OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- A coal mining company recently submitted an application to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to expand the existing Pollyanna No. 8 active coal mine across “270 acres of additional Federal coal reserves located approximately 2 miles east of the town of Spiro, Oklahoma.” It is estimated that this mine expansion, requested by Georges Colliers, Inc. (GCI), could unearth over one million tons of pollution-causing coal, enough to fill an enormous freight train stretching from Tulsa to Oklahoma City.
Charleston, W.V.-- A coalition of West Virginian advocacy groups including the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Appalachian Voices, and the Sierra Club sued four coal and chemical facilities alleging serious violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The facilities listed below have been dumping toxic pollutants into local waterways in violation of their permits. These lawsuits follow previous notice letters submitted to these companies in early June.
Yesterday, Sierra Club filed direct testimony of its expert witness in the rate case of Interstate Power & Light (IPL) at the Iowa Utilities Board. IPL owns all or part of seven coal plants in Iowa.
Today We Energies, a subsidiary of WEC Energy Group, and Madison Gas & Electric (MGE) announced an expansion of their solar partnership with a proposal to acquire an additional 150 megawatts (MW) of the Badger Hollow Solar Farm, near Dodgeville, WI. Sierra Club intervened at the Public Service Commission in support of the utilities when they sought approval to acquire the initial 150 MW of Badger Hollow earlier this year.
SPRINGDALE, PA-- Today, the Sierra Club sent a “notice of intent to sue” letter to NRG Power Midwest alleging serious violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) at the company’s Cheswick coal-fired power plant in Springdale. The plant has been discharging heated wastewater into the Allegheny River at temperatures over nine-times what is currently allowed--potentially affecting the waterway’s local ecosystem and killing aquatic species.
Today, PacifiCorp announced that it will be pushing back its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) filing date from August 1 to October 18. The plan was originally supposed to be filed April 1. The utility has been studying the economics of its coal fleet since August 2018, presenting new information at monthly public information meetings.
Here’s a brief recap of the process:
Boston, M.A.-- The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Martin Suuberg issued a rubber stamp approval of the air quality permit today for the highly-contested Weymouth compressor station. The Commissioner’s decision to ignore existing air quality data and to allow further pollution in the Fore River Basin will cause direct harm to the community if the project moves forward.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- Earlier today an administrative law judge (ALJ) filed a recommendation as part of OG&E’s ongoing rate case that misguidedly supports the utility’s wasteful actions. Specifically, the ALJ recommends finding that OG&E’s so-called investment of half a billion dollars on the aging and polluting Sooner coal plant was “prudent, and used and useful,” and that those costs—hundreds of millions of dollars—should be passed onto Oklahoma ratepayers.
The Trump administration released a resource management plan today that would expand federal fossil fuel development across a huge swath of southwestern Colorado, threatening a growing organic agriculture hub and undermining the state’s new climate law. The federal administration’s plans directly contradict Colorado’s new law calling for steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, a 50 percent cut by 2030 and a 90 percent reduction by 2050.
An independent analysis describes how Colorado’s coal-burning power plants are economically unviable, burdening customers with extra costs when compared to renewable energy resources. Conducted by energy consulting firm, Strategen, the report finds that renewable resources have outpaced coal, with the potential to save customers millions of dollars. These savings increase when the social cost of carbon (SCC) for the 10 units in the study is accounted for and securitized bonds are used as a tool to transition away from coal.
Meanwhile, Georgia is one of the top coal ash-generating states in the country, producing more than 6 millions tons of coal ash every year. And for many years, the state has also been a dumping ground for coal ash from Florida and the Carolinas.
Today the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB) agreed with environmental groups in their lawsuit against Midwest Generation, LLC, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, alleging that four of its coal power plants contaminated groundwater with harmful chemicals found in coal ash. The pollution at those four coal power plants, located in Waukegan, Joliet, Pekin, and Will County, put the densely populated communities around the plants at risk. This is a major victory in a case started in 2012 by the environmental groups (Sierra Club, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Prairie Rivers Network, and Citizens Against Ruining the Environment).