The Obama Administration today released the final environmental assessment clearing the way for leasing of federal offshore tracts for site assessment and location of commercial wind farms off the coast of Virginia and other mid-Atlantic states.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), the largest environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the Southeast, today announced its fourth annual list of the top 10 places in the South that face immediate, potentially irreparable threats in 2012.
Virginians for High Speed Rail, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, and the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce jointly released a report outlining the importance of Virginia's six roundtrip intercity regional trains and requesting the General Assembly's support to continue and improve these services.
Today, Governor McDonnell announced that he will ask the General Assembly not to take any action this legislative session on uranium mining.
EPA today provided long overdue and vitally important health protections for American families and children by issuing standards for toxic air pollution from power plants, said the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The long-awaited report issued by the National Academy of Sciences today echoes numerous pitfalls with potential uranium mining, milling and waste disposal in the Commonwealth that many concerned Virginians have expressed in past months.
The federal government ignored the impact of BP’s 200 million gallon oil spill in its assessment of risks and precautions for the Gulf of Mexico before the first new lease sale since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to a lawsuit filed today in D.C. federal court by conservation groups.
In a 56-41 vote, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate today upheld EPA rules that protect Viriginia from harmful air pollution emitted by facilities in other states while also creating new, full-time jobs. Senators Warner (D-VA) and Webb (D-VA) voted to support the “cross-state” rule that protects people’s health, saves lives, and creates jobs.
An analysis released today of previous traffic studies for the proposed Route 29 bypass in Albemarle County confirms that the highway will not solve traffic congestion on Route 29, and urges federal and state transportation officials to focus on alternative solutions.
The Virginia Department of Transportation last night issued a "request for proposals" for the design and construction of the highly controversial Western Route 29 Bypass in the Charlottesville-Albemarle community. The RFP was issued prematurely, since the agency is months away from getting critical, up-to-date information on traffic levels, tailpipe pollution and other community impacts that could reaffirm the folly of proceeding with the project or result in dramatic alterations to it.
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors had an opportunity yesterday to begin to correct their approach to pursuing construction of the 29 bypass, but chose instead to continue rushing the project through with blinders on.
Despite this summer's rush job by local and state officials to push through the long-dormant, controversial western bypass of U.S. 29, the project is far from a done deal, two leading conservation organizations said today.
Dominion Resources Inc., the Commonwealth of Virginia's largest utility, announced yesterday that it will phase out two of its oldest and dirtiest coal fired power plants. Environmental organizations roundly applauded Dominion's move, but simultaneously called for the utility, which has just released its multi-year Integrated Resources Plan, to invest in renewable energy.
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging an Environmental Protection Agency rule that exempts large-scale biomass-burning facilities from carbon dioxide limits under the Clean Air Act for the next three years.
"SELC and most others in this community believe the 29 bypass is the wrong project for solving traffic on Route 29, but one thing nearly everyone agrees on is that it shouldn't go forward without ironclad commitments from the state to fund and advance key local transportation priorities."
Building the 29 Bypass as it is currently designed will make it much more complicated and costly to build Berkmar Drive Extended, one of Albemarle County's top priorities to reduce traffic on Route 29, according to a report released today by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
In a letter to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors today, the Southern Environmental Law Center set forth the county's obligations to clarify and formally vote on commitments the state would have to meet before construction funding would be allowed to flow for the controversial 29 Bypass.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in its overall effort to rein in heat-trapping greenhouse gases, took a major step backwards today with a final decision to ignore carbon pollution from biomass-burning plants for at least three years.
Today’s vetoes by Governor Perdue of two bills--S.709 and S.781— defend North Carolina’s clean energy economy and a safe, healthy environment for residents and tourists, said the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The federal government illegally authorized new deepwater drilling by claiming that risky operations will cause no significant harm to the environment despite last year’s BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, said four environmental groups in a court filing today. The coalition challenged government approval of Shell’s plan to conduct new deepwater exploratory drilling off Alabama’s coast in waters 2000 feet deeper than the BP Deepwater Horizon even though regulators acknowledge that the operations may result in an oil spill ten times bigger than last year’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
After hundreds of visitors enjoy the Memorial Day weekend on North Carolina’s beaches, the N.C. House will vote to request that the federal government open its coast to the risk of oil spills from offshore drilling under the same practices that led to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and oiled 641 miles of Gulf Coast over 87 days.
A coalition of environmental groups announced today that they have filed a motion in federal court to oppose the efforts of major national agricultural organizations to force an end to federal and state programs to reduce pollution and restore the Chesapeake Bay.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama ruled that Defenders and SELC may pursue their claims that the government violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act in approving at least 221 oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill.
Senators from Virginia and North Carolina voted today on a bill (S. 953) that would expose the coasts, fishing, and tourism of both states to the risk of an oil spill from drilling under the same practices that led to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster a year ago, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Lifting a state-wide ban on uranium mining would threaten the Roanoke River and other rivers as well as drinking water supplies in the region with radioactive pollution and toxic chemicals, American Rivers said today. The threat from a proposed uranium mine in the Roanoke basin earned the river a spot on the organization's annual list of America's Most Endangered Rivers(TM).
Ignoring lessons learned from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed the last of three oil company bills that continues a lax approach to risky oil company activities, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The Keep the Ban Coalition today announced the support of 41 localities and organizations that have joined the growing statewide movement urging the Virginia legislature to resist an industry push to lift the state's ban on uranium mining as early as next year.
The House of Representatives voted today to pass HR1230 which would, among other things, compel the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement to offer leases for drilling offshore of Virginia within a year of final passage of the bill. The Southern Environmental Law Center is vigorously opposed to this move, which would put Virginia’s tourism and fishing economies in peril for a mere six days’ supply of oil, according to the latest government estimates.
New guidance proposed today by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency would bring long-awaited and much needed clarity to the protection of our nation’s streams, wetlands, and open waters.
As the one-year anniversary of the deadly BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill nears, the Southern Environmental Law Center today called on Congress to fix systemic problems with oil drilling and the oil industry that the Presidential Oil Spill Investigation Commission identified as leading to the disaster.
SELC comments on the Department of Interior's finding of no significant impact from deep water drilling after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Twenty years after Congress updated the Clean Air Act, the Southern Environmental Law Center welcomed today’s announcement from EPA proposing maximum limits for more than 80 hazardous air pollutants by large power plants and called on the government to follow through implementing strong protections for the American people. Studies estimate that these pollution limits will save 17,000 people each year from premature death and cases of childhood asthma symptoms each year.
A report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today shows that pollution controls for ozone and soot in the 1990 amendments of the Clean Air Act-currently under harsh attack from polluting industries and allies on the Hill-will yield approximately $2 trillion in benefits in 2020 while saving 230,000 people from early death in that year alone.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), the largest conservation organization dedicated to protecting the environment of the Southeast, is pleased to host renowned southern writer Silas House (Eli the Good, Something’s Rising) at the upcoming Virginia Festival of the Book in a special event on Saturday, March 19, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at The Haven in downtown Charlottesville.
More than 100 citizens from around the Commonwealth were expected to turn out today for a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) meeting in Richmond to support keeping a statewide ban on uranium mining and milling in Virginia that has been in place for almost 30 years.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which has used the power of the law to defend the South’s natural resources for 25 years, today released its third annual list of the top ten places in the South that face immediate, potentially irreversible damage in 2011.
Today the EPA changed course and said it will not regulate carbon dioxide from facilities that burn trees and other biomass for at least three years. In the meantime, biomass facilities that come online or upgrade will not have to control for those emissions.
SELC called for systemic reform and better oversight after the oil spill commission’s investigation found the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout resulted from pervasive problems.
Problems in the oil industry by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling confirms the need for systemic reform and better oversight.
Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the Atlantic coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico coast will remain off-limits to offshore oil and gas drilling at least through 2017.
The federal agency that oversees offshore drilling today announced it will revise the environmental analysis under which BP’s Deepwater Horizon operated and other oil drilling activities in the Gulf of Mexico continue, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Housing affordability is a critical challenge throughout Virginia—a challenge heightened by the recent recession and continuing economic turmoil, as well as problems with transportation and sprawl development, according to a report released today by Housing Virginia and the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Conservation groups today filed suit against oil giant BP under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the ongoing unlawful harm or killing of endangered and threatened wildlife caused by the company’s massive Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
Following are statements by the Southern Environmental Law Center regarding the findings released today by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, with state-by-state rankings for energy efficiency
Statement by Catherine Wannamaker, senior attorney, SELC, on the lifting of the temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico
The Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition lauded Old Dominion Electric Cooperative's announcement today to delay plans for what would be the largest coal-fired power plant in Virginia. The temporary halt will allow the company, its customers, government officials and the conservation community to explore alternatives that will cost less and cause less harm to the environment.
The federal moratorium announced July 12 pauses risky deepwater drilling operations until safety and environmental safeguards can be assessed.