Under the leadership of Secretary Zinke, the Department of the Interior has proposed raising entry fees at major national parks across the country. The proposal would hamper the the public’s ability to enjoy our natural wonders at the same time that Zinke is looking to ease access for the fossil fuel industry.
Tulsa, OK - Today, the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down H.B. 1449, a bill that sought to implement an annual fee on electric vehicles, ruling the tax unconstitutional because the fee was untethered from a regulatory purpose and simply sought to impose a new financial burden. In August, the Sierra Club filed a state lawsuit in Oklahoma, challenging the legislature’s passage of H.B. 1449. The bill would have established, without justification, a $100 annual fee for the purchase of an electric vehicle and $30 for the purchase of a hybrid vehicle. The arbitrary fee had no connection to the actual costs and benefits of electric vehicles, requiring electric vehicle drivers to pay more than they would in gas taxes and potentially dissuading future electric vehicle buyers.
Today, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced plans to put up 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico up for oil and gas leasing. The largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in Interior’s history, the sale would include all available, unleased areas of the Gulf. The announcement comes in the wake of an oil spill that spilled an estimated 16,000 barrels into the Gulf, making it the largest Gulf oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
A recent poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research in Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia found overwhelming support for clean cars standards. While the Trump administration has opened the federal fuel efficiency standards for review, a wide majority of those states’ residents support requiring the auto industry to continue meeting increased fuel efficiency standards that save drivers money at the pump.
Today, advocacy groups and concerned community members took action outside of Governor Rauner’s office with a “People’s Court,” criticizing Governor Rauner for backroom talks between his Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s (IEPA) and Dynegy, a Texas-based coal company, that will weaken Illinois clean air standards. Dynegy, Illinois’ largest air polluter with nine active coal plants in Illinois,worked closely with Rauner’s IEPA over the last year to make significant changes to the “Multi-Pollutant Standard” (MPS) as revealed in a Freedom of Information Request obtained by environmental organizations. Illinois’ MPS has been a cornerstone of air quality protection in Illinois, setting gradual reductions for nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and mercury (Hg) pollution from the Dynegy coal fleet. Action Metro East, Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance, Citizens Against Longwell Mining, Illinois People’s Action, Indivisible Illinois, Indivisible Springfield, Metro East Green Alliance, Piasa Palisades Group of the Sierra Club, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Sangamon Valley Group of the Sierra Club organized the mock trial with community members.
Today, in surrebuttal testimony submitted to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the Minnesota Department of Commerce (DoC) confirmed its original finding that Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 tar sands pipeline project is not needed and that the risks outweigh any limited benefits.
New Orleans, LA -- It is now estimated that an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from a ruptured pipeline could be nearly twice as large as originally reported.
Washington, DC -- Today, Senate Republicans passed the budget resolution, opening the door to oil drilling in the sensitive coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The resolution includes instructions to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to generate $1 billion over 10 years for the federal budget, instructions that will likely lead to drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Refuge. Previously, the House Budget instructed the Natural Resources committee to generate $3.6 billion over 10 years through similar mechanisms.
ANNAPOLIS, MD - Today, 63 Maryland Senators and Delegate urged Governor Larry Hogan to implement Obama-era standards for coal fired-power plants in the state. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is proposing to renew expired water pollution permits for three coal-fired plants in Dickerson, Chalk Point and Morgantown that would allow excessive dumping of toxic pollutants into Maryland waterways.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Sierra Club officially filed its lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for its continued failure to conduct the required environmental impact analysis on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The EPA is almost four years overdue in its last review for Congress and eight years overdue on its air quality impact analysis. Both are necessary to determine the extent of the RFS program’s adverse air quality impacts and inform the EPA in its annual setting of renewable fuels volumes. The Sierra Club filed its notice of intent to sue in February 2017 and filed its complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.