Sierra Club Joins Local Groups Opposing Tar Sands Refinery

The Sierra Club, in coalition with Citizens Opposed to Oil Pollution and Save Union County, has filed an extensive set of technical and legal objections to the state of South Dakota's proposed air pollution permit for the "Hyperion" refinery project near Vermillion, South Dakota. This behemoth project would be sited smack in the middle of prime farmland and would receive and process tar sands oil extracted from the boreal forests of Canada. This tar sands oil project is an environmental nightmare; in addition to the destruction of boreal forests and the industrialization of rural South Dakota, the end product of the refining process would have a carbon footprint approximately three times as high as regular gasoline. The project has met stiff resistance from local farming communities and families. The Sierra Club's Living River Group and Environmental Law Program has teamed up with the local citizens to mount a full bore challenge against this misguided project. As a result of Sierra Club's advocacy, the regional EPA office has also filed comments critical of the proposed refinery.

To view the comments related to this case click here and here!

Environmental Appeals Board forces CO2 regulations

The people of Utah can breathe easier and the United States is one step closer to curbing global warming emissions, thanks to a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board (EAB). In May of 2008, Sierra Club went before the EAB to request that the air permit for Deseret Power Electric Cooperative’s proposed waste coal-fired power plant in Utah be overturned because it failed to require any controls on carbon dioxide pollution (CO2). On November 13, 2008 the EAB ruled in favor of Sierra Club and stated that the EPA had no valid reason for refusing to limit CO2 emissions from coal power plants. This decision comes on the heels of the 2007 Supreme Court Decision recognizing CO2 as a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act. This is a major victory not only for the people of Utah but for the United States as a whole; it forces all new and proposed coal plants nationwide (over 150 have been proposed in the past two years) to now go back and address their CO2 emissions. In essence, these plants must go back to square one in the permitting process.

Coal is the nation’s largest source of CO2 emissions and by delaying the construction of these plants the United States will prevent millions of tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere. While this is not the end of all coal power plants, this ruling opens the door for the Obama administration to start with a clean slate to begin building a clean energy economy.

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Sierra Club Fights To Protect Allegheny National Forest from Destructive Oil and Gas Drilling

The U.S. Forest Service is allowing massive oil and gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest without first assessing the environmental impacts of its projects or allowing the public to participate in the decision-making process.  Since the mid-1990s, drilling has increased from about 100 new wells per year to about 1,300 wells per year. Thousands of miles of new roads have also been constructed to serve the oil and gas industry, causing further degradation of forested lands.

By bringing this lawsuit, the Sierra Club, along with Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics and the Allegheny Defense Project, hope to reduce future impacts to forest resources, mitigate ongoing harm to wildlife and forest visitors, and reverse the Forest Service’s longstanding reckless practice of approving drilling projects without any environmental analysis or public input.

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