Photo by Shaughn Cooper
Looking back on 2024, I feel proud and hopeful about the progress we have made to protect people and the planet from the expansion of dirty, dangerous fossil fuels. In this last year, the Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign has started to fight on new fronts as Big Oil and Gas begin to change their tactics in the face of our successes to block dirty fossil fuel projects. For example, after we defeated proposals like the Keystone XL and Atlantic Coast Pipeline, companies are attempting a more piecemeal approach rather than proposing large, interstate pipelines all at once. But we are adapting too.
By the numbers, in 2024, we:
- Delayed 11 gas pipelines;
- Kept 25 liquefied methane gas, known as LNG, export projects from reaching final investment decision (the last stage of a major energy project where a company determines if there is sufficient investment to move forward), including one that was canceled this year;
- Delayed operation of at least 3 LNG projects that already reached final investment decision;
- and delayed 4 oil export facilities.
Our wins go well beyond those numbers. Here is a snapshot of some of the powerful work Sierra Club and supporters like you have done to move us beyond dirty fuels in 2024.
Fighting Liquefied Methane Gas Exports
We started the year with a historic win in our fight to stop the expansion of liquefied methane gas, known as LNG, exports. After years of advocacy from Sierra Club and partners, President Biden announced that the administration would pause review of pending and new LNG export applications while the Department of Energy (DOE) updated the studies used to make a public interest determination.
In the time since the announcement of the pause we worked hard to push DOE to ensure the public interest determination update is inclusive of the most up to date studies on climate, economic, and environmental justice impacts from LNG exports. With these updated studies, the Biden Administration can and should reject any outstanding LNG export permit application before they leave office.
- We shined a light on some of the ways LNG exports harm communities with new analyses of the devastating health impacts and costly tax implications of these proposed facilities.
- We also fought projects in court to challenge approvals by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and won. Our legal efforts sent regulators back to the drawing board on Commonwealth LNG, Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG, and the Rio Bravo pipeline. Our pressure and legal victories also prompted FERC to set aside its approval of the massive, controversial CP2 LNG export facility.
Expanded LNG exports have no place in our clean energy future. The Trump administration has promised to rubberstamp more LNG exports, but we have momentum and will continue to fight the expansion of Big Gas to overseas markets.
Stopping New Proposed Oil and Gas Pipelines
Expanded oil and gas pipelines mean more fossil fuels extracted, more climate change-exacerbating pollution, more health impacts from air pollution, more leaks and spills that contaminate our air and water. We continued our work to stand with communities across the country to oppose this dirty infrastructure.
- Our lawsuit blocked the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Cumberland fracked gas pipeline. Along with partners, we scored a victory that stopped construction on the project just days before it was scheduled to begin, giving impacted landowners, advocates, and communities in the path of the 32-mile project some relief and hope as we await a final decision on our challenge next year.
- We successfully fought back a massive and unneeded expansion of gas capacity into New Jersey. Sierra Club, along with a coalition of environmental organizations and an impacted landowner, backed by eight state Attorneys General and the New Jersey Ratepayer Advocate, won our challenge to the FERC approval of the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project. The Court agreed that FERC had overlooked “significant environmental consequences” and ignored evidence that New Jersey does not actually need more gas. The decision reversed FERC’s orders and sent REAE back to the Commission for a more careful review.
- We continued to engage in the long-standing fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), an oil pipeline that threatens drinking water and was built without adequate environmental analysis or consultation from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. In June, hundreds rallied in front of the White House in support of clean water, Tribal sovereignty, and to call on the Biden Administration to stop this risky project. And a group of leaders met with Members of Congress and federal agency staff to urge the Biden Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers to finally shut down DAPL. Through sign-on letters our advocacy continues to call for this dirty and dangerous pipeline to be shut down.
- More than 150,000 people weighed in calling for Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline in Wisconsin and Michigan to be shut down. This old oil pipeline violates tribal treaty rights and poses catastrophic risks to the drinking water for 40 million people and one-fifth of the world's surface freshwater. Governor Whitmer of Michigan ordered Enbridge to shut down Line 5 in May 2021. And the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Wisconsin have taken Enbridge to court for trespassing. Yet Enbridge continues to pump oil in spite of clear authorities revoking their right to operate. Important lawsuits and permits are on deck for 2025.
Methane and Orphaned and Abandoned Wells
Each year, the U.S. oil and gas sector emits large amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into our atmosphere. Methane is often emitted alongside other damaging pollutants, such as smog- and soot-forming volatile organic compounds and air toxins like benzene and formaldehyde, which are human carcinogens.
- We are holding ground on federal efforts to reduce methane emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a federal methane standard and is working to implement the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP) created by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 aimed at cutting methane and other harmful pollution from the oil and gas industry. These were both major wins for climate and public health, but have led to fierce opposition from Big Oil and Gas trying to fight the push to hold polluters accountable.
- In October, the United States Supreme Court rejected an effort by industry polluters and their political allies to block the EPA’s methane standards. As parties to the case, Sierra Club and its allies filed a brief opposing the industry’s legal claims. This means the Supreme Court will allow the safeguards to take effect while the lower court reviews the rule’s legal merits.
- We encouraged EPA during a rulemaking early this year to define a strong waste emissions charge, a commonsense fee created by the MERP that will hold the nation’s largest oil and gas emitters accountable for excessive climate pollution. In November, EPA finalized the charge. We anticipate attacks from the incoming Trump administration, but we will work to ensure polluters are made to pay for the damage they cause.
- In key states, we are building power in statehouses and using legal tactics to ensure that oil and gas operators pay their fair share to clean up idle and orphaned wells.
- We are challenging the constitutionality of a state law that prevents Pennsylvania from increasing the amount companies must put aside to pay to clean up oil and gas wells in the future. That lawsuit is ongoing and we expect a decision in 2025, but the court has already rebuffed an effort from some legislators to derail the suit.
- In California, we built upon our success from the release of last year’s report on the cost of the state’s idle well crisis. We launched an interactive webpage, hosted a state-wide webinar, and landed media features about the dangers of these wells and lack of regulation in California’s leading media outlets. This educational work led to the adoption of two idle oil well bills in the 2024 state session. These bills will require oil operators to clean significant percentages of idle wells annually, and face fines if clean up of these sites is delayed.
- Our work was highlighted by an ABC News affiliate in Indiana, which featured a Sierra Club expert who framed the problem of so-called “zombie” wells in the state, including a call to action in holding current oil and gas drillers to account for cleaning up their mess, avoiding the perpetual cycle of using taxpayer dollars to essentially bailout corporate polluters. The feature was part of a nationwide series from the news channel on the issue.
Organizing
So much of our campaign’s success comes from building people power across the country. From petition signatures, to engagement in public comment periods, to testifying at hearings. When it all comes down to it, our power comes from people like you.
Our fight against the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, known as the “dirty deal,” which seeks to undermine bedrock environmental laws, open up federal lands and waters to further oil and gas leasing and make it more difficult to oppose new oil and gas projects in the future has called on you to show up -- and you have!
We pulled all the levers at our disposal to educate and spread the word about the potential dangers of this bill. We gathered over 13,000 petition signatures so far, organized a fly-in of stakeholders directly impacted by the provisions of the bill that would fast-track gas exports at the expense of our communities and the climate, ran digital ads and shared our messaging on social and traditional media, and much more. With these combined efforts, we have not seen this bill come to the floor for a vote and we will continue our advocacy through the end of this legislative session to ensure that it does not.
The new year will bring challenges and uncertainty as Donald Trump and his Big Oil and Gas cronies prepare to take office, but our victories and the power our movement has continued to build over the last year makes me confident that we can defend our progress and continue to make gains for climate and communities.
We will do all we can to hold tight to our values and stand up and defend our planet. We do that by putting people over polluters and their bloated profits, halting the expansion of the oil and gas industry, and prioritizing investment in clean, renewable energy. There’s a fight ahead, and it will not be easy, but we are ready, know how to win, and we remain powerful together.