Press Releases

Students, community members, and environmental advocates are rallied today at Brescia University to highlight the need for stronger national conversations and commitments to protect the environment.

BONN, GERMANY -- Today, Canada and the UK announced the Powering Past Coal Alliance in partnership with 25 other governments from around the world. The alliance -- comprised of Alberta, Angola, Austria, Belgium, British Columbia, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niue, Ontario, Oregon, Portugal, Quebec, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Vancouver, and Washington state -- has announced the goal of moving OECD countries beyond coal by 2030 and by 2050 for the rest of the world. Their aim is to have 50 members by the 2018 UN climate negotiations and will be open for businesses to join.

Kentucky Utilities announced today that it will retire two of its three coal-fired units located at the E.W. Brown coal plant near Herrington Lake in Harrodsburg. Advocates including Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, and Kentucky Waterways Alliance have worked for years with local communities to curb dangerous air and water pollution from the plant.

Navajo, regional and national conservation groups today filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to continue their challenge of a 25-year extension of coal operations at Four Corners Power Plant and Navajo Mine. They appealed a decision from Arizona’s federal district court dismissing their case. The groups are challenging the Department of the Interior’s extension for violating the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

A new coalition is launching a joint effort today to urge 28 European countries to dramatically accelerate their transition away from coal and toward clean, renewable energy. With the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Finland, France, Italy and Portugal committing to closing their remaining coal plants in the coming decade, Europe Beyond Coal is working to making this transition to a healthier world as swift as possible. Leaders of a sister campaign in the US, the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, welcomed the news.

RICHMOND, VA - The Sierra Club announced today that it and the other parties have reached a settlement on Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s rate case, pending final approval from the State Corporation Commission.

TEXAS -- Luminant Energy’s announcement to close three of the nation’s largest and dirtiest coal plants in Central Texas means that more than half of the coal plants in America have retired or committed to retire since 2010.

One day after the Trump Administration formally announced its plans to rescind the Clean Power Plan, the Obama Administration's climate change policy that has been held up in federal court, Michael R. Bloomberg announced a new commitment of $64 million to support the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign and other organizations working to advance the U.S. clean energy market at the state and local level. Pollution from coal-fired power plants is the largest source of carbon emissions and kills 7,500 Americans annually, down from 13,000 when the Beyond Coal campaign began expanding in 2011 through support from Bloomberg.

Irving, TX -- The energy company Luminant today announced plans to retire its massive Monticello coal plant in January 2018. This plant, in the Mt. Pleasant community of Titus County, Texas, is currently one of the largest and dirtiest coal plants remaining anywhere in the United States.

WASHINGTON D.C.-- Today, the Trump Administration nominated coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to Deputy Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.In response, Sierra Club’s Legislative Director Melinda Pierce released the following statement: