On Friday, the Oregon Public Utility Commission denied PacifiCorp the ability to charge its customers for capital expenditures at its Jim Bridger coal plant, ruling that the utility failed to consider more affordable strategies for complying with the federal Clean Air Act, including retiring the plant. Pacific Power customers in Oregon will see a 1.6 percent decrease in their monthly rates as of Jan. 1, 2021 due in part to these avoided costs.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Last night, a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee was quietly removed from the National Statuary Hall Collection at the United States Capitol. The statue was one of two statues in the collection representing the Commonwealth of Virginia. The other statue depicts George Washington. Gov. Ralph Northam announced that Virginia would seek to replace the Lee statue with a statue to civil rights activist Barbara Johns, who as a teenager led a student boycott against school segregation.
INDIANA, PA -- On Friday, the Sierra Club, PennFuture, and the Clean Air Council filed suit under the Clean Air Act to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of Pennsylvania’s inadequate plan to address unhealthy air quality under the federal National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for sulfur dioxide (SO2) limits.
ANNAPOLIS, MD - Late Friday night, GenOn Holdings, Inc. announced the retirement of the company’s Morgantown coal-fired power plant located in Charles County, MD on the Potomac River. The company will deactivate the coal plant in 2027. Prior to Friday’s announcement, the 50-year old Morgantown plant was the largest coal-fired power plant in Maryland without plans to cease operating.
Jackson, WY-- Today, the National Park Service and Wyoming Game and Fish Department reported that an elk tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Grand Teton National Park. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a rapidly-spreading wildlife epidemic that is killing elk, moose and deer herds across the country, particularly in western states. CWD is a neurological ailment that is always fatal and has the potential to wipe out entire herds of elk.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, EPA released new guidance for disposal and destruction of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The Agency’s new 107-page “Interim Guidance” document outlines a long list of unknowns about the ultimate fate of PFAS wastes sent to incinerators, landfills, thermal oxidizers or injected into deep wells for disposal.
Washington, DC -- On December 11th, President-elect Joe Biden introduced Tom Vilsack as his intended nominee for Secretary of Agriculture.
In response, Sierra Club Acting Our Wild America Director Chris Hill released the following statement:
“It is critical that President-elect Biden’s cabinet be filled with nominees who will advance bold solutions -- rooted in justice and equity -- at the size and scale needed to address the climate crisis.
Albany, N.Y. -- The New York State Division of Veteran Services has appointed Lt. Col. (retired) Aaron Leonard to co-lead the task force charged with implementing the state’s recently enacted Outdoor Rx Act. Leonard currently serves as a Sierra Club Military Outdoors campaign representative. The law, originally sponsored by Assemblymember Didi Barrett and Sen. Brian Benjamin, seeks to remove barriers that prevent New York veterans from accessing the state’s public lands to heal from service-related injuries and trauma.
Saint Paul, MN – Today, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) announced it will publish its draft Clean Car Standards on Monday, which would require new cars sold in the state to emit less climate-disrupting pollution. The rule also regulates that an increasing percentage of new cars sold in the state be zero-emission vehicles.
At Thursday night’s meeting of the Muscatine Power & Water (MPW) board, Sierra Club presented a new analysis finding that investing in a clean energy portfolio would be cheaper than building a new gas plant, which MPW is considering. MPW made public over the summer its initial plans to phase out coal power, replacing part of the 270 MW plant with 30 MW of solar. MPW is currently weighing whether to replace the remaining coal generation with a new combined heat and power gas plant, based on a power supply study that has not been available to the public.