I have learned
that an acquaintance of mine, the
dedicated environmentalist and
long-time member of the Sierra
Club, Frank Morris, is running as
a petition candidate for the national
Sierra Club Board of Directors
for 2011. I am delighted
as I know that Frank would add
much needed energy and vision to
the work of the BoD. He is running as a
petition candidate for the
national board, because he is
concerned with the direction of
the national Sierra Club,
including the following facts:
1. Sierra Club’s
former leader Carl Pope has
publicly supported the “Picken’s
Plan”. T Boone Pickens is an oil
and natural gas billionaire, who
in 2004 undermined the Sierra
Club’s endorsed Presidential
candidate John Kerry by funding
the Swift Boat Campaign. The
Picken’s Plan is a pro-gas (fossil
fuel) plan.
2. In one of his
first public acts as new Sierra
Club director, Michael Brune was
on Cramer’s Mad Money advocating
the purchase of natural gas
stocks. Exxon Mobil recently
purchased leading natural gas
provider XTO energy. Does Mr.
Brune now advocate owning Exxon
Mobil as an environmental
investment?
3. National Sierra
Club Staffers and national board
members, clearly and definitively,
“advised “ NYS Sierrans against
legislatively advocating for a ban
on “Fracking” for natural gas in
NYS. Fracking is a process,
presently absolved from multiple
federal environmental statutes
including the Clean Air and Clean
Water acts, where in chemically
infused sand and water is used to
“frack” or break, shale stone and
release natural gas.
4. Sierra Club is
now in the products endorsement
business, and has sold its
endorsement to Clorox and Coca
Cola to support their “green”
products.
Frank Morris
believes that innovative financing
like PACE bonds, and a truly
renewable energy infrastructure
based on sun, wind, wave,
efficiency, conservation, smart
grid, back up battery power, and
geothermal are available now, but
these breakthroughs are being
obfuscated by the club’s decision
to support natural gas as an open
ended “transition” fuel.
Morris needs to
collect 250 signatures from active
Sierrans (petition attached). While
the national board is always elected
by the membership, there is a
nominating committee that nominates
members that play nice… That’s why
Morris has to petition to allow
members a real choice when elections
are held early next year.
There are 3 ways
for Sierrans to complete this
petition:
Print, Sign, and
snail mail to Frank Morris, 40 Exchange
Place Suite 2010 NY NY 10005
Sign, print and
fax to 1 206 984 4328
Frank is presently
a member of the NYS (Atlantic
Chapter) Sierra Club Executive
Committee, and former Chairperson
of Long Island Sierra Club
2007-2009.
Please forward to
other Sierrans that may be
interested in supporting a
grassroots, petition candidate
beholden only to the interests of
the club membership.
Robert Jereski
New York City Sierra
Club member