This morning, shareholders at Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo voted 12.8%, 11%, and 11%, respectively, in support of groundbreaking resolutions pushing the banks to end their support for new fossil fuel development. Any resolution that receives at least 5 percent of the vote is eligible to be refiled next year, and anything that receives 10 percent or more is considered difficult for a company to ignore.
Global coal plant capacity under development declined in 2021, according to Global Energy Monitor’s eighth annual survey of the coal plant pipeline. The report finds that after rising in 2020 for the first time since 2015, total coal power capacity under development declined 13% last year, from 525 gigawatts (GW) to 457 GW, a record low. 34 countries have new coal plants under consideration, down from 41 countries in January 2021. China, South Korea, and Japan notably pledged to stop funding new coal plants in other countries, but China continued to lead all countries in domestic development of new coal plants, commissioning more coal capacity than the rest of the world combined.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) released a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the retirement and replacement of the 2,470 megawatts Cumberland coal-fired power plant located northwest of Nashville. Cumberland is one of the nation’s largest and most polluting coal plants, releasing over 8 million tons of carbon pollution into the air each year.
El Sierra Club lanza su primer calculador bilingüe que permite a consumidores latinos calcular el impacto energético en sus hogares. El calculador bilingüe está disponible para el celular y la computadora.
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA -- Today, a coalition of environmental groups including the National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, and several other signees, published an open letter addressed to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) asking the agency to strengthen its regional haze plan to protect air quality in the state. The letter, including all signees, can be found here.
OLYMPIA, WA — The Washington State Building Code Council voted 11-3 today to adopt a new statewide commercial and multifamily building energy code that will be the strongest, most climate-friendly in the country by driving the transition to clean electricity for space and water heating. This major win for clean energy coincides with President Joe Biden’s Earth Day Seattle visit where he discussed the infrastructure bill and clean energy.
El Presidente Biden, en medio de llamados en todo el paĂs para actuar audazmente contra la crisis climática por medio de decisiones legislativas y ejecutivas, emitiĂł hoy una orden ejecutiva sobre bosques y otras soluciones basadas en la naturaleza.
Today, as calls continue to mount demanding bold climate action through legislation and administrative action, President Biden issued an executive order on climate forests and nature-based solutions. The order, which was detailed in a speech celebrating Earth Day, launches a process to define and inventory old and mature forests on federal lands, so that policies are enacted to conserve them, and initiates a nature-based solution assessment to understand nature capital and ecosystems to help in the preservation and conservation of natural places.
Harrisburg, P.A. - This morning, the regulation known as the CO2 Budget Trading Program, which allows Pennsylvania to link to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) went into effect via publication in the online version of the Pennsylvania Bulletin. Under the new rule, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fueled power plants in Pennsylvania will be capped at 78 million tons per year initially, and the cap will decrease by over 3% per year. This is the first time that Pennsylvania has limited greenhouse gas emissions in any sector of the economy.
Today, President Joe Biden will issue an executive order that directs federal agencies to conduct an inventory of mature and old-growth forests on America’s federal lands so that policies can be adopted to protect them. The administration framed the move as a key strategy to store carbon and address climate change.