Sierra Club lobbyists advocate for a common cause

It was a rare day at Missouri’s Capitol, as a nonpartisan group handed out fliers and spoke with legislators on a topic that all humans share: the earth.

“We support the environment,” said Michael Berg, organizer for the Sierra Club, when asked if the group was aligned with a political party.

Although everyone shares the earth in common, its use is not a topic on which its inhabitants can agree.

Wednesday was the Sierra Club’s fourth lobbying day during this legislative session, in which it expressed members’ concerns on some pieces of legislation they believe would harm the environment.

“The goal of today is to present our perspective on legislation concerning the environment and to make sure legislators understand our position and what they can do to protect our environment on various issues and to convince them to do the right thing,” Berg said.

Sierra Club’s lobbying group embodied various backgrounds. Younger and older generations came together to advocate for their shared home.

Matt Heskamp, 22, represents the younger generation of the Sierra Club. Heskamp is a senior social work major at St. Louis University and has been an intern with the Sierra Club for two months. This was his second lobby day.

The environment was not always a passion for Heskamp, but he said his time at the Sierra Club has made him more knowledgeable about the club’s issues.

“I’ve always been interested in progressing on social ideas,” Heskamp said. “The Sierra Club was an opportunity that was available that I could agree with in a lot of ways.”

Mike Diel, 62, is a veteran Sierra Club member and has been with the group for more than 20 years. He said he’s attended a couple dozen lobbying days.

“The environment and what we’re doing with it,” Diel answered when asked why he joined the Sierra Club. “We only have one world to live on, and we’re treating it like a garbage can.”

The two men teamed up and combined their different levels of expertise to speak with legislators about the club’s stance on various bills in the Legislature.

The club opposed Senate Bill 858 and House Bill 2543 based on a belief the bills would inhibit the Clean Power Plan, which places federal standards on carbon emissions from existing power plants that generate electricity, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Neither of the bills have left the Senate or House, respectively.

Senate Bill 1028 and House Bill 2816 are also on the club’s opposition list, as it believes the bills would increase utility companies’ hold on ratepayers and not create renewable energy sources. These bills have also not left their respective legislative sides.

One of the more controversial bills the club opposes is House Bill 2187, which would require the DNR to sell back land bought for a state park in Oregon County. The money used to buy the park is from the largest environmental bankruptcy in U.S. history. Missouri won more than $20 million in the American Smelting and Refining Oil Company (ASARCO) settlement to clean up areas of the Lead Belt contaminated by lead mining.

The DNR used money from the ASARCO settlement to buy 4,200 acres of land for a state park in Oregon County, which is not considered part of the lead mining area.

The Sierra Club opposes House Bill 2187 because it would prevent Missouri from creating a new state park and said the money used to make the park would not come from remediation funds for the lead contaminated areas.

“This park is not taking money, not hurting people who were damaged by lead,” Berg said. “We want full compensation for victims of lead poisoning. We want full cleanup. We do not advocate any money being taken away from cleanup efforts. … (Passing the bill) would create a legal nightmare for the state and logistical difficulty, and we’d lose out on a state park. Passing this bill is a lose, lose. Keeping this park is a win, win.”

Rep. Robert Ross, R-Yukon, is the bill’s sponsor and disagrees with the Sierra Club’s stance.

Ross said he stands by the fact the ASARCO settlement money was only intended to be used for remediation in the lead-affected areas, and the state irresponsibly used the funds to buy land for a state park.

“This whole narrative that I’m going to attack the state park system or that I don’t like our state parks is completely false. As an elected official, I’ve got a responsibility for the accountability of what is going on within these state agencies. I have to look out for the way the taxpayer dollars are spent, and at the end of the day … those are taxpayer dollars. And I absolutely have the responsibility to make sure that those are used in a proper manner,” Ross said. “I just don’t think that this money has been used in a proper manner.”

House Bill 2187 has been passed by the House and passed by the Senate Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee. It is currently on the Senate’s calendar.

After a day full of shaking hands and speaking with legislators, the Sierra Club debriefed on its efforts to sway votes. However, ultimately, Berg said it’s hard to determine the group’s effectiveness.

“All these bills are coming up, and people in this Capitol knew where we stood and got the argument, got the information, and I think it’s important (that) people come representing the environment,” Berg said. “It’s very difficult to know, especially before the votes, how effective we are. But I believe that the culmination of what we’ve been doing with these things throughout the year and our communications with legislators, through email, through telephone, through letters, does help to protect our environment and to push this Legislature in the right direction.”