The Sierra Club—at 120 years old one of the oldest and most trusted environmental groups in the U.S.—has admitted that from 2007 to 2010 it accepted donations totaling $25 million from the natural gas industry, mostly from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, whose website calls it “America’s Champion of Natural Gas.” Longtime Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope made appearances with McClendon to promote natural gas without revealing the donations.

 

At the time, the Sierra Club advocated the increased use of natural gas to replace coal in generating electricity, as burning gas creates much less greenhouse gas and particulate emissions, and coal ash has contaminated water in at least 21 states. The only way to get enough gas to replace coal is by the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which powerful pumps force pressurized fluid into deep layers of rock, causing fractures, which allow the extraction of otherwise unavailable natural gas. The problem is that fracking can also contaminate water supplies with various toxic substances, such as methane, benzene, lead, phthalate, nitrate, etc.

 

As the dangers of fracking became more evident, and local Sierra Club chapters joined the fight against fracking, the national organization realized its relationship with Chesapeake, a leading fracker, had to be ended. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, who took over in early 2010, says the organization walked away from an additional $30 million in promised donations. Since that time, the Sierra Club has backed away from its support for natural gas, and has become increasingly critical of fracking.

-Matt Bewig

 

How the Sierra Club Took Millions From the Natural Gas Industry—and Why They Stopped (by Bryan Walsh, Time Magazine)

Coal Waste Contaminates Water in 21 States (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)