The Wisconsin Public Service Commission voted today to extend the utility disconnection moratorium for residential customers until September 1, 2020. The commission decided 2-1 to extend the moratorium in order to safeguard the public health of Wisconsin residents during the COVID-19 health crisis. The PSC had previously voted on June 11 to end the moratorium on utility disconnections.
A new criminal complaint followed the FBI arrest of Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder for corruption charges linked to the passage of Ohio’s House Bill 6 (HB 6); the coal and nuclear bailout tax legislation.
n July 10, the D.C. Circuit court ruled in favor of the Sierra Club’s lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its decision to omit Ottawa County from the agency’s list of areas across the country that are out of attainment with health-based federal ozone (smog pollution) standards. A nonattainment designation triggers stricter rules for permitting new sources of pollution, and requires that the state come up with a plan to bring the area back into attainment. The Clean Air Act makes clear that any county with pollution contributing to monitored violations of an air standard should be designated nonattainment.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) has failed in its obligation to protect the water quality and health of families living near the Cross, Winyah and Wateree coal plants, all of which are located in predominantly Black and low-income communities. At all three sites, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits—which monitor and limit industrial discharge into waterways—expired almost a decade ago.
Today, Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, through its lawyers at the Department of Justice, formally objected to an agreement between DTE Energy and the Sierra Club that would bring air quality improvements to communities of color burdened by decades of coal plant pollution in River Rouge, Ecorse, and the 48217 zip code.
Harrisburgh, P.A. - The Pennsylvania House approved House Bill 2025 today, which would remove the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) legal ability to regulate climate-disrupting carbon dioxide pollution from any source within the Commonwealth. This would include preventing the implementation of the "cap-and-invest" program that allows participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which is currently being developed. The bill now advances to the Senate.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Thursday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a Trump administration attempt to allow polluters to illegally sidestep clean air regulations -- and protected the public’s right to seek legal relief.
Sierra Club staff, volunteers, and members began submitting comments and testifying before the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on the agency’s supplement to its draft Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the Vineyard Wind project, which is planned to be built off the coast of Massachusetts.
Today, in a 7-2 vote, the Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) Board voted to accelerate the closure timeline for its two coal plants. Martin Drake -- one of the nation’s last urban coal plants -- will now close by 2023 and Ray Nixon will close by 2030. As part of its 2020 Electric Resource Plan (ERP), CSU will replace its 416 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired power with 500MW of new wind energy, 150 MW of solar power, and over 400MW of battery storage in order to ensure modern and reliable energy for Colorado Springs. CSU leadership has promised that no employees will lose their jobs in the utility's energy transition.
A coalition of 42 diverse local groups and elected officials sent a letter to Michigan’s Congressional delegation today, asking them to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of clean energy and clean transportation workers in Michigan be protected and supported during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
BATON ROUGE, LA -- Yesterday, the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) approved Southwest Electric Power Company’s (SWEPCO) request to provide up to 464 MW of renewable wind energy to its customers in the state. SWEPCO expects the wind energy investment will save its customers an estimated $2 billion over the 30-year life of the project and create hundreds of jobs.