WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ford, Volkswagen and other automakers should live up to their promises and stop trying to undo popular fuel economy and vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards, known as clean car standards, a coalition of groups said today when announcing its “Forward Not Backward” campaign.
Tulsa, OK - Today, the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down H.B. 1449, a bill that sought to implement an annual fee on electric vehicles, ruling the tax unconstitutional because the fee was untethered from a regulatory purpose and simply sought to impose a new financial burden. In August, the Sierra Club filed a state lawsuit in Oklahoma, challenging the legislature’s passage of H.B. 1449. The bill would have established, without justification, a $100 annual fee for the purchase of an electric vehicle and $30 for the purchase of a hybrid vehicle. The arbitrary fee had no connection to the actual costs and benefits of electric vehicles, requiring electric vehicle drivers to pay more than they would in gas taxes and potentially dissuading future electric vehicle buyers.
Today, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced plans to put up 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico up for oil and gas leasing. The largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in Interior’s history, the sale would include all available, unleased areas of the Gulf. The announcement comes in the wake of an oil spill that spilled an estimated 16,000 barrels into the Gulf, making it the largest Gulf oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
A recent poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research in Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia found overwhelming support for clean cars standards. While the Trump administration has opened the federal fuel efficiency standards for review, a wide majority of those states’ residents support requiring the auto industry to continue meeting increased fuel efficiency standards that save drivers money at the pump.
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, the Sierra Club, Northern Plains Resource Council, Bold Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a federal lawsuit in Montana, challenging the State Department’s border-crossing permit and related environmental reviews and approvals for the Keystone XL pipeline.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Yesterday, the Auto Alliance, a trade association representing Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen AG, and eight other automakers sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt requesting the withdrawal of an Obama administration decision to lock in vehicle emission rules through 2025.
This letter follows an earlier letter sent by the Auto Alliance asking Trump to roll back the same standards.
Washington, DC -- Today, just after Donald Trump signed an executive order meant to undermine U.S. climate policy, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke signed a Secretarial Order cancelling the moratorium on new and modified coal leasing on public lands. The temporary pause was put in place by the Obama Administration in 2016 as taxpayers were losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year while public lands, critical water resources, and the climate were being threatened and damaged.