July 26, 2021
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- EPA Administrator Michael Regan has announced that the Biden EPA will formally reconsider one of the most toxic clean water rollbacks of the Trump era.
coal
July 22, 2021
FirstEnergy entered into a deferred prosecution agreement for its role in the criminal endeavor behind the passage of the Ohio House Bill 6 and nuclear bailout (HB6), a scheme federal prosecutors referred to as likely the largest bribery, money-laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people in the state of Ohio.
July 13, 2021
New Orleans, LA -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must reject Louisiana’s Regional Haze plan if it is not fundamentally changed to comply with the Clean Air Act. The plan is insufficient in many ways, including a failure to review environmental justice impacts for communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution. That is the message Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) sent to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and EPA on Monday as the public comment period for the draft plan expired.
July 13, 2021
ATLANTA, GA -- Southern Company is greenwashing its climate commitment, and a new ad campaign by Sierra Club seeks to hold the utility accountable for its promises and alert ratepayers to the utility’s role in preventing a transition to clean energy.
July 13, 2021
Washington, D.C. — Utilities are trying to greenwash their climate commitments — and a new ad campaign by Sierra Club holds these polluters accountable.
July 9, 2021
The Dane County Circuit Court held a hearing today to hear testimony on former Public Service Commissioner Mike Huebsch’s potential conflict of interest when he voted to approve the proposed $700 million Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC) gas plant in Superior, Wisconsin. These issues came to light when it was revealed that, shortly after Huebsch voted to approve the controversial gas plant in January, 2020, he applied for the open position of CEO at Dairyland Power Cooperative, one of two utilities who filed the application. In the hearing, Sierra Club elicited testimony demonstrating that Commissioner Huebsch, in voting to approve a major project for a utility he sought employment from soon thereafter, and one of whose high level executives he had a close personal relationship, was exposed to undue pressure to approve the project, which would have impacted any reasonable person in his position.
July 7, 2021
AUSTIN, TX -- Earlier this week, Governor Abbott released a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), demanding changes that Abbott falsely claims will ”increase power generation capacity and to ensure the reliability of the Texas power grid.” Unfortunately, Abbott’s letter promotes polluting, unreliable fossil fuels, attacks safer clean energy options, and ignores solutions that would actually benefit everyday Texans.
July 1, 2021
Sierra Club and multiple partners in South Carolina have reached a settlement agreement that cuts Dominion Energy’s request to raise customers’ rates by 87 percent and gains a commitment from Dominion not to seek additional rate increases until January 2024 at the earliest.
July 1, 2021
Today, DTE Energy filed its electric and gas energy efficiency (referred to in Michigan as “energy waste reduction”) plans with the Michigan Public Service Commission to reduce energy waste in its service territory. Through the process mandated by state law, Michigan utilities must file plans to allocate resources that improve energy efficiency and reduce wasted electricity in their service territory. DTE is required to deliver customers at least 2% energy savings annually, following the outcome of their most recent Integrated Resource Plan. As Michigan’s largest utility, DTE serves millions of customers and how it funds and prioritizes energy efficiency spending could have huge impacts on the communities affected.
July 1, 2021
St. Louis, MO -- The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) needs to withdraw and rewrite the draft water pollution permit for Ameren’s Labadie coal plant so it complies with the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should intervene if DNR refuses to enforce federal laws like the CWA. This is the message that concerned citizens will send to the DNR during a virtual public hearing for the draft permit tonight.
June 30, 2021
MAPLE GROVE, MN -- Earlier today, Great River Energy (GRE) announced that the utility would be selling its Coal Creek Station power plant to Rainbow Energy Center instead of retiring it as planned.
June 25, 2021
ST. PAUL -- Earlier today, Xcel Energy announced that it will drop its plans to construct a new 800 MW fossil gas plant, known as the Sherco combined cycle gas plant. Xcel included the gas plant in their most recent proposed integrated resource plan (IRP), filed in June 2020.