St. Louis, MO -- Tonight, Missourians from throughout the state held a virtual rally to demand that the state’s largest coal polluting utilities quickly transition to clean energy. The rally builds on the The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges report released by Sierra Club in January.
Milwaukee, WI -- Keeping the lights on. That’s what utilities and energy providers proclaim they do. But what happens when utility bills become a burden – or more precisely, an over-burden? That is what’s occurring for many Black and Latinx households in Milwaukee according to a new analysis, Energy Burden in Milwaukee: Study Reveals Major Disparities & Links to Redlined Areas, from Alliance for Climate Education, Black Leaders Organizing for Community, Citizen Action of Wisconsin - North Side Rising Co-op, the Sierra Club, and Voces de la Frontera. Census data from 2013 to 2018 reveal stark contrasts in energy burdens - the percentage of income households pay for their energy bills. Households in well-off white neighborhoods may have an average energy burden of 1% or less, versus the 7 - 10% (or higher) many in predominantly Black or Latinx neighborhoods pay.
LOS ANGELES -- Yesterday, over 1,600 gallons, or 40 barrels, of oil spilled in the Inglewood Oil Field when a shipping pipe was left open. The latest spill occurred just a few hundred feet from the Kenneth Hahn Park Playground.
New York, NY -- Today, JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) CEO Jamie Dimon released his influential annual letter to shareholders.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Today, the California State Water Resources Control Board will host an annual workshop to update constituents on the Salton Sea Management Plan (SSMP), the state’s plan to address public health issues and build habitat at the sea. Groups working at the Salton Sea are calling on the state to improve the SSMP, especially in its efforts to engage communities and incorporate their input into projects at the Sea.
Illinois -- As part of a settlement agreement with the Sierra Club, Vistra Energy announced today that it would be closing its Joppa coal plant by September 1, 2022 - three years earlier than Vistra had previously announced. The agreement resolves groundwater litigation Sierra Club brought in 2018 before the Illinois Pollution Control Board to hold Vistra Energy accountable for dozens of exceedances of state groundwater standards documented at groundwater monitoring wells surrounding coal ash ponds at the Edwards, Coffeen, and Joppa coal plant sites. The agreement commits Vistra Energy to pay a portion of property taxes for three additional years to local taxing bodies following the closure of Joppa and to install additional groundwater monitors at its Edwards and Joppa sites.
Mobile County, Ala. — Last Friday, Sierra Club and GASP filed a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s (ADEM) issuance of a final Title V Permit for Plant Barry near Mobile. The permit was issued on February 2, 2021.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has brought forward fewer than a dozen enforcement cases since 2000, the lowest number of any state.
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Sierra Club launched a digital ad campaign, urging the Biden administration to establish new, bolder vehicle standards — beyond the Obama-Biden standards — and to not give into vehicle manufacturers lobbying behind closed doors to keep us tied to weaker ones.
The ads are running in Politico and The Hill, as well as on LinkedIn, throughout the month of April, leading up to the US Climate Summit on April 22.