Hundreds Express Opposition to El Paso Electric’s Proposed Fossil Gas Expansion
July 19, 2021
Yesterday, the Lone Star and Rio Grande Chapters of the Sierra Club submitted over 1,000 public comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calling for action to bring El Paso into compliance with federal, health-based standards for ground...
Will Texas Ever Fix the Grid?
July 16, 2021
Rather than call a special session at the time to appropriately and immediately address grid issues the Governor then provided a “directive” - a two page letter focused on “reliability” asking the PUC and ERCOT to take certain actions designed to...
Governor Abbott’s Demands Would Leave Texas more Polluted and Texans in the Dark
July 14, 2021
Earlier this week, Governor Abbott released a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), demanding changes that Abbott falsely claims will ”increase power generation capacity and to...
Texas House Democrats Took Bold Action, Now The Senate Must Pass The For The People Act
July 13, 2021
President Biden delivered a speech on protecting the freedom to vote just one day after a majority of Texas House Democrats left the state to block a vote on new voter suppression bills. To date, 48 states have introduced nearly 400 bills...
Better Pollution Standards Move Forward in Texas, but What About El Paso?
June 30, 2021
While Texas rarely sees meaningful improvements on pollution standards, one pretty good thing and one very good thing happened recently: TCEQ adopted modest rules on controlling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in non-attainment areas (a fancy way...
How Gov. Abbott and the Lege Can Prioritize Climate and Texans' Wellbeing in the Upcoming Special Session
June 30, 2021
Governor Greg Abbott called to reconvene the Texas Legislature for a special session on July 8th. What is that going to look like, and what is Sierra Club pushing for? We're asking Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature to prioritize well being of...
Spruce Coal Plant Tied to Historic, Systemic Roots of Energy Injustice in San Antonio
June 29, 2021
On June 24th, San Antonio's City Council heard from the Emergency Committee. At this meeting, CPS Energy's Spruce 1 Coal plant was named the number reason behind the city's power outages. Energy injustice is threatening the lives and wellbeing of...
Will Texas’ New Law On Fracking Wastewater Research Help Protect Our Waters?
June 25, 2021
Governor Greg Abbott recently signed Senate Bill 601, creating the Texas Produced Water Consortium at Texas Tech. This bill might seem kind of niche, so you might have some reasonable questions: What is produced water anyway? What is this “...
What Is TCEQ Hiding On Ethylene Oxide?
June 17, 2021
The TCEQ was court ordered to hand over thousands of pages of documents to Sierra Club that they've been withholding from the public regarding their changes in rulemaking for ethylene oxide emissions, a super carcinogen. Rather than complying and...
Gov. Abbott and the Texas Lege's Failure to Improve Power Grid Jeopardizes Lives of Texans, Again
June 15, 2021
ERCOT issued an energy conservation request on Monday, June 14, asking individual consumers to reduce their energy use until Friday, to help prevent the possibility of future power outages. ERCOT’s request on Monday was issued shortly after the end...