Climate Recovery Partnership News and Events

Sierra Club Gears Up Stop Polluters' Campaign to Defend the EPA

Over the past few months, Sierra Club members and supporters generated more than 130,000 actions to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations of mercury, soot, and smog from big polluters which can lead to adverse health effects and even death. These actions range from generating letters expressing support of EPA standards to attending regional EPA hearings and collecting signatures for Sierra Club’s “White House Support EPA Petition.”

The EPA issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule to cut mercury and other toxic air pollutants from power plants. The EPA estimates that each year this standard will reduce mercury from power plants by 91 percent, prevent 12,200 trips to the hospital, and save 17,000 lives once it is implemented. The Mercury and Air Toxics Rule will extensively cut toxic air pollutants which are linked to cancer, heart disease, neurological damage, birth defects, asthma attacks, and even premature death.

(Photo: Sierra Club activists attend an EPA hearing in Georgia. Courtesy of Sean Suddes.)

A Valentine for Resilient Habitats

On February 14, the Sierra Club scored a major victory in its campaign to restore wetlands in Florida when the National Park Service gave the final go-ahead on a plan to build 5.5 miles of bridges over Tamiami Trail to restore fresh water flow into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. The approved project expands on the one-mile bridge now under construction, and will provide “unconstrained flow patterns” as well as “more than five times the connectivity between marshes.” Furthermore, under this expanded plan, ten of the historical sloughs that once flowed unobstructed would be reconnected.

Miami Businessman Frank Jaudon built the trail (road) across the Everglades in 1928, primarily to drain land and provide access for development. The following year, however, the Great Depression scuttled his plans. Yet the lasting legacy of road remains, continuing to cut off water flow to the area’s wetlands. The Sierra Club, which has long advocated for the bridging of Tamiami Trail, applauds the expanded bridge plan and looks forward to starting construction.

The Club led a huge effort throughout the long process to securing the bridges. Specifically, the Club sponsored University of Miami Geological Sciences Chair Hal Wanless’ presentation to the Everglades Coalition on the need for a skyway to restore flow through the Everglades, not only to replenish the wetland but also to hold back the surge of sea level rise. Sierra Club members and volunteers participated in dozens of calls with the Everglades Coalition and Everglades Foundation-funded groups to agree on positions, write comment letters, and seek a better decision from the Army Corps of Engineers (who had proposed an unsound, expensive bridge system). The Sierra Club also held meetings with private bridge engineers, designers, contractors, and national park scientists, generating favorable editorials in the Miami Herald.

The approved bridge project is strongly backed by the Sierra Club-led Everglades Skyway Coalition, whose members include municipalities, businesses, civic groups, and environmental organizations. In addition to the environmental benefits of the project, the bridge construction will generate more than 7,100 jobs.

Earlier this year, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced his commitment to the expanded bridge plan in saying, “It will be one of my highest priorities as Secretary.”

View the full text of Secretary Salazar’s speech here.

Rejected: Air Permit for Georgia Coal Plant

A proposed 850 MW coal-fired power plant in Sandersville, Georgia has been slowed due to a collaborative effort supported by Sierra Club's Georgia Chapter. Thanks to fantastic expert testimony, strong litigation, and prominent local support, the Administrative Law Judge denied the air permit sought by the plant’s developers, Power4Georgians, LLC.

GreenLaw and the Southern Environmental Law Center challenged the air permit on behalf of the Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter, Fall-line Alliance for a Clean Environment, Ogeechee Riverkeeper, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. As a coalition, the Sierra Club and its partners engaged affected communities and constituencies who care about clean air and water to attend public hearings and the trial itself. The coalition recruited enough concerned citizens to lop side the courtroom and display a true feeling of local trepidation towards the proposed coal plant.

The Judge found the permit failed to set limits on pollutants and emissions such as sulfuric acid and particulate matter, violating the Clean Air Act.

Currently, the coalition hopes the Environmental Protection Division seizes this opportunity to reject the state air quality permit once and for all.

To learn more, visit these sites:

• Bloomberg News
• GreenLaw

EPA Vetoes One of Largest Mountaintop Removal Mines Proposed for Appalachia

For the first time in its history, the Environmental Protection Agency revoked an issued permit to discharge waste generated by mountain top removal from Arch Coal’s Spruce Mine Number 1. This was one of the largest mountaintop removal mines ever proposed in Appalachia from the industry’s leading coal producer. The Sierra Club prevailed having worked diligently to prevent this hazardous project over the past twelve years alongside multiple partner organizations. Sierra Club activists generated 30,000 public comments nationwide urging the EPA to veto permitting for the mine. If permitted, Spruce Mine Number 1 would have violated the Clean Water Act, endangering the regional water supply and public health of surrounding communities and it would have leveled more than 2,000 acres of mountains and destroyed more than seven miles of streams.

For more information please visit Sierra Club's Mountaintop Removal Mining website.

(Photo: Aeriel shot of Spruce Mine number 1 courtesy of Center for Environment, Commerce, & Energy.)

Clean Energy Victory in Kentucky!

After a four-year battle, East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) has abandoned plans for the new J.K. Smith coal-fired power plant in Clark County, Kentucky. Instead, EKPC has committed to contribute $125,000 towards a collaborative effort to evaluate and recommend new energy efficiency and renewable energy programs and options. The coal-fired Smith project faced a remarkable and sustained opposition campaign led by the Sierra Club, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, and others. The Club and its allies challenged the air permit, issued reports about jobs and clean energy, intervened in PSC proceedings, and even organized EKPC customers to run for the cooperative’s board.

Now it is time for phase two: the Sierra Club will be working with EKPC to develop more energy-efficient and renewable projects to move forward to a clean energy future for all Kentuckians.

More here

Dam Proposal Blocked in Arkansas

A proposal to dam Lee Creek in Arkansas has been blocked thanks to efforts by Sierra Club and other environmental organizations. Lee Creek flows through the Ozark Mountains of NW Arkansas and NE Oklahoma and a segment of it flows through Devil's Den State Park in Arkansas. Along with our allies, we argued that the dam would be unnecessary and environmentally destructive and showed that there are other economically viable water supply sources. (Photo courtesy of Lori Ransom.)

UNC-Chapel Hill Plans to Go Off Coal

Influenced by Sierra Club's campaign to kick coal off campuses, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will accelerate its conversion to cleaner fuels and fuel mixes at its cogeneration plant. The university plans to be off coal by 2020. Close cooperation between the North Carolina chapter, a Beyond Coal campaign organizer working with students, and the community attributed to the positive decision.