WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Moore v. Harper, a redistricting case out of North Carolina that could have severe implications for how our voting maps are drawn, voting rights, and the future of our democracy itself. If the Court accepts the radical and fringe Independent State Legislature Theory at the center of the case, it will effectively strip state courts and governors of the authority they have traditionally been afforded under state constitutions to strike down anti-democratic and unconstitutional legislative maps, and could even allow partisan state legislatures to set their own rules for presidential and congressional elections, absent any state checks or balances.
World’s second largest asset manager announces it is leaving Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative
The first ever Federal Buildings Performance Standard was announced today by the Biden-Harris Administration to cut pollution from buildings and lower the government’s energy costs through energy efficiency upgrades and electrification. Buildings contribute more than 25% of the federal government’s greenhouse gas emissions, so this is an important step towards achieving climate goals and making federally owned buildings clean and healthy.
Washington, DC – Tonight, in a victory for frontline communities, Senator Manchin’s permitting bill has been blocked from being included in must-pass legislation set to be voted on this month. The permitting legislation would have rolled back federal permitting requirements under bedrock environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act, forcing dirty infrastructure projects on vulnerable, environmental justice communities and jeopardizing the clean air and water of many across the country.
MARINA, Calif.— A federal judge approved an agreement today to suspend new oil and gas leasing across more than 725,000 acres of public lands in California’s Central Coast and the Bay Area. The legal agreement was reached by conservation groups, Monterey County, Santa Cruz County and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, the National PFAS Contamination Coalition, Sierra Club, Center for Health Environment and Justice, and more than 60 other organizations sent a letter to the Biden Administration calling for the safe and expeditious clean up of PFAS-contaminated federal sites. PFAS, or Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic chemicals that are widely used in consumer products and at military and industrial sites. These “forever chemicals” never break down in the environment, and exposure is linked to a variety of health problems including kidney and testicular cancer, damaged immune systems, and harm to the liver, thyroid, and pancreatic function.
Today, the US Forest Service (USFS) announced they will be accepting applications for a 20 member Federal Advisory Committee that will provide formal recommendations to guide the USFS in revising the Northwest Forest Plan. The Northwest Forest Plan area consists of 19 million acres of federal forest lands in western Washington, western Oregon, and northwest California, and the Advisory Committee will provide advice on how to manage this landscape to promote sustainability, climate adaptations, and wildfire resilience. Sierra Club looks forward to supporting this effort and ensuring the Plan’s benefits from the last three decades can continue into the future.
Washington, D.C.: Last Friday, clean energy advocates filed a lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for its approval of the Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) discriminatory capacity accreditation rules for wind and solar.
Brownsville, Texas - Weeks after NextDecade started clear-cutting land for its fracked gas export terminal, Rio Grande LNG, in the Rio Grande Valley, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) made steps towards speeding through its review of the proposed Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project.
Una amplia coaliciĂłn de 114 organizaciones que representan a comunidades de todo el paĂs enviĂł una carta a la Agencia de ProtecciĂłn Ambiental (EPA) instándola a avanzar en tres excepciones a la Ley de Aire Limpio.