Press Releases

Sierra Club Statement on Trump Administration’s Wildland Firefighting Announcement

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, the Trump administration announced their next steps in a sweeping reorganization of the country’s wildland firefighting system.

Sierra Club Nebraska Statement on Forced Outage at Aging OPPD Coal Plant

OMAHA, Neb. — Reports of a steam tube failure at OPPD’s North Omaha coal plant once again raise reliability, health, and safety concerns. As a result of the failure, one of the two remaining coal units was taken offline last week. The forced outage follows a recent OPPD board vote to extend the life of the coal-fired power plant, whose remaining units are more than 60 years old. The average life expectancy of a coal plant is approximately 40 years.

Environmental “Protection” Agency to Stop Considering Health Impacts of Pollution

Washington, D.C. - Today, the New York Times reported that the Environmental Protection Agency would cease to calculate the negative health impacts of air pollution in its future rulemaking process and only consider industry costs.

EPA Rejects Colorado’s Regional Haze Plan, Including Coal Plant Retirement Dates

The EPA claims the voluntary coal plant retirements included in the state’s plan would harm grid reliability, but this is incorrect because the state and the utilities have long planned to retire the coal plants and to replace their generation with cheaper and cleaner resources.

Environmental Groups Demand PSC Reconsider Data Center Energy Plan Overreach

ATLANTA - Today, environmental groups demanded the Georgia Public Service Commission reconsider Georgia Power’s plan to build the most expensive gas plants in the nation.

New data center rate structure risks Wisconsinites picking up the bill for Big Tech

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) is considering a new rate structure on data centers that favors profits and protections for Big Tech companies and We Energies, putting Wisconsinites at risk to subsidize the infrastructure costs needed for these billion-dollar companies to run their data centers.

Sierra Club WV Hosts First “Quilting for Community” Art and Educational Event at The Co-Op

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.  – On Wednesday, January 7, Sierra Club West Virginia, alongside local quilter CJ Sews, launched the “Quilting for Community” project at Morgantown art gallery The Co-Op. Over 55 people attended the Kick-Off, the first of many scheduled bi-weekly communal quilting events throughout January and February.

Trump Cowers From Global Leadership

Washington, DC – Tonight, Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Loren Blackford released the following statement:

EPA to Delay Air Clean Up Plans for National Parks, Again

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would once again delay enforcement of regional haze guidelines and give states a three year extension to submit plans to clean up harmful air pollution at national parks and improve public health. 

Donald Trump Illegally Extends Life of the Coal-Fired Craig Unit 1, Driving Up Electricity Bills and Increasing Pollution

DENVER— Yesterday, the Trump administration issued an “emergency” order to force utilities to operate Craig Unit 1 against their will, past the Dec. 31 retirement deadline that the utilities had decided upon and their state regulators had approved. Trump’s actions to prop up an uneconomic coal plant will drive up the cost of electricity in Colorado and throughout the West.  Craig Unit 1 is owned by three Colorado utilities–Tri-State, Xcel, and PRPA–along with PacifiCorp and Salt River Power.