Navajo, regional and national conservation groups today filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to continue their challenge of a 25-year extension of coal operations at Four Corners Power Plant and Navajo Mine. They appealed a decision from Arizona’s federal district court dismissing their case. The groups are challenging the Department of the Interior’s extension for violating the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.
A new coalition is launching a joint effort today to urge 28 European countries to dramatically accelerate their transition away from coal and toward clean, renewable energy. With the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland, France, Italy and Portugal committing to closing their remaining coal plants in the coming decade, Europe Beyond Coal is working to making this transition to a healthier world as swift as possible. Leaders of a sister campaign in the US, the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, welcomed the news.
RICHMOND, VA - The Sierra Club announced today that it and the other parties have reached a settlement on Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s rate case, pending final approval from the State Corporation Commission.
TEXAS -- Luminant Energy’s announcement to close three of the nation’s largest and dirtiest coal plants in Central Texas means that more than half of the coal plants in America have retired or committed to retire since 2010.
One day after the Trump Administration formally announced its plans to rescind the Clean Power Plan, the Obama Administration's climate change policy that has been held up in federal court, Michael R. Bloomberg announced a new commitment of $64 million to support the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign and other organizations working to advance the U.S. clean energy market at the state and local level. Pollution from coal-fired power plants is the largest source of carbon emissions and kills 7,500 Americans annually, down from 13,000 when the Beyond Coal campaign began expanding in 2011 through support from Bloomberg.
Irving, TX -- The energy company Luminant today announced plans to retire its massive Monticello coal plant in January 2018. This plant, in the Mt. Pleasant community of Titus County, Texas, is currently one of the largest and dirtiest coal plants remaining anywhere in the United States.
WASHINGTON D.C.-- Today, the Trump Administration nominated coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In response, Sierra Club’s Legislative Director Melinda Pierce released the following statement:
Instead of protecting public health and the environment, a new rule will only serve the coal industry, community members and advocates say. After the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) unreasonable request to delay the long overdue deadline for the final Texas Regional Haze plan, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is doubling down and putting the health of Texas and Oklahoma’s families and public lands at risk for the benefit of Texas coal plants. While claiming to address sulfur dioxide pollution from Texas coal plants, the final rule issued by EPA today actually allows more pollution from these plants than they produced in 2016. By failing to finalize and implement the 2016 proposed plan that required actual pollution reductions in Texas, Administrator Pruitt is putting the interests of polluters over public health in Texas, Oklahoma and across the central United States.
Longview, Washington – The Washington Department of Ecology denied a necessary water quality permit for the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminals coal export facility in Longview today, citing the project’s negative impacts on climate, clean air and water. Absent a successful legal challenge to the decision, the denial renders the project formally dead. The decision can be found here: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/fed-permit/pdf/201001225WQC15417.pdf
North Carolina could retire every coal plant in the state, never build another gas plant, and still reliably meet people’s energy needs through clean, renewable sources, according an analysis commissioned by the Sierra Club.
Citing a lack of economic viability, a city-owned electric utility in Mississippi will close the Henderson Station coal plant in May 2018. The announcement highlights that consumers are continuing to choose clean energy as a superior alternative to dirty, expensive coal-fired electric power plants.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE), the largest utility in Washington State, reached a proposed settlement today to pay down all of its debts on Colstrip by 2027. Initially the utility had planned to pay off the coal plant in 2045, but as coal continues to get more expensive compared to cleaner alternatives like solar, wind and energy efficiency, holding onto coal assets is getting harder to justify. The proposal is part of PSE's rate case process and still needs approval of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.