Washington, DC - Today, Representatives Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04) and Katie Porter (CA-45) introduced the Systemic Risk Mitigation Act, which aims to prevent deregulation of the financial sector from putting the entire economy at risk, especially during the health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19.
El Sierra Club se une a los llamados a actuar tras que la implosión de una chimenea de la planta carbonera de Crawford realizada por Hilco Development Partners (Hilco) en el Lado Suroeste de Chicago nublara las calles e irritara los pulmones de los residentes abrumadoramente hispanos.
SANDERSVILLE, GA -- The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has denied a request for additional time to begin construction on the proposed Plant Washington, signaling the end of the troubled 12-year-old project. The now defunct consortium of electric membership corporations (EMCs) behind the project had 30 days to appeal the EPD decision which expired last week.
Sierra Club is joining the call for action after the implosion of the Crawford coal plant smokestack by Hilco Redevelopment Partners (Hilco) on Chicago’s Southwest Side, blanketed the Little Village neighborhood in a dust cloud that fogged streets and burned lungs. The demolition’s timing on Saturday was made all the more concerning by the COVID-19 pandemic still sweeping through Illinois. The novel coronavirus has been shown to be more dangerous to populations impacted by heavy pollution. For more than two years, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) has raised grave concern about the site's developer and design. The organization has protested the trade of one polluting entity for another; a warehouse and distribution facility with significant diesel truck traffic will continue to impact this overburdened environmental justice community.
Annapolis, MD - Today, the Sierra Club, along with 21 other community organizations and hundreds of concerned Maryland residents submitted comments urging the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to finalize a permit update for two of Maryland’s coal plants and establish the earliest possible compliance date for toxic discharge limits in order to protect families and waterways. The covered pollutants include mercury and arsenic both of which can be extremely toxic to humans and pose a serious threat to public health and waterways.
Over 30 local advocates/groups pleaded for Governor Lee to pass a moratorium on utility shutoffs, while furloughed workers continue to get their utilities shut off.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The DC Public Service Commission recently required DC’s electric utility to purchase renewable energy through new long-term contracts. These contracts, also referred to as power purchase agreements or PPAs, provide critical long-term income streams to renewable energy companies, enabling them to build new solar and wind farms to deliver the renewable energy contracts require. These long-term renewable energy contracts will move DC closer to its commitment of cutting carbon emissions in half by 2032 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.
Last night, Reuters reported that banks including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup are planning to take direct ownership of failing oil and gas assets. The banks are reportedly awaiting regulatory waivers in order to move this plan forward.
In response, Sierra Club campaign representative Ben Cushing released the following statement:
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.
More that 30 faith, labor, environmental and community organizations sent a letter to Governor Bill Lee requesting that he—mayors, utility regulators, and rural electric cooperative, public power and water utility boards—take steps to implement a moratorium on all electricity, water, and telecommunications utility shut-offs, waiver of all late-payment charges, and reinstitution of any services that have already been cut off due to nonpayment.