SIERRA CLUB
Newsletter
Serving Hardin, Orange, Jasper, Jefferson, Newton and Tyler Counties
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ExCom Meets at Time Warner Media Sales Office at 5:30 PM. Sierra Club members are welcome to attend.
Date: TUESDAY, May 6, 2008
Time: 6:30 P.M.
NOTE Change of Location for May ONLY:
Time Warner Cable Media Sales Office, 2825 IH 10 E, suite 101, next door to KLVI and Channel 6 Studios.
The office is located ‘On the Curve’ of IH 10 access road between Harrison & 11th St. Parking available in front and in the rear adjacent to Louisiana St.
PRESENTER: Ann Drumm
Ann is the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter Energy Chair, and will speak on Sierra Club’s "Cool Cities" Campaign. She will bring news of
successful campaigns in Texas. Ann is the past Chair of the Dallas Regional Group, Sierra Club.
Pizza & Drinks will be provided.
To help minimize
expenses to the local Group, the Membership Chair, Kathryn Walker,
554-0203, ktwalker@gt.rr.com,
continuously updates the
mailing list. If you are receiving a USPS
mail version and would accept an electronic version, please contact
Mrs. Walker.
VISIT
OUR WEB
SITES
and the
Trail Between The Lakes: http://www.lshtclub.com/trail_between_the_lakes
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Lunch with the Chair
Do you want to get involved but not sure which local Sierra Club project fits your schedule and interest? Let's have lunch and talk. The time commitment is one hour or less, and the date and place can be arranged. Contact Bruce Walker at 554-0203 or bwalker@gt.rr.com. Let’s do lunch!
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All outings are open to both members and non-members.
For outing information, call the Outing Leader. Some outings have sign-up sheets to determine interest or to make reservations.
FMI = For More Information
Botanical Garden Tour: Please respond by April 23rd
The tour is a walking tour of the formal Botanical Gardens approximately a mile long and requiring about an hour and a half. A knowledgeable guide will provide both historical and botanical information.
Outpost Tour
A short walk will take us to board our pontoon boat for a tour of Adams Bayou and the Cypress/Tupelo Swamp. We will have an opportunity to see many birds, fish, reptiles and other wildlife. 26 people per boat with a guide and driver (three boats available). The trip will last one hour and a half.
Schedule:
9:00 Arrive by car in the Lutcher Theatre for free parking. We will be picked up by a
“Yellow School Bus” for a free ride to Shangri La.
9:30 Garden Tour
11:30 Lunch – Boxed Lunch:
12:30 Outpost Tour
1:30 Tour any of the following on your own: Garden Store, Exhibit Hall, Green Houses
2:00 Back to Lutcher Theatre and your Car
Day of Tours: charge $8.00
Lunches will be picked up outside of the Star & Crescent Moon Café and we will have the option to enjoy our lunch at tables in the courtyard area or at Tree Ring Plaza at the northern edge of Rudy Lake. Tree Ring Plaza offers us an opportunity to sit at the edge of the lake on benches and view birds, alligators, turtles, etc. while having lunch, but no tables are available at this location. Additional water, soft drinks, coffee and snacks are available for purchase at the café. No food or drink can be brought in from outside.
Box Lunch charge as listed below and including fork, spoon & napkin:
$12.00/Person + Tax (8.25%) = $12.99
Total for Tours and Lunch: $20.99
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Club on Croissant Bag of Chips Cup of Fruit Package of Cookies Bottle of Water
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Chicken Salad on Croissant Bag of Chips Cup of Fruit Package of Cookies Bottle of Water
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Main Street Salad -A bed of baby Field Greens topped with Feta, Parmesan, bacon, grilled chicken, cherry tomatoes, candied walnuts and our homemade Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette. Cup of Fruit/Bottle of Water
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Please mail your reservation to: Anne Nelson, 720 20th St., Beaumont, TX 77706. Make your checks payable to Anne Nelson and in remarks show Shangri La tour. Or you may call Anne at 409-832-4934 to make your reservation and pay on the day of the tour. Or e-mail Anne at : asnelson@gt.rr.com and pay on the day of the tour.
May 10 - Trail Between the Lakes trail maintenance day.
May
24-26 - BTV – Memorial Day
Sabine River Float .
State Park in Northeast Texas. More info later.
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We also learned about Sierra Club resources that are offered to local groups and discussed the changing Sierra Club policies and structure.
Now we need to focus on our own shared goals and group propose. We need to ask ourselves: "Who do we serve? Why does this group exist? Why does it matter?" Please share your thoughts with me. Your input will be appreciated.
Bruce
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(Excerpts from a message from Austin Nijhuis of the Gulf Restoration Network.)
A word of praise must be given to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, which met on March 27 to propose a cap on the Menhaden
fishery in Texas Gulf waters. The tiny menhaden, also known as pogies, play an essential role in the Gulf food chain.
Caught using a highly destructive method called "purse seining," the oily menhaden are ground up for animal feed. The estimated unintended
by-catch from the fishery is a eye-popping 10 million pounds in the Gulf of Mexico, primarily important to marine wildlife like sharks, tarpon,
redfish and spotted sea trout -- a lot of highly valuable sport fish. The Parks and Wildlife Commission's original proposal to cap the
industry at the most recent five-year average would prevent additional harm caused by future expansion. But environmental groups and fishing
groups and businesses called on the commission to go further, claiming that the current annual 10 million pounds of unwanted dead organisms
(threatened and endangered species included) is still an unacceptable byproduct of this fishery.
Advocates for greater environmental and economic sustainability called for a stronger cap and increased research. The commission is interested
in looking into an on-board observer program to monitor by-catch. This is a good step. However, with more and more threats to our Gulf's health,
action is an absolute necessity.
We must urge the commission to make long term decisions based on safeguarding the health of our fisheries and our Gulf and enforce
stricter regulations in Texas and work toward a Gulf-wide strategy for menhaden.
McCain: Holiday for Big Oil?
Gas prices are skyrocketing -- and so are Big Oil's profits. In fact, the country's five largest oil companies made a record-breaking $123 billion just
last year -- billions more than they were making just a year ago. (1)
So what's Senator John McCain's solution? Raise oil company profits by another 18 cents per gallon -- by eliminating the federal gas tax without guaranteeing that Big Oil won't just keep prices high and take the difference to grow their record profits even more. (2)
That's the same old outdated politics of the past.
If John McCain really wants to put money back in our pockets, he needs to take it out of Big Oil's. That means voting to cut their subsidies and using
that money to help build the clean energy economy.
Senator McCain is not alone. Republican Senators like Mitch McConnell, Pete Domenici and others are blocking efforts to take back billions in taxpayer-funded giveaways to Big Oil in order to invest in clean, renewable energy.
The way to deal with high gas prices is to cut, not expand, giveaways to Big Oil. Shifting to clean, renewable energy will help grow our economy,
create over 820,000 new jobs and fight global warming. (3)
(1) Center for American Progress, Report on Big Oil's Profits
(2) "McCain Calls for Summer Holiday from Gas Tax", Boston Globe,
April 16, 2008
(3) Blue-Green Alliance Study on Clean Energy Jobs
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Join the Golden Triangle Cool Cities Campaign!
Getting More Golden Triangle Cities on Board
The Golden Triangle Sierra Club is getting more cities on board the Cool Cities train! We're asking mayors of cities all over the area to sign the
U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and make a commitment to address global warming by making their cities more energy-efficient.
This is a great opportunity for new volunteers as well as veteran activists. The goal is well defined and the time commitment is limited.
Come join our existing Beaumont team or help form a new team to lobby your own city's mayor. No previous experience is necessary. We'll teach
you everything you need to know.
Come To the Training!
DATE: Tuesday, May 6
TIME: Free dinner at 6:30, meeting starts at 7:00
PLACE: Time Warner Cable Media Sales (Bruce Walker’s office) 2825 IH-10, Suite 101.
The office is located "On the Curve" on the Interstate 10 access road between Harrison Street and 11th Street.
Parking is available in front and in the rear adjacent
to Louisiana Street. The office is two doors down from KFDM-TV & next door to Clear Channel Radio.
RSVP/INFO: Bruce Walker, 409-924-3154, bruce.walker@twcable.com
Please let us know you're coming so we have enough food and training materials!
Let's make every Golden Triangle town a Cool City!
www.coolcities.us
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LET'S TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT NUCLEAR POWER ( Quoting Patrick Moore, one of the cofounders of Greenpeace, who sailed into
the Aleutian Islands on that organization's inaugural mission in 1971, to protest U.S. nuclear tests taking place there. From an article in the
April 21, 2008 Newsweek edition)
"Other than hydroelectric energy - which I also strongly support - nuclear is the only technology besides fossil fuel available as a large-scale continuous
power source, -- one you can rely on to be running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Wind and solar are intermittent and thus unreliable. How can you
run hospitals and factories and schools on an electricity supply that disappears for three or four days at a time? Wind can play a minor role -- because you
can turn the fossil fuels off when the wind is blowing.. And solar -- the cost is so high -- it's ridiculous.
Where the massive government subsidies are is in wind and solar. France, which produces 80 percent of its electricity with nuclear, does not have high
energy costs. Sweden with 50 percent -- nuclear and 50 percent with hydro, has very reasonable energy costs.
Gas costs three times as much as nuclear, at least. Wind costs five times as much, and solar costs 10 times as much.
As is now planned, I'd establish a recycling industry for nuclear fuel, which reduces the amount of waste to less than 10 percent of what it would be without recycling. -- 50 percent of the nuclear energy being produced in the U.S. is now coming from dismantled Russian nuclear warheads.
There are hundreds of nuclear plants on the drawing boards around the world. Unfortunately, the environmental movement is the primary obstacle here.
If it weren't for their opposition to nuclear energy, there would be a lot fewer coal-fired power plants in the United States and other parts of the world today."