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Sierra Club's In-District Lobbying Program

Sierra Club's "in-district" meetings provide you the opportunity to get to know your state lawmakers. In-District meetings of 3 to 10 participants are great settings to discuss the environmental issues that you care about with your Representative and Senator. Meetings take place close to home ("in the district"), in locations like coffee shops or libraries. Experienced, volunteer District Leaders coordinate and lead meetings, or you can simply visit your legislator's office hours individually. Agendas and meeting materials are available by clicking the links on the right. The topics that we are focusing on this summer (and info to get you up to speed) is below.

Before visiting a legislator's office hours or setting up an in-district meeting, please contact Chapter Organizer, Mike Berkowitz at (517) 484-2372 or mike.berkowitz@sierraclub.org. If you need anything, feel free to contact Mike Berkowitz or Lydia Fischer, Legislative Chair at lydfisch@mindspring.com or (734) 994-3582.

TOPICS and MATERIALS for Summer 2011 IN-DISTRICT MEETINGS:

Hydrofracking -  a process used to extract natural gas that has major environmental side effects. Our goal is to get either the Governor or the State Legislature to delay all fracking projects until there are better regulations in place.

• Position Statement on Hydraulic Fracturing - use this to get familiar with the topic, our stance on the issue, our proposed solution. Make sure to leave a copy of this with your legislator.
• Fracking Music Video - a fun and easy way to get familiar with hydrofracking

Energy Efficiency - a process that decrease the demand for energy in Michigan, which helps us be less dependent on oil and coal. Our goal is to convince legislators to increase Michigan's energy efficiency standard from 1% to 2%.

• Talking Points - this is an outline of what you should discuss with your lawmakers.
• Position Statement - Make sure to leave a copy of this with your legislator. This gives a short summary of our stance on the issue for legislators.
• Article on the success of EE - Feel free to give a copy of this with your legislator to show them that EE works.

Offshore Wind Energy - this utilizes the wind potential of Michigan's Great Lakes to capture wind energy. This will greatly reduce our dependence on oil and coal! Our goal is to convince legislators to pass a regulator framework for Offshore Wind projects, so that the Department of Environmental Quality can regulate this process.

• Talking Points - this is an outline of what you should discuss with your lawmakers.
• Position Statement - Make sure to leave a copy of this with your legislator. This gives a short summary of our stance on the issue for legislators.
• Arguments and Answers - This document provides answers to common arguements you might hear from legislators.
• GLOW Council Executive Summary - the legislation we are talking about was developed through a bi-partisan commission called the GLOW Council. This is the Executive Summary of their recommendations in 2010.

General Sierra Club Priorities - this document has a list and short description of each of our legislative priorities. Feel free to talk to legislators about any of these topics, and to give them a copy of this document.

If you need any other materials or resources or wish to talk to legislators about any other topics,  please contact Chapter Organizer, Mike Berkowitz at mike.berkowitz@sierraclub.org or (517) 484-2372.