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