Open letter to Sierra Club’s Bruce Nilles

This letter is addressed to the Sierra Club’s Bruce Nilles concerning issues over commenting on Facebook fan pages for ACCCE and the Sierra Club.

Dear Bruce,

We appreciate your reaching out to us this week on our Facebook page. We encourage a robust conversation there from all sides of the energy debate, be it through comments or links to videos or other interesting content. We believe that the facts surrounding the use of coal as a fuel of the future are so strong, we’re willing to debate anywhere, anytime … including on Facebook.

However, apparently the Sierra Club, the organization you represent, does not share a similar commitment to a full and open discussion on issues involving energy and the environment. I tried commenting last week on Sierra Club’s Facebook page, but was blocked from doing so. I’ve also tried to post on your site’s wall (as you did twice on our page last week), only to find that you don’t allow postings.

Given this turn of events, I’ve decided to delete your postings from our page. You can repost those items should the Sierra Club decide to allow ACCCE open access to your site’s page.

Sincerely,

Joe Lucas Senior Vice President, ACCCE

Comments

[Michael]

Well said! "Hey Sierra Club, what's up with that!?"

[Bruce Nilles]

Dear Joe,

At the Sierra Club Facebook page we post frequent updates on breaking stories and other timely issues, and welcome comments and feedback on these issues from our fans. As you can see, we regularly post items on coal - given its contribution to global warming and a host of other environmental ills. However, we currently do not allow posting of unrelated issues on our page. This policy is consistent with the goal for our page, which is to facilitate and encourage an engaged dialogue about specific issues.

If you become a fan, you are more than welcome to contribute to any discussion that is happening on any status update or blog posting on our fan page. Indeed, we encourage and welcome commenters on all of our external blogs and related social networks.

I look forward to continuing a healthy discussion about coal on Facebook and elsewhere in the future.

Sincerely,

Bruce Nilles, Director
Beyond Coal Campaign
Sierra Club

[Joe Lucas]

Bruce,

I had no idea that you were a America’s Power (SM) fan (awesome). That being the case, I accept your offer to be a fan on your site, and will look forward to helping keep this conversation going. As I’ve said before, I think American coal can and will play a key role in America’s clean energy future and in bringing technologies to the marketplace that will make it possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale. Let’s talk about how to get that done.

Joe Lucas