In a major win for climate and public health, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied yesterday an effort by the oil and gas industry and its political supporters to suspend critical EPA protections against methane pollution while the court considers legal challenges to the rule. Sierra Club and its allies submitted multiple briefings opposing these legal attacks, which a three-judge panel rejected with no noted dissents. This means that EPA’s badly-needed standards will remain in effect while the litigation proceeds in court.
Washington, DC - Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted to approve Venture Global’s gas export facility, CP2 LNG, despite clear evidence the facility will contribute to harm to the local community, climate, and nationwide energy price spikes and volatility.
Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced that CP2 LNG is on the agenda for its June meeting, in the midst of robust and ongoing frontline and national opposition to the gas export project. Evidence shows that expanded gas exports would be harmful to local communities, significantly contribute to dangerous climate change, and raise domestic energy prices nationwide.
The Senate voted to confirm three nominees to serve terms as commissioners at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Judy W. Chang was confirmed today, and David Rosner and Lindsay S. See were confirmed yesterday.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club sued the federal government today for failing to properly evaluate harms from the Alaska LNG project to several threatened and endangered species.
Today, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) reintroduced the End Polluter Welfare Act, the most comprehensive legislative proposal to address the billions in special interest subsidies that disproportionately flow to the oil, gas, and coal industries. The reintroduction comes with the support of over 300 environmental, climate, consumer protection, and frontline organizations who have signed an organizational letter backing the legislation.
Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission finalized its transmission planning and allocation requirements to unleash clean energy, improve the resilience of the power grid, and improve affordability. These new standards will require utilities to create smart long-term plans that consider all of the benefits that new transmission can provide for customers, like lower energy bills and increased reliability.
Gulf Coast community groups and environmental advocates are urging the Biden Administration to reevaluate the criteria used to determine whether massively expanding U.S. crude oil exports that lock in decades of fossil fuel dependence and harm Gulf Coast communities is in the “national interest.”
Today, more than 70 members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden and Secretary Granholm thanking them for pausing the approval of applications for new liquefied methane gas (LNG) exports while the Department of Energy considers the criteria used to determine whether new exports are in the public interest. Gulf Coast advocates and environmental groups issued statements in support of the letter from members of Congress.
The Federal Trade Commission has uncovered efforts by former CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources Scott Sheffield to collude with OPEC in order to increase the price of oil through agreed up cuts in production. The conduct was discovered as part of an investigation into the $64 billion acquisition of Pioneer by Exxon Mobil, which FTC says it will not reject as long as Sheffield is not named to the board.