Minneapolis, MN -- Today, the Minnesota Department of Commerce released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Enbridge’s Line 3 Pipeline. The proposed tar sands pipeline has faced widespread backlash from communities for the proposed reroute and expansion of a section of the pipeline through the Mississippi headwaters and treaty protected wild rice waters and issues with abandonment of the aging current-Line 3 section.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Today the Sierra Club announced Lena Moffitt as the new director of the organization’s Our Wild America campaign. The campaign will continue to build on the organization’s 125-year history of protecting natural resources and public lands by organizing grassroots activists to protect special places from fossil fuel extraction, advocating for responsible wildlife and lands management, and working to connect people across the country with the great outdoors.
WASHINGTON, DC - As reported by POLITICO Pro, scientists resigned today from an EPA advisory panel in protest of Administrator Scott Pruitt’s recent decision not to reappoint nine members of the Board of Scientific Counselors, a panel of outside experts that advise EPA on research and development issues.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Arctic Council, a coalition of eight countries, released a declaration that among other things, calls for climate action and notes the entry into force of the Paris Climate Accord. The United States has chaired the Council for the past two years, and now hands that role to Finland.
Hartford, CT--The Connecticut Siting Council voted today to approve a draft order denying the siting of a proposed 550 MW natural gas power plant in Killingly, Connecticut. The Council found that plant is not needed for energy reliability in Connecticut or the broader New England region.
Annapolis, M.D. —The Public Service Commission (PSC) granted Skipjack Offshore Energy and U.S. Wind offshore wind renewable energy credits (ORECs) today enabling them to move forward with their proposals to build 368 megawatts of offshore wind, located off the coast of Ocean City and and Delaware, and creating 9,700 jobs in the process. The approval of these projects puts Maryland in the running for the nation’s largest offshore wind farms.
Washington, DC -- Today, Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to lead a commission investigating Trump’s repeatedly disproven assertion of the existence of voter fraud. Despite no evidence, Trump has claimed that three to five million Americans voted illegally in the 2016 election, a claim that has been categorically proven to be untrue.
CHARLESTON, WV – Today, West Virginia committed to a schedule for treating mining pollution generated from seven former mine sites now owned and managed by the WV Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP).
Washington, DC -- Today, the U.S. Senate defeated a vote that would have paved the way for revoking the Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste prevention rule, a standard which would prevent the leaking and flaring of methane from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands. Senator Michael Bennet voted against the bill while Senator Cory Gardner voted in favor of nullifying the rule.
Washington, DC -- Today, the U.S. Senate defeated a vote that would have paved the way for revoking the Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste prevention rule, a standard which would prevent the leaking and flaring of methane from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands. Senator John McCain voted against the bill while Senator Jeff Flake voted in favor of nullifying the rule.
In response, Sierra Club Arizona Chapter Director Sandy Bahr released the following statement: