Charge the Power Companies!
Did you know you can help solve our energy needs and reduce your power bill by selling electricity back to the grid? Well, in some states you can. But not so much in North Carolina, which received a failing grade for policies discouraging individuals and small business participation in solving our energy needs.
That could be about to change. Next week, the NC Utilities Commission will hold public hearings on the state's so-called “net metering policies” - one in Raleigh, one in Charlotte. For more info, click here.
Wanna go?
Charlotte meeting | October 2 | 7:00pm
Mecklenburg County Courthouse [google map link]
Courtroom 6350, 832 4th St
Raleigh meeting | September 30 | 7:00pm
Dobbs Building [google map link]
Commission Hearing Room 2115, 430 N. Salisbury St.
Please email Mike Spradlin in the Chapter office if you plan to attend. With our friends over at the NC Sustainable Energy Association, we'll provide you with talking points and background info.
Public lands advocate to be recognized: Bill Thomas
Former chair of the NC Chapter and a leader of the Pisgah Group, Bill Thomas will be awarded Wild South’s 2008 Roosevelt-Ashe Society Conservation Award for Outstanding Leader. The award recognizes Bill’s exceptional leadership, integrity, and commitment to environmental conservation at the grassroots level.
Over the past 20 years, Bill has led the fight to acquire over 10,000 acres of public lands in western North Carolina. Bill has been especially devoted to the protection of the Horsepasture River, helping to secure Wild and Scenic designation. In the 1980’s, Bill formed the Friends of Horsepasture to prevent a diversion of the Horsepasture from its natural river bed through turbines to generate electrical power. Today, the Horsepasture, with its waterfalls, remains one of the most popular natural areas.
More recently, Bill also played a pivotal role in bringing the wild and rugged Jocassee Gorges, now a state park, into public ownership. Bill authored a guide, still much in demand, to this magnificent tract. And, Bill was again a key leader and organizer in the fight to put the much loved Dupont State forest—now also a state park—into the public’s hands.
Ed Harrison, a Chapel Hill town council member and a long-term environmental activist recalls Bill’s account of how he became an activist. Bill put it this way: After word got around that he was organizing on a hot issue involving wilderness in and around Transylvania County, he started getting more phone calls than he’d ever gotten in his life. And, “if you’re a responsible person, you return those calls, and then you get more calls…”
Clean up 'America's Most Endangered River'
Join the Central Piedmont Group in its upcoming event to restore health to Mountain Island Lake and the Catawba River. On Saturday, October 4, the Central Piedmont Group will participate in the nationwide event, “Big Sweep”. Sierra Club volunteers, their friends and supporters will clean up the trails along McDowell Creek, a degraded tributary to the Catawba and on the islands in Mountain Island Lake itself.
This event is part of the Central Piedmont Group’s Mountain Island Lake project. Sign up for the October 4 Big Sweep.
Sierra Club partners in the Mountain Island Lake project include Central Piedmont Community College, American Forests, and Mecklenburg County. And join the groups on Saturday, November 22, to plant several hundred trees to filter pollution and create a contiguous buffer around the lake.
In April 2008, American Rivers designated the Catawba River 'America’s most endangered river.'
Outings
Sat, Oct 4 Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful Big Sweep (Foothills)
Help keep Forsyth County's lakes, streams and waterways during the annual Big Sweep Waterway Cleanup. Volunteers are needed from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Supplies and refreshments provided for all.
Fri, Oct 17 - Sun, 19 Hog Camp Gap Car Camping, Amherst, VA (Piedmont Plateau)
Car-camp in a meadow -- not a developed campground - at the base of Pompey & Cole/Cold Mts west of Amherst, Va. The meadow, cleared in the early 1800's for grazing, is a terrific spot for star-gazing, sunrises and sunsets.
Fri, Oct 24 - Sun, 26 Nantahala National Forest Work Trip - Trail Maintenance (Capital Group)
We will be doing light duty trail maintenance on London Bald and Old Road Gap Trails out of Appletree Campground. These trails are some of the more remote and less used trails in southwestern N. C. Nothing will be technical--just some small blow-downs, brush cutting and vine cutting.
Note: Orange-Chatham Group outings leader Peter Calingaert is leading Sierra Club outings to central Turkey in June 2009, northern Peru in August 2009, and northern India in November 2009. Check out the national outings page or contact Peter at (919) 933-5489.
In the News
Speakers: Air quality in WNC is poor Blueridgenow.com Sep 22, 2008
At the Four Seasons Sierra Club meeting held Thursday night at Kaplan Auditorium in the Henderson County Public Library, three speakers shared their views on air quality, both indoors and outdoors.
Titan holds first of three workshops Lumina News Sep 18, 2008
The Coastal Federation, in conjunction with the Sierra Club, Cape Fear River Watch and StopTitan.org, held an alternative public workshop in the CFCC library on Tuesday.
Use Environment to Teach Charlotte Observer Sep 14, 2008
Opinion piece by Josh Thomas, chair of the Sierra Club Central Piedmont executive committee and an executive with Topics Education, a Charlotte-based communications firm.
Can't wait for our next issue? Check out the NC SIERRA CLUB BLOG for conservation links, green tips, volunteer insights, and local and regional news relevant to all our members and supporters.