The Sierra Club and the environment has lost a good friend.  Long time lobbyist for the club Keith Smith passed away on November 20th.

In lieu of flowers, Keith asked that donations be made to Planned Parenthood, Oklahoma Stonewall Democrats, Sierra Club, the ACLU or the Working Families Project.

Below is part of an interview that Keith did with our national Sierra Club publication, The Planet.

"I'm an environmentalist, civil libertarian, pro-choice advocate and openly gay man," says Keith Smith, who lobbies Oklahoma decision-makers for a variety of clients, including the Sierra Club. "I'm a screaming liberal in a conservative state, and that I have any victories at all is surprising."

Why does he keep at it? "They desperately need me - and I'm effective," he says. "I became an activist in college, and I've been a volunteer or paid lobbyist ever since." Smith's favorite fight is over concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, and the public seems increasingly interested in booting them from the state. "It's an issue that lets me build trust and alliances with farmers and decision-makers who are conservative on other legislation," he says. "It's good for Republicans to see family farmers hanging out with Keith Smith at the capital."

Smith was born in Oklahoma and is part of a farming family, which helps open the doors of lawmakers.

"I grew up in a rural part of the state, and that's where the big CAFO conflicts are, so it helps that I know what life is like there. Probably the scariest thing to an Oklahoman is an outside agitator. I'm a weird liberal, but I'm their weird liberal, and that makes a difference."