Issue Areas

SIERRA CLUB CALIFORNIA’S PRIORITY ISSUES FOR 2011

1. Fighting Global Warming, Generating Clean Energy and Stimulating Green Jobs

Sierra Club California is working with the Legislature, Governor, Public Utilities Commission and Air Resources Board to speed our state’s transition to a green economy that sustains both jobs and our atmosphere, by:

• Raising the Renewables Portfolio Standard to 33% or higher by 2020, with policy reforms to improve implementation.
• Enacting into law programs that allow smaller, local renewable energy projects to connect into the grid.
• Securing protections for California’s wild places, like the Mojave Desert, and for wildlife species, like the desert tortoise, in the process of siting and permitting renewable energy projects.

2. Safeguarding Our Water Supply

California’s current water policies are failing to provide our people, our economy, and our environment with adequate supplies of clean, affordable water.

Sierra Club California is seeking to:

• Ensure that any solution to Delta ecosystem and water supply issues includes a detailed evaluation of costs and benefits, no harm to upstream rivers and fisheries, and limits on when and how water will be conveyed through the Delta at different times of the year.
• Promote statewide water conservation and efficiency, including enacting into law requirements for water metering or sub-metering of new multi-family residences like apartment buildings and condominium towers.
• Build best management practices for urban water agencies.

3. Protecting CALIFORNIA’s COAST From Climate Change

Sierra Club’s California Coast Resilient Habitats Campaign seeks to minimize the loss of wild places and biodiversity due to climate change, and to build the capacity of our natural coastal systems to protect communities.

Our goals are to:

• Promote climate-smart management for public and private lands.
• Ensure that state and local coastal planning and regulatory bodies implement criteria for assessing and counteracting climate change effects in all their decision making on projects and activities.
• Fight non-climate stressors, such as habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, cumulative barriers to fish passage and inappropriate development in the coastal zone.
• Protect coastal ecosystems and large wild spaces, such as parks, refuges, and wilderness areas, and connect them via wildlife corridors.
• Restore and protect natural areas that are not in a wilderness state to provide buffer areas and round out the coastal climate refuge network.

4. Greening Our Transportation System

We have great opportunities to reduce oil dependence and pollution by:

• Adopting new Air Resources Board standards that reduce pollution from motor vehicles and require automakers to put electric vehicles on the road.
• Establishing ambitious and achievable strategies at the regional level, through the 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from driving.
• Investing in transit and mobility choices such as increased bus service, high speed rail, light rail, biking and walking, while ensuring safe roads for all.
• Creating livable communities that link transportation choices and affordable housing with schools, shops, and other amenities.
• Prioritizing the repair and maintenance of existing roads, bridges, and transit before building new highways.

5. Improving Recycling By Holding Manufacturers Accountable

Sierra Club supports Extended Producer Responsibility, which directs product brand-owning companies to provide and finance collection and recycling programs for consumer products and packaging, helping to reduce waste, minimize pollution and drive the sustainable use of materials.

In 2011 we will be working for:

• An effective implementation of the Mercury Thermostat Collection Act of 2008 by the Department of Toxic Substances Control; and
• Legislation to make the manufacturers of household batteries responsible for providing free and convenient recycling.