Even in the midst of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey and a national emergency on the Gulf Coast that has hit communities of color and the immigrant community especially hard, House Republicans are looking to cut a billion dollars of disaster relief money in order to fund an ineffectual and disastrous border wall. At the same time, the Trump Administration announced plans yesterday to select vendors for concrete prototypes of the wall.
HARRISBURG, PA -- Today, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approved water permits for Transco’s Atlantic Sunrise project, a fracked gas pipeline that will cut through hundreds of Pennsylvania streams and wetlands. The permits follow on the Department’s decision more than a year ago to grant a crucial water quality certification for this pipeline, without reviewing the pipeline’s impacts on water quality through the state permitting process.
ALBANY, NY -- Yesterday the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied a necessary permit to the Valley Lateral project, a fracked gas pipeline slated to go a new power plant owned by Competitive Power Ventures in Orange County, NY. DEC cited the recent federal court decision for the Sabal Trail pipeline holding that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not sufficiently consider the climate impacts of burning the gas transported by these pipelines before approving them.
PHOENIX, AZ -- Today, Trump’s administration will announce selected vendors for construction of concrete wall prototypes for a wall along the U.S.- Mexico border. The construction threatens local communities, wildlife and wild spaces.
In response, Sierra Club Borderlands Organizer Dan Millis released the following statement:
ATLANTA, GA—Georgia Power’s owner has voted to push ahead with building Plant Vogtle, a chaotic nuclear project beset with multi-year construction delays, bankruptcy, and a price tag that has ballooned to more than $25 billion.
MISSOURI -- Today, the Missouri Air Conservation Commission held a public hearing on whether to recommend that US EPA declare the air quality in a large portion of Jefferson County, Missouri as meeting federal health-based standards for sulfur dioxide pollution. The Sierra Club strongly opposed this proposal by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources because it would allow Ameren's Rush Island plant - which emits 97% of the sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution in the area - to continue to pollute without installing modern pollution controls.
Washington, DC -- Today, the Sierra Club released an interactive digital map detailing 449 plants, refineries, and facilities that are posing heightened threats to the 25 counties most affected by Harvey.
San Francisco, CA -- Today, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated federal law when it attempted to block the valuation rule. Finalized by the Obama administration in July of 2016, the rule closed unintentional accounting loopholes that allowed coal companies to profit at the expense of American taxpayers. The court ruled that the Trump administration’s unilateral attempt to block these common-sense fixes without any input from the public violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
MISSOULA, Mont. — A coalition of tribal and conservation interests today filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to restore critical protections to the Yellowstone region’s iconic grizzly bears before new threats, including hunting, push the population further into decline.