Patriot Coal Commits to End Its Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia
On November 15, Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy reached an agreement with Patriot Coal Corporation – one of the largest surface coal mine operators in Appalachia – that requires the company to phase out mountaintop removal mining and all other forms of large scale surface mining. In exchange, the groups have agreed to extend the deadlines, secured through previous litigation, by which the company must install selenium treatment technology.
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Sierra Club Releases New Report on Natural Gas Exports
On November 29, Sierra Club released a new report highlighting the significant risks of exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG), and calling on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to take a careful look at the dangerous effects of increased fracking on Americans’ water, air, land and health.
The report, titled “Look Before the LNG Leap,” cautions against the rubber stamp approval of proposed liquefied natural gas export facilities, and counters the Department of Energy’s claim that it cannot predict where new fracking will occur. The DOE has been using this argument as its main reason against performing a thorough environmental impact statement to study the full effects of exporting natural gas. The report shows that DOE's own energy models can and do make those predictions.
Shipping natural gas to foreign countries would increase dirty, dangerous fracking in Americans’ backyards, drive up energy prices for American families and put Americans’ health and our climate at risk – while doing nothing to address our nation’s energy challenges. DOE must do the right thing and begin an open, public environmental impact assessment before we blindly transform the energy landscape and threatened communities across the country.
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Sierra Club Seeks Coal Ash Cleanup in North Carolina
On October 12, the Sierra Club and Waterkeeper Alliance filed a lawsuit challenging pollution from coal ash disposal at more than a dozen power plants in North Carolina. The lawsuit charges that the coal plant owners have been allowing their old coal ash ponds to pollute groundwater. Coal ash is made up of silica, iron, calcium and aluminum and can contain arsenic and heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury and selenium. Pollutants, including thallium and selenium, have leaked from the unlined coal ash wet impoundments and the North Carolina Division of Water Quality has confirmed evidence of elevated contaminant levels near the sites.
Represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Club and Waterkeeper are asking the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission to force Duke Energy and Progress Energy to clean up any illegal leaks from the coal ash dumps.
The lawsuit comes as U.S. EPA and Congress separately considers regulation for coal ash dumps.
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