Washington, DC -- Today, Donald Trump’s nominee to the Council on Environmental Quality, Kathleen Hartnett White, was caught having plagiarized at least 18 of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Air Administrator Bill Wehrum answers to Senate questions.
Today, in a 4-3 vote, the Virginia State Water Control Board (Board) conditionally approved the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), but put off a final decision until the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) can weigh in on additional plans from the pipeline’s builders. The project has generated intense public opposition due to expectations it will irrevocably degrade waterways and evidence the pipeline’s backers used self-dealing to justify demand.
Sierra Club applauds this decision to uphold the limits on mining on public lands adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park.
If passed, this bill will certify President Trump’s proposed reduction to one of the two Utah monuments under attack.
Atlanta, GA -- Yesterday, Georgia released its draft plan for the use of the Volkswagen diesel settlement fund money. Sierra Club applauds Georgia’s plan to focus in part on zero-emission electric transit buses (“ZEBs”) in and around the Atlanta area, and encourages Georgia to maximize its investment in electric buses.
Washington, DC -- Today, the World Bank announced that it will stop financing oil and gas exploration and extraction starting in 2019.
The announcement comes as financial institutions have come under increased scrutiny over their funding of dirty fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis.
LYONS, Nebraska -- Today, the Sierra Club released a new report featuring the environmental organization’s analysis of the Nebraska Public Power District’s recently released strategic plan for achieving low cost electric service to its customers.
PORTLAND-- PacifiCorp, the largest utility in the western United States, will evaluate the true cost of its coal investments at the behest of the Oregon Public Utilities Commission (OPUC). The request for a coal analysis comes after Pacific Power’s customers, a PacifiCorp company, demanded to know if the cost of its coal fleet is in their best interest. When finished in June 2018, the report will include an evaluation of all of PacifiCorp’s coal assets, which serves customers in parts of Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and California.
Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a tolling order for the fracked gas Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Although the Natural Gas Act requires that FERC act on rehearing requests within 30 days so that parties challenging a pipeline can quickly go to court, FERC uses tolling orders to extend the deadline for it to decide the rehearing request.
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court denied DTE Energy Company’s petition to review an ongoing enforcement action regarding excessive air pollution from DTE’s Monroe coal-fired power plant. The U.S. EPA, and Sierra Club represented by Earthjustice, have pursued this action since 2010, when DTE undertook a $65 million overhaul of Unit 2 of the aging Monroe coal plant without first installing modern pollution controls to lessen the amount of toxic pollution increases, as required by the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review (NSR) program.