Climate Recovery Partnership News and Events

Bald Eagles Relieved by Denied Coal Mine Expansion

Elk, lynx, black bear, and other wildlife are breathing easier thanks to the news that Regional U.S. Forest Service officials in Denver rejected a coal mining expansion that would have significantly impacted roadless wildlife habitat in western Colorado. Sierra Club, High Country Citizens Alliance, WildEarth Guardians, and Defenders of Wildlife worked with Earthjustice to file the lawsuit.

The 1,700-acre mine expansion would have set the stage for Arch Coal company to build up to 48 well pads and 6.5 miles of road into pristine roadless lands in Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forest, adjacent to the West Elk Wilderness. This area, known as Sunset Roadless Area, is home to pristine waterways, aspen stands, and bald eagles. In addition, the decision would have resulted in continued uncontrolled methane pollution from Arch’s West Elk coal mine, one of the state’s single largest carbon polluters. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times more heat-trapping ability than carbon dioxide. 

"The U.S. Forest Service did the right thing by stopping Arch Coal's expansion plans in Colorado," said Roger Singer, Sierra Club senior organizer in Colorado. "By keeping dirty coal in the ground where it belongs, Coloradans can breathe cleaner air, drink cleaner water, and enjoy hunting, fishing, and recreation in our national forests." 

The conservation groups challenged the mine expansion, approved by the Montrose-based GMUG National Forest, by filing a formal appeal to the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Region in Denver. In mid-February, the Region decided that the GMUG National Forest didn’t explain why it had weakened protections for lynx, bald eagles, and measures meant to prevent landslides. That failure violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Regional Office concluded, and required vacating the GMUG’s previous approval.

Crisis averted.

Read more here.

(Image courtesy of Richard Cleis, www.richardcleis.com.) 

Maryland Community Wants Wind Energy Now!

Though Maryland currently gets 60 percent of its power from coal, Marylanders have spoken loud and clear that they want clean energy and green jobs from offshore wind. The Sierra Club and its allies are organizing town halls around the state this month and next, working from the grassroots up to advance offshore wind in Maryland.

A broad coalition of groups including the League of Women Voters, Interfaith Power & Light, and the Club’s Maryland Chapter held a town hall meeting on offshore wind in the Hillcrest Heights Community of Prince George’s County. The predominately African American community sits just a few miles upwind of the polluting GenOn Potomac River coal plant in Virginia (recently scheduled for retirement, thanks to the Beyond Coal Campaign's tireless efforts). The event drew a diverse crowd, from Prince George’s community members to lifelong Sierra Club members, all of whom want to bring cleaner air and jobs to their community.

Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown and State Delegate Aisha Braveboy addressed the 90-person crowd and expressed their enthusiastic support for bringing offshore wind to Maryland. A panel of experts explained how transitioning from coal to offshore wind could improve public health, advance climate justice, and bring good jobs to the county.

(Image: Kari Fulton, of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, speaking about climate justice. Seated, left to right, are moderator Jesse Alexander and panelists Fred Tutman of Patuxent Riverkeeper and Delegate Aisha Braveboy.) 

30,000 Tons of Coal Burned Daily! Students Say No Way

Students and community members in the Twin Cities delivered more than 800 comments to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), urging coal plant operator Xcel Energy Inc. to invest in clean energy.

Sierra Club’s Campuses Beyond Coal student group at the University of Minnesota gathered comments on Xcel Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan, which examines where Xcel will source its energy over the next 15 years, and is reviewed by the PUC. Specifically, the students asked Xcel to:

• increase its commitment to renewable energy and energy efficiency by retiring Sherburne County (Sherco) Coal Generating Station;
• build 5,000 MW of new wind generation;
• build 1,000 MW of solar generation, and;

• achieve a 2 percent annual energy efficiency standard.

Student leaders and community members representing the Sierra Club, the Will Steger Foundation, Campuses Beyond Coal, and the Minnesota Youth Environmental Network delivered the comments together.

30,000 tons of coal (three trainloads) are burned each day at the the Sherco Coal Generating Station, which provides power to the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. The Club’s Campuses Beyond Coal campaign aims to retire the entire fleet of campus owned coal plants and end schools' dependence on the coal-generated electricity they purchase.

Campuses Beyond Coal will continue collecting students’ comments on the Integrated Resource Plan. The student group also plans to host a town hall forum in February with community members, policy leaders, and technical experts. 

(Image: Students and community members hold the 800 petitions they collected in front of the PUC building. Pictured L to R Amanda Primeau Joshua Low, Casey Dabrowski, Mike Brothers, Siri Simons. Photo courtesy of Christy Newell.)

Freezing Out Big Coal

 

Despite a sub-zero wind chill yesterday in the small Alaskan town of Sutton, 350 people attended a four-hour public hearing about Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc.’s proposed Wishbone Hill coal strip mine.

More than 200 attendees expressed opposition to the proposal, wearing their message on shirts and stickers, and waving anti-mine signs. During public testimony, 48 people spoke against the mine using arguments based upon substance and values--in contrast to representatives from the resource development council and Usibelli who predictably recited nothing but coal company talking points about jobs.

The day before the hearing, the Sierra Club hosted a press conference featuring local moms, property owners, a Chickaloon Village Traditional Council Leader, and a doctor. This was a great opportunity for the community to come together to express in a unified voice concerns about the proposed mine.

The large turnout for the hearing and community dialogue over the mine received extensive coverage from the Alaska Dispatch, Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, Alaska Public Radio, KTVA 11, and KTUU-TV.

 

“Time” to Eliminate Coal in Chicago

This week, TIME Magazine ran a lengthy feature story focused on the momentum to move beyond coal in Chicago. The article shines a spotlight on the health effects of the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants and portrays Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign as a leader in the local movement to take on these big polluters.

This spectacular coverage is a direct result of diligent efforts by our Chicago organizers and media team, who arranged for TIME reporter Bryan Walsh to visit neighborhoods affected by pollution from the plants. Read the article “The War on Coal” here (subscription required).

(Ad) Campaign Season in D.C.

Last weekend in Washington, D.C., the Sierra Club made a splash with the launch of a new advertising campaign focused on protecting families from toxic mercury pollution. Placed throughout 160 Metro train cars, the ads show images of pregnant women and point out the dangerous levels of mercury pollution that afflict over 300,000 newborns each year. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can damage the brain and nervous system and cause developmental problems, learning disabilities, and delayed onset of walking and talking for babies.

The ads come as the Obama administration is expected to issue the first-ever federal protections regarding mercury pollution from power plants, rules that would reduce mercury pollution in the United States by 90 percent. Coal-fired power plants remain one of the largest sources of pollution in our country: they pump approximately 48 tons of toxic mercury into our air each year, constituting the largest domestic source of federally unrestrained mercury pollution in the United States.

Our ad campaign was featured in media outlets Huffington Post (front page!), Greenwire/E&E News, and Politico Morning Energy.

Check out the ads here.

Sierra Club Opposes Utah Mine Expansion

On Friday, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a draft environmental impact statement recommending the lease of nearly 4,000 acres of federal land adjacent to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah for the expansion of the Alton Coal Strip Mine. Alton Coal Development already operates a strip mine in the area to feed the Intermountain Power Plant, which generates electricity for the Los Angeles power grid.

In our public response, the Sierra Club stated, “It is outrageous that the federal government is proposing to allow the destruction of public lands next to a treasured national park in order to ship coal to a dirty coal-fired power plant that feeds Los Angeles. Instead of destroying our public lands in Utah at the behest of Big Coal, the city of Los Angeles should invest in our abundant and local clean energy sources, such as solar power."

We are now mobilizing hundreds of members and concerned Utahans and Californians to attend the BLM's public hearings and submit comments online to oppose the Alton Coal Mine expansion. You can read more about the expansion from the Salt Lake Tribune and KPCW Public Radio, as well as this excellent op-ed opposing the plans.

Stay tuned for more on the fight against the mine expansion.

What’s Scarier than Mercury Pollution?

On All Hallows’ Eve, the Land of Enchantment got spooky when Sierra Club Beyond Coal activists organized a Halloween-themed “Coal is Scary” family event in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dozens of local moms, dads, and kids lined Coal Avenue (actual street name), demanding protection from toxic mercury pollution emitted by New Mexico’s gargantuan Four Corners and San Juan Generating Station coal-fired power plants.

Our activists wore fantastic costumes and drew many supportive honks and waves from passers-by. 

 

Campuses Unite for Clean Energy

Sierra Student Coalition just concluded their tremendously successful “100 Actions for Clean Energy” on campuses all over the United States. Highlights included:

• On Thursday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson met with SSC leaders from across the country (see photo) at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Students talked with Jackson about their local campaigns to retire coal-fired power plants on their campuses. Jackson agreed that the outdated U.S. fleet of coal plants must be cleaned up. She also explained her agency’s recent regulations of pollution from coal-fueled power plants and other dirty energy sources: "We’re not going to use the current economic crisis to roll back the health and safety people have come to rely on for a decade." The meeting with Jackson received great attention from Bloomberg News, Reuters, The Hill, McClatchy, IWP, EENews, and Politico.

• On Wednesday, our SSC group at the University of Kentucky delivered to the Board of Trustees over 500 signatures calling for the university board and president to phase out the two on-campus coal plants and replace them with efficient and renewable sources of energy. SSC leader Patrick Johnson addressed the board’s finance committee, and about half of the committee members joined Beyond Coal activists in applauding Johnson’s speech. Lexington’s Herald Leader devoted a story to the students’ efforts here.

• In other Wednesday news, Sierra Student Coalition members at the University of Virginia camped out in the amphitheater to protest coal burning on their campus. Joined by Sierra Club’s Virginia Chapter, they also screened the Dr. Seuss movie "The Lorax." This great event appeared in the campus newspaper.

• Students at Michigan State University held a flash mob dance and delivered a petition to university president Lou Anna Simon, asking her to retire the on-campus coal plant.

Upstream Battle for Fish Recovery Receives Support

In early August, U.S. District Court Judge James Redden ruled illegal the federal government's management plan for salmon and steelhead trout in the mighty Columbia and Snake rivers because it did not lay out a legal and scientifically accurate plan on how to recover the two fisheries or obey the Endangered Species Act. The ruling marks a huge win for wild salmon and the communities and ecosystems that depend on these magnificent fish.

Sierra Club played a key role for several years in pushing for a stronger management plan for salmon. Among other things, we organized a fisherman’s rally in Portland while the Obama administration was in town, sending a strong message that salmon jobs matter. We also conducted a joint salmon alert with American Rivers and Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, asking that the government submit a stronger salmon recovery plan to Judge Redden.

The Snake River basin is home to the largest, wildest, and best-protected salmon habitat remaining in the Lower 48 states. Sierra Club Chairman Carl Pope has called the Snake River Basin the "Noah's Ark" for salmon. If they can reach this habitat, wild salmon, now at barely 1% of historic levels, will thrive once again.

Read more on The Green Mien and Lay of the Land.

(Photo: Steelhead trout)