Name: Lindsey Fechtel Date: December 11 Per: 3
Interest Group Project ~ AP US Government & Politics ~ Mr. Tumino
Complete a grid for your interest group.
Name of Interest Group: Sierra ClubMailing address
National Headquarters
85 Second Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
Legislative Office
50 F Street, NW, Eighth Floor
Washington, DC 20001 / Website address
http://www.sierraclub.org/ / Phone number to contact
National Headquarters
Phone: 415-977-5500
Legislative Office
Phone: 202-547-1141
Summarize the group’s purpose.
Sierra Club strives “to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth”, as stated in its mission statement. The club focuses on four main campaigns: “Beyond Coal”, which aims to harmful eliminate coal-burning power plants; “Beyond Oil”, which focuses on reducing the negative impacts of oil consumption; “Beyond Natural Gas”, which tries to discourage destructive drilling for natural gas; and “Our Wild America”, which concentrates on preserving America’s wildlands. / In what ways does the group try to influence the policy process? (Money, Grassroots and/or Litigation)
Sierra Club actively participates in grassroots environmental litigation. Sierra Club’s “Environmental Law Program” is responsible for the litigation side of things. The group collects and trains lawyers and perfects their litigation strategies. Sierra Club uses money wisely. They have given money to many Democratic politicians. A number of these politicians won seats in the Senate or the House. Sierra Club also uses money to lobby. The Sierra Club spent a total of $520,000 in 2012 on lobbying alone. Sierra Club uses several different methods to get their points across in the political world. / How is the group funded?
Sierra Club is largely funded by donations from organizations, but individuals also contribute.
What is the major piece of legislation that concerns the group?
Sierra Club focuses on a variety of legislation, not one main one. They focus on legislation involving the protection of our water, air, and wilderness. / How closely aligned is the group aligned with one particular party/ideology?
Sierra Club is very much a left-leaning interest group. Every major politician they have donated to is democratic, and the interest group used over 1 million dollars in 2011 and 2012 to bash Republicans. / What were the contributions to and from this group in recent years?
In 2012, Sierra Club influencing the Department of the Interior to develop a plan to protect 11 million acres of the Western Arctic Reserve.
In 2007, the club urged Congress to pass the Renewable Energy Standard, which requires companies to create a portion of their power from clean energy.
Names/politicians associated with this group
John Muir (first president and founder), Michael Brune, and Dave Scott (current president) are important figures in Sierra Club. / Give one or two important contributions (judicial, legislative, etc.) from this group.
In 2006, Sierra Club successfully protected the Giant Sequoia National Park by the club’s lawsuit that prevented the commercial logging supported by the Bush administration.
Spend time on OpenSecrets.org reading through your interest group’s financial records. What important information did you learn?
The amount of money Sierra Club has makes it a powerful group. The money also allows for diversity in the way it is spent. A large portion of money was spent on lobbying, which totaled to $860,000 combining 2011 and 2012. An interesting observation about the Sierra Club is that they spent double the amount of money on bashing Republicans than supporting Democrats in 2011-2012.