Wise, VA - The environment and the communities who live near coal strip mines in Virginia suffered a major setback today. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a District Court decision allowing a coal mine to continue discharging high levels of harmful pollution into surrounding communities’ streams and rivers.
Denver, Colo. (March 30, 2021) — A coalition of conservation and environmental justice groups today backed newly introduced legislation to reduce harmful greenhouse gas pollution in Colorado. SB21-200, Reduce Greenhouse Gases Increase Environmental Justice, would get Colorado on track to reach its 2025 and 2030 climate pollution reduction goals by putting the sector-specific emission limits in Governor Polis’ Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap into law.
The Biden Administration announced a far reaching wind energy plan today that will dramatically expand the development of offshore wind farms off the United States’ East Coast to create jobs, protect the environment, and combat the climate crisis.
Middletown, CT -- Environment, clean energy and community activists submitted comments on Friday to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) in opposition to its tentative approval of air permits for a Middletown fossil fuel power plant.
Kansas City, MO -- Evergy customers in Missouri and Kansas came together tonight to provide public testimony on the utility’s long-range energy plans for each state. More than eighty people attended the People's Hearing, with almost thirty people sharing public testimony over the course of two hours. Evergy customers and organizations that operate in its service territory were clear in their call for a quick and just transition from fossil fuels to clean energy in order to mitigate the worst impacts of our changing climate.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Today, a Utah federal District Court ruled in favor of a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) challenge to protect iconic Utah public lands from the Alton mining expansion. Filed by Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Grand Canyon Trust, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and WildEarth Guardians, the groups have been seeking to protect Bryce Canyon National Park and the local environment from the coal mining expansion for the last ten years.
CARSON CITY (Mar. 23, 2021) — Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen (D-29) introduced the Responsible Energy Planning bill (AB380) today. This bill, which has already garnered support from local clean energy and business advocates, would require Nevada’s gas utilities to avoid wasteful and unnecessary gas spending and consider clean energy alternatives that meet the state’s goals of 100 percent clean power and zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.CARSON CITY (Mar. 23, 2021) — Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen (D-29) introduced the Responsible Energy Planning bill (AB380) today. This bill, which has already garnered support from local clean energy and business advocates, would require Nevada’s gas utilities to avoid wasteful and unnecessary gas spending and consider clean energy alternatives that meet the state’s goals of 100 percent clean power and zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Trenton, New Jersey - The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) released an analysis of potential massive cost impacts to New Jersey consumers as a result of the Trump-era federal meddling in the PJM capacity market. The federal rule, known as the Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR), essentially bails out uneconomic fossil fuel companies at the consumer’s expense by forcing them to needlessly pay twice for generation capacity.
This afternoon, a bankruptcy court issued a ruling that allows the Blackjewel coal company to immediately abandon cleanup obligations at 33 coal mines in Kentucky. An additional 171 Blackjewel permits in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia will be placed into a legal limbo to potentially make them available to new ownership. Any of those permits that do not transfer to new owners in the next six months will also be abandoned. Since Blackjewel failed to complete reclamation at these mines, and the regulators failed to require adequate reclamation bonds, these abandonments mean millions of dollars in outstanding costs may fall on taxpayers and local communities. This is a potentially precedent-setting ruling at a time when several coal mining companies are nearing bankruptcy amid declining demand for thermal coal.
State regulators charged with looking out for the best interests of Indiana’s utility customers failed today in that duty by allowing Duke Energy Indiana to keep forcing Hoosiers to pay millions of dollars every month to run their coal-burning power plants, Edwardsport and Gibson, even when cheaper energy is available.
Mobile County, AL -- This month, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is accepting public comments about Alabama Power’s plans to “cap-in-place” 21 million tons of coal ash at Plant Barry near Mobile. The deadline for public comment submissions is April 6 at 5 p.m. CST.
LITTLE ROCK, AR -- Today, Sierra Club and the National Parks Conservation Association’s settlement with Entergy Arkansas to close two massive coal plants and a gas plant and build solar power was finalized by a judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.