Sierra Club

Latest Articles

Will the next Keystone fight happen in New England?

Dirty business
We may have narrowly avoided Keystone XL (for now), but local environmental activists say that Maine and New England are not safe from "the dirtiest oil on earth," with a huge Canadian oil company seeking other routes to pump crude oil out of Alberta.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | February 08, 2012

Deval's Green Blues

Long supported by the state's environmental organizations, Governor Patrick has started a war with them over biomass
The document in question contains the final regulations for the state's biomass subsidies, and according to environmentalists, the Patrick administration is planning to reverse its pre-election position — and fly in the face of good science — for the benefit of a handful of developers who stand to make money off of burning trees for energy.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 31, 2011

Faltering steps forward

Going Green
As in many other sectors, the green world in 2009 was marked as much by bluster as by tangible positive action.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 22, 2009

Youth to power

Going Green
Bates College junior Robert Friedman will be missing a couple weeks of class in December.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 24, 2009

Are progressives winning on the Web?

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, the panel discussion series at Providence art space AS220, continues its fall run with a chat about the state of community organizing.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | October 07, 2009

The Year in Green

Going Green
I don't know whether it was the sky-high gas prices or what, but Portland sure caught an eco-bug in 2008.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 23, 2008

Maine task force to seek offshore power

Energy in the drink
A new Ocean Energy Task Force, created by Governor John Baldacci last week, is charged in part with investigating the realities of drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Maine.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 12, 2008

Letters to the Portland editor: October 31, 2008

Get creative
We have several great colleges and universities in this area graduating hundreds of highly educated professionals each year. However, we continuously fail to retain these talented young people because we don’t have jobs to keep them here.
By | October 29, 2008

A field guide to activism in Rhode Island

Issues + organizing = real-world experience
If you’re interested in becoming an agent of change, identify a cause close to your heart and connect with one of the groups working on it.
By MEGHAN GRADY | August 28, 2008

The ProJo opposes plastic bag use — but it uses plastic bags

Environment
In April, the Providence Journal strongly endorsed reducing use of plastic bags, but the newspaper continues to use more than 100,000 plastic bags a day.
By STEVEN STYCOS | August 20, 2008

Flavors of entanglement

Politics and other mistakes
Dear S. Donald Sussman: Please send me a million bucks.
By AL DIAMON | June 25, 2008

Remembrance of things crap

Millions of tourists walk the freedom trail each summer, bringing home ridiculous pieces of our proud city’s history
Boston’s historic Freedom Trail gift shops are, clearly, the manifestation of our confusing, conflicted, amusing past.
By MEG MUCKENHOUPT | June 11, 2008

Sierra Club under fire from coastal activists

Conservation
Two coastal advocacy organizations are accusing the Sierra Club of backing down from its position as a protector of Sears Island, a large, uninhabited island off Maine’s Down East coast.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 04, 2008

Happy Earth Day!

Going green
What follows is a tilt-a-whirl ride through my green-saturated brain.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 16, 2008

A win-wind situation

Renewable energy’s promise is a bright spot amid the state’s deficit gloom
It’s a pretty rare day when lobbyists, environmentalists, and labor officials are all happy about supporting the same legislation.
By IAN DONNIS | March 26, 2008

Up Plum Creek without a paddle

Enviro tactics
A company official has admitted that perhaps his firm should have thought more, and earlier, about environmentalism.
By YANNI PEARY | November 28, 2007

Jockular plus

New England is the home of past and future champions
Phillipe + Jorge have been absolutely giddy, as we have gone crazy about the World Series’ success of the Olde Towne Team.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | October 31, 2007

Get-together seeks answers on improved transit

Local motion
Angeles drivers aren’t the only ones who can’t give up their dependence on cars.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | October 17, 2007

Environmentally yours

Two new takes on global warming
Environmental interest groups, Shellenberger and Nordhaus claimed, simply don’t dream big enough to address the multifaceted monster that is global warming.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 24, 2007

Sierra Club brings environmental mixer to

Got Beer?
The Rhode Island chapter of the Sierra Club is bringing an appealing combination to Providence.
By IAN DONNIS | August 29, 2007

State House steel cage match

Carcieri and the legislature square off during a time of meager revenue
Governor Carcieri certainly revealed his flair for the dramatic when he unleashed his proposal last week to ax 1000 state employees.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | June 13, 2007

Editors' picks: City life

Best uses for dead trees, best old-fashioned spoken word, best place to realize you have no game, and more
Spogga, Figments, Teamworks, and more.
By PROVIDENCE PHOENIX STAFF | January 25, 2010

Rocky stars

Clinton, Obama, and the people who really make or break Presidential dreams in the Granite State
Hillary narrowly won the opening round of New Hampshire presidential campaigning this week.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | February 14, 2007

Does peace have a chance?

The anti-war movement faces its biggest challenge yet — politics
Four weeks after Democrats rode a wave of anti-war discontent to gain control of the US House and Senate, only four protestors show up to the weekly “Bridges for Peace” demonstration on the Casco Bay Bridge.
By SARA DONNELLY | December 27, 2006

Blown away

Jean Hay Bright’s fight to topple a political icon
Jean Hay Bright tried once before to run against US Senator Olympia Snowe. Snowe's tracks: How moderate is Maine's senior senator?
By SARA DONNELLY | October 18, 2006

The road to November

Two big questions highlight the run-up to RI’s general elections
For all the unusual drama of Lincoln Chafee and Stephen P. Laffey’s GOP Senate primary gunfight, it was politics as usual that helped Chafee to score what many considered an unexpectedly decisive win.
By IAN DONNIS | September 20, 2006

Africans suffer while the world stands by

Despite the efforts of student activists, it’s hard to get Americans to care about death, rape, and disease in Sudan
Raised on a steady diet of “Never Again,” members of Brown University’s Darfur Action Network found it infuriating to watch the international community stand idly by as murder and rape in Darfur continued unabated.
By ALEXANDER PROVAN | June 07, 2006

Local Motion

Car-sharing creeps into Providence
While proponents of communal bikes have long extolled the virtue of sharing an easy set of wheels, Zipcar has applied the concept — for a cost — to the automotive age.
By TE-PING CHEN | January 18, 2006

Sticking it to political reformers

Power play gives State House Democrats control of 'nonpartisan' activist group
State House Dems don't get mad, they get even.
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 12, 2006