Philadelphia, PA -- Today, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the EPA’s national action plan on PFAS. PFAS chemicals are widely detected in drinking water and toxic at very low levels. However they are currently exempted from most environmental safeguards. Still, EPA has the power to mandate water testing, stop on-going pollution, and clean up contaminated places.
Washington, D.C.– Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed the Every Kid Outdoors Act as part of the Natural Resources Management Act (S. 47). The bill now moves on to the House of Representative for House consideration.
Tomorrow at 10:00 am at the Riverfront Community Center, the EPA Region 7 office is hosting a press conference in Leavenworth, Kansas where they will announce their PFAS national action plan.
Today, Diné (Navajo) community organizations Tó Nizhóni Ání and Black Mesa Water Coalition, along with Sierra Club, filed a notice of intent (NOI) to sue Peabody Western Coal Company, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy, for failing to disclose the upcoming closure of its Kayenta coal mine in its permit renewal application. The 44,000-acre Kayenta coal mine is on track to end operations when the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) -- the mine’s only customer -- closes on December 22, 2019.
Tomorrow at 10 am at the Fountain City Council, the EPA is hosting a community meeting in Fountain, Colorado where they will announce their PFAS national action plan.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the Natural Resources Management Act (S. 47). The bill establishes permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, includes the Every Kid Outdoors Act, and protects more than two million acres of public land, including the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Emery County and Yellowstone Gateway, and the Methow Headwaters Withdrawal. It also creates a new National Monument honoring civil rights icon Medgar Evers in Mississippi. The bill now heads to the House, which is expected to consider the measure soon.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Senator Mitch McConnell announced that, in a cynical political ploy, he will rush a vote on the Green New Deal resolution proposed by Senator Markey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rather than allowing it to go through the hearings and legislative process it was intended to have. This news comes after McConnell pushed to keep a costly and unreliable coal plant open, at the expense of his own constituents.
Using documents produced by a Sierra Club FOIA, E&E reported today that Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler worried about the optics of a meeting with Peabody Energy Corp. The coal company had invited Wheeler to speak at a Washington Coal Club luncheon. In 2018, Peabody spent $1,650,000 lobbying for policies that would make coal more profitable to produce including rolling back pollution protections.
Oak Creek, WI – Yesterday, over 150 people attending the hearing expressed opposition against several provisions of We Energies’ water discharge draft permit, including a proposed mercury variance that would allow We Energies to discharge mercury into Lake Michigan at up to three times the safe standard. The permit as written would also allow We Energies to continue a dirty, outdated process for treating coal ash until 2023, the latest possible date under federal EPA rules. 100 percent of the spoken comments were in opposition to the permit as written.
Yesterday, the Sierra Club launched their #TellTheTruthTECO campaign, designed to hold the Tampa Electric Company (TECO) accountable for doubling down on climate-disrupting fossil fuels like coal and gas, even as they prepare for the effects of climate change