SAINT PAUL, MN -- Today, opponents of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline filed multiple lawsuits with the Court of Appeals challenging the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approval of the project. On June 28, the PUC approved Enbridge’s proposal to build a new Line 3 pipeline, which would run through Northern Minnesota and double the amount of oil running through the pipeline.
the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board (Board) delayed a vote on a crucial permit for a fracked gas compressor station
Harrisburg, PA -- Yesterday Pennsylvania, along with a bipartisan group of governors from eight other states and the Mayor of Washington DC, announced a plan to design a regional policy to limit climate disrupting carbon pollution from the transportation sector. The states are members of the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI), which was formed in 2010 and recently completed a series of listening sessions across the region to hear directly from stakeholders and the public.
Advocates working to protect public health and stop climate change attended a public hearing on changes to a DTE Energy coal plant with risk adversely affecting health.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Sierra Club filed a motion at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) for Commissioner Bernard McNamee to recuse himself from two dockets at the Commission. The motion, which Sierra Club filed with Union of Concerned Scientists, Natural Resources Defense Council, and EarthJustice, argues McNamee should not be involved in decisions about whether changes are needed to ensure grid reliability and resilience. McNamee should recuse himself because his prior work on two coal bailout proposals initiated by the Trump administration, including the Grid Resiliency Pricing Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “DOE NOPR”), create an unacceptable risk that he has already made up his mind on the issues underlying these dockets. FERC could make a decision on these matters early next year.
On the heels of the widely publicized release of a report on pervasive groundwater contamination at Illinois’ coal ash sites, and inaction from Governor Rauner’s Illinois EPA, Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against Texas-based Vistra Energy for ongoing and repeated violations of Illinois water quality standards at three of its Illinois coal plants.
The public comment period closed last night at midnight on EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s proposal to gut key safeguards limiting methane pollution from new oil and gas operations.
D.C. Council unanimously approves clean energy bill, commits to power the district entirely with renewable electricity by 2032
The Roanoke Times reported that Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC has admitted for the first time that their 300 mile, $4.6 billion pipeline may never be built, a stunning departure from the brave face the company has put forward publicly
Trenton, New Jersey -- Governor Murphy announced his plan to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative today, a multi-state program establishing limits on carbon pollution from the region’s power plants. The announcement comes after his January 2018 Executive Order directing the administration to re-enter the program. New Jersey is proposing to enter the regional program starting at 18 million tons/CO2 per year. Current states included in RGGI are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Virginia and New Jersey both now plan to participate.