Good News You May Have Missed in 2021

It has been an incredibly challenging year. We've experienced more climate-related disasters than almost any year on record; COVID-19 continues to keep our families apart; voting rights are under attack; and we see daily evidence of the disparate system of justice we live in, one created to harm Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color. 

And yet, there's inspiring work happening in our communities every day across the country. That's why we wanted to highlight just a few of the local and national victories from 2021 that advocates and organizers have fought to achieve. 

This list is just a snapshot (you can see more in our year-end video here). We know some of these things may feel small compared to the scale of the problems we face. These victories are part of the puzzle, and none alone solve the fact that our systems are deeply fractured. We will keep fighting for long-term transformation. And celebrating our wins is critical to sustaining us for what is to come. 

In no particular order, here are some inspiring success stories from 2021:

• After a 13-year battle, we finally defeated the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. 

• Washington and Oregon adopt California’s Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which will slash diesel emissions, improve local air quality, and give a jolt to the electric truck market. From California to Washington, the West Coast is now a clean truck corridor! (New Jersey just adopted the rule too!)

• The retirement of the 350th coal plant since the Beyond Coal campaign began.

• Thanks to legal action from the Sierra Club, Entergy Arkansas will retire some of its dirtiest coal plants and invest in clean energy.

• Annova LNG export terminal in Texas canceled.

• The Jordan Cove LNG export terminal slated to be built in Oregon is stopped.

• The Mountain Valley Pipeline is against the ropes.

• The developers of the controversial PennEast pipeline project announced they were canceling the project after being denied necessary water quality permits.

• California Governor Newsom drafts a new drilling site buffer zone rule and moves to ban fracking by 2024.

• In response to years of community and coalition pressure to stop border wall construction, the Biden administration finally cancelled all wall construction funded by military and taxpayer dollars.

• The Sierra Club and partners held two Global Grassroots Leaders Climate Summits for activists representing 40 organizations from 17 countries.

• The EPA released its final strong clean car rule!

• We helped achieve progress toward the world's climate goals at the UN Council of Parties 26th (COP26) meeting.

• Southern Company announces closure of majority of its coal fleet by 2028

• Crowds turned out for Georgia’s two public hearings on the Plant Hammond and Plant Bowen coal ash permits. 

• Sierra Club staffer Graham Jordison kayaked the entire Missouri River, raising awareness of the risks it faces from nearby coal plants.

Sierra Club Illinois activists at an event supporting the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.

• Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act into law, marking the passage of one of the nation’s most groundbreaking bills to advance in climate justice and a fair transition for coal, oil, and gas workers.  

• The Department of the Interior committed $150 million to the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership program to help protect and fund urban parks and address the fact that over 100 million people lack access to public lands.

• The Sierra Club and the YMCA of the USA launched a national partnership focused on improving the health and wellbeing of veterans, members of the military, and their families. 

• Beyond Dirty Fuels activists in West Virginia helped stop a dangerous bill that would’ve exempted certain oil and gas storage tanks from the state's Aboveground Storage Tank Act.The campaign helped organize over 20,000 calls and emails from constituents opposing the bill! 

• A group of nearly 30 groups including the Sierra Club, Blue Star Families, and Y-USA launched the Military Outdoors Coalition, which will raise awareness of veterans’ health issues and collaborate on ways to expand veterans’ access to the outdoors for healing purposes. 

• President Biden restored more than two million acres to Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments.

• The Biden Administration fully restored protections to Alaska’s Tongass National Forest -- reversing Trump's attempt to open it to mining and logging.

• Biden issues executive order to slash emissions in federal government: The Biden administration made a key move to leverage the federal government’s massive purchasing power to drive demand for clean manufacturing, electric vehicles, clean buildings, and 100 percent clean electricity. 

Activists protest outside a Mountain Valley Pipeline hearing.

• Oregon commits to 100 percent clean energy.

• Des Moines, Iowa commits to 100 percent clean energy

• Students in California and Utah push their school districts to fuel themselves with 100 percent clean energy.

• We’ve helped move the n Build Back Better Act forward in Congress. It includes y nearly $600 billion in funding for climate action, clean energy jobs, and environmental justice. In November, we got the House to pass those historic investments and we're on our way to getting the Senate to follow suit.

• The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to begin the process of phasing out oil drilling, putting the county on the path to being the first in the country to ban and phase out existing drilling.

• The New York Department of Environmental Conservation denied air permits for two proposed fracked gas plants in the state, Danskammer and Astoria.

• More than 1,200 people attend the Sierra Club’s “white supremacy teach-in” to learn how ending white supremacy is intertwined with protecting the planet.

• President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which includes billions in funding for public transit, passenger rail, electric vehicle charging, electric school buses, and cleaning up dirty ports.

• After seven years of frontline community activism in Southern California, the South Coast Air Quality Management District passed the Warehouse Indirect Source Rule to address the region’s serious air quality problems. 

• The Sierra Club contributed more than 20,000 comments from people across the nation to strengthen the federal clean cars rule, one of the most significant actions the US can take to slash climate emissions.

We find inspiration in the thousands of people who have spoken up, marched, hosted action parties, written letters, made phone calls, engaged in direct action, and so much more. These victories are yours.

We hope you'll rest up as the year comes to a close and then join us to continue building a more sustainable, just, and equitable world in 2022 and beyond. We still live in a nation where the rich continue to get richer while many people struggle to feed their families. Where our elected officials prioritize padding corporate profits over safeguarding our lives, health, and future. We have more to do, together. 

Want even more good news? Check out this article from Sierra magazine, or either of these blog posts.