Sierra Club Threatens to Sue EPA

One of the main duties of the federal Environmental Protection Agency is to protect people and communities from air pollution. On Tuesday October 7, 2008, Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project announced plans to sue EPA for failing to update its emissions standard for nitric acid plants at least every eight years, as required by the Clean Air Act. While no legal action has been taken yet, if the EPA does not begin reviewing these standards within the 60-day notice period Sierra Club and EIP will seek a court order forcing it to do so. Nitric acid plants are significant sources of many pollutants, including nitrous oxide, which is 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of its global warming potential, and controlling it is one of the easiest ways for EPA to make a dent in global warming emissions. It is about time the EPA took steps to protect Americans for the negative effects of nitrous oxide, and this threat of legal action will hopefully jump start the EPA into action.

For more information about this case click here!

Settlement Saves Grand Canyon from Uranium Drilling

On September 25, 2008, Sierra Club, along with the Center for Biological Diversity and the Grand Canyon Trust, achieved a major victory in settling our challenge to the Forest Service’s plan to allow uranium mining in the Kaibab National Forest. Just a few miles from Grand Canyon National Park, this mining would have destroyed the pristine environment surrounding the Park and threatened to contaminate the Colorado River, the source of drinking water for tens of millions of Americans. The settlement requires the Forest Service and the VANE Mineral mining firm to withdraw all current applications and approvals for exploratory drilling in the forest. It then requires the Forest Service and mining companies to prepare an environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act as part of any future permit applications. Finally, it is unlikely that any mining will be allowed thanks to a resolution passed by the House Natural Resources Committee in June which protects these and other areas of public lands around the Grand Canyon National Park from future uranium development. Our thanks to attorneys Marc Fink for the Center for Biological Diversity and Neil Levine for the Grand Canyon Trust, and our community activists including Sandy Bahr, Sierra Club’s Arizona Chapter Chair, for this major step toward protecting the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River and the surrounding communities. For more information on this case click here!

Court Rules for Clean Air, Reverses Bush Administration Rollbacks

Children everywhere will breathe easier, and large pollution sources will be held accountable, thanks to a recent, landmark victory for clean air.  On August 19, 2008, the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations won a major court decision on the requirements for pollution monitoring under Title V of the Clean Air Act. The decision issued by the DC Circuit Court reversed a Bush administration regulation that tried to strip away the power of states and localities to require rigorous pollution monitoring from coal plants, refineries and similar industrial polluters.  The court found that Title V of the Clean Air Act authorizes state and local agencies to supplement EPA permits with more rigorous monitoring requirements than are required by the federal EPA.  (Some federal EPA permits require only one pollution test over the entire 50-year life of a facility!).  The court victory will ensure that polluters comply with the law and that polluters clean up their act and prove it. 

For more information about this case click here!