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Rare Tennessee salamander at center of new Endangered Species Act lawsuit

50 percent of the known Berry Cave salamander population is in rapidly developing Knox County KNOXVILLE — The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on May 7, arguing...
Solar for All: An opportunity to expand alternative-energy access

development enabling millions of households’ access to affordable, resilient, and clean solar energy. Southern Environmental Law Center A competitive grant program to bring solar power to people with limited incomes has found huge demand in the South...
Updated: Feds agree to reconsider ESA status of big, elusive salamander known only in Knox County area

Lawsuit prompts federal agency to reconsider protections for rare East Tennessee salamander KNOXVILLE — The Southern Environmental Law Center, which championed the conservation of a salamander found only in a series of caves within the Knoxville...
Meet the salamanders making the South a biodiversity hotspot

are impacted by even small changes in habitat conditions and are often specialized to small native ranges. Southern Environmental Law Center’s work addressing climate change, fighting for clean water, and conservation efforts help protect all kinds of...
SELC Celebrates the 2024 Reed Environmental Writing Award winners

The Southern Environmental Law Center congratulates this year’s Reed Environmental Writing Award winners — Emily Strasser, David Folkenflik, Mario Ariza, and Miranda Green — who all demonstrate the power of writing to capture some of the most important...
50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act

For decades, the Endangered Species Act has served valuable in preserving species and making our region so unique Dec. 28 marks the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act — an important legal tool for protecting imperiled Southern species and...
Enviros to TVA: Retire the fossil-fuel pacifier

near Clarksville is the subject of a suit filed by environmental groups, including Appalachian Voices and Southern Environmental Law Center. Tennessee Valley Authority SELC, others file suit in hopes of dissuading TVA from future fossil options This...
Tennessee Valley Authority faces a push to get greener and more transparent

Nanette Mahler, left, and Tracy O’Neill walk along Macon Wall Road in Cheatham County, Tennessee, near the site of a proposed Tennessee Valley Authority gas power plant project. Local backlash against the proposal comes as the federal utility faces...
Opponents of Oak Ridge waste dump, citing comms breakdown, urge extension of public comment period

Public can comment in person Tuesday night in Oak Ridge on proposed DOE waste dump OAK RIDGE — The Southern Environmental Law Center blistered the Department of Energy in a letter ahead of a May 17 hearing on construction of a toxic-waste landfill that...
Citizens continue call for TVA to adopt sustainable alternatives to coal plants

Citizens are objecting to plans to replace the coal boilers at Kingston Fossil Plant with natural gas. Ben Pounds/Hellbender Press Solar? Gas? Future of Kingston plant up in the air KINGSTON — Tennessee Valley Authority is considering whether to go...
Southeast highlighted in latest national climate assessment

The Tennessee Valley states (TN, AL, MS) are among the most irresponsible in their languid pondering about climate change mitigation. Illustration from the 5th National Climate Assessment Urgent investments in local solutions are needed now more than...
Enviva’s financial problems shed light on biomass energy flaws

The Impacted Communities Against Wood Pellet Coalition (ICAWP) organized the protest and says the company has been ignoring the concerns of impacted communities while receiving millions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks from the state. ICAWP This...
SELC settlement protects blue-blood horseshoe crabs and their avian dependents

Red Knot. Chuck Homler CHARLESTON — A landmark settlement prohibits horseshoe crab collection on the beaches of more than 30 islands along the South Carolina coast that are established feeding sites for rufa red knots during their annual migration — as...
For the win: The storied snail darter swims back from the brink

The snail darter, which caused an epic battle around TVA plans to dam the Tellico River in the 1970s, was recently removed from the Endangered Species List. Jeremy Monroe/Tennessee Aquarium The little fish that caused a maelstrom over a TVA dam project...
Helene: After weeks of dredging, CSX receives stop-work order on Nolichucky Gorge railroad destroyed by tropical storm

Nolichucky for outdoor recreation and the tourist dollars it brings in, a lawsuit filed by lawyers with the Southern Environmental Law Center said last month.
Bill to allow development on Tennessee wetlands advances in House; supporters cite property rights

Wetlands in Shelby Bottom in Nashville. Legislative efforts are underway to undermine state regulatory authority of the important ecosystems. John Partipilo West Tennessee legislation appears to be driven by powerful development interests This article...
Tennessee’s mighty Duck River is gravely imperiled

A view of the Duck River, Tennessee longest river, from Old Stone Fort in Manchester. John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout The Duck landed third on American Rivers’ list of most endangered rivers in the U.S. This story was originally published by Tennessee...
Momentum builds slowly for TVA’s post-coal plans

Supercomputer simulation of plasma turbulence in a spherical tokamak, which is an experimental machine designed to harness the energy of fusion. Image courtesy of Walter Guttenfelder, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Filippo Scotti, Lawrence...
Editorial: Revoke North Carolina’s water regulatory authority

that the state cannot meet its obligations under the Clean Water Act. Therefore, MountainTrue has joined the Southern Environmental Law Center, Cape Fear River Watch, Environmental Justice Community Action Network and the Haw River Assembly in filing a...
Wetlands protections built an industry. Rollbacks could erode it.

Paul Stoddard, a principal at environmental consulting firm EnSafe, unlocks the gate to the West Tennessee Wetlands Mitigation Bank in Shelby County. EnSafe planted more than 50,000 trees to restore portions of this 250-acre wetland, creating credits...
Water supply demands could strain Duck River’s rare riverine habitat

John McEwan, whose family has lived on the banks of the Duck River since the 1860s, skips stones on the Duck River. Environmental groups fear excessive demand is fueling drawdowns that are affecting the rich biodiversity of the Middle Tennessee...
TN General Assembly slashes state wetlands protections

Water collects among trees at the West Tennessee Wetlands Mitigation Bank — a wetland restored from its days as farmland — near the Loosahatchie River in Shelby County, Tenn. Karen Pulfer Focht for Tennessee Lookout Bill’s supporters call it a win for...
U.S. Supreme Court’s recent clean-air ruling renews spotlight on fossil-energy producers like TVA

Supreme Court air-pollution ruling calls into stark context all that must be done This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout. KNOXVILLE — The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to...
Potentially toxic Oak Ridge landfill won’t be built until cleared by operator’s water research

Potential water runoff issues stall future Oak Ridge landfill construction OAK RIDGE — A landfill intended to hold potentially toxic debris from the demolition of legacy Oak Ridge research facilities is moving forward but construction won’t start until...
Report Card for U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Operations: Failing grades in stakeholder engagement and environmental decision making

Press, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) was reprimanded by the Southern Environmental Law Center for neglecting its duty to follow guidelines and proper procedures mandated by the National Environmental...
TVA’s Bull Run coal plant goes dark in Oak Ridge. More fossils to follow?

Bull Run Fossil Plant in Anderson County, Tennessee, is officially offline as of Dec. 1, 2023, according to the Tennessee Valley Authority. Abigail Baxter/Hellbender Press TVA retires coal-fired plant; just four more to go OAK RIDGE — The Tennessee...
Ela dam removal proceeds to make a river run through

Conservation Trust, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Environmental Protection Agency, American Whitewater, Swain County, the Army Corps of Engineers, and...
Opposition mounts to Pisgah/Nantahala national forest management plans

little brown bat and the tricolored bat — would also be adversely affected. MountainTrue, its lawyers at the Southern Environmental Law Center, and coalition partners — the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and Center for...
Southern enviros again take aim at budding TVA strategy to replace coal with fossil gas

Warnings posted in Dickson County near Tennessee Gas Pipeline property. John Partipilo/Courtesy Tennessee Lookout Environmental groups sue Tennessee Valley Authority over proposed new power plant This story was originally published by Tennessee...
KUB commits to solar power — and a controversial long-term relationship with TVA

Last year, Knoxville Utilities Board committed to supplying 20 percent of its electricity through solar generation by 2023, through Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Green Invest program. By 2023, KUB will provide 502 megawatts annually of...
Ahead of retiring Bull Run Fossil Plant, TVA faces questions about the site’s toxicity

coal ash waste TVA stores on the site. In advance of this meeting, representatives of the Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, Appalachian Voices, Statewide Coalition for Community eMpowerment and Center for Biological Diversity all signed a...
Tennessee Lookout: GOP legislators move to usurp even more local control with pro-pipeline bill

GOP-led Legislature aims to ban local decisions on fossil-fuel infrastructure This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout. Per updated TL reporting, this bill was deferred to March 15 for committee consideration. Memphis activist Justin...
Lawsuit alleges TVA paid dues to industry trade groups that undermine environmental protections

The Kingston Fossil Plant in Kingston, Tennessee is shown in this file image from the Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA denies lobbying or cronyism, cites need for “expertise and analysis” Editor's Note: This report is a collaboration between Hellbender...
Butterflies decline by 20 percent since 2000 due in large part to pesticide use

A postman butterfly feeds on a bloom in the Tennessee Aquarium’s Butterfly Garden in Chattanooga. At any one time, the garden may host 1,000 to 1,500 butterflies representing more than 200 species. Courtesy Tennessee Aquarium A third of species...
Hellbent Profile: If you pollute the Tennessee River, Chris Irwin is coming for you

Chris Irwin poses by the Tennessee River as a TVA vessel makes its way downstream. Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press From the courthouse to the river, Chris Irwin strives for purity This is the first installment of an occasional series, Hellbent,...
After cleanup, what’s the future of the South Knoxville Superfund site?

The Montgomery Village public housing complex in South Knoxville is separated only by railroad tracks from the Smoky Mountain Smelters Superfund site (and the Witherspoon dump site). S. Heather Duncan/Hellbender Press A better use of the...
Updated: Power line project threatens regionally popular greenway on the Oak Ridge Reservation

OAK RIDGE — WBIR channel 10 News 2-minute video highlighting a controversy that has been brewing for a decade. Infographics and more details added May 5, 2022 Tree clearing would radically degrade the visual experience and take away shade crucial to...
Editorial: Clean energy jobs under attack and imperiled in Southeast

Macon-based Blue Bird is among Southeastern manufacturers that invested heavily in electric vehicle development thanks in large part to parts of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden-era IRA is facing blowback from the Trump administration, and the...
Happy Earth Day to you! Happy Earth Day to YOU.

What can YOU, and those around you, do to make your lifestyle more sustainable? Today is a good opportunity to make a resolution or a promise to yourself and those around you to adopt a new habit or practice that will reduce your environmental impacts....
John Nolt still examines the incomparable value of nature

Former University of Tennessee Professor John Nolt strolls through his garden during a recent conversation about his career as a philosopher and one of the Southern Appalachian region’s most respected environmental activists. J.J. Stambaugh/Hellbender...
Coal industry mea culpa was destined for a University of Tennessee dumpster. Now there’s a public records lawsuit.

Coal industry acknowledged its contribution to climate change in 1966 KNOXVILLE — It began innocently enough. A little over four years ago, an old trade journal was rescued en route to a dumpster by a professor from the University of Tennessee’s...

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