Press Releases

August 13, 2020

Kinder Morgan CEO Steve Kean announced yesterday that the company plans to reroute the controversial Permian Highway fracked gas pipeline to go around the Blanco River, in response to public outrage over a spill during pipeline construction, the impacts of which Kinder Morgan has repeatedly downplayed, that left Blanco County residents without clean drinking water.

August 6, 2020

A broad coalition of justice and environmental groups sued the Trump administration today over its regulations that would gut environmental reviews and silence community input.

July 31, 2020

WASHINGTON, DC— The Supreme Court today left in place an earlier order that permits the Trump administration to temporarily continue construction of the border wall while the underlying legal challenge proceeds in court.

July 31, 2020

WASHINGTON,D.C. --- The Trump administration today released a new proposal that would severely limit critical habitat protections for endangered wildlife. The proposal runs counter to warnings of scientists around the world who have identified habitat loss as the single largest driver of species imperilment and a major contributing factor to pandemics, such as COVID-19. The new proposed definition of “habitat” seeks to prevent former habitat from being designated as critical habitat, even when that habitat has irreplaceable characteristics vital to the recovery of a species. It would also…

July 29, 2020

INDIANAPOLIS -- Today, the Sierra Club appealed the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s (IURC) decision approving a $146 million rate increase for Duke Energy Indiana’s customers.

July 28, 2020

Charleston, WV -- Yesterday, the federal district court for the Southern District of West Virginia ruled that the Justice Group’s Red Fox coal mine was liable for more than 3,000 Clean Water Act violations. The lawsuit brought by the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), Appalachian Voices, and the Sierra Club contends that the mine was liable for exceeding its required discharge limits. The groups were represented by attorneys with Appalachian Mountain Advocates and Public Justice.

July 27, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced its plans to evaluate the EPA’s rollback - finalized in March - of the clean car standards, which are the corporate average fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards for light duty vehicles (or CAFE).

July 27, 2020

WASHINGTON DC.--Today the Sierra Club and Conservation Law Foundation filed an appeal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) water pollution permit for the Merrimack Station coal-fired power plant. The updated permit, which was finalized in May, failed to include critical water pollution protections that the agency had previously proposed. Unlike EPA’s prior proposal, the updated permit did not require the plant to install a modern cooling-water system.

July 22, 2020

WASHINGTON, DC— Today, the Sierra Club, American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Border Communities Coalition asked the Supreme Court to halt construction of President Trump’s border wall. In the motion, the groups urge the court to lift an earlier stay that allowed the Trump administration to divert $2.5 billion from military pay and pension funds for border wall construction that Congress explicitly denied.

July 20, 2020

n July 10, the D.C. Circuit court ruled in favor of the Sierra Club’s lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its decision to omit Ottawa County from the agency’s list of areas across the country that are out of attainment with health-based federal ozone (smog pollution) standards. A nonattainment designation triggers stricter rules for permitting new sources of pollution, and requires that the state come up with a plan to bring the area back into attainment. The Clean Air Act makes clear that any county with pollution contributing to monitored violations of an air…