Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt today continued their capitulation to the coal industry at the expense of the health of our families. Pruitt’s decision to target the new clean water protections is another heartless ploy by the Trump administration scrap progress on protecting our families from toxic coal ash.
A coalition of national conservation groups including Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and Animal Legal Defense Fund filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today challenging border wall construction activities that threaten wildlife and public lands in San Diego and Imperial Valley, California.
Houston, TX -- Today, the Houston Chronicle reported that Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt is set to close EPA’s Region 6 Environmental Services Laboratory. The majority of the lab’s work has been concentrated on the dozens of Superfund sites in the region, 13 of which flooded and released toxic chemicals when Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston. it has doubled as a staging area for EPA staff.
St. Petersburg, FL -- Communities spanning the entire state of Florida, in Puerto Rico, in Georgia and the Carolinas, and throughout the Caribbean have suffered through Hurricane Irma just weeks after unprecedented devastation throughout the Gulf from Hurricane Harvey.
EIA is finally recognizing coal use has peaked globally, but it still misses the tectonic coal to clean energy revolution happening here in the United States. Later this year we will celebrate a major milestone when half the US coal fleet that was operating in 2009 will have retired or be announced to retire.
WASHINGTON D.C.-- Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an omnibus bill to address funding the government through next year. Among the many ways it puts American families and their well-being at risk, the deal slashes funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior.
In response, Sierra Club’s Associate Legislative Director Kirin Kennedy released the following statement:
Today as a part of National Drive Electric Week, Mayors Joseph Petty of Worcester, Donna Holaday of Newburyport, William Martin of Greenfield, and David Narkewicz of Northampton and the Sierra Club sent a letter to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation signed by 15 other Mayors, including Boston’s Mayor Walsh, urging the DOT to commit to 100% zero emission buses by 2030.
WEST TRENTON, N.J. -- Today, Governors Tom Wolf (PA), Andrew Cuomo (NY), and John Carney (DE), commissioners of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), voted to direct the executive director to prepare a revised set of draft regulations on fracking within the Delaware River Basin. This would start the process of enacting a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River watershed, including 42 counties across Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, an area that provides drinking water for more than 15 million people.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Yesterday, Donald Trump’s EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, delayed deadlines for crucial clean water protections against coal sludge being dumped into America’s waterways by two years - putting the health of thousands of communities living near coal-fired power plants at risk.
Washington, DC -- Late yesterday, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida called out those who continue to deny climate change despite hurricanes ravaging our coastal states and wildfires tearing through the West. “It’s denying reality,” Nelson said. “You can call it politics or whatever, but the Earth is getting hotter. This storm (Irma) is another reminder of what we’re going to have to deal with in the future.”