Press Releases

MARINA, Calif.— The Trump administration today finalized a plan to open 725,500 acres of public lands and mineral estate across California’s Central Coast and the Bay Area to new oil and gas drilling. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management plan is an increase of nearly 327,000 acres from the draft proposal prepared under the Obama administration.

Washington, DC--  Today, the Trump administration announced they will steal $1.5 billion in Pentagon funds to construct 80 more miles of wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The move brings the total transferred out of the Pentagon budget for border walls to $2.5 billion.

Albany, N.Y.— The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) signed a finalized regulation today that will fully eliminate coal in New York by 2020. This regulation, years in the making and overwhelmingly supported by the public, is the first of its kind in the nation. The removal of coal-fired power is a critical step for the state to reach its goal of a 100 percent greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the electric sector by 2040.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Representative Raúl M. Grijalva and Senator Tom Udall today introduced legislation to finally reform the Mining Law of 1872. The legislation would be the first update to the mining laws since the time of pick and shovel miners.

The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign reached two major milestones this week with the announced retirements of the CD McIntosh coal plant in Lakeland, Florida and the Utah Power Plant in Magna, Utah.

RICHMOND, Virginia – The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) hosted a hearing on Dominion Energy’s refiled 2018 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) today, which laid out a long-range forecast of electricity demand and how the monopoly utility intends to meet that demand.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Democrats are holding the first hearing on the recently introduced Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The PRO Act -- led by Representatives Scott, Wilson, Levin, Jayapal, and Boyle, and Senators Murray, Brown, and Rosen -- seeks to strengthen protections for workers to organize and bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. The PRO Act is the biggest proposed overhaul of the National Labor Relations Act in over 70 years.

Tucson, AZ-- Late yesterday, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a proposal for 63 miles of new wall in Arizona-- bollard walls that would cut through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the San Pedro River, the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, and other public lands. The Department of Homeland Security’s power to waive bedrock environmental, cultural, and community public health safeguards means that wall construction through these ecologically-significant landscapes and waterways can happen without regard for the rule of law.

Monday, Lakeland Electric staff presented plans to the City Commission to retire the remaining unit at the CD McIntosh coal-burning power plant by 2024.

SEATTLE, WA—Today, Senate Bill 5116 was signed into law in Washington by Governor Jay Inslee after passing the state legislature earlier this month. This bill cuts out coal power by 2025 and requires an equitable transition to 100 percent clean electricity for the entire state by 2045.