From SELC’s Founder, Executive Director
Dear SELC Friends,
It gives me great pleasure to announce to you that the Southern Environmental Law Center has completed its three-year Power of the Law Campaign on schedule and on target. Moreover, we exceeded our $45 million goal, raising a total of $46.8 million in gifts and pledges. On behalf of SELC’s board and staff, I wish to express our thanks to the many individuals, families, and foundations who made this campaign a success.
As we celebrate reaching this milestone, we are preparing to mark another: SELC’s 25th anniversary. A quarter-century ago, I founded this organization based on the principle that the law is the linchpin to environmental protection. The results of our campaign are a ringing endorsement of that concept and an inspiring vote of confidence in the highly effective law and policy model you have helped us refine.
We feel deeply honored that you supported us so generously in these difficult economic times. Now it’s up to us to get the job done.
Let me take this opportunity to tell you how SELC will use the enhanced strength and capacity achieved through your campaign support to counter political headwinds that have whipped up in recent months, how we intend to serve you better through our on-the-ground presence in your state and in your community, and how we are leading the South to a clean energy future.
Countering Anti-Environmental Forces in Congress and State Legislatures
In the new Congress, we are encountering a severe backlash against essential environmental safeguards. Under the guise of reining in federal spending, anti-environmental forces are attempting to gut the enforcement of federal protections and to put the brakes on EPA just as it was beginning to make real progress on pressing issues, such as regulating global warming pollution and placing strict limits on toxic emissions from burning coal. Big polluters can only be amazed at their sudden good luck. The same thing is happening in several of our states.
We will not let these forces get the upper hand. From our Washington, D.C., office, we are working with allies on Capitol Hill to drive home the message that sound fiscal policy and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive and that investments in healthy air and clean water will save money—and save lives—in the long run. With our enhanced litigation capacity, we are using the courts to ensure enforcement of laws we have worked for decades to pass and strengthen.
Let me add that the shrill anti-government and anti-environmental rhetoric we are hearing today is nothing new. Over my 40-year career in this field, the political tides have run against us many times before. It is always painful to see the values we share and believe in so deeply come under attack, but working together with you and people like you, we will keep moving forward.
Our Local Presence, Local Impact
For me, one of the proudest achievements of our campaign is the enhanced local presence made possible by SELC’s new offices in Charleston, Richmond, and Birmingham—my hometown. We are also expanding our office in Asheville (our forward base of operations in the Southern Appalachians), and we are preparing to open a Nashville office to intensify our work in Tennessee. SELC has never been in a stronger position to make a tangible and meaningful impact in the states we serve.
I can promise that you will see more of us—and that you will see us move even faster to address issues as they arise. Our new offices put us closer to you and to our environmental partners, and they provide a huge boost to our ability to safeguard resources that are vital to you, your family, and your neighbors.
Leading the South to a Clean Energy Future
As I look at the more than 100 active cases and projects SELC is working on right now, I’m struck by the way energy issues increasingly intersect with almost everything we do—whether it’s protecting the South’s air and water or defending our mountains, our coasts, our countryside, and our communities.
With your support, we have significantly enhanced our ability to address the region’s most serious energy-related challenges. We are reforming energy and transportation policies that currently allow mining companies to blast away mountaintops, that put our shores at risk of more drilling disasters, and that present few alternatives to driving more miles and burning more gasoline.
First and foremost, we are committed to reducing our region’s dependence on coal. In this complex work, we continue to challenge proposals to build new coal-burning power plants that would saddle the Southeast with decades of increased pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, we are working directly with utility commissions and power companies to expand and strengthen new energy efficiency programs—programs that save energy rather than produce more of it.
In addition, we are vigorously advocating the retirement of the South’s oldest, dirtiest, and least efficient coal-fired generating facilities. Over the next few years, utilities throughout the region will be deciding whether to close down these old plants and invest instead in cleaner technologies, or whether to make expensive upgrades to keep these plants running. SELC is making certain the full environmental costs are reflected in these decisions and that the wisest and most environmentally friendly choices are made.
We Need You by Our Side
The challenges before us are daunting, to say the least. But with the new capacity we have added with your support, and with the experience and expertise we have acquired over the past 25 years, we are ready to take them on. But we cannot do it without you. Let me close by asking you to do three things for SELC:
- Don’t be taken in by the ruse that cost-cutting is what’s behind the push to eviscerate environmental laws and regulations and to block their enforcement,
- Stay informed about the issues and follow the work of the Southern Environmental Law Center, and
- Continue to make our mission your mission.
As we roll up our sleeves to get the results you expect of us, we hope we can depend on you to be by our side.
Sincerely,
Frederick S. Middleton III
President and Founder