CLIMATE & CLEAN ENERGY SOLUTIONS

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tackling the climate crisis

2019 was a big year for clean energy. Despite rollbacks and resistance from the federal government, the Sierra Club’s state and local efforts helped shift the trajectory on climate change. US carbon emissions fell this past year thanks to shrinking coal use, spurred in large part by the work of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign (fiscally sponsored by the Sierra Club Foundation) over the past decade. In April, for the first time ever, our country generated more power from renewable energy than from coal. These shifts were made possible by the hard work of the Sierra Club’s local chapters, organizers, volunteers, partners, and allies, with sponsorship and funding support from the Sierra Club Foundation. 

As our reliance on coal nears an end, we are working to make sure it’s replaced by clean, renewable energy rather than fracked gas, one of the most dangerous drivers of climate change. We are fighting new facilities for gas extraction, processing, and export, as well as working to shrink demand on the consumer side.

ORGANIZING

supercharging clean energy

The Sierra Club worked utility by utility, city by city, and state by state to secure commitments to completely eliminate carbon from the electric, transportation, and building sectors by 2050. Thanks to grassroots organizing and coalition-building by the Ready for 100 campaign, today nearly one in three Americans lives in a state or community that has committed to transitioning to 100 percent clean energy. 

POLICY

stopping fracked gas in its tracks

In 2019, engagement in areas most threatened by fracked gas extraction, including Appalachia and the Southwest’s Permian Basin, deepened. In Washington State, the Sierra Club built grassroots opposition to two proposed gas facilities. In LA, campaigners worked with a diverse coalition to stop three proposed gas plants, redirecting their funding to clean energy projects. All over the country, staff and volunteers won new policies to replace polluting gas furnaces, water heaters, and stoves with modern electric appliances. Now, 23 cities and counting require clean all-electric construction for new buildings. 

IMPACT

ending coal 

pollution

By the end of 2019, the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign had helped secure commitments to retire a total of 299 coal plants—more than half the nation’s entire fleet. This year also brought two of our three biggest plant retirements to date—in Pennsylvania and Arizona—and our three largest coal units ever proposed for retirement, in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

PROGRESS

cleaning up transportation

The Sierra Club joined a number of states to file legal challenges against the Trump administration’s efforts to stall clean car and clean air regulations. The transportation team released a report exposing the auto industry for stifling sales of electric vehicles and launched a campaign to get ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft to clean up emissions. Meanwhile, the number of electric buses doubled, and the LA Unified School District became the first in the nation to commit to completely electrifying its bus fleet by 2040. 

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