Delaware Sierra News
A Sierra Club N ewsletter about Environmental Matters Important to Delaware
Letter from the Delaware Chapter Chair
by David Keifer
irst, my “thank you” to the donors from the tradi-
F tional March letter program. Everything that has
been done and the things in the planning stages are
dependent on your support. Everyone on the ExCom
appreciates your responses to the questionnaires
enclosed with the donations. It provides us with data on
what you are interested in, and therefore, what you see
as issues that need addressing.
Global warming and energy are issues that are cur-
rently in vogue, as they should have been for years. The
question now is, will the resultant programs and actions
be solutions or gimmicks. Reportedly the largest pro-
ducer of ethanol uses coal to heat the stills. BP presses
forward to build Crown Landing while running TV
spots extolling wind power.
Sierra’s Cool Cities program gets to the point by
advocating sound land-use development. Members of
the Chapter are working to establish Cool Cities pro-
grams in Wilmington, Newark, and Dover. In Dover,
the local chapter of League of Women Voters has voted
to support our Chapter’s efforts in Kent County, spear-
headed by Ron Zink and Carol Reid-Grandfield. For
more info, http://www.sierraclub.org/energysummer/ ;
http://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/tenthings/ and
http://www.sierraclub.org/coolhome/ discuss the
National Sierra program. The latter two offer sugges-
tions for things you can do personally to improve the
situation.
In This Issue Sierra Club - Delaware Chapter
Letter from the Chair 1 100 West 10th Street, Suite 1107
Events, Outings, Volunteer Wilmington, DE 19801
Opportunities, Meetings Calendar 2 WILMINGTON, DE
Coast Day 2
Power House: Sustainable Living 3
Conservation Committee Comments 3
Southern Delaware Group Notes 4
Executive Committee Nominations
(State & SDG), Upcoming Elections 4
Employment Opportunity 4
Sierra Club Annual Meetings 5
Sierra Club Delaware Leadership 6
Fall 2004
March April May 2006
Long-term solutions to energy use involve long-term
changes in development patterns and styles, but they
are things that many have been advocating for other
reasons. If development is clustered in a planned fash-
ion, rather than spread randomly across the land, it
takes less energy for people to live there. It is not just a
matter of using energy to get folks to work and school.
It takes energy to provide and operate the infrastructure.
If houses are built 10 miles from shopping centers or 30
miles from jobs, it will take more energy to live,
whether the energy is from petroleum or corn or soy-
beans.
Also, bad development costs more. Generally in
Delaware, neither the builder nor the initial purchaser
pays, but in the long run the taxpayer does. The General
Assembly just appropriated bond money to fix
stormwater retention ponds in New Castle County, but
took no action to prevent the problem statewide. I am
not suggesting that the residents of the older develop-
ments in New Castle County should be flooded out, but
not treating the problem comprehensively will cost
more over time.
The Department of Transportation is so out of touch
with the problems created by sprawl that it is difficult to
conceive of a more dreadful situation. I refer not to the
financial mess, but to the apparent lack of provision for
the growth in demand associated with the rapid pace of
development in lower Delaware. Drive along Barrett’s
Continued on Page 5
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