Virginia ratepayers could pay as much as $2.3 billion for Dominion’s planned Atlantic Coast Pipeline, according to evidence the State Corporation Commission accepted for consideration after the SCC rejected Dominion’s request to strike the testimony of an expert.
Washington, DC -- Today, Mayor Bowser, following the Council of the District of Columbia’s unanimous support for the legislation, signed the Fair Elections Act of 2017. This bill incentivizes those seeking political office to reject corporate contributions in favor of contributions from District residents by providing a five-to-one match for small individual campaign contributions available only for those only accepting donations from individuals.
In response, Rebekah Whilden, Organizer, Sierra Club DC Chapter, released the following statement:
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that he is severely weakening the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review (NSR) program for air pollution, which will make it possible for industrial polluters to avoid installing state-of-the-art, cost-effective pollution controls. The Clean Air Act, and EPA’s NSR regulations, require major sources of air pollution, like dirty coal burning power plants, to add modern pollution controls when they undertake projects that produce an increase in air pollution. Pruitt’s announcement today opens a major loophole in those requirements by allowing polluting facilities to claim that planned decreases in pollution will offset any immediate increase in pollution, while abandoning the procedures by which EPA has, in the past, ensured that such claims are accurate and enforceable. The practical result will be an increase in air pollution, with especially harmful impacts in the communities that surround major industrial facilities.
Trump spews lies about border communities in San Diego.
A new report released today by Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of New York further highlights the serious threat fracking poses to public health, noting that, “our examination…uncovered no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on his agency’s proposed budget. Sec. Zinke was visibly angered by Congressional questioning of agency decisions, including rollbacks of national monument protections and expensive private flights, even going so far as to challenge Senators to call his bluffs.
Today, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told Bloomberg News that he does not plan to extend clean car standards implemented by the Obama administration past 2025. He also suggested that he would not allow California to issue their own, stricter standards to manage air quality within the state, though he’d previously claimed that the state’s waiver to do so would be protected.
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is giving his 200th #TimetoWakeUp speech on the urgency of tackling the climate crisis in the United States Senate.
Washington, DC -- Today, the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, choosing to replace him with Koch Brothers backed CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
Today Ryan Zinke’s Department of the Interior is wrapping up oil and gas leasing on public lands near the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Though the administration walked back the initial leasing proposal, which also included areas near Yellowstone National Park, today’s leases remain a threat to protected public lands and big game herds in an area prized for its elk.