|
Home > Newsletter Home > TOC > Article
by Paul Wilson |
2006
Lots going on around the country and in West Virginia: energy issues, Chapter Exec. Committee election and more...
This issue of your Mountain State Sierran includes a report on this year’s Council of Club Leaders (CCL) meeting that was held in September in San Francisco. This year’s report is written by Vice-Chair Regina Hendrix who attended as the Chapter Delegate.
That was because I was named to the Nominating Committee (the “NomComm”) for the national Board of Directors (BoD) 2007 Election. We were busy recruiting and interviewing candidates for the 2007 BoD Election, so I had little time for the duties of representing the Chapter at the CCL meeting.
But as with all Sierra Club tasks, duties and committees, this one was a learning experience for me. While I am sworn to secrecy on who we interviewed and who said what about whom, I will say that one interviewee said something noteworthy about the current issue of Global Warming: “we cannot wait for the perfect solution while something bad is happening.”
That comment made me think about the Chapter Executive Committee’s decision on the Beech Ridge Wind Energy project. We have received some terse comments on the letter we submitted to the Public Service Commission, but we also received congratulatory comments from a few Sierra Club Board members, the Club’s Conservation Director Bruce Hamilton, and the Club’s Executive Director Carl Pope. We also received some “thank you’s” from the Kentucky Chapter and some coalfield community groups in both West Virginia and Kentucky.
If you saw the ABC World News report during the last week of September, you know that the effects of Global Warming will increase rapidly in about 50 years. (This is based on the billions of tons of carbon in the atmosphere and the 6 billion tons we add each year and the “tipping point” for catastrophic climate change, ~1000 billion tons.) While we support wind power, with conditions, we are also fighting to stop new coal-fired power plants, like the Co-generation Power Plant in Greenbrier County.
Lastly, let me reiterate comments from previous columns: it is the job of the elected Chapter leaders to set chapter policies and positions, per Chapter Bylaws and national Club policies and rules. The elected Chapter “Excomm” members are the only members that have fiduciary responsibilities. Other Chapter entities (committees, coalitions etc.) do not have said responsibilities and do not have any veto rights.
I feel the Chapter Executive Committee has an obligation to discuss and communicate the issues which I have urged “excomm” members to do via our Chapter website and newsletter, as well as at Executive Committee meetings. Like the BoD, we have annual elections at the Chapter level and this is the place where any member can make a difference. Jim Kotcon is heading up the Nominating Committee for this year’s election, so please contact him if you wish to run.
 Be well, do good work, and keep in touch. Paul Wilson
|
