environmental-law

April 15, 2020

Great Falls, MT -- A federal judge ruled today that the US Army Corps of Engineers violated the law when it approved Nationwide Permit 12, a key water crossing permit for TC Energy’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and many other pipelines nationwide.

April 7, 2020

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.

April 3, 2020

TOPEKA, KS -- Earlier today, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that utilities cannot charge customers who generate their own power more than customers who do not. The Court ruled in favor of Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, and Vote Solar, who challenged a 2018 Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) decision approving extra fees (sometimes called “demand charges”) on residential solar customers.

March 27, 2020

Today, the Sierra Club joined local residents and the City of Port Isabel in filing a set of lawsuits challenging approvals for three highly polluting fracked gas export terminals in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley.

March 19, 2020

In the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic and national health emergency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) conditionally approved the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector fracked gas pipeline today. The approval is conditioned on Pembina, the Canadian fossil fuel corporation behind the project, qualifying for critical permits from the state of Oregon, three of which have already been denied or withdrawn.

March 18, 2020

ST. LOUIS - The Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) issued an order today that will keep fixed rates flat and increase funding for low-income assistance programs. By improving Ameren’s long-term planning, it also sets the stage to increase investments in clean energy that make it easier to retire uneconomic coal plants that cost families more on bills. 

March 15, 2020

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.

March 5, 2020

Conservation, environmental and landowners groups argued in federal court in Montana today that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ issuance of a permit authorizing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to be constructed through hundreds of rivers, streams, and wetlands failed to evaluate the project’s impacts, in violation of bedrock U.S. environmental laws.

March 5, 2020

Detroit, Mich. -- Today, after several years of advocacy, Sierra Club, NRDC, National Housing Trust and DTE Energy reached a landmark agreement that will bring significant energy efficiency upgrades to utility customers in danger of having their power shut off. 

March 4, 2020

Today, the Sierra Club appealed the Georgia Public Service Commission's decision to award Georgia Power $525 million to clean up decades-worth of coal ash contamination.

March 2, 2020

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.

February 28, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club, and Southern Border Communities Coalition today filed a new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s transfer of an additional $3.8 billion in military funds for border wall construction. Congress did not authorize the funds.