Sierra Club's Power Lunch: An End To Fossil Fuels?

Sierra Magazine's cover story features a "power lunch" with energy executives and environmentalists to address national energy policy.

1 minute read

July 15, 2002, 12:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


The Sierra Club puts together a diverse energy task force to rival the recommendations of Vice President Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group last year: "We didn’t only talk to environmentalists. We also invited the head of a multinational oil company, a labor leader, an architect, a state policymaker, and a utility executive. And on a wintry day in San Francisco, beneath Ansel Adams photographs of blooming dogwoods and Yosemite Valley, we gathered (several joining by telephone) and talked about how we might get past the status quo to implement environmentally positive energy goals... All agreed, moreover, that the path ahead can and must lead beyond fossil fuels. Even BP’s Lord John Browne concurred—though he would not take the bait when the Earth Policy Institute’s Lester Brown asked him to finally declare what "BP" stood for these days. (His company had floated the idea in promotional material that the former British Petroleum was now going Beyond Petroleum.) 'BP stands for BP,' replied a good-natured Browne."

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