[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14893-14894]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOUTHERN NEVADA GROUP OF THE 
                              SIERRA CLUB

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I rise to recognize the 50th anniversary of 
the Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club.
  The Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club was established in 1965 
and encompasses Clark, Lincoln, Nye, Esmerelda, and White Pine 
Counties. During that time, its membership has helped shape Nevada's 
future by honoring the pristine beauty of Nevada.
  Today, Nevadans and visitors from around the country travel to 
southern Nevada to see the life, history, and culture of the Silver 
State. The Southern Nevada Group of the Sierra Club has worked 
tirelessly to protect places, such as the Great Basin National Park, 
the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area, the Sloan Canyon and Red 
Rock Canyon National Conservation Areas, and the recently designated 
Tule Springs Fossil Beds and Basin and Range National Monuments. These 
special places have inspired tens of millions of people and will 
continue to inspire our children and grandchildren. The Sierra Club has 
also been key to the protection of millions of acres of pristine 
landscapes as wilderness in southern and eastern Nevada. Today, the 
Sierra Club's dedication to Nevada continues in its efforts to protect 
treasured sites that highlight Nevada's unique geological and cultural 
history, including Gold Butte.
  These wonderful parts of Nevada are owned by everyone, and their 
protection has helped solidify Nevada's status as a world class 
destination. The progress the Southern Nevada Group has made to protect 
these wonderful parts of Nevada continues through its work to fully 
realize Nevada's clean energy potential. These efforts notably began 
with opposition to the construction of new coal plants in White Pine 
County. More recently, the Southern Nevada Group teamed with the Moapa 
Band of Paiutes and others to support meaningful legislation that 
resulted in the closure of the Reid-Gardner coal plant and its 
replacement with clean energy.
  I have been gratified to work with the Southern Nevada Group on so 
many of these efforts and was honored earlier this year to receive the 
Sierra Club's Edgar Wayburn Award. I commend the Southern Nevada Group 
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the Sierra Club on their 50 years of success and wish the organization 
continued success in the years to come.

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