New Orleans, LA -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must reject Louisiana’s Regional Haze plan if it is not fundamentally changed to comply with the Clean Air Act. The plan is insufficient in many ways, including a failure to review environmental justice impacts for communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution. That is the message Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) sent to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and EPA on Monday as the public comment period for the draft plan expired.
Sierra Club and multiple partners in South Carolina have reached a settlement agreement that cuts Dominion Energy’s request to raise customers’ rates by 87 percent and gains a commitment from Dominion not to seek additional rate increases until January 2024 at the earliest.
Today, DTE Energy filed its electric and gas energy efficiency (referred to in Michigan as “energy waste reduction”) plans with the Michigan Public Service Commission to reduce energy waste in its service territory. Through the process mandated by state law, Michigan utilities must file plans to allocate resources that improve energy efficiency and reduce wasted electricity in their service territory. DTE is required to deliver customers at least 2% energy savings annually, following the outcome of their most recent Integrated Resource Plan. As Michigan’s largest utility, DTE serves millions of customers and how it funds and prioritizes energy efficiency spending could have huge impacts on the communities affected.
Washington, DC -- Today the Supreme Court ruled that private companies can take state land for new fracked gas pipelines, which likely speeds the construction of a controversial project that threatens the Potomac River.
Washington, DC -- Today, the Supreme Court ruled that private companies can take state land for new fracked gas pipelines, likely speeding the construction of the controversial PennEast pipeline project.
ST. PAUL -- Earlier today, Xcel Energy announced that it will drop its plans to construct a new 800 MW fossil gas plant, known as the Sherco combined cycle gas plant. Xcel included the gas plant in their most recent proposed integrated resource plan (IRP), filed in June 2020.
Washington, DC -- Today, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution that would reinstate the Environmental Protection Agency's 2016 methane pollution safeguards for the oil and gas industry. The Senate passed a similar resolution in April.
San Francisco, Calif. — Today, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) ordered electricity providers to build 11,500 megawatts (MW) of new zero-emission electricity resources to come online between 2023-2026. This vote comes after strong public support for removing fossil fuels from the order, with hundreds of written public comments and voicemails urging the Commission to require new resources to be zero-emission only.
Bozeman, Mont.– Citing the risk to other imperiled animals, Earthjustice sent a notice of intent to sue the state of Montana today for implementing new laws permitting snaring of wolves and expanding trapping seasons to reduce the wolf population.
CHARLESTON -- Today, the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy sent a notice of intent to sue (NOI) to the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement (OSMRE). The notice alleges that OSMRE has failed to take action under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) to clarify the options available to community members who believe their drinking water has been harmed by coal mining.
SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the Sierra Club and its law firm Gutride Safier LLP jointly announced the filing of lawsuits against the Coca-Cola Company (bottler of Dasani), BlueTriton Brands (bottler of Arrowhead, Poland Spring, Deer Park, and Ozarka), and Niagara Bottling (bottler of Niagara and store brands) for misleading consumers by labeling their plastic bottles as “100% Recyclable.” The bottle labels are made of biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP), or “number 5 plastic,” which is not recyclable. In addition, while the bottles themselves are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or “number 1 plastic,” at least 28% of PET plastic that is deposited for recycling is unrecyclable due to contamination and processing loss. Most plastic bottles end up in landfills, incinerators, the ocean, rivers, or littered across the landscape.
JACKSON, MS -- Yesterday, the Sierra Club, with assistance from Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., filed comments with the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MS PSC) in Mississippi Power’s 2021 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) demonstrating the utility’s IRP is not a useful document and did not incorporate stakeholder involvement as the Commission intended.