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UPDATED 7/13/12 9:50 a.m.

Will the state’s largest grassroots environmental group get behind one of the most controversial development projects in the state?

The plans to make an announcement soon on whether it will start aggressively campaigning for rail transit, Robert Harris, the Hawaii chapter’s director, said Wednesday.

The issue resurfaced after a recent reported that Sierra Club was moving closer to endorsing the Honolulu rail project.

The story spurred a flurry of emails this week between supporters and critics of the project. Some indicated plans were in the works to get Sierra Club to change its position and come out against rail, forcing Harris to do damage control.

“We have been in support of rail. This isn’t anything new or different,” he told Civil Beat. “The question is whether we take additional steps in whether we campaign in support of rail. That’s what’s caused concern.”

The incident highlights the internal debate among Sierra Club members over rail, as well as the potential impact the group’s position could have on the mayoral race. Recent polling by pro-rail group Pacific Resource Partnership shows that Sierra Club’s position could be “game-changing” in the mayoral race, prompting people to start lobbying the group, Harris said.

“We’re trying to get the island group and the state committee in concert,” he said. “There’s a lot of back and forth going on. It should mitigate or resolve a lot of the concern and controversy surrounding these people’s emails.”

Hawaii News Now reported June 29 that Sierra Club’s seven-member voted unanimously to approve using the nonprofit’s money to campaign for rail.

Harris said this story was “much ado about nothing” because the 12-member statewide executive committee has final say.

One vocal critic of the Sierra Club’s pro-rail position is Pearl Johnson, former president of the League of Women Voters¹. She’s been lobbying the Sierra Club to change its position, but as a private citizen.

She said in an email Wednesday that she and others plan to ask Hawaii News Now to say its source was wrong and that the Sierra Club will not come out in support of rail.

“When we heard Sierra Club might promote rail, that’s when we got excited,” Johnson told Civil Beat. “We’ve been really trying to get the Sierra Club to say their membership is so divided they’re not going to do anything. We think there is a deadlock.”

Harris said the Sierra Club has no intention of changing its position on rail transit. He reiterated that the debate is over whether the nonprofit will actively campaign for it.

“We’re in the process of developing a statement which we hope to release shortly that should address what our position is and what we intend on doing in the upcoming election,” he said, adding that this should happen within a week.

While the Sierra Club’s executive committee has met, any official statement has been embargoed until it is vetted, Harris said.

The Sierra Club’s Honolulu’s fixed guideway rail proposal, but three months ago Harris said the island’s 4,000 members were being surveyed to gauge whether the position should be .

The Sierra Club’s stance on rail could impact the mayoral race.

While Sierra Club has not endorsed a candidate for mayor, and may not do so this election, it continues to . Hannemann, the former Honolulu mayor who strongly supports the $5.2 billion rail project he helped get off the ground, is running for Congress.

Harris said Sierra Club’s support for rail does not guarantee the group will back a candidate who feels the same. He said the nonprofit looks at a candidate’s overall environmental record, not just one position on one project.

Still, if the Sierra Club started campaigning for rail transit with less than a month until the Aug. 11 primary, it would undoubtedly favor pro-rail candidates Kirk Caldwell and incumbent Peter Carlisle over anti-rail candidate Ben Cayetano.

Harris declined to speculate on what shape “aggressively campaigning” for rail transit would take if that’s the route the organization goes.

“We have resources that other organizations don’t have,” he said, noting a survey that showed the Sierra Club’s position could change people’s minds. “That’s why they’ve been so reactionary and aggressive about our position.”

The nonprofit’s stance on rail transit would also impact its members. The Sierra Club risks losing critical donations if it alienates members divided on the issue.

“Most people aren’t going to be too alarmed one way or the other,” Harris said.