Despite mounting public opposition from a broad coalition of Indigenous and environmental groups, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo renewed their participation in a set of loans totaling $1.5 billion to TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Yesterday, during EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s congressional hearing, Pruitt announced the EPA will be partnering with Toyota on an operational review. Toyota’s vehicles are regulated by the EPA under vehicle emission standards (clean car standards). Toyota is currently urging the EPA to weaken these standards. In March of 2003, the EPA reached a settlement with Toyota for failing to disclosure information about a faulty part that increased ozone pollution in 2.2 million vehicles sold in the U.S.
In a notice to be published to the Federal Register tomorrow, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will finalize a one-year delay of a rule designed to limit methane pollution from oil and gas operations on public lands. The rule has already withstood legal attack from industry, as well as an attempted repeal in Congress.
Today, the American Petroleum Institute (API) is touting its new, voluntary program for its members to cut methane emissions from oil and gas facilities. Meanwhile, API is a driving force behind the Trump administration’s push to roll back common sense regulations that would limit methane pollution and other danger emissions from new oil and gas facilities and those on public lands.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Scott Pruitt’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a hearing for the reconsideration -- with intent to repeal -- pollution limits from glider kit trucks (freight trucks with a used engine installed in an otherwise new frame). The repeal would declassify "glider kits" as new vehicles or engines, making them no longer subject to air pollution control requirements. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced his intent to revisit the glider loophole that was just closed in August of 2016.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, North Carolina applied for funding to invest in clean transportation solutions from the Volkswagen dieselgate settlement funds. With North Carolina’s application, all 50 states plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico have applied for these funds one day ahead of the December 1 deadline.
Atlanta, GA -- Yesterday, the Atlanta City Council passed ordinance 17-0-1654, which will require all new residential homes and public parking facilities to install the wiring to accommodate the possibility of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. The ordinance requires that 20 percent of the spaces in all new commercial and multi-family parking structures and all new residential homes be EV-ready to make it easier for future residents to install EV charging stations.
Today, 13 environmental groups working on clean transportation solutions sent a letter to the United States Postal Service (USPS) urging them to select plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) for the next generation of delivery trucks. A switch to electric delivery trucks will both benefit the health of employees and neighborhood residents by reducing their exposure to harmful emissions, and will cut down on fuel and maintenance costs while helping the Postal Service meet its sustainability goals.
Lincoln, NE -- The Nebraska Public Service Commission’s (PSC) decision today on the route permit for the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is a serious setback for TransCanada, the company behind the proposed project. The PSC rejected TransCanada’s preferred route, instead approving a different path that the company has said would be unworkable.
Lincoln, NE -- Today, the Nebraska Public Service Commission rejected TransCanada’s preferred route for the Keystone XL pipeline, instead granting a conditional approval along a route the company claimed would be unworkable. The permit would allow TransCanada to build the tar sands pipeline partly along the route of an existing pipeline, Keystone I, rather than entirely along its preferred route.
As evidentiary hearings on Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 tar sands pipeline close today, attorneys and expert witnesses gathered to discuss the impacts the pipeline would have on Minnesota and the climate.
Ahead of the Nebraska Public Service Commission’s announcement on Monday whether or not to allow TransCanada to build its proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline through the state, TransCanada’s original Keystone pipeline has sprung yet another leak in South Dakota. Crews are currently working to clean up the spill, which leaked at least 210,000 gallons of oil into the surrounding area.