Richmond, CA — Yesterday evening, the Sierra Club and San Francisco Baykeeper moved to intervene as full parties in the lawsuits to defend the City of Richmond’s ordinance that phases out the storage and handling of coal and petroleum coke in the city, and also filed an accompanying motion to dismiss the lawsuits. The environmental legal organization Earthjustice is representing both the Sierra Club and SF Baykeeper in court.
Sierra Club applauds and fully supports the special resolution Indianapolis City-County Council members passed unanimously tonight, calling on local electric provider Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) to update its 20-year energy plan filed with state regulators in December to include the full retirement of the Petersburg Super Polluter coal plant by 2028.
Yesterday, communities across Western Pennsylvania filed a joint protest of Shell Pipeline Company’s effort to build the Falcon Ethane Pipeline without any air pollution limits.
Today, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told Bloomberg News that he does not plan to extend clean car standards implemented by the Obama administration past 2025. He also suggested that he would not allow California to issue their own, stricter standards to manage air quality within the state, though he’d previously claimed that the state’s waiver to do so would be protected.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Even as Duke is asking for rate increases on families and businesses to pay for its statewide coal ash cleanup, the utility has now announced a $200 million dollar plan to convert the four coal units at the Marshall Steam Station to burn a mix of coal and fracked gas.
Memphis, Tenn. — A new report shows that the White Bluff and Independence coal-fired power plants operated by the largest utility in Arkansas, Entergy, emit enough pollution to raise the levels of unhealthy ozone smog in the Memphis area.
A new report demonstrates that two power plants operated by Entergy, the largest utility in Arkansas, are emitting enough pollution to make the unhealthy ozone smog problems worse in the St. Louis area. The report shows that smog-forming emissions from the Entergy White Bluff and Independence coal plants are elevating ozone levels by more than 4 times the amount public health agencies qualify as significant amount. Moreover, the plants are significantly impacting St. Louis ozone levels around 22 days per summer. These dangerous emissions of smog causing Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) could be reduced by 98% or more by installing Selective Catalytic Reduction, a widely used pollution control that has been around for more than 20 years.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a rich history of improving air and water quality throughout the US, but the Trump Administration has proposed slashing the Agency’s budget by 31 percent. These cuts would cause significant harm here in Nevada. This Friday, former EPA staff and clean air advocates will speak to defend the Agency, which was created 47 years ago on December 2nd, 1970, by Republican President Richard Nixon.
Today, as the State of California agreed to adhere to a specific timeline for Salton Sea restoration projects over the coming years, a coalition of environmental groups reminded policymakers that the clock is still ticking toward an ominous Dec. 31 deadline when required water deliveries will cease to be delivered to the Sea. Representatives of Sierra Club, Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Pacific Institute emphasized that the state needs to begin work on the ground immediately to avert a public health disaster and destruction of vital habitat for migratory birds.
Yesterday, a federal appellate court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had the legal authority to take action against DTE Energy after the company put public health at risk by failing to apply for a New Source Review (NSR) permit under the Clean Air Act.
WASHINGTON, DC - Tomorrow, Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to begin the process of repealing several Obama-era actions tackling the climate crisis and protecting clean air and water, including steps to begin the process of dismantling the Clean Power Plan, roll back Oil and Gas New Source Performance Standards, rescind NEPA guidance that directs agencies to account for the climate crisis, and end efforts to reform the broken federal coal leasing program.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz and Sen. Mike Lee on Monday announced that they would use an extreme and obscure legislative maneuver called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to overrule common sense clean air protections for Utah national parks. Chaffetz began by introducing legislation in the House to repeal the Regional Haze Rule for Utah.