former coal lobbyist and current acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler will be in Ohio just days after announcing a plan to gut the Clean Power Plan that will result in up to 1,400 premature deaths per year according to the EPA’s own statistics.
The California Assembly today voted in favor of Senate Bill 100 (Kevin de Leon)-- a bill to move California to 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. This bill also increases California’s clean energy goals from 50 percent by 2030 to 60 percent by 2030. Governor Brown has thirty days to sign this bill into law. Once signed, California will represent the largest global economy and one of the biggest states of any kind in the world to have a goal of moving to 100 percent clean energy.
Denver, CO – This afternoon, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) provided its initial approval of Xcel Energy’s Colorado Energy Plan (CEP) to close coal-fired units 1 and 2 at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo ten years ahead of schedule. Colorado’s largest utility will replace that coal generation with a $2.5 billion investment in mostly renewable energy and battery storage that is estimated by Xcel to save ratepayers at least $213 million. The PUC will formalize their support in a written decision, which is due by Tuesday, September 4th.
OAKLAND, CA – Today, Sierra magazine, the national magazine of the Sierra Club, released its twelfth annual “Cool Schools” ranking of North America’s greenest colleges and universities. Sierra received submissions from a record-breaking 269 schools in 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, various outlets are reporting that negotiators from the United States and Mexico announced they reached a preliminary agreement on a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that excludes Canada. Both Mexico and Canada have said that they will not finalize a bilateral deal with the U.S. but rather all three countries will need to agree to a trilateral agreement.
Since the 1970s, the citizens of this small town in rural Jasper County have lived, worked, and played next to the towering smoke stacks of – and under the clouds of pollution pouring from – NIPSCO’s massive R.M. Schahfer coal-burning electric power plant. On Saturday, more than 30 of those residents sounded off about their industrial neighbor – deemed one of 22 “super polluters,” the worst air-polluting coal plants in the nation in a report by The Center for Public Integrity, USA Today, and The Weather Channel. Indiana is burdened with five super polluters, more than any other state.
San Diego, CA -- Today, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit challenging the County of San Diego’s failure to adequately evaluate greenhouse gas mitigation when it approved three new major development projects in what are currently greenfields. The suit contends that in approving the projects, the County is relying on measures that fail to meet legal standards and has violated state law requiring enforceable mitigation measures.
Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that the oil industry is pushing for the federal government to fund construction of a 60-mile “spine” of concrete seawalls and levees along the Texas Gulf Coast.
4 Major California cities commit to carbon-free buildings by 2050 The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Monica just announced their intent to join 15 other leading cities around the world and adopt a plan for zero-carbon buildings by 2050. Today, Los Angeles and San Francisco committed to all new buildings being carbon-free by 2030, and all existing buildings being carbon-free by 2050. Prioritizing zero-carbon buildings is an essential strategy to achieve California’s climate goals while also lowering the cost of housing.
Despite yesterday’s guilty plea by Donald Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen and conviction of former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, Sen. Collins says she sees “no basis” for delaying Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. Collins’ comments come as a flood of her colleagues are calling for the hearings to be delayed because of the failure to disclose 97% of Kavanaugh’s documents from his time in the George W. Bush White House and yesterday’s events.