Columbus – Last week, Republican Rep. Rick Carfagna introduced House Bill 239 and Republican Senators Peterson and Terhar introduced Senate Bill 155 which are designed to require Ohio’s electricity customers to pay higher electric bills for decades to keep two money-losing coal-burning plants operating. Those coal-burning power plants, Kyger Creek in Ohio and Clifty Creek in Indiana, were built in the 1950s, can’t compete in today’s energy market, and are jointly-owned by AEP, FirstEnergy, DP&L, and Duke.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put a hold on a polluter backed case against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) clean water protections that limited toxic wastewater discharges from coal plants. The hold comes after a slew of motions from Donald Trump’s EPA Administrator seeking to pause litigation on important clean air and water protections in order to “review” them, which is widely seen by public health advocates, environmental organizations, and environmental justice groups as a ploy to weaken or scrap them.
CHARLESTON, WV-- On Friday, May 26, the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia found that conductivity pollution from Fola Coal’s Monoc #2 Surface Mine, located along the southern portion of the Leatherwood Creek watershed, violated key state and federal water quality protections. The mine is located in Nicholas and Clay counties and dumps mine waste into valley fills located in tributaries to Leatherwood Creek.
MEMPHIS, TENN.— In many places across the country, the air we breathe is contaminated with dirty fossil fuel pollution that threatens the health of our families and communities.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Late yesterday, Donald Trump’s EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, proposed suspending deadlines for new clean water protections against coal plants dumping massive amounts of industrial sludge into America’s waterways.
San Francisco, CA - The American Lung Association (ALA) released its 2017 "State of the Air" report today, which found continued improvement in air quality due to enforcement of the Clean Air Act, but an increase in dangerous spikes in smog (ozone) and particle (soot) pollution that are putting many Americans’ health at risk.
Charleston, WV-- Today, a coalition of environmental groups filed a federal suit to challenge the discharge of pollutants from mountaintop removal coal mine sites currently operated by the Fola Coal Company in West Virginia. This is the second time that legal action has been taken against Fola for water pollution at this site. Fola’s parent company, Consol, recently paid Southeastern Energy to take ownership of the mine because the reclamation and treatment liabilities were too high.
DETROIT, MI – Today, Detroit Edison announced a plan to shutter all remaining coal powered generation in their fleet by 2050 and invest $15 billion in a combination of renewable energy and gas-fired energy generation.
In response, Regina Strong, Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Michigan, released the following statement:
Philadelphia, P.A.--The state of Connecticut filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency today for its failure to address a Good Neighbor Petition filed by the state in July of 2016. Both Connecticut and Delaware filed Good Neighbor petitions stating that the Brunner Island power plant, located in Pennsylvania, is interfering with the downwind state's ability to comply with the ozone (or smog) safeguards in the Clean Air Act.
CHARLESTON, WV – Today, West Virginia committed to a schedule for treating mining pollution generated from seven former mine sites now owned and managed by the WV Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).