Harrisburg, PA — Today, the Pennsylvania Senate passed SCRRR1 disapproving of a regulation enabling Pennsylvania to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Under the Regulatory Review Act, today is the deadline for each chamber to approve a concurrent resolution to block the regulation and stop Pennsylvania from joining RGGI. However, Governor Wolf has pledged to veto it to ensure the state joins the emissions reduction initiative in 2022.
Oklahoma City, OK -- In a filing submitted to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) on Wednesday, Sierra Club was critical of the non-existent public engagement process and utility oversight role of the OCC while offering recommendations for improvement.
Today, DTE Energy announced it will stop burning coal at its Belle River Power Plant by 2028, two years earlier than previously planned, in response to the U.S. EPA’s Steam Effluent Limitation Guidelines rule. That rule requires coal-fired power plants to either clean up their toxic wastewater pollution or stop burning coal. The company also announced it will move up the filing of its next Integrated Resource Plan by one year, to the fall of 2022. Lastly, the company announced it will explore repowering the Belle River plant with fossil gas.
The WV Public Service Commission released its final order approving Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power’s request to have West Virginia customers pay 100% of the ELG retrofit costs at three coal power plants (Amos, Mountaineer, and Mitchell), which will keep those plants open until 2040. Even though the Kentucky and Virginia Commissions disallowed cost recovery as imprudent.
Today, more than 18,000 Sierra Club members and supporters submitted comments urging the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to end coal leasing on public lands and instead focus its energies on reducing climate pollution while ensuring a just and equitable economic transition for workers and communities.
Washington, D.C. — The EPA has announced the withdrawal of guidance from the Trump Administration that allowed states to create loopholes that permit industrial facilities, such as coal plants and oil refineries, to release unlimited amounts of dangerous air pollution during startup, showdown, and malfunction (SSM) events without facing legal consequences under the Clean Air Act. The announcement reinstates EPA’s 2015 policy prohibiting those loopholes and requiring 36 states to correct those illegal provisions.
Right now Congress has a historic opportunity to reduce pollution, protect community health, and mitigate the climate crisis by passing the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), which would drive a transition to 100% clean electricity by 2035 - and create nearly 8 million jobs in the process.
New York - Today, Governor Hochul announced that the Tier 4 Awards under NY’s Clean Energy Standard will go to TDI’s Champlain-Hudson Power Express (CHPE) line, bringing power from Canadian company HydroQuébec, and to the New York Power Authority’s Clean Path NY transmission line. The Tier 4 projects provided an opportunity to deliver new renewable generation into the New York City area, facilitating the retirement of aging, polluting fossil fuel generation to protect public health, creating jobs for New Yorkers and advancing renewable electricity. Governor Hochul, rather than maximizing in-state renewable generation, gave one of the awards to a project that has been rife with environmental and human rights issues.
Little Rock, AR -- On September 15, 2021, SWEPCO, the state’s second largest monopoly electric utility, announced its plan to operate the massive and increasingly uneconomic Flint Creek coal power plant until 2038. Utility staff also indicated that a new fracked natural gas power plant is likely, despite the widespread availability of clean, affordable renewable generation that could create jobs across the state.
Today, Governor Pritzker signed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (SB2408) into law, marking one of the nation’s most groundbreaking advancements in climate justice and workforce transition.
Today, the Polk County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to pass a resolution committing to 90% greenhouse gas emission reductions from county operations by 2040.
Kayaker Graham Jordinson, set out on July 18th from Three Forks, Montana, to embark on a 2,341 mile journey down the Missouri River to its confluence with the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. The aim of his journey is to raise awareness about the detrimental impacts coal fired power plants have on our environment, climate, and water resources. Council Bluffs will be his second scheduled stop on his coal plant tour, after paddling out of Sioux City Friday. In Council Bluffs Jordison will meet with local Sierra Club members from Iowa and Nebraska to talk about MidAmerican’s Walter Scott Jr Energy Center coal plant in Council Bluffs.