SALT LAKE CITY -- Today marks the end of a public comment period for the Trump administration’s proposed management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The plan, being pushed forward despite ongoing legal challenges to the administration’s efforts to shrink the monument, opens significant portions of the remaining monument to dirty fuel development. More than 8,000 public comments were submitted in opposition to the Trump administration’s plan.
HOUSTON, TX - Tropical Depression Imelda deluged southeast Texas on Thursday. The region, including Beaumont, Port Arthur, Houston, and Orange, has been inundated with torrential rain that has caused devastating flooding, shutting down highways and leaving thousands of stranded residents in need of rescue. Many of the same areas which are still recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey have been flooded and otherwise impacted once again. An emergency has been declared by the mayor of Beaumont and the Governor of Texas. Despite the fact that Houston schools are shut down today, hundreds of students are marching in the streets as part of the global Youth Climate Strike today. Today also marks the 2 year anniversary of the destruction brought to Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria.
FERC announced a new rulemaking today that would dramatically alter how small clean energy resources are compensated under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA)
Washington, D.C. -- Today, the Sierra Club issued an update to a previous press release issued on September 16th, regarding the recent release of oil vapor at the Marathon Refinery in Southwest Detroit.
Sierra Club’s press release stated that a letter had been sent to the United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board raising concerns about the potential release of hydrogen fluoride at the refinery.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Democrats and grassroots efforts succeeded in pressuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell into supporting bipartisan election security legislation to protect voting systems from hacking. The voting machines used by millions of voters in over a dozen states are still susceptible to hacking following foreign powers interfering in the 2016 and 2018 elections.
Western Environmental Law Center, Wilderness Workshop, Western Colorado Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club recently won an important victory in Federal District Court. The lawsuit challenged BLM’s 2015 Resource Management Plan (the plan) for the Colorado River Valley Field Office (CRVFO). The suit contested the plan’s prioritization of oil and gas development over all other uses, as well as BLM’s failure to consider the climate impacts of drilling thousands of new gas wells on our local public lands.
Houston, TX -- NextDecade, the company behind the proposed Rio Grande LNG fracked gas export facility at the Port of Brownsville, is reportedly partnering with Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge to build the double Rio Bravo Pipeline to feed the facility.
Washington, DC-- Today, Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced the Trump administration will transfer over 560 acres of public lands to the Army to build roughly 70 miles of border barriers. The acreage includes public and desert lands in Arizona, California and New Mexico, including areas immediately south of Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona and Otay Mountain Wilderness in California.
Boston, MA -- Today, the Sierra Club announced it is endorsing Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey in his bid for reelection.
"Senator Markey is a career environmental champion, and has the Sierra Club's full support," said Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter Director Deb Pasternak. "Senator Markey's leadership on the climate crisis, particularly his co-authorship of the Green New Deal, makes him the most important environmental leader in the US Senate, and we’re determined to do our part to keep him there."
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Donald Trump tweeted out that his Administration is revoking the Clean Air Act waiver that allows California to adopt and enforce stronger greenhouse gas emissions standards on new cars and light trucks than the federal government’s. It also allows the state to require auto manufacturers to sell increasing numbers of electric vehicles in the state.