HomeMy WebLinkAbout121825 - Director’s Notes_ From Loren Blackford_ December 2025ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
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Dear John,
As I reflect on this year, I feel incredibly inspired and hopeful. Despite facing down some of the most significant and sweeping challenges our work has ever confronted, I am so heartened
by how the Sierra Club community rises to each and every challenge, over and over again. It gives me great pride to share with you this reflection on what we have achieved together
this year, as well as my deep appreciation for your unwavering support.
In 2025, the current administration has waged nonstop attacks on our lands, waters, and bedrock environmental laws, and has emboldened the fossil fuel industry. Nevertheless, as detailed
below, we have scored amazing wins. We have continued to close coal plants – even as the administration fights to keep some open past their slated retirement dates. We are setting a
new standard in sustainable finance and showing the world what responsible investing looks like in the age of climate disasters. And we’re scoring major clean energy and conservation
wins at the state and local levels, from community solar projects and local electrification initiatives to stopping pipelines and protecting parks, coastlines, and wildlife. None of
this would be possible without your support.
As we enter 2026, we are preparing to expand our impact and build even more grassroots power. We are excited to share more about that with you in the future, but we want to take a moment
here to celebrate this year’s impressive victories, including several from just this month. These wins, and our collective impact, are the result of close strategic collaboration between
our campaign teams, chapters, organizers, attorneys, communicators, and volunteers – once again demonstrating that together we are powerful, and collectively, we can deliver meaningful
and lasting change.
I invite you to take a few minutes to read, watch, enjoy, and take pride in the year-end updates in this newsletter, which reflect the impact of your investment this year. Sierra Club’s
accomplishments are only possible because of supporters like you. Thank you for your continued trust in us and your meaningful support.
All of us at the Sierra Club wish you the happiest and healthiest of new years.
Loren Blackford
Sierra Club Executive Director
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SPOTLIGHT: Sierra Club Campaigns Year in Review
Here are some rundowns from a few of our major campaigns recapping what we accomplished this year, together:
* In 2025, Trump Tried to Give Away Our Public Lands – People-Powered Conservation Stopped Him >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f816290b9c6683f67020ee960e0268d4c453f9414d022
e2718c70fa00027edce49d939c0369b6ae91104794adfddc963f>
* Beyond Coal 2025: Fighting for an Affordable, Renewable, Zero-Emission Future >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617fe70a0763988a0e373e5d1f06063a5e88fc74dbd3ed4f41a9138857f9bc9
d5576447908d8f0b1d7566475fbfb8ff31ee2>
* Beyond Dirty Fuels 2025 in Review: Finding Ways to Win Despite Steep Odds >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617ff0702af6371434c1f6c9a5708579c38ac8ebf436dd9aa2ed4b0e9eb6a9be350
0740b166c3b0661d66b918842bbc9b380>
* 2025 in Review: Sustainable Finance Campaign Advances Investor Action on Climate Change >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f34566369620029c2fd64860b238c0671bdb866adf263f0c21
b9f1565288cd1329b9f64d74d70aa8b9471a713629ae872>
* 2025 in Review: Outdoors For All Campaign Protects Public Land Stewards, Connects Thousands of Kids and Veterans to Nature >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f3b2a7d8c883556
9c8e463398f0f2f3b115fd386f8ff5145f89432259c009f8d94d12551653db7e42c6e1d567861edc2f>
* Charging Forward: Our Fight for Clean Transportation in 2025 >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617ffbb4617c97e9a3f0f0a3cf3d42ffb5a4ed45378078613f078b71b34378cbe88d40a9bfabaf71
8ade5c8ddba226ca1128>
* Clean Heat (formerly known as Building Electrification): Our Fight for Clean Homes & Affordable Energy in 2025 >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f7a1c23347e39a1015196dc2956
c262c579bc08353da69ceede7a44ad4db5a418e906df47c131cd520f8f1ac0f9510052>
* Our Top Environmental Victories of 2025 >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617fa3145b09f4a9eab62aee9b31c843f5d1d2d304367582587945c2008457eb3779a5a09c2ca1de195de96e0fa73f69c019>
Other Highlights:
Check out our end-of-year videos about our work to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and our National Parks!
<https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f6107937dc678f2c6af7ad91567bdea063cda5bdf6d7674b8bad037a4490c00d2d79f061b7c978633b484e0b3abc67030>
The Arctic Refuge is sacred. Here’s how we’re defending it. >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617fa1f49434c1ef853684856205a19282f3ce79c442321539b69f11a94c0e8d11cd748be4c33ce3258
3b0717ec0145ad4ec>
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For the Love of Our Parks: A Call to Protect Public Lands >> <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f7404c440e022fd091d3c925911e4f69abb855f8cc7efb569c5da83b25df41781f6c511798b2760a41
e30b883c1e81f0c>
More big wins just this month to cap off the year!
* Federal, state, and local officials in Virginia and North Carolina deny Transco’s massive Southeast Supply Enhancement Project! This is the result of more than a year of Sierra Club-led
grassroots and grasstops organizing. In just the last six months, our broad, bipartisan coalition helped secure four local resolutions of concern or opposition – including flipping
Davidson County from supporting the pipeline to urging permit denials – and spurred state legislators to publicly press regulators to reject SSEP. This victory protects frontline communities,
critical habitat for America’s tiniest turtle <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f73f074e5a4d80697c2cec311f454299971821d9afc4ab0609d9e6dfbdc2d375d24bc468f26d6c81d3ecfde3e0e6b5ce
4> , and builds on momentum from a new governor’s executive order and energy task force that now includes Sierra Club staff and our campaign goals.
*
Huge sustainable finance win in NYC: New York City’s Comptroller sent a powerful signal to Wall Street by recommending that the city shift $42 billion away from BlackRock <https://click.emails.sierr
aclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f2fb1d4cdced5b936bebc8733b176eb4aac30929690f9584d60fce380df6d62b686e528ea63487913c4ee50f2b3ec1b33> over its weak net-zero strategy and by unveiling strict
new climate criteria for all asset managers; if pension trustees adopt the plan, it would be one of the largest US pension reallocations ever driven by climate concerns. This move is
part of growing momentum among asset owners worldwide: the Sierra Club Foundation had already moved funds out of BlackRock’s management <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f01f94
23b54c4e92c585786f233f0d921e0ba22381d77d98a62ba0ad13f2709a7d452cdf9868c8da8ee4067e936638996> , and major pension funds in the UK and Europe have redirected tens of billions away from
firms that won’t confront climate risk. We are now working with local partners and pension beneficiaries to urge NYC’s trustees to follow through and choose financial partners that
take climate threats seriously.
*
And we continue to score major wins for clean energy!
* A federal judge ruled <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617f539f29c97a699d223428ce3010f510fe542b549294801c663af15ab0d6c555f47653a9bd5e63a48b21e919e1ac8d6a94> that
Trump's Day-One executive order halting wind energy permitting and leasing was unlawful, and vacated the order. This came just days after another federal judge ruled the Trump administration
could not withdraw approval of the construction and operations permits granted to US Wind for Maryland's offshore wind project <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617fabfea7aa0344e6
8559bd8993a09c0e7bfc9d8b43920511d5d421de550be05213edc9c9e5cb25e39b7b9be8980026a45c> .
* Utility-scale solar and storage project gets a big boost in Arizona: On December 3, after Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter and our Beyond Coal team led intensive community outreach
with partners like Greenlight America, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to approve <https://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=96dbb32f91a6617fec0db4a3f366d5dc4357f49cc4a6ed6e6b3d9291d7a
57c81535e62b52c1a0be27782cee2f6458ad6a2771d0693de26f7> the 270-megawatt Cactus Flower Solar + Storage Project, paired with 270 megawatts of battery storage. This hard-fought win clears
the project’s biggest permitting hurdle and will bring construction jobs, reliable power, and development that protects land and water.
* In Northwest Arkansas, we built a full-scale grassroots campaign from scratch around the Flint Creek coal plant, growing local power through new volunteers, community partnerships,
hundreds of public comments, and statewide media coverage. That surge of people power turned a routine rate case hearing into a two-hour public reckoning over coal and affordability,
positioning us to push the Public Service Commission to reject coal upgrade costs and keep escalating pressure in the months ahead.
Thank you for your ongoing support! Have questions or feedback? Please reach out to me any time at loren.blackford@sierraclub.org.
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