On Thursday, May 20, the Sierra Club will be hosting a special benefit event for “Hands Across the Sand”. Join us 6-8pm at Croc’s 19th Street Bistro in Virginia Beach. Tickets are $30/single and $50/couple. Click here to RSVP and pay at the door or purchase online.

Proceeds from this benefit reception will help us promote HANDS ACROSS THE SAND, a protest rally against Virginia offshore drilling. On Sat., June 26, starting at 11am, join Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, and Oceana in lining up along the shoreline along the Virginia Beach Oceanfront between 19th and 31st Streets and lock hands for 15 minutes in protest to offshore drilling. For more information and to sign up, go to HandsAcrossTheSand.com.

Sierra Club’s York River Group and Hampton Roads Cool Communities Coalition invite you to attend a Climate Change Forum on Wednesday, May 19, 7:00 to 8:30pm at Sandy Bottom Nature Park, 1255 Big Bethel Road, Hampton, VA. (map)

This forum will discuss what our local communities are doing to reduce carbon emissions, and create more resilient communities, transitioning us toward a more sustainable world.

Forum panelists will include representatives from: Hampton, Gloucester, James City County, New Kent County, Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, York County, and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.

Providing information on the Virginia Municipal League’s Go Green Government Challenge is Denise Thompson, Manager of Environmental Protection Programs in the City of Norfolk.

Contacts: Randie Trestrail, randiesue@gmail.com, 757-868-7044 or Tyla Matteson, tmatteson1@mindspring.com, 804-275-6476.

(Crossposted at Blue Virginia.)

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA06) is proposing a bill, the “Virginia Access to Energy Act” (H.R. 4942), that forces Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to conduct Virginia Lease Sale 220 within a year of the bill’s passage. “The ‘Virginia Access to Energy Act’ will remove the regulatory hurdles that have impeded development and create a path for Virginia to become ‘the Energy Capital of the East Coast’”, Goodlatte said.

“Impeding development” is the fact that the science potentially supporting Virginia’s offshore drilling is 30 years out of date. A thorough environmental study cannot not be performed in time for a 2011 lease sale.

Revealed at a Department of Interior workshop in Williamsburg in December 2008, large data gaps exist when it comes to endangered and protected species, fish and fisheries, the biology of the ocean floor, the ecosystems found in Virginia’s offshore ocean canyons and coral reefs, as well as the physical and geological oceanography.

Off Virginia’s coast, there have been sightings of sea turtles, right whales, humpback whales, and sperm whales - all of which are classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Dolphins, porpoises, pilot whales and beaked whales which are all protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act have also been sighted in what is Virginia’s lease sale area. Due to a lack of consistent survey effort throughout the region, seasonal distribution patterns and abundance patterns for all these species are not well known. Also, no surveys for birds have been conducted in the region. There is limited information regarding the ecosystems of the Norfolk and Washington Canyons as they tend to be spatially diverse, complex and difficult to study.

Especially for oil spill risk analysis, current and wind information has been deemed a high priority data gap. The presence of several deep water canyons within the Virginia lease sale area complicates the physical and geological setting. There is limited understanding of the effect of internal tides and waves and their mixing with currents at the shelf break and canyon heads.

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by Tyla Matteson, Chapter Political Chair and York River Group Chair

The York River Group has held candidate forums for 20 years, in Hampton and Newport News, and have enjoyed great success with them. Our local political work provides the candidates with information on issues related to the protection of our natural resources. The forums afford SC members and the general public an opportunity to hear from the candidates, with an opening and a closing statement, and answer questions from the public.

On occasion, there is an issue of significant importance or controversy, such as the proposed King William Reservoir, which not only brings out the pros and cons, but also gets media attention for the issue and for the Sierra Club.

In addition to forums, we also send a questionnaire to all candidates, asking questions on land use and protection, air quality protection, water & wetland protection, addressing climate change, sea level rise, encouraging their city governments and citizens to turn to alternative energy such as solar and wind power, and encouraging recycling programs. The questions are specific to the areas, depending whether the candidates are in Hampton, Newport News, or on occasion Williamsburg.

The questionnaire responses, forum and public statements, and if applicable, voting records, are evaluated by the two appropriate committees, for a possible SC endorsement. Following any endorsement, SC members are encouraged to assist in the candidate’s campaigns, with the goal to elect another friend to the environment.

Forum for Newport News Mayor and City Council Candidates
Date: 6:45-8:45 p.m. Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Location: Newport News Main Street Library, 110 Main Street
Contact: Tyla Matteson 804-275-6476 or Ann Moore 757-722-9785

Forum for Hampton City Council Candidates
Date: 7:00-9:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Location: Sandy Bottom Nature Center, 1255 Big Bethel Rd., Hampton
Contact: Tyla Matteson 804-275-6476 or Ann Moore 757-722-9785

This week, Sierra Club and the U.S. Green Building Council activists are kicking-off public tours of green buildings to highlight the local economic and environmental benefits of energy-efficient, sustainable buildings.

One tour stop is in our own neighborhood. On Tuesday, March 16 from 12 to 2pm at the Ernie Morgan Environmental Action Center, we will highlight the local economic and environmental benefits of an energy-efficient and sustainable building. Come learn more about solar energy, eco-gardens and sustainability. Refreshments will be served. $2 suggested donation. Contact Christy Fisher 520-730-9708 or Judy Hinch 757-816-8989 for more info.

Ernie Morgan Environmental Action Center is located at 3500 Granby St. near the Virginia Zoo at Lafayette Park.

Just yesterday (March 3), Interior Secretary Ken Salazar again reiterated his concerns for drilling off Virginia’s coast in 2011. For E&E Daily (only available online with subscription):

The offshore proposal will also address whether to move forward with a lease sale planned for 2011 off Virginia, Salazar said. He added that gathering more information about resources off the Atlantic Coast “is important to do because we have no recent information — it’s 30 years old, and it’s very hard to make decisions without having that information.”

He also said yesterday he would unveil a comprehensive offshore oil and gas drilling plan by the end of this month.

So far over 1,000 Virginians have emailed Sec. Salazar or signed our petition urging him to stop the rush to drill Virginia. Please join us! Click here to send Sec. Salazar an email TODAY!

What’s at risk and what are the risks should offshore drilling be expanded to Virginia? Join us as we go deep-sea diving for the answers.

Presenters: Eileen Levandoski, Sierra Club; J.R. Tolbert, Environment Virginia; Dr. Carl Hobbs, Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)

For more info and to RSVP, call 757-277-8537.

As world leaders gather in Copenhagen to negotiate a new global climate agreement, 350.org is hosting candlelight vigils around the world, with several such vigils taking place in Virginia.

Folks in Southside Hampton Roads will gather starting at 6:30 on Friday, December 11 at the Unitarian Church of Norfolk, 739 Yarmouth Street on the Hague. Speakers include ODU Professor and scholar David Burdige, Department of Ocean Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. For more information, contact Rev. Phyllis L. Hubbell, 410-916-1793, phubbell@uuma.org.

Click here to RSVP. Other Vigils for Survival include Newport News, Williamsburg, and Blacksburg.

“The fact is, these things happen”, said Louisiana’s Sen. Mary Landrieu, amazingly trying to dismiss the overwhelming risks associated with offshore drilling. Standing in front of a large poster of the flaming Australian oil platform at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week, she even went as far as to accuse drilling opponents of lying and scare-mongering!

“All we did was testify about real things that have really happened, to make the point that despite advances in technology, mistakes are still made and accidents still happen - and with offshore oil production, the consequences still can be severe”, writes Sky Truth’s John Amos who was invited to testify on several significant oil spill incidents they’ve investigated over the past few years.

These investigations include “the recent Montara platform blowout and spill in the Timor Sea off Western Australia; this summer’s spill in the Gulf of Mexico from the Eugene Island Pipeline operated by Shell; and the spills from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Ike in 2008, that exposed the Achilles heel of offshore production: the vulnerability and severe spill risk posed by the coastal infrastructure - especially pipelines and storage facilities - that is necessary to support offshore drilling.”

Sky Truth was also commissioned to produce the image depicting the Australian oil spill off Virginia’s coast. Click here to view image.

As an LTE in today’s Virginian-Pilot points out (not online yet - see below the fold), politicians hinge their support of offshore drilling on its capacities to be done in an environmentally safe manner. The Australian spill especially shoots that pro-drilling argument to hell. The truth hurts and thus the knee-jerk reaction of people like Sen. Landrieu saying basically “shit happens”.

Why in the world do we want shit to happen off our Virginia coasts?

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