Blocking Dirty Oil Infrastructure

In Setback for Enbridge, PUC Rules Line 3 Review is Inadequate

Whether it moves by pipeline, by rail, or by tanker, tar sands and other oil is polluting, highly combustible, and dangerous to communities and our climate. In order to avert the worst of the climate crisis and protect our communities from devastating explosions and oil spills, we must stop the industry from building any new oil infrastructure. After more than a decade of advocacy, legal challenges, and organizing in partnership with local communities along the pipeline route and across the country, we successfully blocked the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Now we are continuing to apply those same tools to winning fights against other pipelines, oil train terminals, and oil export facilities across the country.


Read more:

Watch:





September 21, 2017

Today, Appalachian Mountain Advocates (Appalmad), on behalf of the Sierra Club, filed a request for rehearing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) calling for a new and comprehensive examination of whether the NEXUS fracked gas pipeline is necessary.

September 18, 2017

The Sierra Club and its partners filed two letters with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) arguing that body must do new analyses of two fracked gas pipelines. While FERC has already issued Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), neither sufficiently considered the pipelines’ impacts, including the long-term effects of the greenhouse gases produced from burning the gas transported by these pipelines.

September 15, 2017

Washington, D.C. -- Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Williams Transco the right to begin construction on the fracked gas Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline despite a faulty water review and a piecemeal permitting process. FERC’s review lacked public oversight and is currently evading judicial review, while the Wolf administration’s review of the project downplayed known impacts to water quality that other states took action on.

September 15, 2017

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission upended Governor Andrew Cuomo’s rejection of the fracked gas Valley Lateral Pipeline. Under section 401 of the Clean Water Act, states must certify that a pipeline will not violate their clean water standards before construction on that pipeline can begin. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation previously refused to give the Millennium Pipeline Company the section 401 certificate it needed and today’s move by FERC overrides that.

September 14, 2017

RALEIGH, NC -- Late yesterday, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requested additional information from Duke Energy and Dominion Energy in order to conduct a more thorough examination of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s (ACP) effects on the state’s water quality.

January 23, 2017

Today, President Donald Trump will scrap key aspects of former-President Obama’s climate leadership, as he reportedly plans to sign Executive Orders to move the the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline forward.

February 21, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Yesterday, the Auto Alliance, a trade association representing Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen AG, and eight other automakers sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt requesting the withdrawal of an Obama administration decision to lock in vehicle emission rules through 2025.This letter follows an earlier letter sent by the Auto Alliance asking Trump to roll back the same standards.

February 21, 2017

WASHINGTON D.C. -- As a result of an Open Records Act request and lawsuit filed by the Center for Media and Democracy, on Tuesday night the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office released a batch of more than 7,500 pages of emails and other records it withheld prior to Scott Pruitt’s nomination as EPA Administrator last Friday.  

March 2, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Eight leading environmental, energy, and science organizations urged Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on Friday to uphold auto emissions standards that would deliver a new-car fleet averaging better than 50 m.p.g. in 2025. 

March 5, 2017

Harrisburg, PA -- Today, a report prepared by Key-Log Economics for the Sierra Club and Appalachian Mountain Advocates was released, detailing what it calls the true costs of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline. The proposed fracked gas pipeline was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on its former chair’s final day -- just before the commission lost its quorum.