Programs

CLEAN ENERGY AMBASSADOR

Our Clean Energy Ambassadors program staff works alongside utility staffers to share winning strategies for energy efficiency and renewable energy development at community-owned utilities in America’s heartland. Our Ambassadors emphasize developing leadership and productive public participation. Many of our services are provided at low or no cost, including phone consultations to match utilities and their members with the resources or people that can best help, a resource Web site that highlights clean energy resources for smaller community-owned utilities, and presentations and consultations to help consumers make the business case for energy efficiency to utility or government leaders.

CLEAN ENERGY ADVOCACY

The states we serve get their electricity primarily from coal-fired power plants. Many also produce large amounts of coal for domestic and global markets. Plains Justice works with grassroots, regional and national organizations to clean up coal plant pollution, reduce mining impacts, and find cleaner, cost-effective power sources. We represent local residents and Dakota Resource Council in their decade-long opposition to a proposed 5000+ acre coal strip mine near Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We are currently assisting public health advocates in evaluating the pollution profile of existing Iowa coal plants. Plains Justice also represents state organizations before utility regulatory agencies, advocating for strong energy efficiency programming and fair regulations to give small renewable energy developers (like schools and small towns) equal footing in the industry. We participate in transmission stakeholder groups and clean energy coalitions and helped establish the legal structure for the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System.

COAL COMBUSTION WASTE DISPOSAL REFORM

In November 2007, Plains Justice published its own study evaluating the quality of Iowa’s coal combustion waste disposal monitoring and enforcement. The study showed leaching even from Iowa’s better-regulated coal ash sanitary landfills, but other sites have weaker protections and no groundwater monitoring. Our updated 2010 study has been submitted to EPA in support of stronger federal regulation, in coordination with a large coalition of public health and conservation organizations.

TAR SANDS INFRASTRUCTURE

One of the first organizations to bring tar sands pipelines to national attention, Plains Justice represented Dakota Rural Action in Keystone XL pipeline siting proceedings at the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. Landowners the length of the route from Montana to Texas are concerned about water contamination, oil spills, construction damage and abandonment practices for this heavy crude oil pipeline from the Alberta tar sands. For the latest news, read our Great Plains Tar Sands Pipelines blog. More information is also available in our policy brief: The Keystone XL Pipeline: Not Needed, Too Expensive, Better Solutions.