Alabama
Top priorities
Clean Air
As a result of decades of racial segregation and residential redlining across Alabama, polluting sources including fossil fuel power plants, chemical manufacturers, cement factories, asphalt plants, and rock quarries are often sited in and around Black communities. From North Birmingham to Africatown, we’re working alongside communities to improve air quality monitoring, to review and strengthen permits to emit air pollutants, and to hold industrial polluters accountable for the unlawful release of dangerous air pollutants into the air we breathe.
Learn MoreSolar
Alabama Power charges its customers with rooftop solar panels so many unnecessary fees that it earned the unenviable title of the nation’s top charger. We’ve challenged these unjust fees in multiple venues, most recently the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery. Every Alabamian has a right to affordably access the clean energy benefits solar power provides.
Learn MoreCoal ash
Alabama Power is proposing to “manage” the millions of tons of toxic coal ash stored next to waterways across the state by covering it and leaving it in place in leaking pits. We’ve proven repeatedly that the safest way to manage coal ash is to move it to modern, lined storage away from the water. We’ll continue urging utility and state officials to pursue the most protective path possible.
Learn MoreClean water
Teeming with plants and wildlife, Alabama streams and rivers are the most diverse in the country. However, the state is at the top of the list for the number of species at risk of extinction and ranks among the bottom of states for per capita spending on environmental protection. With many factors at play, like sprawl, stormwater overflows, and lax oversight, SELC brings our legal expertise to the defense of these special systems.
Learn More