Press Releases

September 3, 2017

Today, on Labor Day, the Sierra Club is joining SEIU and the Fight for $15 movement at major actions across the country to highlight the need for good union jobs. The Sierra Club is proud to support these workers in their fight for a living wage on a living planet.

August 31, 2017

The plan to build a new fracked gas plant at the Asheville coal plant site at Lake Julian has been postponed by at least four years, according to a Duke Energy Progress filing today with state regulators.

August 31, 2017

Even in the midst of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey and a national emergency on the Gulf Coast that has hit communities of color and the immigrant community especially hard, House Republicans are looking to cut a billion dollars of disaster relief money in order to fund an ineffectual and disastrous border wall. At the same time, the Trump Administration announced plans yesterday to select vendors for concrete prototypes of the wall.

August 31, 2017

Even in the midst of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey and a national emergency on the Gulf Coast that has hit communities of color and the immigrant community especially hard, House Republicans are looking to cut a billion dollars of disaster relief money in order to fund an ineffectual and disastrous border wall. At the same time, the Trump Administration announced plans yesterday to select vendors for concrete prototypes of the wall.

August 30, 2017

HARRISBURG, PA -- Today, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approved water permits for Transco’s Atlantic Sunrise project, a fracked gas pipeline that will cut through hundreds of Pennsylvania streams and wetlands. The permits follow on the Department’s decision more than a year ago to grant a crucial water quality certification for this pipeline, without reviewing the pipeline’s impacts on water quality through the state permitting process.

August 30, 2017

ALBANY, NY -- Yesterday the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied a necessary permit to the Valley Lateral project, a fracked gas pipeline slated to go a new power plant owned by Competitive Power Ventures in Orange County, NY. DEC cited the recent federal court decision for the Sabal Trail pipeline holding that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) did not sufficiently consider the  climate impacts of burning the gas transported by these pipelines before approving them.

August 30, 2017

PHOENIX, AZ -- Today, Trump’s administration will announce selected vendors for construction of concrete wall prototypes for a wall along the U.S.- Mexico border. The construction threatens local communities, wildlife and wild spaces.

 

In response, Sierra Club Borderlands Organizer Dan Millis released the following statement:

 

August 30, 2017

ATLANTA, GA—Georgia Power’s owner has voted to push ahead with building Plant Vogtle, a  chaotic nuclear project beset with multi-year construction delays, bankruptcy, and a price tag that has ballooned to more than $25 billion.

 

August 30, 2017

MISSOURI -- Today, the Missouri Air Conservation Commission held a public hearing on whether to recommend  that US EPA declare the air quality in a large portion of Jefferson County, Missouri as meeting federal health-based standards for sulfur dioxide pollution. The Sierra Club strongly opposed this proposal by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources because it would allow Ameren's Rush Island plant - which emits 97% of the sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution in the area - to continue to pollute without installing modern pollution controls.

August 30, 2017

Cumberland, KY - Yesterday, media reports showed that Steven Gardner was the frontrunner for the nomination of becoming the Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. 
 
In response Tom Morris, Chair of the Cumberland, Kentucky Chapter of the Sierra Club, released the following statement: 
 
"Steven Gardner is a horrible choice for Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and we strongly reject his appointment to a position that will literally mean the