Tag Archives: Sierra Club

Wisconsin on Track for Another ‘Wolf Slaughter,’ Sparking Calls for Federal Protections

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“Our state’s Natural Resources Board voted today to double down on wolf management that goes against science and ethical norms.”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams.  Published 8-12-2021

Wisconsin is set to hold its second wolf hunt of the year this fall.. Photo: Gunnar Ries/flickr/CC

Less than a year after a February wolf hunt condemned as “an outright slaughter,” conservation advocates are warning that the animals in Wisconsin are at risk of being wiped out after state officials voted Wednesday to approve a kill quota of 300 wolves for the fall 2021 hunting season—more than twice the number proposed by the state Department of Natural Resources.

The “harvest quota” was approved in a 5-2 vote at an in-person meeting of the Natural Resources Board. Continue reading →

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House Passes Resolution to Reverse ‘Reckless’ Trump-Era Methane Rule

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“Biden should direct the EPA to use the full power of the Clean Air Act to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas by 65% by 2025,” said one advocate.

By Kenny Stancil, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-25-2021

Gas well flaring in the Marcelus Shale. Screenshot: YouTube

Progressive advocates celebrated the U.S. House’s passage Friday of a resolution to reinstate federal regulations on methane pollution, while also emphasizing that confronting the climate emergency requires implementing stronger safeguards.

The resolution reversed the Trump administration’s rollback last August of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules governing oil and gas companies’ emissions of the potent greenhouse gas. Continue reading →

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‘Horrible and Unconscionable Betrayal’: Biden DOJ Backs Trump Line 3 Approval

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“You are siding with a handful of corrupt corporate elites over honoring treaty rights, climate, water, and the future of life on Earth.”

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-24-2021

Photo: MN350/Facebook

Indigenous and environmental activists fighting against the Line 3 tar sands pipeline were outraged Thursday after the Biden administration filed a legal brief backing the federal government’s 2020 approval of the project under former President Donald Trump.

Critics of the project—which Canadian energy giant Enbridge has undertaken to replace an aging oil pipeline—blasted the U.S. Department of Justice’s late Wednesday filing (pdf) as a betrayal of President Joe Biden’s pledges to address the climate emergency and respect tribal rights. Continue reading →

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Conservationists Applaud Biden Plan to Reverse Trump Attack on Tongass National Forest

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“Even if you live thousands of miles from the Tongass National Forest, you still benefit from its unique ability to fight climate change,” said Earthjustice.

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-11-2021

Tongass National Forest. Photo: Jeff’s Canon/flickr/CC

Indigenous rights and climate action groups on Friday welcomed the Biden administration’s announcement that the Department of Agriculture will “repeal or replace” former President Donald Trump’s assault on Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, in which a 20-year-old rule protecting wild lands was revoked three months before Trump left office.

Trump’s rollback of the 2001 Roadless Rule was made final last October and sparked fury among conservation groups including Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council, which noted that the protection of the Tongass National Forest is vital for biodiversity as well as absorbing carbon emissions. Continue reading →

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Green Groups Sue Army Corps of Engineers Over Nationwide Pipeline Permit

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“There’s simply no justification for allowing destructive and dangerous pipelines to avoid rigorous environmental review.”

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-3-2021

In December 2016, the Belle Fourche pipeline spilled 180,000 gallons of crude oil into the Ash Coulee Creek in North Dakota, just three hours’ drive from the site of a massive Indigenous-led protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. (Photo: Jennifer Skjod/North Dakota Department of Health)

Five eco-advocacy groups sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday for allegedly violating federal law by issuing a nationwide fossil fuel pipeline permit without adequate analysis of its environmental impacts.

The lawsuit (pdf)—filed in a federal district court in Montanta by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Sierra Club, Montana Environmental Information Center, Friends of the Earth, and Waterkeeper Alliance Inc.—accuses the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) of violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act by reissuing Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12) “without adequately assessing its significant direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental effects.” Continue reading →

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After ‘Bitterly Disappointing’ Court Ruling on Line 3, Biden Urged to Shut Down Pipeline Project ‘Once and for All’

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After a Minnesota court allowed construction to continue, Rep. Ilhan Omar appealed to President Joe Biden to stop the contentious project.

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-3-2021

On January 29, 2021, hundreds of people gathered in St. Paul, Minnesota to demand that President Joe Biden and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz take action to stop the Line 3 pipeline. (Photo: @ResistLine3/Twitter)

Amid a wave of direct actions that have at times stalled work on Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied a request to shut down construction as legal battles continue, disappointing Indigenous and climate activists who have been fighting against the tar sands project.

A few weeks after construction began in December, the Red Lake and White Earth Bands of Ojibwe requested the stay. As MPR News reported at the time, “The bands, along with several nonprofit groups and the Minnesota Department of Commerce, have filed lawsuits challenging the project in both federal and state court.” Continue reading →

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‘Major Win for the Planet’: Federal Court Strikes Down Trump Coal Power Plant Rule

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“This decision frees up the new Biden administration to begin working immediately on the science-based greenhouse pollution rules we desperately need to make up for lost time.”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-19-2021

The Sherburne County (Sherco) Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant owned by Xcel Energy and located in Becker, Minnesota, shown in 2016. (Photo: Tony Webster/Flickr/cc)

Climate campaigners welcomed a federal court’s decision Tuesday to strike down the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy rule—dubbed by its critics the “Dirty Power” rule—which loosened restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants.

“A failure by Trump is a major win for the planet,” said Clare Lakewood, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “The court has wisely struck down another effort by this administration to shred environmental protections in service of polluters.” Continue reading →

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Could the Next Standing Rock Be Brewing in Northern Minnesota?

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The tension is palpable in northern Minnesota where a Native-led protest movement is getting ready to square off with Enbridge over the massive Line 3 oil pipeline being built to carry crude from Canada to the Great Lakes.

By Alan Macleod  Published 12-22-2020 by MintPress News

Water Protectors in Palisades, MN on December 14, 2020. Photo: Marian Moore/MN350/Facebook

Despite sub-zero winter temperatures, a conflict over a controversial new pipeline is threatening to boil over in rural Minnesota, turning it into the next Standing Rock. 22 people were arrested last week during protests in Aitkin County, around 120 miles north of Minneapolis, for trespassing against the construction of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. The pipeline project would carry more than 750,000 barrels of fracked Alberta tar sand oil through the United States.

Activists from environmental and indigenous groups are braving the snow to form a barrier to the construction of a pipeline that will traverse the Mississippi and pass through a number of delicate ecosystems, threatening many of the state’s famous rivers and lakes. Continue reading →

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‘We Will See Them in Court’: Howls of Protest and Lawsuit Promised as Trump Takes Wolves Off Endangered Species List

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“Let’s learn from history: Removing legal protections is a disaster for gray wolves.”

By Kenny Stancil, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-29-2020

“The largest canine native to North America, gray wolves were once common throughout more than two-thirds of the lower 48 states,” before being “nearly wiped out in the mid-20th century due to habitat loss and deliberate eradication efforts,” Environment America explained in a statement released on Thursday, October 29, 2020. Photo: Spinus Nature Photography/Wikimedia Commons/CC

Immediately following the Trump administration’s decision to remove endangered species protections for gray wolves in the lower 48 states—a move that wolf recovery and biodiversity advocates condemned as unlawful as well as “premature and reckless“—a coalition of conservation groups on Thursday promised to mount a legal challenge to the delisting effort.

“Let’s learn from history,” said Alex Peterson, a conservation advocate for Environment America, in a statement. “Removing legal protections is a disaster for gray wolves.” Continue reading →

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Following Outrage, Trump Pulls Nomination of “Unapologetic Racist’ William Perry Pendley to Oversee Nation’s Public Lands

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“Pendley never should have been nominated, and the fact that he was shows you what you need to know about this administration’s conservation priorities.”

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 8-15-2020

BLM Deputy Director for Policy and Programs William Perry Pendley rides a bike in Moab, Utah on October 25, 2019. (Photo: Eric Coulter, BLM, CC BY 2.0)

Environmental campaigners on Saturday welcomed news that President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination of “pro-polluter” and “unapologetic racist” William Perry Pendley for director of the Bureau of Land Management, with groups saying he should no longer be allowed to continue in his role as unofficial head of the agency.

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