Today, in surrebuttal testimony submitted to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the Minnesota Department of Commerce (DoC) confirmed its original finding that Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 tar sands pipeline project is not needed and that the risks outweigh any limited benefits.
Washington, DC -- Today, the State Department granted a cross-border permit for Enbridge’s Line 67, or Alberta Clipper, tar sands pipeline expansion. Since 2015, Enbridge has already been moving an expanded amount of tar sands across the border, since the company connected Line 67 to the nearby Line 3 tar sands pipeline. This scheme allowed them to bypass State’s environmental review because Line 3’s original cross-border permit was older and did not specify a maximum capacity.
As the second comment period for the EPA’s reopened review of passenger vehicle tailpipe standards comes to a close today, a diverse coalition including the Sierra Club, Environment America, Natural Resources Defense Council, the League of Conservation Voters and the Safe Climate Campaign have submitted more than 300,000 comments from members and supporters over the two comment periods calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to maintain strong vehicle standards.
Today, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California struck down Donald Trump and Ryan Zinke’s attempt to delay a commonsense rule designed to limit methane pollution from oil and gas operations on public lands.
Washington, DC -- In a document that is expected to be officially filed in the Federal Register tomorrow, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will propose 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 challenges, as well as an attempted repeal in Congress.
Washington, DC -- Today, Donald Trump reversed President Barack Obama’s decision rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, granting TransCanada the federal cross-border permit required to construct the tar sands project into the U.S. The announcement is merely one step in the process required for construction to begin; additional state-level approvals are still required in Nebraska, where the pipeline would cross, and from other federal agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Environmental Protection Agency has made available on its website the plan for the first tranche of Volkswagen’s National Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Investment sp
Washington, DC -- Today, the Sierra Club, Lancaster Against Pipelines, Lebanon Pipeline Awareness, Allegheny Defense Project, Clean Air Council, Concerned Citizens of Lebanon County, and Heartwood filed a petition for review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline. The pipeline would clear cut its way through ten Pennsylvania counties, impacting hundreds of acres of forested land and crossing dozens of wetlands and water bodies.
Oklahoma City, OK -- Today, the Western Oklahoma District Court announced, after the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), the state agency tasked with regulating oil and gas operations, took several steps towards tackling the earthquake epidemic, that it planned to dismiss without prejudice a landmark lawsuit against three of the largest fossil fuel companies in Oklahoma. The week after the notice of intent to sue was filed, the OCC announced a volume reduction plan for several dozen disposal wells in western Oklahoma.
Harrisburg, PA -- Today, a report prepared by Key-Log Economics for the Sierra Club and Appalachian Mountain Advocates was released, detailing what it calls the true costs of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline. The proposed fracked gas pipeline was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on its former chair’s final day -- just before the commission lost its quorum.
Anchorage, AK -- Over the weekend, Hilcorp, the company responsible for an ongoing three-month long methane leak, announced that it had spilled oil in the Cook Inlet. The cause of the spill continues to be investigated, and the layer of ice over the Inlet makes it difficult to investigate and impossible to fully clean up.
This spill comes as Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are looking at ways to circumvent President Barack Obama’s designation to permanently protect the Arctic Ocean from offshore drilling.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Eight leading environmental, energy, and science organizations urged Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on Friday to uphold auto emissions standards that would deliver a new-car fleet averaging better than 50 m.p.g. in 2025.