Press Releases

The Sierra Club and Chesapeake Climate Action Network to host a telepresser with energy experts, advocates, and officials on the states, cities, and utilities looking to transition to clean energy.

At today’s shareholder meeting for Consumers Energy, advocates from across the state raised serious concerns about the utilities plans for the J.H. Campbell Coal Plant in West Olive. Addressing Consumers CEO Patti Poppe directly the group delivered petitions with 1274 signatures from 353 different cities, all calling for a total transition from coal to clean energy by 2030, with targets for Units 1 and 2 in 2023 and 3 in 2030. The financial burden of the plant and its impacts on the health of Michigan families have encouraged Consumers to commit to stop burning coal by 2040 but petition signers and speakers at the meeting found this commitment underwhelming.

RICHMOND, VA--Today, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed the state budget with two environmentally harmful budget items. These items target interstate climate compacts, including the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), and the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI). One item would prohibit the state from becoming a member of RGGI, a regional carbon pollution reduction program, pulling up short the state’s work to act on climate.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Energy and Natural Resources Committee Member Senator Maria Cantwell and House Natural Resources Committee Member Representative Ruben Gallego today introduced the Roadless Area Conservation Act. The bill would permanently codify the Roadless Rule and strengthen protections for 58.5 million acres of pristine National Forest System lands across 39 states from logging and road building. Despite the Roadless Rule’s many successes and the millions of taxpayer dollars it saves, there have been multiple Congressional attempts to strip Roadless Rule protections from millions of acres of public lands. This effort by Representative Gallego and Senator Cantwell will ensure pristine National Forests for generations to come.

Today, David Bernhardt’s Department of the Interior released its final plan to roll back safety standards for offshore drilling. The blowout preventer rule was put in place by the Obama administration in response to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 people and spilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On the heels of his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Mueller report on the Trump Administration’s attempts to obstruct justice, today Attorney General William Barr declined to show up for the House Judiciary Committee hearing. In yesterday’s Senate hearing, Barr acknowledged that he had barely read the report before releasing his summary. Report author, Robert Mueller, in a letter to Barr, took issue with Barr’s summary stating that Barr’s summary misreported the findings and confused the nation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the House of Representatives -- led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone and Select Committee Chair Kathy Castor -- passed H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act. This is the first piece of climate legislation the House has passed in nearly 10 years, and the bill passed with bipartisan support.

Today, clean energy groups Sierra Club, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, and Union of Concerned Scientists appealed the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s (PUC) approval to build the Nemadji Trail Energy Center gas power plant proposed for Superior, Wisconsin.

Tomorrow, the U.S. House of Representatives -- led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Select Committee Chair Kathy Castor --will vote on the first piece of major climate legislation in nearly 10 years. The bill, H.R. 9 or the Climate Action Now Act, will reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the landmark Paris Agreement by prohibiting the Trump administration from spending any money on withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and requiring the administration to produce a plan for meeting our international commitments.

Salt Lake City, UT-- The non-partisan environmental group today released a comprehensive environmentally focused review of the 2019 Utah State Legislative Session. The Utah Sierra Club considered committee and floor votes for the year’s top 20 bills, reflecting a range of conservation issues including reduction of plastics, nuclear waste, water conservation, public lands, and climate change. Unfortunately, averages for both chambers were failing. The Senate had an average of 54.14% and the House had an average of 51.55%.