but it's not something that's created by the oligarchs and the industrial capitalists and the power holders. It's something that they exploit, right? It's a, it's a wound that's already there. And, you know, it's something that concerns me greatly about broader civil society, and our failures to build community, in relationship in brotherhood and sisterhood. You know, in a true spirit of mutual solidarity, the more that we neglect doing that work, the easier it is for something to divide us or someone to exploit it, we see it, there's an endless amount of examples we can point to. But if you start your work in trying to build something better, and build through a positive relationship, it's going to feed in the long run, it'll help you endure all of the struggles that are going to come the conflicts, you know, the the infighting, the personality disagreements, whatever, you got to have some foundation and I learned that from that, that night outside the UTEP Library arguing with these guys that, "No, we got to we got to find a way to work with these workers. We got to really center the fact that people need work in jobs." And and that's where, you know, I really started to become close with, not the guys I argued with, other workers who were already disaffected, Charlie Rodriguez, and Danielle Riano and Efrain Martinez and others. You know, they became, in some ways they already were but from my work, they became the center of what we're trying to do and focus on, that this is actually not what we want these, these jobs are not the kind that we need, because look what they did to me. And so that's one piece. We've got to find a way to get people more meaningfully involved with the policies we're trying to change, so there's just a far greater number of people pushing for positive investment in something that is, you know, not just like NGO staff, you know, like, the less NGO staff and those boardrooms, the better. You know, get every day, people in their meeting, pressing for these decisions, and calling for it, and that makes it much harder for the special interests to push push their own agenda.John Fiege  Well, that's a good transition to Occupy Wall Street. So in 2011, Occupy Wall Street began in New York City in Zuccotti Park. And then the movement quickly spread around the world, including to Austin. And I know you were heavily involved in Occupy Austin, and its campaign to get the city to divest from commercial banks. I participated in a couple of those occupy Austin Bank actions. And I don't think I'd met you yet. But, you know, as many people might remember, one of the big discussions and debates around Occupy was whether and how to organize and whether to make formal demands, which always makes me think of Frederick Douglass who famously said, "power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did. And it never will." But those words from Frederick Douglass, were not the guiding light of many occupy organizers and participants, I'd love to hear you talk a bit about your experience with Occupy Austin, and the internal debates and conflicts about what it was and how it should operate. And what you brought away from that whole experience that you put into your organizing work after that. Dave Cortez  Yeah, it was one of the most exciting times of my life so far, you know, to be able to three, four, sometimes five nights a week, meet up with 50 to 60 people not at a general assembly, but a working group meeting, and everybody's there ready to, you know, talk and break out and figure out the next step for getting people to close bank accounts. And, you know, organizing the rally and building the art and all those things. It was organic. I'm so happy that, I'm fortunate to have that experience in this city, and in this country. It was real, you see the romanticized version of uprisings in film, in writing, and on the news, different ways around the world. But, you know, this was that, at least the closest I've been to it, and it wasn't just the, you know, the sign holding, and, you know, petition gathering, we did all that. But it was, I mean, like people were, people were in, you know, the sacrifice time away from whatever they had going on around them to contribute to something better, and I have never seen an appetite, so large for participating and contributing to something that can change the world. I've seen it tried to be engineered a whole lot by NGOs. And it's laughable. It's insulting, you know, but for me at the time, it was it was like a dream come true. I remember a week before occupy launch, there was a meeting happening at Ruta Maya, and the room was full of people, and, you know, a bunch of white dudes, hippie yoga types on stage, you know, talking about some stuff, but I'm up there front row, just, you know, like, eager. And just like listening, I'm like, "This is great," you know, so they open the mic for everybody to come up and have something to say. And it was awesome. I'd just never seen it. You know, I was like, "wow, this is the Austin I always wanted to see," you know. Sure enough there was a meeting after that the next day, and the next day after that. And that kind of continued on for a few days. And then and then there was the day of the launch and lots of people packing City Hall. I mean, you couldn't move there were so many people out there and there were people talking for hours. Everybody was just willing to stay. And you know, I can't, I just can't believe how patient people were for weeks. And just like hanging out. You know, I think they just wanted something different. And they wanted to be part of something, like I said, Now, me, day one. I'm like, "yo, if we're gonna be out here, we need some data." And I got my clipboard. And my dear friend and former partner Betsy had been working for a group that was doing foreclosure organizing and getting people to move their bank accounts or close their bank accounts. And so, you know, I got some, some materials from her and took up like six clipboards, to the to the rally. And that was my whole shtick was just like, "Hey, y'all, we should close our corporate bank accounts," and people loved it. You know, it was like, "hey, here goes, put your name down, if you want to help out," and I mean, I filled up pages and pages of this thing, people who wanted to help out or close their bank accounts. And from that, you know, like, you'd find more people that were like, "Hey, I used, you know, I can help with that. And I used to work at a bank," or, you know, "I've got some time on my hands," you know. And so we, it was rad, because while all the noise was happening, the day to day that people were more familiar with Occupy Wall Street. You know, the the General Assemblies, the infighting, the conflicts with the unhoused folks and things like that, we had this parallel track of our bank action crew, which was doing, building switch kits, and, you know, trying to reach out to people to, you know, help walk them through how to close their bank accounts and stuff like that, or organize marches on the bank, so people could go in and come out and cut their credit cards, so we could all celebrate, you know, like, that was, that was great. That's classic organizing. I, you know, if you weren't down in City Hall, every day for that first month, you're missing out on something, you know, I don't think people appreciate enough how much work people invested into trying to maintain a space, like, maintaining a physical encampment is, you know, the people with the most knowledge on how to operate a small, little civil society is the people have been doing it before, which is our unhoused folks, you know. And there was a huge class conflict, that really emerged quickly, that the police and the city manager and others began to exploit, you know, by trying to bring more unhoused folks down to City Hall, allowing some to sell and distribute drugs, not enforcing any oversight, you know, we had women attacked, you know, and attempted assaults and things like that, that they were just looking the other way on. Because they wanted this to go away. And it was up to us to figure out how to manage that. And that really became the core of the non-bank action, kind of conversations. You know, everybody wanted to do solidarity with everything else. But it was really about, like, how do we keep this thing going? And how do we maintain our presence here? You know, do you negotiate with the city? Who negotiates? Who's responsible? Do we just say, you know, F-U, we're not going to talk to you all, you know, but like, through all that, like, some amazing friendships were developed, and I mean, like bonds, true, real friendships, and people may not be super close anymore, but all it would take is a phone call or text to bring people back together. You know, it's something I'll just value for the rest of my life.John Fiege  Yeah, totally. And in 2015, The Austin Chronicle named you the best environmental activist in Austin for your work as, "The heart and soul of Sierra Club's 'Beyond Coal' campaign in Central Texas." And I know you've done all kinds of work with the Sierra Club. But I wondered if you could talk about what the fight has been like to transition from dirty energy to clean energy in Texas, which, of course is the oil capital of the country. And looking over the years you've been doing this work, what stands out? What have you learned from this massive campaign?Dave Cortez  Like you said, it's Texas, we're the number one carbon emitter in the country, and a huge one in the world and the United States cannot meet the modest two week goals in the Paris Accords unless Texas gets its act together, you know, and we got some real problems here, not just from fossil fuel pollution, but from industrial and toxic pollution and just from our livelihoods, you know, there's another story out yesterday, you know, are we going to have power next week, because we're going to hit hit the peak of the summer. You know, it's hard to think about the fight for clean energy in Texas without thinking about the power of the fossil fuel and industrial industries. There's there's been a battle since 2000 and 2005 to stop new power plants and advocate for clean energy. The fuel type changes and you know, back then it was coal and then it is gas and and now, it's like, oh my god, we just don't have enough power. Now, how do we get it? But it's still the, you know, trade associations, the Association of Electric Companies in Texas, you know, Oncor, which is an electric distributor company, NRG, you go down the line, Energy Transfer Partners, all of these fossil fuel corporations, making billions and billions of dollars, still call the shots, they still influence, and basically direct, decision makers on what is going to be acceptable in terms of, even, discussion. You can't even get a hearing in the state legislature on flaring reduction, which is a very modest thing. Because they have enough influence to make sure that that conversation is not even going to happen. And their members, like Energy Transfer Partners, and others are some of the biggest donors to politicians in the state. So, you know, why shouldn't we listen to those people? Kelsy Warren, Dakota Access Pipeline CEO, behind Energy Transfer Partners, gave a million dollars, his largest donation ever to Governor Abbott, right immediately after the legislative session. And this is after his company made well over a billion dollars, I think it's closer to $2 billion, coming out of the winter storm, Energy Transfer Partners. While people died, these people decided it would make better financial sense and profit sense to go ahead and withhold supplies of gas to power plants and gas utilities, and let the price go up before they would deliver that gas and therefore make a ton of money. Forget that more than you know, some say 200, some say 700 people died, many of them freezing to death, many of them carbon monoxide poisoning during the storm, forget that. It's all about the money. And that's the biggest takeaway here, just like we would be fighting Carlos Slim, and ASARCO and other folks, you got to look at what the interest is, you know, why are people supporting this? Why are they facilitating this? I know, it's easy to just say, well, we just got to vote these people out. Well, you know, we've got to come up with strategies that will allow us to do that. We've got to come up with strategies that will make it so, in this state that's so heavily corrupt and captured by corporate interests, fossil fuel interests, industrial interests, that we're going to find a way to cut into their enabling electorate. Their enabling base. And it's more than just a voter registration strategy. It's more than just a mobilization strategy, or getting people to sign a petition, it gets back to what we started talking about with ACORN. What is their base? Where are they? What are their interests? And where does it make sense to try and make some inroads, and cut away? And unfortunately, we just don't have enough of that happening in Texas. There's an effort to try to build coalitions with, you know, some social justice and some youth focused organizations. But we're all part of that same progressive "groupthink" or Democratic base, that we're not actually doing much to expand, other than registering some new voters. And there's a lot of unpacking that needs to happen. You know, can we go talk to some steel workers or some people on the Texas-Mexico border, who started to vote more for Republicans and Trump, because they were worried about the Green New Deal? They're worried about losing their oil jobs. Why, I mean, like, to this day, we haven't made that pivot collectively as a movement, and it's hella frustrating.John Fiege  Yeah, it gets back to what we were talking about earlier with, you know, kind of the DNA of environmental justice orientation to this work, the work has to be intersectional if you want to transition Texas, the oil capital of the world, to to non-fossil fuel based energy, you know, you need to deal with, with voting rights, you need to deal with the bad education system, you need to deal with healthcare issues, you need to deal with police brutality, and you know, it's like it's all connected. To think that we can remove this issue of decarbonizing our energy source from all of that other, you know, what some people see as messy stuff is delusional, it just doesn't doesn't work, doesn't make sense. Especially, and it's so obvious in places like Texas, where, you know, what are they doing? They're just trying to, they're trying to suppress the vote, like, they know what the deal is, you know, they're they're losing numbers. They need to disenfranchise more voters in order to maintain this system. Dave Cortez  You know, there's an important caveat and distinction for environmentalists, environmental justice folks, or whatever. You know, if you talk to John Beard with Port Arthur Community Action Network, you know, he's a former steel worker. His whole pitch in Port Arthur is about youth engagement jobs, investing in the community. He's willing to talk to the companies, things like that. It's not environmental-first type of thinking. But the enviros, and you'll see this any legislative session, if you pay attention, we are on the far losing side of the losers. Okay, the Democrats being the losers, you know, Democrats in Texas carry House Bill 40, which is the ban on fracking bans. You know, Mrs. T, Senator Senfronia Thompson out of Houston, she authored that bill, Black Democrat, you know, revered for her work on voting rights and reproductive justice. You know, enviros, we are way, way out of the mix. And so even if we got those organizations doing the work you're talking about, to speak about climate change, speak about the grid, you know, pollution, things like that, we'd still be part of that losing side. And I'm not saying we need to need to be building out into red country, or rural country. It's a critique of the broader progressive movement that we aren't doing enough to find people, the greater majority of people that don't participate in our process, in politics, in voting, except in presidential elections. We are not doing enough to reach people who are just going about their lives and do not give a s**t about the things that we post online about our petitions or positions, or our op-eds, or whatever. That is where the fight is, we've got to draw more people in while the right wing tries to keep more people out. That's our only pathway. And so--John Fiege  What does a just transition mean to you?Dave Cortez  It's what we've been talking about, it's a whole shift in, you know, the operating system of a of a community, whether it's a town of 50,000 people or a state of, you know, 25 million. Just transition means that we're taking into full consideration, our triple bottom line, you know, our health, and shelter, and food, you know, our economics, our jobs, and ability to put, you know, bring income and get the things that we need. And, you know, just the land and our ecology. Just transition has to anchor that we are--that those things are connected, and that they're not--they can't be separated, that in order for our families, and our children and our neighbors and all that, to have a future and have a livelihood, we need to be concerned about our air quality, concerned about our water quality, but also about the quality of their education, the access to healthy food and grocery stores. If you were to talk to people and ask them to envision what, you know, their dream society looks like, which is a hard thing for people to do nowadays. You know, you'll hear some of these things and just transition is the process that we take to get there. It's not about you know, getting a worker from a fossil fuel job into a clean energy job.John Fiege  Well, and speaking of that, you know, in addition to your beyond coal and just transition work, you've done a lot of work with low income communities of color in Austin around a whole assortment of things: illegal dumping, access to green space, community solar and solar equity, green gentrification among among a bunch of other stuff. Can you talk about gentrification and how Austin has changed in the time you've been there and the tension that's emerged about Austin becoming one of the greenest but also increasingly one of the least affordable cities in the country? Dave Cortez  Yeah it's tough. People in Austin are largely still here to just party, have fun, make money. You know, they're really eager to do what they moved here for, you know, go do the cool thing and the restaurant, and the corporate soccer game and whatnot, you know, fine, whatever, I'm not trying to harp on people who want to have a good time, the problem is that there's no thread of the greater good of civil society, of trying to care for those in town that struggle and have the least. That doesn't exist here. It's just, it has lessened every year, it might be new people moving here might be more money here, and people being displaced. But you know, for the most part, with gentrification, the white wealthy middle class here is strong, you know, median family income is close to $90,000, you know, qualifying for affordable housing, you can make a ton of money and still qualify for affordable housing. And the people that move in, my brother calls them the new pilgrims. They're not super interested in learning what was there before, they're interested in what's around them now, and what might come in the future. And we do have a responsibility to make sure that we not just offer up but press on people at the doors, at community events, you know, cool, fun, s**t, barbecues and things like that, to learn what was there before they came, you know, sort of an onboarding into the neighborhood. And we did some of this in Montoplis, my old neighborhood that I lived in before I moved to South Austin, you know, people who I was like, "man, they're never going to help us," they're just, you know, part of that new white, middle class "new pilgrim." When I learned the history of the community, and the issues that were going on, I said, "Hell, yeah, whatever I can do," from, you know, cooking funding, speaking, writing letters, coming to meetings, you name it, you know, but we had to keep on 'em. And we had to give them a meaningful task. There is a lot of power, gentrification sucks. But I've really tried to work with myself on not being--automatically hating folks for just trying to move in into a home. But you do have to challenge folks on how they behave after they've moved in, you know, in Austin with our urban farming and desire for new urbanism and density and things like that, the culture of I know what's best is so thick, and it's really hard to stay patient. But I try to, even when I get mad and angry and frustrated, I try to remind people of what's called the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing, and the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond's Principles of Anti-Racism, encourage them to read them, and to do everything they can to just shut the F up, and go listen to the people that they're talking about in affected communities. And get a sense of where you might be able to build some common ground.John Fiege  I actually wanted to spend a minute on that because, you know, you started, or you were one of the organizers, who started environmental justice group in Austin years ago, and I went to a bunch of the meetings. And I feel like that's where, you know, we got to start hanging out a bunch for the first time. But you would always start the meetings with the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing. And, you know, those came out of this meeting hosted by the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice and Jemez, New Mexico back in the 90s. Can you talk more specifically about the principles and why they're important to the work you're doing?Dave Cortez  So when you're thinking about undoing racism, or being an antiracist or antiracism work, you know, you're acknowledging that you're confronting a built system, something that's built under a false construct, race, you know, and when you're going to combat that, there's, you know, there's a lot of issues to it or whatever, but the Jemez principles will help you see, how do you approach people and talk about it? You know, for example, listen, let people speak is one of the principles, you know, listen to the people on the ground. Don't barge in there don't don't come in with your your petition and your fancy stuff and, or be online and be a dick. You know, go try to introduce yourself and get to know people. You know, ask questions. That's okay. You know, people were very generous for the most part, whether they're Black or Brown or or Native or Asian, or you name it, you know? If you're able to ask questions and listen about an issue, people will likely talk, you know. Trying to work in solidarity and mutuality is another big one for me, you know, it's not just about like, "I'm here to help you," versus, "I'm here because our struggles are connected and intertwined. And for me and my family to be successful and get what we need, it depends on your family, and your people being successful and getting what you need. How can we work together to make sure that we everything we do reinforces that and that we lift each other up?" A lot of things that we see is very transactional in the advocacy and activism world, you know, sign this, and then we'll go do that for you, or will tell the person to do the thing and change? It's not so much how can what can we do to help you directly, like we talked about bills and taxes and things like that. But also, we have to know that, what is it we're gonna get out of it, it's not just this potential policy outcome. There's tremendous value in human relationships. And in culture and community building, you're going to learn about the people in your community, you're going to learn about the history, you're going to learn, you know, and make new friends and maybe some recipes, maybe, you know, some new music or something. It's limitless. You know, humans have tremendous potential in beauty. But we we rob ourselves of that by, you know, retreating into our silos in our, in our four walls. You know, Jemez can give something--these are short, short, little principles that can give people something to read and reflect on, they can be kind of abstract and theory based, but when you're advocating for change, and then you look at these and you ask yourself, "sm I doing this?" There's tremendous potential for learning, and changing how we do our work.John Fiege  And the Sierra Club is one of the oldest large-scale environmental groups in the world. And it's traditionally been a white organization. Its founder John Muir made racist remarks about Black and Indigenous people, and in 2020, the Sierra Club officially apologized for those remarks and the white supremacist roots of the organization. In Texas, with your work and your presence, I feel like you've really helped the Sierra Club evolve there, where you are, and you th

Rose Thelen shares her story of working with the Sierra Club's “Beyond Coal” campaign and successfully mobilizing hundreds of concerned residents in an effort to shut down the Minnesota Sherco coal-fired power plant. Tyson Slocum joins the second half of the episode to discuss how private equity firms across the country have been acquiring and sustaining coal plants like the ones Rose is fighting against.… Read More

What would a clean, renewable energy future look like in Georgia? Neil Sardana, Beyond Coal rep from the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club provides a hopeful yet feasible vision. For energy independence and less pollution and less greenhouse gas emissions, we know we need to move away from dependence on fossil fuels like coal and gas, but could we be 100% renewable, and what would the new energy mix be in Georgia? How feasible is that clean energy transition and how can we get the political will in a rather conservative state to make these massive infrastructure changes happen? Neil Sardana explains how in this 25-minute interview hosted by Carrie Freeman. The Public Service Commissioner seats are the key to redirecting the for-profit Georgia Power mega-utility to clean energy, and solar is the affordable available solution in our sunny state (as Georgia Power Company is considering raising consumer rates again for mostly dirty energy). We should demand the clean energy future we need. You can find out more at https://www.sierraclub.org/georgia/BeyondCoal  or follow @GABeyondCoal  Look for ways to send public comments about the Georgia Power energy rate hikes and encourage them to replace coal and gas with home-grown solar. In Tune to Nature is a weekly show airing on Wednesdays from 6:30-7pm EST on Atlanta indie radio station WRFG (Radio Free Georgia) 89.3FM hosted by Carrie Freeman, Sonia Swartz, or Melody Paris. Please consider donating to support this 50-year old independent progressive Atlanta radio station at www.wrfg.org  Take care of yourself and others, including other species.    

CLIMATE ACTION SHOW - SEPTEMBER 26TH 2022PRODUCED BY VIVIEN LANGFORDLOSS AND DAMAGE AND MOVING BEYOND COAL As we move towards COP 27 in Egypt the focus is on loss and damage. Since Cop 26 failed to deliver the finance to countries reeling from climate breakdown we have had more extreme events. Think Lismore floods with all its images of loss and then multiply that for Pakistan when over 7 million have been displaced. Then the  relentless drought in Mexico,China and Somalia plus heatwaves in Europe. Yet emissions are rising and  people all over the world are protesting. One urgent message is to stop  fossil fuel subsidies, bank finances and new projects . The other urgent message is to provide finance for countries devastated by loss and damage. As Dr Saleemul Huq tells Nick Breeze ""Vulnerable Countries Left Glasgow with Tears In Their Eyes". We  need to mobilise our government to defend their rights at the next conference.The Secretary General of the UN after visiting Pakistan's flooded provinces says they are drowning not only in water but in debt and need debt relief as a matter of urgency. Meanwhile, a new coalition of climate action groups called MOVE BEYOND COAL has launched the "Not one more dollar" campaign. They are targetting NAB branches to persuade them they have no social licence to  bankroll Whitehaven Coal Co. From London we hear about tactics from Extinction Rebellion. They have had seasons of stopping the traffic and now they are door knocking and building a groundswell of people to shift the dial on lethargic and insufficient climate action. According to  Erica Cherowyth who has infuenced their tactics: “Numbers really matter for building power in ways that can really pose a serious challenge or threat to entrenched authorities or occupations,” Chenoweth says – and nonviolent protest seems to be the best way to get that widespread support.Once around 3.5% of the whole population has begun to participate actively, success appears to be inevitable. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world  Guests:Fahimah Badrulhisham - ARRCC and Move Beyond Coal campaignerMove Beyond Coal  and  https://www.arrcc.org.au/ Introducing the Not one more dollar campaign to adopt ypour local NAB branch and persuade them they have no social licence to lend to Whitehaven Coal Co. Dr Saleemul Huq and Nick Breeze from Climate Genn on Loss and Damage "Vulnerable Countries Left Glasgow with Tears In Their Eyes" says Professor Saleemul HuqNick Breeze from UK says  "If ,as Saleem says, the rich countries continue to bully the poorer nations while consuming the remaining carbon budgets, then our own moral integrity is what is in question. At what point do we say 'no more'?"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-saleemul-huq-vulnerable-countries-left-glasgow-with/id1515390847?i=1000543087564 Dr Antonio Guterres - Secretary General of the U.N - "We are in peril and yet we are paralysed. We cannot go on like this" . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEYlxOstQXY Extinction Rebellion Nuola and Nelly on strategy : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxiP0Vo4Lik Music from Jess Ribeiro - In love with this place https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GzJUs-tSH0    

In this episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we talk about the EU's dependency on gas, what energy poverty is and in what way it is linked to the Ukraine war. We also discuss the energy alternatives the EU is considering, and what really needs to happen.Europe is facing a crisis of the cost of living and the invasion of Ukraine has exposed its dependency on Russian oil and gas.  As the EU continues to import them, it is directly funding Putin's war. According to Beyond Coal, in March  alone Europe paid 20 billion euros to Russia for fossil fuels. In today's episode, we asked campaigners and researchers Martha Myers, at Friends of the Earth Europe, and Pascoe Sabido, at CEO, why the EU is stuck in the hands of the gas lobby and how is energy poverty linked to the war in Ukraine.This podcast is produced by CEO and Counter Balance. Both NGOs raise awareness on the importance of good governance in the EU by researching issues like lobbying of large and powerful industries, corporate capture of decision making, corruption, fraud, human rights violations in areas like Big Tech, agro-business, biotech & chemical companies, the financial sector & public investment banks, trade, energy & climate, scientific research and much more…You can find us on iTunes, Spotify & Buzzsprout. Stay tuned for more independent and in-depth information that concerns every EU citizen!

Lisa Dix is the New York Director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition. When she was the Senior Campaign Manager of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, she helped to end the use of coal fired power plants in New York State. Lisa has a lot of great news on the green energy front about New York and its transition to 100% renewable energy within the next couple of decades, with some major accomplishments coming this year. You can follow the Building Decarbonization Coalition on their website here, and on Twitter. Meantime, if you like what you hear today, think about signing up for our bonus content at bobcescashow.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode are filmmaker Fax Bahr and activist and fisherwoman Diane Wilson who discuss their documentary "Waterkeeper," which is now in production "Waterkeeper" explores the astonishing and uplifting life of environmental activist Diane Wilson, Waterkeeper for the San Antonio Bay Estuarine system. As writer, director, and producer, Fax Bahr won a Directing Emmy for Hearts Of Darkness, A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. That film also won Best Documentary from the National Board of Review. Fax has also served as a Community Organizer in the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. He currently volunteers for InsideOUT Writers, teaching creative writing to incarcerated youth in Los Angeles. Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, FC supports creatives at every step in their journey.   About the host: www.mrazvo.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/   Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead 

This seminar is part of the REthink Energy lecture series, which is co-organised by the IIEA and ESB. On this occasion, a distinguished panel, will reflect on the outcome of COP26. In this conversation-style seminar, chaired by Alex White SC, chair of the IIEA Energy Group, the speakers examine some of the major developments agreed in the Glasgow Climate Pact and also discuss the significance of the sectoral coalitions formed during COP26, such as the ‘Beyond Coal and Gas Alliance' and the Global Methane Pledge. The panellists provide a range of perspectives and discuss the impact of COP26 on Ireland's climate priorities, on the EU's Green Deal agenda, and on the international community, in particular, on least developed countries. About the Speakers: Professor Morgan Bazilian is the Director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy and Professor at the Colorado School of Mines. Previously, he was Lead Energy Specialist at the World Bank. His work has been published in Science, Nature, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Previously Professor Bazilian was a senior diplomat at the United Nations. He has served as the EU's lead negotiator on technology at previous UN climate negotiations. Professor Bazilian is also a member of Ireland's Climate Change Advisory Council. Connie Hedegaard is Chair of the European Commission's Mission Board on Adaptation to Climate Change, an element of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. She also serves as Chair of the OECD's Round Table for Sustainable Development and as Chair of Aarhus University. From 2010-2014, Ms Hedegaard was European Commissioner for Climate Action. Previously, she was Minister for Environment and Minister for Climate and Energy, Denmark. Alicia O'Sullivan is a law student and Quercus Scholar for Active Citizenship at University College Cork (UCC). Ms O'Sullivan represented UCC and World YMCA at COP26. Previously, she represented Ireland at the first UN Youth Climate Summit. Ms O'Sullivan has also served as an Ocean Ambassador for Ireland. She is currently the Environmental Officer at UCC Students' Union.  Dr Sinéad Walsh is the Climate Director at the Department of Foreign Affairs. Previously, Dr Walsh served as EU Ambassador to South Sudan. Prior to this, she was Irish Ambassador to Sierra Leone and Liberia. Dr Walsh is the co-author of the book ‘Getting to Zero', which recounts her experience as a diplomat on the frontline of the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

Today my guest is Rebecca Kling.Rebecca is an educator, performer, community organizer, storyteller, and advocate for social change.Rebecca is also an advocate for transgender rights, is involved in the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, and is the co-founder of Better World Collaborative, a trans, woman, and Latinx-owned consultancy rooted in social justice and the creative arts.I met Rebecca in the pilot of the Earth Stories workshop that was hosted by StoryCenter. We learned about Earth Stories in the last episode.The workshop was my introduction to her advocacy work, and how storytelling is a tool she uses throughout her work with individuals and organizations.It is this aspect of her work that we will focus on today. LINKSRebeccaKling.comRebecca on Twitter (@RebeccaKling)Better World CollaborativeBeyond Coal Initiative, Sierra Club"Not Permanent" - A short film by Rebecca Kling, featured in the Earth Stories playlist by StoryCenter.NEW! Storytelling for Advocacy, an interactive workshop with Rebecca Kling. (Learn More)

Host Craig Lubow speaks with Ty Gorman and Zack Pistora of the Kansas Group of the Sierra Club about the Beyond Coal Campaign.  To fight climate change, improve public health and reduce pollution, we have to stop burning fossil fuels. From mining to burning to waste disposal, there's nothing clean about fossil fuels like dirty […] The post Beyond Coal appeared first on KKFI.

Lee Perry talks with Raquel Fernandez and Susannah Randolph of the Sierra Club Florida Chapter on their progress spearheading the Beyond Coal initiative to ensure accountability and responsibility on the part of utilities like OUC and their goals of committing to 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Did you know that uneconomical coal plants in the Midwest are costing you, the ratepayer, millions of dollars? In recent years, utilities across the region have been clinging to uneconomical coal assets while slow-walking investments in clean energy. Yet, the age of coal is coming to an end and plants in communities across the Midwest are on the chopping block. In this episode, we'll speak with two frontline community leaders, both active in the fight for a just energy transition that supports coal communities and coal plant workers. For the most immersive listening experience, where can view the resources we discuss and learn more while you listen, listen to the episode through https://riseupmidwest.org/beyond-coal/.

Ty Gorman started in May as the Sierra Club Campaign Representative with the Beyond Coal Campaign in Kansas.  Ty grew up in East Tennessee fighting coal plants in the mountains near his home and has worked on climate change mitigation and adaptation projects for the last 15 years.  He first volunteered with the Sierra Club […] The post Richard Mabion Speaks with Ty Gorman of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign appeared first on KKFI.

As wildfires blaze along the West Coast, extreme weather devastates the Gulf Coast and Midwest, and temperatures rise to record levels, a majority of registered voters in the United States say that climate change will be an important issue in the 2020 presidential election. Bloomberg Philanthropies has been working with the Sierra Club to phase out coal power in favor of cleaner, healthier forms of energy. Through our work on the Beyond Coal campaign, we’ve helped retire 60% of domestic coal plants, and are on track to retire 100% of the nation’s coal plants by 2030. Beyond Coal estimates that these plant closures have saved an estimated 7,600 lives, prevented nearly 12,000 heart attacks, and resulted in an estimated annual savings of $3.6 billion in health care costs. Beyond Coal has been named one of the most successful environmental campaigns in the country, and has inspired the launch of grassroots campaigns in Europe, Korea, Japan, and Australia. On this episode, Antha Williams – global head of Climate & Environment programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies – sits down with Mary Anne Hitt, the Sierra Club’s National Director of Campaigns, and Reverend Yearwood, the President and CEO of Hip Hop Caucus. Together, they discuss the impact of retiring coal plants and transitioning to clean energy, how climate justice and racial justice are connected, and why it’s important to vote for candidates who believe in climate change in the upcoming election.

Basic necessities such as water and electricity are critical, particularly during the time of a pandemic such as COVID-19. We spoke with local advocates that are ensuring that utilities in Texas are not cutting off these necessities as people have difficulty making payments. Our guests for the remote broadcast are: Kaiba White, Climate Policy and Outreach Specialist, Public Citizen’s Texas office Keegan Warren-Clem, Managing Attorney with medical legal partnership Texas Legal Services Center Chrissy Mann, Austin Sierra Club, Senior Campaign Representative for Beyond Coal

In this episode, we sit down with Dave Rogers of the Sierra Club, who is working to decommission coal resources in the southeast. With six coal plants in our state, North Carolina is working to move beyond coal and replace the dirtiest fossil fuel with clean energy resources that serve the grid, the economy, and the communities who are most often affected by the negative impacts of fossil fuels. This episode is presented by NC Sustainable Energy Association and hosted by Ben Stockdale and Jarvis Arrington.

In this episode of Grid Talk, Marty Rosenberg talks with Patricia Collawn, who is the Chairman, President, and CEO of PNM in New Mexico. The discussion focuses on how the utility is transforming to a carbon-free portfolio and the timeline. They'll talk about some interesting financial approaches the company is taking to deal with climate change by re-balancing and redesigning its grid and its generation system. Ms. Collwan also talks about how the company is attracting young, new talent.Ms. Collawn has more than 20 years of utility and energy industry experience. She has been with PNM Resources since 2008. Ms. Collawn earned her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

My guest today is Stephen Stetson, who is a Senior Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club, covering Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. The Sierra Club, is America's oldest and largest environmental organization. Stephen's primary focus is the Beyond Coal Campaign, which focuses on retiring coal-fired power plants, and bringing clean energy and green jobs to the Southeast. And so, in this conversation, we discuss his upbringing in Alabama and how that shaped is desire to pursue a degree in journalism, and later a law degree. We talk about the things that led him to join the Sierra Club in 2017. And, a good portion of our conversation is about where our electricity comes from, why that is changing, and how it might change even more in the future. We talk about water issues that cross state lines. We touch on transportion, and what might be different for the next generation of drivers.I appreciate Stephen for taking the time to listen to my questions, and I hope you get something useful from our conversation.You can follow Stephen Stetson on Twitter @stetsonstephon.Beyond Coal - Sierra ClubVisit me at adamdrinkwater.com • Instagram • Twitter • PatreonSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/adamdrinkwater)

IDEAS For Us Chief Operations Officer Lee Perry sits down with Sierra Club organizer Raquel Fernandez, leader of the Beyond Coal campaign working to secure a 100% renewable energy future for Orlando and Central Florida. The Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) is holding public forums in the lead-up to its Electric Integrated Resource Plan (EIRP) unveiling later this year. These forums are a way for groups like IDEAS and Sierra Club to organize our community and let OUC know that Orlando wants clean and renewable energy. Read more about this story over on our blog page Follow Sierra Club's Central Florida work on Facebook and Instagram Support this podcast by becoming a member at ideasforus.org/memberships Follow IDEAS on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Email us at contact@ideasforus.org Subscribe and find more episodes at ideasforus.org/podcast --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ideasforus/support

Director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal and the host of No Place Like Home podcast Mary Anne Hitt on creating a cleaner, greener planet by eliminating coal, the difficulty of pushing for a world beyond coal under the Trump administration, how cities and states can tackle climate change on a local level, why the argument that renewable energy is too costly is outdated and how the rise of young people fighting climate change makes her optimistic about the future. You can find out more about Mary Anne Hitt on Twitter at @MaryAnneHitt and the No Place Like Home podcast at NoPlaceLikeHomePodcast.com and the Beyond Coal campaign on Twitter @BeyondCoal or at BeyondCoal.org. The Hardy Report is a political news and current affairs podcast, bringing you interviews with a range of activists, campaigners and politicians from across the political spectrum in the United States and the United Kingdom. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thehardyreport/support

In this episode, Hall welcomes Flavia de la Fuente of BuildGroup. BuildGroup is an operator-led investment company that provides permanent capital to entrepreneurs building the next generation of technology businesses. Their innovative structure allows them to invest for the long term, so founders can focus on running their companies instead of raising the next round. Flavia started her career as a community organizer at the Sierra Club, where she worked on the organization's flagship Beyond Coal campaign, before getting an MBA at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas. After business school, she worked for four years at the Employees Retirement System of Texas, flying back and forth to Asia to invest in technology stocks and lead an initiative on improving Japanese corporate governance policy. Flavia is a builder and senior associate with BuildGroup. She handles due diligence by going through financials, contracts as well as products and technology to see what makes a company great.

Singer/Songwriter and climate/energy activist Lindsay Facknitz joins host Ellen Johnson-Fay to share how and why she added activism to the busy life of a mother of two young children. From January 2019 through August of 2020 Colorado Springs Utilities is developing a new Electric Integrated Resource Plan. Lindsay wants to mobilize citizens to let our utility know they want the coal-fired Martin Drake Power Plant closed as soon as possible, and to urge the municipal energy provider to adopt renewable power sources more quickly. They also discuss city council candidates who can be counted on to embrace these changes. Lindsay also shares a song she wrote about climate change.   LINKS: UPAC (Utilities Policy Advisory Committee) - Info and Meeting Schedule Energy Vision (Colorado Springs Utilities "Energy Vision" information, including April 18, 2019 Energy Vision) Green Cities Coalition Green Cities Coalition on Facebook Lindsay and Jeremy Music   MENTIONED: Pikes Peak Group of Sierra Club Leadership Pikes Peak  Dave Grossman (utilities UPAC liaison)  Beyond Coal info  This episode of Peak Environment is courtesy of the Green Cities Coalition, communicating the promise of embracing sustainable actions in our environment and with one another. We strive to collaborate in positive ways and create partnerships with other people and organizations inside and outside of the sustainability community. Ultimately, our goal is to celebrate with you the achievements of those who contribute to the preservation and health of our local natural and human environments. We invite you to Communicate, Collaborate and Celebrate all things sustainable with us! Join us at our next Green Drinks gathering, Thursday, March 28, 2019, 5:30-7:30 pm, at Peak to Plains, 4635 Town Center Dr, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80916. The following environment/sustainability organizations in the Pikes Peak region collaborate to produce the Peak Environment podcast about environmental stewardship, sustainable living and enlightened public policy in the Pikes Peak Region. Green Cities Coalition Peak Alliance for a Sustainable Future Pikes Peak Environmental Forum Pikes Peak Library District Green Team Pikes Peak Permaculture   Keep up with all the organizations and events making our area a better place to live. Subscribe (free) on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss an episode: 

Ordinarily, we would upload an interview at the end of a podcast episode. However, in this special two-part interview series with the Sierra Club, we talk about something that requires immediate action. In this second part, we interviewed the Florida Beyond Coal Organizer for the Sierra Club, Gonzalo Valdes about why TECO is planning on investing in fracked gas and what that means for us. TECO is considering raising electricity prices by 4 percent to pay for a billion-dollar investment in a fracked gas plant. In other words, our electric bills will go up to pay for something that will end up costing us more in the future! We have a chance to hold TECO accountable at a Fracked Gas Plant Hearing on Monday, March 11th @5PM at the Hilton Garden Inn in Riverview. We will be there and we hope you will join us. This is our chance to show them that we will not accept this. In the words of Mr. Valdes, "anybody who is a TECO rate payer or a Floridian that doesn't want to see our state go underwater" should be at this hearing.

The National Sierra Club was founded in San Francisco in 1892 by legendary naturalist John Muir, who helped create Yosemite National Park and helped save Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Glacier Bay, Kings Canyon, Muir Woods, and many other natural wonders as national parks. The Sierra Club is the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer-based environmental organization, with over 2 million members and supporters in 64 Chapters around the country. It has four primary environmental advocacy campaigns — Beyond Coal, Beyond Natural Gas, Beyond Oil, and Our Wild America — and sponsors more than 20,000 outings to our natural world in the U.S. and internationally. The Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club was founded in 1972 and comprises 26,000 members in 10 regional groups. It is governed by an Executive Committee of leaders from each group. Don Miles is the current chair of the Sierra Club Lehigh Valley Group.

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Ambassador Peter Ford, the former British Ambassador to Syria, and Ajamu Baraka, a longtime human rights activist, organizer, and political activist, and the 2016 Green Party nominee for Vice President of the United States. President Trump yesterday promised a “forceful response” to the alleged chemical attack in Syria, adding that the United States has an array of military options available to it. The President also said he would skip this week’s Latin American summit so that he could focus on Syria. Meanwhile, Russia called for a United Nations investigation of the chemical attack and warned the US that a military response against Syria would be met with “severe repercussions,” while members of Congress began beating the drums for military intervention in Syria.Tuesday’s weekly series continues, looking at the top economic issues of the day, focusing on Trump’s criticism of Amazon. A new report is out confirming that raising the minimum wage raises workers’ paychecks and doesn’t result in fewer people working. Financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey joins the show. FBI agents yesterday raided the offices of President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, apparently seeking any and all documents related to the payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, a former pornographic film star who allegedly had a relationship with the President. Brian and John speak with Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent who in 2002 was named Time Magazine person of the year along with two other whistleblowers. Yesterday was Black Monday for Russian oligarchs subject to the Trump Administration’s latest sanctions, with those on the sanctions list losing $16 billion in just one day. Russian stocks tumbled on both the Moscow and Hong Kong exchanges, and the ruble fell to its lowest level against the dollar in two years. Dimitri Babich, a journalist and commentator with Sputnik International, joins the show. The Puerto Rico Department of Education announced yesterday that it would close 283 school all over the island in response to a drastic drop in enrollment following the devastation last year of Hurricane Maria. The move would save Puerto Rico $303 million, but the island is $120 billion in debt. Camilo Punsoda, spokesperson for Juventud Trabajadora, the youth wing of the Working People’s Party of Puerto Rico, joins Brian and John. One of the top leaders of Colombia’s former rebel group, the FARC, was arrested today on drug charges at the request of the United States. Jesus Santrich, a peace negotiator, is charged in a federal court in New York with drug trafficking. But the arrest may deal a death blow to the Colombian peace process. James Jordan, a member of the Alliance for Global Justice who is currently on tour with the leader of Colombia’s largest farmworkers’ union, joins the show.A federal court ruled last week that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Civil Rights Act by delaying investigations into environmental discrimination complaints for years, and in some cases for decades, including complaints in Flint, Michigan. How can a state agency get away with extended racism for so long? Brian and John speak with Karen Monahan, a Senior Organizer with the Beyond Coal campaign for the Sierra Club in Minnesota who has provided racial equity and diversity training for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and served as the co-Chair of the Sierra Club North Star Chapter’s Diversity Council.

This year’s final episode of Follow the Data revisits Bloomberg Philanthropies first feature documentary, From the Ashes, directed by Michael Bonfiglio and distributed by National Geographic. Inspired by Mike Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ commitment to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, the film was developed to bring greater attention to the impact of the coal industry in the United States. Katherine Oliver speaks to two clean economy pioneers featured in the film: Mayor Dale Ross of Georgetown, Texas, and Brandon Dennison, Founder of Coalfield Development Corporation, based in West Virginia.

Susan Glickman was born in Tampa, Florida, and has been working to fight climate change since the 1990s. Here, she talks about trying to get Florida to change from fossil fuels to solar power—and about her secret identity. Learn more about her secret identity at http://www.cleanenergygirl.com/. The Land I Trust is a brand new audio storytelling project brought to you by the Sierra Club. In this series, we travel through the American South to talk with folks about the dirty energy projects that threaten their homes and the work they're doing to build a clean energy economy that allows all of our communities to thrive. Hear all of the first-person stories from The Land I Trust at http://www.sc.org/stories.

Welcome to The Land I Trust, a brand new audio storytelling project brought to you by the Sierra Club. In this series, we travel through the American South to talk with folks about the dirty energy projects that threaten their homes and the work they're doing to build a clean energy economy that allows all of our communities to thrive. These are stories that are going to surprise you, and inspire you, and might even change your life. From climate refugees to farming families, these Southerners generously sat down, walked, and canoed with us while sharing a slice of their home. So if you value land, water, people, or just appreciate a good story, come along with us for a journey through The Land I Trust. Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Beyond Coal Campaign at Sierra Club, introduces this Prologue episode of the series, which contains 10 personal stories and four full-length episodes. Please subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode.

How did 350.org come to Austin? Our Guests Bobbie and Gil give us the breakdown: An exploratory meeting held in our living room on October 11, 2016 was attended by about 40 people concerned about climate change who were interested in starting a local affiliate of 350.org. We became an official affiliate in November 2016. We have had several events since our launch (e.g., Austin Stands with Standing Rock, a Holiday Event and our first Open Meeting), the big event on February 9 2017 is our official Kick Off. Our guest on Shades of Green were: Bobbie Tsukahara: (soo-ka-hara) Clinical psychologist and co-founder of 350 Austin with husband, Gil Starkey. I made the decision to retire from my practice in order to devote myself full time to launching 350 Austin and to fighting against climate change. Gil Starkey: Co-founder of 350 Austin and am committed to bringing the principles, goals, and strategies of 350.org to Austin in the fight against climate change here at Ground Zero of the fossil fuel industry. Susan Lippman: Member of the 350 Austin founding organizing team, became active in 2014 with Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal team’s effort to retire the Fayette coal power plant, Co-Chair of the Wildflower [Unitarian-Universalist] Church’s climate action team, and also active with Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice team. Bob Hendricks: Member of the Core Team of 350 Austin, active in ATX Environmental Justice group of the Sierra Club, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and the Austin Climate Alliance as well as members of almost every other organization fighting global warming.

This is the second podcast (21.5 minutes) in our two-part series of interviews with Professor Daniel Kammen, Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy in the Goldman School of Public Policy... [...] The post Smart Villages Podcast 4 – Renewable energy & going “beyond coal”: A conversation with Daniel Kammen (21.5 minutes) appeared first on Smart Villages.

Viv curates more of the best from the Myuna Bay Conference Beyond Coal and Gas (April 2016) John Hepburn - The Sunrise Project Gadrian Hoosan - Booroloola Campaign against CSG in the Gulf Country Leigh Ewbank - Friends of the Earth "Yes to renewables" Campaign Wendy Farmer - Voices of the Valley - Repairing the damage of Morwell mine fires Drew Hutton - Lock the Gate Alliance on mine rehabilitation New alliances unite people against coal and gas. We hear about the challenges facing those who know there is no carbon budget it has to all stay in the ground.

In this episode, Viv travels to Myuna Bay, NSW, north of Sydney and south of Newcastle, to the Beyond Coal and Gas Conference.  Held over the 8th to 11th April the gathering was a coming together of communities across Australia in their opposition to coal and coal seam gas. The conference is an annual event that continues to grow each year in a reflection of the growth of the movement. Perhaps you can attend next year!Viv catches up with:Jessica Panegyros, Greenpeace forest campaigner, IndonesiaArif Fyanto, campaign against coal fire expansion into forests, IndonesiaRomesh AgrawalAunty Mabel QuakerwootJoseph Zane SikuluDon't forget to check out our BZE website.

In our first episode, we join a conversation between Bloomberg Philanthropies' environment program lead Antha Williams and the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal director Mary Anne Hitt as they discuss how our work with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign is working to end America’s reliance on coal and shifting the U.S. power sector to a cleaner future.

In this week's CKUA Green Energy Futures episode, we speak with Bruce Nilles, director of Beyond Coal, the Sierra Club campaign to end the use of coal-fired electricity. Full story: http://www.greenenergyfutures.ca/episode/beyond-coal-phaseout-alberta

Edition #940 Today we take a look at a the continuing drought conditions in California and a variety of plans of action to fight the emission of green house gasses   Be part of the show! Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Show Notes Ch. 1: Opening Theme: A Fond Farewell - From a Basement On the Hill 00:00:30 Ch. 2: Act 1: California's epic drought - @allinwithchris Hayes - Air Date: 7-13-15 Ch. 3: Song 1: Cylinder One - Chris Zabriskie 00:04:59 Ch. 4: Act 2: Reframing the CA drought away from climate change - CounterSpin (@FAIRmediawatch) - Air Date: 6-19-15 Ch. 5: Song 2: Drought - Steve Wynn 00:08:25 Ch. 6: Act 3: Actually, Solar and Wind Energy Would Work Just Fine - @davidpakmanshow - Air Date: 04-24-15 Ch. 7: Song 3: Windmill - Listen With Sarah 00:20:23 Ch. 8: Act 4:  Nuclear Power can be Safe... - @Thom_Hartmann - Air Date: 06-12-15 Ch. 9: Song 4: Nuclear Waste - Tought Darts! 00:25:04 Ch. 10: Act 5: The solar boom - @allinwithchris Hayes - Air Date: 7-10-15 Ch. 11: Song 5: All over the world - Boogie Belgique 00:30:41 Ch. 12: Act 6: The Vatican encyclical on the environment - @greennewsreport - Air Date: 6-18-15 Ch. 13: Song 6: Cetology - Ben McElroy 00:33:36 Ch. 14: Act 7:  I'm Not A Scientist - @onthemedia - Air Date: 6-19-15 Ch. 15: Song 7: Oklahoma (Finale) - Gordon MacRae, Charlotte Greenwood, James Whitmore, Shirley Jones & Jay Flippen 00:40:29 Ch. 16: Act 8: The BP settlement for the gulf oil spill - CounterSpin (@FAIRmediawatch) - Air Date: 7-10-15 Ch. 17: Song 8: Natural Disaster - D.A. Dad 00:43:36 Ch. 18: Act 9: Coal 101- What's Wrong with Coal? - @SierraClub - Air Date: 5-28-13 Ch. 19: Song 9: Shadow of a Coal Mine - Linda Draper 00:46:22 Ch. 20: Act 10: .@BeyondCoal via @SierraClub — Best of the Left Activism Ch. 21: Song 10: Activism - Shihan 00:49:42 Ch. 22: Act 11: Supreme Court EPA Ruling Is A Big Polluted Kiss To Conservatives - @theyoungturks - Air Date: 06-30-15 Voicemails 00:55:37 Ch. 23: What's the alternative to the coal industry? - Wade from Ft. Worth, TX Voicemail Music: Loud Pipes - Classics 00:57:25 Ch. 24: Final comments on what we need to do when the coal jobs disappear Closing Music: Here We Are - Everyone's in Everyone Activism: @BeyondCoal via @SierraClub Take Action: SIGN & SHARE: Speak Out For a Strong Clean Power Plan with the The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign Get involved in your state through Beyond Coal’s Take Action Page Sources/further reading: “United States Phases Out 200th Coal Plant As Momentum For Renewable Energy Grows” via The Sierra Club "Iowa Utility Will Phase Out Coal At 5 Plants, In Milestone For Sierra Club” by Kate Sheppard via Huffington Post Written by BOTL social media/activism director Katie Klabusich Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Check out the BotL iOS/Android App in the App Stores! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Review the show on iTunes and Stitcher!

So, the good news is that folks like Sierra Club's Beyond Coal are helping shut down hundreds of coal power plants, which are responsible for so much of the pollution and CO2. The bad news is that companies like Duke Energy in North Carolina are abandoning their plants along with coal ash pits of toxic sludge that is dangerous to water systems and the people who live near them. Another important Green Divas myEARHT360 report!

This week's show is loaded with inspiration. We talked again with Mary Anne Hitt from Seirra Club's Beyond Coal campaign and if you think people can't make a difference, listen to this interview! Speaking of listening, check out the Green Divas myEARTH360 report featuring Dayna Reggero, who launched the Climate Listening Project. Also Women's Voices for the Earth tell us about the dangers in the salon . . . so much more.

holy moly - excellent episode featuring interviews with Anna Jane Joyner and Mary Ann Hitt who were both in episode 4 of Years of Living Dangerously, the Preacher's Daugher episode. Anna Jane Joyner IS the preacher's daughter and Mary Ann Hitt is with Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign and they both talk about being on the series and getting to work with Ian Somerhalder . . . a lot of great segments in this GD episode, so please listen!

Michael Brune is executive director of the Sierra Club. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to more than two million supporters, and its Beyond Coal campaign has been recognized as one of the most effective in environmental history. Before joining the Sierra Club, he served as executive director of the Rainforest Action Network. He holds degrees in economics and finance from West Chester University in Pennsylvania. His critically acclaimed book, Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal, provides a detailed plan for building a green economy.

In the second of a two-part podcast, Mark Kresowik, eastern region deputy director for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, talks about the campaign's success, the benefits of political pressure versus analytical arguments in clean energy advocacy, and grassroots action in address climate change.

On this episode of Power Hour, Alex Epstein goes to Stanford University to debate Bruce Nilles, Senior Campaign Director for the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign. The subject of the debate is: “Should the government restrict fossil fuels?”

Big Green Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club Felicia Marcus, Western Director, Natural Resources Defense Council Karen Topakian, Board Chair, Greenpeace USA It would not seem a fruitful time to be on the frontlines in the fight to protect the environment in the United States, with the EPA under daily attack and climate legislation stalled. But the three environmental leaders participating in this Climate One panel note that many fronts exist outside of Washington, with at least one formidable adversary, utilities operating coal fired-power plants, forced to play defense. Until recently, says Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club, “every single conversation was about, Will we get 60 senators to pass comprehensive climate legislation – when that really represented just the tip of the iceberg, part of the conversation about climate change.” Brune and fellow panelists Felicia Marcus, Western Director, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Karen Topakian, Board Chair, Greenpeace USA, agree that D.C. politics will force environmental groups to play defense in the near term. They also stress that building grassroots support and presenting a positive vision of the future will be critical. “We’re trying to create a future in which we have clean energy, clean communities, and clean food. We have to deal not just with playing defense; we have to create a vision of the future that people are for,” says Marcus. Over the next three to five years, the Sierra Club will, as Brune puts it, focus on getting real and getting local. “It’s hard to motivate people around an issue where they get the moral imperative, but they don’t really understand what it is that you’re trying to do, and how your solutions will address the problems you’re identifying,” he says. For the Sierra Club, this means a return to its roots, a focus on the grassroots, says Brune, with the most visible manifestation of that effort its Beyond Coal campaign. Recently buttressed by a $50 million donation from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the campaign aims to force the retirement of one-third of the nation’s 600 coal-fired power plants over the next five years. Greenpeace likewise aims to retire old, dirty coal plants, says Karen Topakian. Its goal is 150 plants taken offline by 2015. “We’re making it tangible to people,” she says. “If you start talking about fuel in a way that’s abstract, people don’t get it.” “We are in alignment in fighting dirty fuels, and then creating an opening for clean fuels,” adds Felicia Marcus. “We’re at a place where we can use [clean energy] as a way to create and talk about a future that is at some level complex but at another much more clear to the average person.” For example, she says, NRDC is “doubling down” on an issue it has focused on for 30 years: “the very low-glamour, high-value issue of energy efficiency.” This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on September 28, 2011

Adetutu Ijose, (Bloomfield, NJ), author of, “Computer Usage Can Be a Serious Health Risk for Everyone.” Also, Mary Anne Hitt, MS (Shepherdstown, WV), the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, “Keeping our Vast Coal Reserves in the Ground.”