via sierra club
First, congratulations to you both for your appointment to the PA Chapter Powerline Committee, and Nicole for assuming the Chair of that Committee.
Second, exciting news about a meeting Senator Casey will be holding on the NIETC issue.
March 31 at 11 am (or so)
Offices of the Wildlands Trust in Emmaus (Lehigh County)
Sen. Casey's contact for this is Ari at (215) 405-9660, in their Allentown office
They are just pulling this session together so details are sketchy. I wanted to get a save the date message out before the weekend.
They are looking to do a smaller version of the session the held in the Capitol. They are not completely sure that the media will be in attendance.
However, they are looking for "stakeholders" who should be involved with the NIETC and powerline issues, from the public interest. (Not powerline proponents). Sierra Club, Land Trusts, Hunter/Anger groups, Safe Energy Advocates, etc. (Maybe Park Service?)
They also are really interested in trying to get folks from Monroe County and the Poconos down to this meeting. Holly should have some of these contacts.
I know this is short notice, and the meeting will be during the day, during the week. However, anything we can do to generate turnout could be seen as building a foundation for the "town hall" meetings you are contemplating around the Berwick - Roseland, N.J. line proposal. Of course, it will be critical to capture the names of anyone who attends or expresses an interest in the March 31 meeting.
I will leave it to you to communicate the meeting information to the Powerline Committee, and the people who you target for attending the meeting. I will forward more information as I get it from Ari. I have encouraged Ari to communicate directly with Nicole, given her dual role (PALTA / Sierra Club). Ari tells me that he has left a message for Andy Loza at the PALTA office, as I did for Nicole. I expect that they, like a lot of others, are off for Good Friday.
Jeff Schmidt
Director, Sierra Club PA Chapter
P.O. Box 663, Harrisburg PA 17108
717-232-0101 / 717-238-6330 (fax)
jeff.schmidt@sierraclub.org