Jim Schermbeck

Lubbock | Environmental Organizer, Activist, Filmmaker

Mr. Schermbeck is an environmental organizer, activist and filmmaker in North Texas. From 1977 to 1988, he focused on nuclear power and waste issues, helping to found the Armadillo Coalition of Texas, the Comanche Peak Life Force, the Lone Star Alliance, and the Comanche Peak Citizen Audit, in opposition to the construction and operation of Texas Utilities’ Comanche Peak nuclear power plant in Somervell County, near Glen Rose, Texas. His efforts ranged from preparing legal and financial arguments against the plant to organizing civil disobedience and occupation of the plant site. From 1989 through 1993, he served as director of the North Texas office of Texans United, the regional affiliate of the National Toxics Campaign. In this capacity, he organized for cleanup of an aluminum and zinc smelting and casting plant in Crowley, a lead facility in West Dallas, and incinerators in Dallas and Midlothian. During the 1990s, Mr. Schermbeck has also been staff organizer for Downwinders at Risk, a group focused on reducing emissions from the upset-plagued Chaparral Steel facility and the hazardous waste incineration at the TXI, Holcim and North Texas cement kilns. Recently, he has made video documentaries, including the 2003 piece about drug-testing in schools, titled Larry v. Lockney, which has aired on PBS, and a 2006 segment, The Big Buy, regarding Rep. Tom DeLay’s fundraising and political organizing.