Sierra Club California’s 2009 Lobby Day was a smashing success! Dedicated volunteers from around the state travelled to Sacramento to urge their legislators to ramp up clean energy requirements and preserve our state parks.
On August 23, participants gathered in the Capitol for briefings on how to lobby on the four bills we focused on this year – SB 14 (Simitian) and AB 64 (Krekorian), both of which would require electric utilities to get 33% of their power from clean, renewable sources by 2020, and SB 372 (Kehoe) and SB 679 (Wolk), both of which would establish public processes to protect parks from inappropriate uses.
On August 24, the volunteer lobbyists kept a busy schedule of meetings with legislators and their staff, letting them know that their constituents support greening our electrical grid and protecting parks. Our participants reported very positive results from their meetings, with many saying they were impressed by how interested the legislators were in what Sierra Club California has to say.
Midway through the day, Sierra Club California presented our Byron Sher Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements in environmental protection by California public officials. This year’s honorees are Senator Fran Pavley and Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols (ARB Legislative Director Rob Oglesby accepted the award on Nichols’ behalf). We honored Senator Pavley and Chair Nichols for their path-breaking work in passing and implementing California’s major laws to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Senator Pavley addressed the very appreciative activist group.
It did not take long for our Lobby Day to bear fruit; on August 27 the Assembly Appropriations Committee passed SB 14 and SB 679, so they join SB 372 on the Assembly floor, and Senate Appropriations approved AB 64, which now moves to the Senate floor.
The Sierra Club California staff thanks everyone who participated in this year’s Lobby Day, and we hope to see you again next year.
