After too many years of exasperation with the policies of the Federal government, environmentalists are again looking to Washington for wise protection of Mother Earth. As described below, President-Elect Obama has completed the assembly of the strongest team ever to address climate change and the energy crisis. These two dominant needs cut across a myriad environmental issues from valley filling in Appalachia to mercury in the oceans to the proliferation of nuclear waste world-wide. The hope is that no longer will states have to devote valuable resources to fight Washington over issues such as how much mercury should be allowed to leave the smoke stacks of coal-fired power plants.

What we will be focusing on in Pennsylvania in 2009 are the environmental impacts of our reliance of fossil fuels, fuels that are both dirty and expensive. So please excuse us if throughout 2009 you see a regular parade of articles and calls for action on mountain top removal, long-wall mining, water pollution from drilling the Marcellus shale, et cetera.

That may seem a rather harsh heading, but how else to describe the Bush Administration’s cynical issuing of about seventy Executive Orders to rescind environmental regulations before President-Elect Barack Obama takes office?

The Executive Orders run the gamut from wilderness issues at the Bureau of Land Management to easing lead emissions at the Environmental Protection Administration .

An example of regulation change is that affecting coal mine waste, as cited by The Wilderness Society:
“We expect the Bush administration to rescind a 1983 regulation adopted during the Reagan administration that protects streams from the dumping of wastes from coal strip mining. The current Office of Surface Mining rule prohibits wastes from coal mines from being deposited in streams. The Bush administration proposal would rescind this protection for streams, allowing for the further expansion of a coal mining technique known as “mountain-top removal,” where mining companies literally blow up the tops of mountains to reach coal seams and dispose of the waste rock in stream valleys.”

There is some hope for relief from this attack. An analysis at Congressional Quarterly explains how Congress may act to overturn some of these Executive Orders, if it moves fast enough and if the concerns of conservative Democrats can be satisfied.

In a good move for the local environmental community, Professor Emily Collins was recently appointed Supervising Attorney at the University of Pittsburgh’s Environmental Law Clinic.

With a Juris Doctor degree from Pace Law School, Prof. Collins was previously an Assistant Public Interest Counsel with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In that position she was lead counsel on a number of water and air quality permitting cases, including some related to coal-fired power plants.

Founded in 2000, the Clinic was previously engaged in issues as different as the Mon-Fayette Expressway and clear-cutting in the Allegheny National Forest under former Clinic director Tom Buchele. In a recent meeting with the Allegheny Group’s Executive Committee, Prof. Collins described her plans for the Clinic, with an emphasis on a new inter-disciplinary curriculum for the law students and graduate students and a cross-disciplinary approach to client work for the Clinic. Funded by a Heinz endowment, Prof Collins wants the Clinic to fulfill a need in the community for pro bono legal and technical assistance for environmental and community health issues.

Prof. Collins may be reached at 412-648-1300.

by Michael Sexauer and Jessica Romano

In July a group of about fifteen SC members were treated to a tour of
the Phipps Conservatory. Being truly impressed by the amazing “green”
renovations taking place at Phipps, it seemed appropriate to ask Michael
Sexauer and Jessica Romano to provide the following article.

As the Green Heart of Pittsburgh, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical
Gardens is taking a leadership role in sustainable buildings and practices
for public gardens throughout the world. The place where thousands stroll
to see changing plant shows is now a place that introduces the public to a
new world of green standards.

Phipps’ green efforts grew with our recent expansions. In 2005, Phipps
introduced the Welcome Center the first LEED-certified visitor center in a
public garden in the United States. LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) is the accepted standard of measurement for high
performance, eco-sensitive green buildings established by the United
States Green Building Council. Nestled into the earth, the Welcome
Center’s beautiful glass dome catches the eye, and what’s inside is a high
performance building that is both energy and water efficient.

The unique design of the Welcome Center allows for an enjoyable experience
for visitors while implementing important functions that maximize energy
savings. Here are some of the features that make the Welcome Center
eco-friendly:

• A green roof, established by setting the building into the ground,
  provides a heat sink that enhances efficient climate control.
• Vents in the glass dome help cool the building.
• Electricity is generated solely by wind power.
• A state-of-the-art computer program triggers heating of the sidewalks
  when snow or ice is detected, reducing the need for fossil-fueled
  snowplows and environmentally unsafe de-icing chemicals. This process uses
  waste-steam heat from the greenhouses.
• Laminated, insulated windows constrain glare and heat while allowing
  maximum daylight in.
• Other environmentally friendly features include waterless urinals and
  compostable drinking cups.

Phipps unveiled the Tropical Forest Conservatory in 2006. When designing
this building, our intentions were to bring a new, exotic space for
visitors to explore. What we hadn’t intended was for this 12,000 square
foot building to be the most energy efficient conservatory in the world,
which it is today.

Visitors to the Tropical Forest Conservatory will notice cascading
waterfalls, a treetop canopy walk, fragrant flora and exotic plants. They
may also notice the comfortable conditions inside. What they don’t see are
the many innovations that make this conservatory so energy-efficient:
- A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, the first ever used in a conservatory, produces
energy by turning natural gas into electricity. This reduces emissions and
minimizes the contribution to global warming.
- The radical roof design eliminates the use of enormous energy-consuming
exhaust fans, with a passive system to suck hot air out.
- Energy blankets prevent convective and radiant heat loss, providing
shade in the summer and thermal insulation in winter, all done by a
computer controlled system that is tied to a weather station.
- Earth tubes provide passive cooling by using earth 15 feet below grade
to cool the air. Hot outside air cools while traveling through the tubes,
and a vacuum created by hot air exiting the roof vents pulls the cool air
into the conservatory.

With the first two phases of our expansion complete, we move on to the
third and most elaborate phase: the construction of a living education,
research and administration center. This living building will generate its
own energy and renewable resources, capture and treat all of its water on
site, and use resources efficiently while achieving maximum beauty.

Phipps, the Green Heart of Pittsburgh, is dedicated to protecting our
global environment, and our efforts have only just begun.

by Renee Dolney

Each year, 540,000 women in the developing world die while pregnant or
giving birth. For every woman who dies while giving birth, another 20
survive, but struggle with crippling injuries. One of the most common and
devastating is a condition known as obstetric fistula.

Obstetric fistula occurs when prolonged labor causes a rupture between the
birth canal and either the rectum or the bladder, or both. It leaves a
woman incontinent, isolated and ashamed. Obstetric fistulas virtually
disappeared in the United States with the advent of the c-section in the
late 19th Century. It is easily preventable with access to emergency
obstetric care. It is also inexpensive to repair: the average surgery
costs about $300, and success rates run about 90%. The U.N. estimates
that over 2 million women world-wide are currently suffering from
obstetric fistulas.

We as human beings are deeply moved by these facts, but why should we as
environmentalists care? Because when a woman’s voice and health are
valued, she is better able to advocate on her own behalf for access to
education about reproductive health and family planning and for the
protection of the natural resources essential to her children’s survival.

The Sierra Club has partnered with One by One, a nonprofit organization
committed to ending fistula, to form the Green-Pink Alliance. The
Green-Pink Alliance recognizes that environmental progress is inextricably
linked to the status of women in the developing world. Advancing
sustainable development policies, alleviating the worst of poverty, and
supporting the trend toward slower population growth cannot happen without
interventions directed at those most affected by and most able to affect
environmental degradation and poverty at the local level: women.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has introduced legislation to set
aside federal monies solely to prevent and treat obstetric fistulas. H.R.
2114 is a non-partisan bill that avoids the controversies surrounding
other family planning funding by only allocating monies for the prevention
and treatment of obstetric fistula. Unfortunately, not a single
Pennsylvania Congressperson has signed on as a co-sponsor.

If you would like to get involved in the effort to fight obstetric
fistulas, and to help women in the developing world, please contact Renee
Dolney at reneedolney@yahoo.com, or 412-901-1614.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.sierraclub.org/population/greenpink/
http://www.fightfistula.org/
http://www.endfistula.org/

Earlier this year, the Pittsburgh Green Government Task Force, a group of
stakeholders including local non-profits, institutions, businesses, labor
representatives, and decision-makers, convened to develop a local
implementation plan to meet Pittsburgh’s commitment to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. Currently, the Task Force, of which Sierra Club is a
member, is working to analyze suggestions made during a series of
community meetings, and to build support for the plan.

by Peter Wray, Conservation Committee Co-Chair

Federal Energy Bill
At this time of writing, Congress is busy reconciling the Senate and House
versions of the 2007 Energy bill. The House version contains strong
measures for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and the
Senate version has a 35 mpg by 2020 auto fuel economy measure. If
Congress fails to pass an energy bill in 2007, it is possible that
Presidential electioneering will delay a bill until 2009. The Sierra Club
met recently with Rep. Mike Doyle and the local staff of Reps. Altmire and
Murtha, urging prompt action.

Climate Change Bill
While Congress wrestled with an energy bill that for the first time is not
written by the extractive industries, the Senate began serious
consideration of a climate change bill. On October 18 Senators Lieberman
and Warner introduced a bill that sets out a goal of reducing capped
emissions 15 percent by 2020 and 70 percent by 2050. To meet the
requirements set by the science of global warming, environmentalists hope
to improve the bill by reducing emissions two percent per year to a final
reduction of 80 pct by 2050. To learn more about Global Warming and
Energy, visit www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming.

Mon-Fayette Toll Road
At the moment it seems doubtful that the Turnpike Commission will be able
to find the more than three billion dollars it needs to extend the
Mon-Fayette Toll Road into Pittsburgh. However, we should never
underestimate the resourcefulness of the toll way’s supporters. That is
why we are carefully watching the current proposals to privatize the main
line of the Turnpike, and the tolling of I-80. Monies earned by such
moves are aimed at repairing existing roads and bridges, but there may
eventually be some fine print somewhere that allocates $$$ for the
Mon-Fayette.

Hays Woods
Present owner Chuck Betters has appealed DEP’s denial of his mining
permit. Until a decision is made on that appeal, all is quiet in Hays
Woods.

Liquid Coal in Clairton
A proposal for a coal-to-liquid plant in Clairton seems to be stalled.
The contract to use coal waste from Jefferson Hills as feedstock for the
plant has been rescinded, and the Allegheny County Council decided to hold
a public hearing before taking any action on a Coal-to-Liquid resolution.

Allegheny National Forest Wilderness
The U.S. Forest Service in March recommended a mere 13,000 additional
wilderness acres as part of their newly revised Forest Plan. The Sierra
Club recommends 54,460 acres as outlined in the Citizens’ Wilderness
Proposal for Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest (www.pawild.org).
The ball is now in Congress’ court. Please write to your U.S. Rep. to ask
them to support the full Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal legislatively. Also
send copies of your letter to Sens. Casey and Specter, and Governor
Rendell. For more information, contact Kirk Johnson at
kjohnson@pawild.org or 814-723-0620.

by Marilyn Skolnick, Transportation Chair

After months of concerted effort by the public, the state legislature passed what is now Act 44. This complicated piece of legislation lays out how transportation will be funded far into the future. After all the debating, one would think that the state legislature would have provided enough money to solve all the financial shortfalls for highways, bridges and transit. Well, it didn’t happen. The cuts in service will remain as a result. Unless Allegheny County provides the necessary match for the state allocation ($1 for every $3 from the state), we can look forward to more cuts in service. The County Executive has made it clear that he will not provide the local match from the general fund. In order to make it easier for the county to provide the match, they legislated permission for the county to levy two new taxes, one on liquor by the drink and/or a car rental tax. The County Council has to legislate permission to levy these taxes. So far, the Council has not done so [UPDATE: On December 4, County Council voted for both the drink tax and the car rental tax]. The public needs to make it clear that further cuts in service will create a serious catastrophe for the county (congestion on the highways, additional air pollution, workers
not being able to get to work).

by Marilyn Skolnick

Monroeville is one of the few municipalities that still has an extended
section of Interstate Route 376 (Parkway East) that is free of billboards.
The section runs from Penn Hills to exit 6 of the Turnpike. International
Outdoor Advertising, in the business of constructing billboards, noticed
this vacant stretch and approached the Monroeville Planning Commission
with a new addition to the existing zoning ordinance for billboards,
written to make it possible for them to line the interstate with the
largest billboards possible. The Monroeville residents attending the
Planning Commission and the Zoning Hearing Board politely objected to the
proposal. Both bodies rejected Outdoor’s proposed change. When the
proposal came to Monroeville Council, it was rejected also.

Because the municipal solicitor ruled it a zoning change, the company can
return as often as they wish, and they do return often. As a result of the
first refusal, they have returned to council every month, only to ask for
a tabling action at the last minute.

Sierra Club has over 50 members in Monroeville. The Sierra Club nationally
has had a position against billboards beginning in 1966, the year after
the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 was enacted. We, along with other
concerned residents, have appeared at each council meeting only to find
that the issue was tabled and council honored the request. We shall return
every time Outdoor returns.

by Arlene Mercurio

The term global warming may be too small to encompass the cascading
effects of too much carbon trapped in the atmosphere. Even climate
change has benign shades of acceptability. Yet those who have been paying
attention to the natural environment already see the links with droughts,
floods, violent storms, fires, the loss of arable land, shrinking water
supplies, crop failures, accelerated extinctions, weed invasions, the
spread of infectious diseases and displaced persons. What we may have not
yet considered is the increased potential for armed conflict as resources
shift and dwindle. Conflicts perpetrated over oil–a resource with viable
alternatives–may look like child’s play compared to the coming conflicts
over irreplaceable land and water, in a world with nuclear weapons and
ideological terrorism.

As if the unraveling of the planet’s natural systems wasn’t enough for us
to contemplate, this could be the ‘covers over the head’ conversation.
OR–it could be the defining moment in human history in which people
actually see that the path they are on leads to destruction and therefore,
must change dramatically. The ideal has become the imperative.

Here comes the really bad news: since you are reading this, you are among
the relatively few who are already awake and therefore, a self-selected
leader. (Sorry, it’s too late to throw this into the recycling bin.)
Here’s the good news: our ranks are growing daily and include the
visionary, strong, smart leaders who have been in the forefront of nuclear
arms elimination, like Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR).

PSR, along with other co-sponsors, including the Allegheny Group, are
holding a conference at the Pitt Law School entitled Securing Our
Survival: Meeting the Threats of Nuclear Weapons and Global Warming. The
dates are Friday, Oct. 12, 9:00 am-5:00 pm and Sat. Oct. 13, 9:00
am-noon. The conference is free. The goals are education, coalition
building, organizing and action. The opportunity is to arm yourself with
the understanding, the words and the fire to do your part. In all my years of
activism, I’ve never seen the general public and our political leaders
more willing to listen.

by Rachel Martin

In few places does “green” meet “blue” like it does in Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh is a city that prides itself on its strong and vibrant labor history, and, more and more, on its status as an emerging green leader.
Pittsburgh is the site of the founding conventions of the America
Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and of some of America’s biggest labor battles. It is also one of the top cities for green building activity, and has emerged as a national model for brownfield development. So what better place to launch an alliance that brings together two of the best things Pittsburgh has to offer – our strong labor base and our green consciousness.

The Pennsylvania Blue-Green Alliance is part of a national strategic
alliance between the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots-based environmental organization in the U.S., and the United Steelworkers, the
largest industrial union in North America.

The Blue-Green Alliance is founded on the principle that we can have good
jobs and a clean environment, that safe workplaces mean healthy
neighborhoods, and that in a carbon-constrained world, for jobs to be
economically sustainable they must be environmentally sustainable. In
sum, the Blue-Green Alliance is working for good jobs, a clean
environment, and a safer world.

The potential for this Alliance in our state is huge. In Pennsylvania,
the USW and Sierra Club have a combined membership of nearly 100,000 -
more than 70,000 Steelworkers and over 20,000 Sierra Club members. These
individuals are connected to more than 135,000 family members – extending
the reach of the USW and Sierra Club within Pennsylvania to more than a
quarter million.

The primary goals of the PA Blue-Green Alliance are to:

• Spur the development of green jobs by pushing for implementation of
  Energy Solutions Plans by Pennsylvania cities and counties signed on to
  the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and the Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration
• Create an informed network of key leaders, activists and members from
  Pennsylvania’s labor and environmental movements to guarantee maximum
  coordination and effectiveness in conveying our shared vision to the public and to administrative decision-makers.
• Build a leadership team across the state that can develop and implement
  local, regional and statewide policy campaigns on clean energy and jobs, clean cars and green chemistry.
• Involve the public through traditional grassroots organizing and
  education activities, using print materials, earned and paid media coverage, and engaging events

We’re planning a series of Blue-Green Alliance events for the fall. If
you’re interested in getting involved in this historic alliance, let us
know! Just give us a call at 412-802-6161 or send us an e-mail at
hillary.bright@sierraclub.org

For more information on the Blue-Green Alliance, visit
www.bluegreenalliance.org

Author: Peter Wray
In the next few years the City of Pittsburgh will be addressing important issues such as the implementation of global warming initiatives, as well as the development of Hays Woods and the riverfronts. To address such issues, we need leaders with vision.

In January the Club launched an electoral campaign to “Green Up Pittsburgh,” starting with the Mayoral race. We endorsed Councilman Bill Peduto, who subsequently withdrew from the May Primary election.

The second part of the “Green Up Pittsburgh” was directed at City Council, where we found two candidates making strong bids to unseat incumbents.

In the District 3 race (South Oakland and Southside) we have endorsed Bruce Kraus. In March 2006 Bruce narrowly lost to Jeff Koch in a crowded field, but now faces Koch head-to-head.

A small-business owner long active in community affairs, Bruce is sensitive to the need to balance development with environmental protection.

Patrick Dowd is the Club’s endorsed candidate in District 7 (Lawrenceville and Highland Park). Patrick is currently a city School Board member, and will be a strong advocate for the environment on City Council.

We urge Club members throughout the city to support the election of these two worthwhile candidates on May 16.

Author: Arlene Mercurio
In a recent radio interview, Robert Kennedy, Jr. said that people should stop congratulating themselves on recycling, thinking that they are doing their part to preserve the natural world. “Join environmental organizations, get informed, get involved and make your collective voices heard,” he exhorted.

Yet even those of us who already take this wisdom to heart can become overwhelmed with the relentless pleas to write, call, click, attend, rally, etc. Hoping to facilitate the activism that really is necessary, we are attempting to re-institute an effort managed by Sam Hayes years ago. During the social time, following the monthly Allegheny Group meetings, paper, pens, envelopes, addresses, postage and talking points will be provided for letter writing on a pertinent issue. Therefore, making the effort to attend a meeting will offer an easy opportunity to make a difference in addition to edification and networking with those similarly concerned.

Help is being solicited to select and research issues, and to organize the effort at a meeting now and then. Many hands make light work, and multiple inputs foster a wider variety of topics. In addition to occasional meeting attendance, only email and phone communications should be necessary. Contact Arlene Mercurio to get involved: 724-335-2980 or songbird538@verizon.net.

As majority chairman of the PA House Transportation Committee, Rep. Joseph Markosek wants the public to have a more inclusive role in transportation issues affecting the state. That’s why he has developed a website as an informational clearinghouse about the potential lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and other transportation-related public-private partnerships.

Markosek said he will post information, both pro and con, he receives as chairman of the Transportation Committee on the issue of leasing the turnpike, private-public partnerships and other revenue-generating initiatives, such as tolling additional state highways.

“If we are to move forward in this process, we must do so with full disclosure. The most important question we must ask ourselves is, ‘What is the best deal for you–the taxpayer?’ I hope the public will be an active partner with me in pursuing an answer to this question.”

View the website at: www.pahouse.com/yourturnpike

Rep. Markosek is waiting to hear from you. Please don’t disappoint him! Let me hear all of your ideas about how to solve the transportation crisis.

–Marilyn Skolnick, Transportation Chair

Author: Bill Kozorra
We regret to inform you that Nick Broskovich, a long-time member of Sierra Club Allegheny Group, passed away on March 30, 2007. We are thankful for the numerous Sierra Club outings he led over the years. Nick led hikes, kayak, bike, and X-country ski trips. On the hikes, he taught us about the plants, animals, and flowers as he had a keen passion and knowledge of nature. Nick shared his great love for cross-country skiing and took many of us to Laurel Ridge X-country ski center for our first time on skis. He encouraged us to get in shape with his conditioning hikes at Duff Park. He took beginner kayakers under his wing. Nick strongly supported our concern for the environment. He was generous in helping others to enjoy outdoor activities. He will be greatly missed.