SANDERSVILLE, GA -- The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has denied a request for additional time to begin construction on the proposed Plant Washington, signaling the end of the troubled 12-year-old project. The now defunct consortium of electric membership corporations (EMCs) behind the project had 30 days to appeal the EPD decision which expired last week.
Annapolis, MD - Today, the Sierra Club, along with 21 other community organizations and hundreds of concerned Maryland residents submitted comments urging the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to finalize a permit update for two of Maryland’s coal plants and establish the earliest possible compliance date for toxic discharge limits in order to protect families and waterways. The covered pollutants include mercury and arsenic both of which can be extremely toxic to humans and pose a serious threat to public health and waterways.
Late yesterday, Sierra Club’s legal team challenged EPA’s plan to reopen the Startup, Shutdown, Malfunction (SSM) loopholes in Texas, which would allow dirty industrial facilities like coal plants and oil refineries to release massive amounts of dangerous air pollution into vulnerable communities already suffering from respiratory ailments.
Trenton, NJ - Today, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) responded to a new Federal rule from the Trump Administration, which will promote fossil fuel electricity generation at clean energy’s expense, by opening an investigation into state regulatory options that will protect New Jersey’s clean energy economy.
Today, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, former coal lobbyist and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is planning to waive compliance requirements and deadlines for a range of polluting industries, which will cause dangerous increases in water and air pollution for vulnerable communities across the U.S.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - On March 18, the Sierra Club and partner organizations released their 2020 banks scorecard, Banking On Climate Change, ranking the top international financiers of fossil fuels. The report demonstrates that--despite the ongoing climate crisis--Wall Street continues to pour money into fossil fuel projects, including a number of projects in (or connected to) Minnesota.
The electricity grid operator PJM’s capacity market has been overcharging tens of millions of customers to prop up unneeded dirty power plants, a new analysis has found.
Trenton, NJ. - The New Jersey Sierra Club submitted public comments to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding the critical improvements that must be made to the plans for reducing climate pollution in the state. The Sierra Club’s comments were submitted in response to DEPs stakeholder meetings on climate pollution in New Jersey. The DEP started a modeling and planning process last month for reducing climate pollution consistent with the state’s Energy Master Plan.
Arizona State Representative Kirsten Engel joined advocates from Vote Solar, Sierra Club, Solar United Neighbors, and Arizona Interfaith Power & Light at the Arizona State Capitol to deliver over 5,000 petitions in favor of a 50% renewable energy standard and a 35% energy efficiency standard by 2030, plus a 100% clean energy commitment by 2045 to the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).
A federal appeals court today ruled that the U.S. Forest Service broke the law by failing to consider an alternative that would protect the Gunnison National Forest’s Pilot Knob area from coal mining. The decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directs the lower court to vacate an exception that allowed the Forest Service to approve coal mining in roadless forests in the Gunnison River’s North Fork.
RICHMOND, VA - The Birchwood and Chesterfield coal-fired plants are the latest coal plants to announce retirement among the hundreds to retire in the last decade. These coal plants are simply no longer viable in today’s energy market, and represent an outdated form of energy generation that fuels the climate crisis.
Former coal lobbyist and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler proposed another dangerous rule today that will allow unlined, toxic coal ash ponds to stay open longer, and even permit their owners to use toxic material as part of the structures they are developing to permanently close the ponds.