The Sierra Club and partner organizations filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over the renewed proposal for the Jordan Cove LNG export facility and associated Pacific Connector pipeline. The Jordan Cove terminal was twice rejected by FERC last year because its public interest value did not outweigh the project’s risks and negative effects, but has been revived yet again under the Trump administration.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Fox News last night, Scott Pruitt questioned what authority Congress has given the EPA to reduce carbon pollution, again suggesting he’ll attack the proven scientific and legal principles supporting EPA’s duty to protect the health of the public from dangerous greenhouse gas pollution.
WASHINGTON, DC - Scott Pruitt is engaging in an attack on the enforcement of environmental law at the EPA, and in doing so is referencing the myth of so-called “sue and settle.” The polluter backed U.S. Chamber of Commerce report underlying Pruitt’s false rhetoric has been regularly debunked in the academic literature on the topic. As the Harvard Environmental Law Review concluded: “This analysis reveals the current ‘sue-and-settle’ debate for what it is: a war of words relying on emotionally charged rhetoric to score political points."
TEXAS -- Luminant Energy’s announcement to close three of the nation’s largest and dirtiest coal plants in Central Texas means that more than half of the coal plants in America have retired or committed to retire since 2010.
Today, environmental and landowner groups argued in opposition to an attempt by the Trump administration and Canadian oil giant TransCanada to dismiss a lawsuit against the administration for approving a cross-border permit for the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline without complying with environmental laws.
Widespread electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Illinois could bring the state up to $43 billion in cumulative benefits by 2050 stemming from reduced utility bills, Illinois driver savings on fuel, vehicle expenses, and carbon pollution reduction, according to a new analysis by M.J. Bradley & Associates that was commissioned by the Charge Up Midwest coalition.
The Tenth Circuit Court just secured a major victory for those that care about protecting public lands and our climate. Today’s decision sheds new light on the destructive consequences of leasing our most precious lands to corporate polluters who value their balance sheets more than public health. This decision marks a major step in our efforts to hold coal, oil, and gas companies accountable for their reckless contributions to climate change and to force the doting Trump Administration to take our environmental laws seriously.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection filed a motion in federal court to invalidate its earlier approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Under section 401 of the Clean Water Act, individual states must certify that interstate gas pipelines will not have significant effects on water quality before construction can begin.
Oklahoma City, OK -- Today, the Western Oklahoma District Court announced, after the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), the state agency tasked with regulating oil and gas operations, took several steps towards tackling the earthquake epidemic, that it planned to dismiss without prejudice a landmark lawsuit against three of the largest fossil fuel companies in Oklahoma. The week after the notice of intent to sue was filed, the OCC announced a volume reduction plan for several dozen disposal wells in western Oklahoma.
*** Read the full filing online here ***
Utah -- Yesterday, the Public Service Commission approved an $10M Electric Vehicle (EV) incentive and time-of-use pilot program, as a part of Rocky Mountain Power's Application to Implement Programs Authorized by the state’s Sustainable Transportation and Energy Plan Act.
Washington, DC -- Today, TransCanada, the foreign oil company behind the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, filed a motion urging the federal court in Montana to dismiss a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its approval of the controversial tar sands pipeline. This follows the filing of a similar motion from the administration late last week, which claimed that Trump’s approval of the pipeline is not subject to review by the court.