Missoula, MT – The wolverine has regained candidate species status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) following a Montana District Court decision late Thursday. The Court agreed with conservation groups that the wolverine is entitled to additional ESA protections while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) reconsiders its 2020 decision to deny a petition […]
Earthjustice
Posted inUS
Environmental Groups Take Postal Service to Court for Scheme to Buy Massively Polluting Mail Trucks
San Francisco, CA — Today, Earthjustice, CleanAirNow KC, the Sierra Club, and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California challenging the US Postal Service’s decision to replace the vast majority of its delivery fleet with polluting and fuel-guzzling combustion mail trucks. The Postal Service’s analysis was deeply flawed […]
Posted inUS
Flint residents file civil rights complaint over asphalt plant approval
Flint, Michigan—Today, residents of Genesee County filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over the local approval of a polluting hot-mix asphalt plant. The complaint said that Genesee Township’s approval of the Ajax asphalt plant violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act, and the […]
Posted inEnviro
Lawsuit Challenges Idaho Wolf Trapping Laws That Endanger Grizzlies, Lynx
BOISE, Idaho, December 6, 2021 — Ten conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging Idaho’s extreme wolf-trapping rules, which facilitate the slaughter of up to 90% of Idaho’s gray wolf population. The lawsuit contends that continued and expanded wolf trapping and snaring will injure and kill non-target grizzly bears and Canada lynx, which are federally protected species. The […]
Posted inUS
Groups Sue EPA for Allowing Use of Deadly Pesticide for 15 More Years
Today, farmworker groups, environmentalists, and health organizations represented by Earthjustice sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approving the continued use of the deadly pesticide paraquat, which has been linked to Parkinson’s Disease. Paraquat is currently banned in 32 countries, including member states of the European Union (where the chemical is manufactured and exported) and China. In July, […]
Posted inEnviro
Lawsuit Filed After Biden Opens 80 Million Acres of Gulf of Mexico for Oil Leasing
Immediately following the Biden administration’s decision to offer 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas leasing, environmental and Gulf groups today filed a challenge to the lease sale in court. Earthjustice filed the lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia on behalf of Healthy Gulf, Sierra Club, Friends of the […]
Posted inEnviro
Ninth Circuit Court Confirms Obama-Era Protections for Arctic, Atlantic Oceans
ANCHORAGE, AK, April 14, 2021 — Yesterday morning, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to dismiss the appeal of LCV v. Trump, re-affirming a permanent moratorium on 128 million acres of ocean territory in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. Today’s order recognizes that President Obama’s ban on oil and gas leasing in these vibrant and sensitive […]
Posted inUS
Lawsuit Challenges Large Fossil-Fuel Project Proposed in Alaska’s Arctic
ANCHORAGE, AK, December 22, 2020 — Conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging a massive oil and gas project known as the Willow Master Development Plan in Alaska’s Western Arctic. Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, filed litigation today against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the Center for […]
Posted inRegional
Coalition lawsuit: Science says wolverines need protection
MISSOULA, Mont. December 14, 2020 — A coalition of conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to withhold Endangered Species Act protection from wolverines in the lower 48 states, where no more than 300 wolverines remain. Without the new conservation efforts that would be triggered by the Endangered Species Act listing, […]
Posted inEnviro
Feds to remove protections from wolverine
MISSOULA, Mont. October 8, 2020 – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced it will deny protections for the rare and elusive wolverine under the Endangered Species Act, prompting a coalition of conservation groups to announce an intent to sue. “Recent scientific information makes clear that wolverines face threats from destruction of their snowy […]
Posted inEnviro
Seismic blasting efforts halted in Atlantic Ocean
CHARLESTON, S.C. October 1, 2020 — A status conference on seismic litigation revealed today the industry will not pursue efforts to employ seismic blasting to search the Atlantic Ocean for offshore petroleum deposits this year, and possibly for several years. The hearing marked a victory for dozens of organizations and thousands of coastal communities and […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Earthjustice Statement on Plans to Allow New Clear-Cut Logging in Tongass National Forest
JUNEAU, AK September 24, 2020 – The U.S. Forest Service today announced a final environmental impact statement for plans to overturn the federal Roadless Rule, a widely supported policy that closely restricts logging and roadbuilding, in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Undoing the rule would exempt 9.2 million acres of temperate rainforest, including centuries-old stands […]
Posted inUS
Trump Administration Guts National Environmental Policy Act
Washington, D.C. — Today the Trump administration finalized its proposal to gut more than 40 years of settled environmental law. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released the final text of a sweeping rule which will eviscerate core components of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a crucial safeguard for communities’ clean air, […]
Posted inWorld
Australia’s Climate Inaction is a Human Rights Violation, Says Coalition of International Lawyers
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, July 9, 2020 – During the UN periodic review of Australia’s human rights record, a coalition of Australian and international lawyers is asking the United Nations to address Australia’s contributions to human rights violations through its actions that fuel the release of greenhouse gas emissions. Today, the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) and […]
Posted inUS
Judge Orders Dakota Access Pipeline to Shut Down
Washington, D.C. July 6, 2020 – Owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) must halt operations while the government conducts a full-fledged analysis examining the risk DAPL poses to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, a federal judge ruled today. The court decision delivered a hard-fought victory to the Tribe, which has been engaged in a […]
Posted inEnviro
Court Strikes Down Trump Administration’s Sage-grouse Directive, Canceling Hundreds of Oil and Gas Leases
GREAT FALLS, Mont. May 26, 2020 – On Friday, the U.S. District Court in Montana struck down the basis for the Trump administration’s massive oil and gas leasing plans on more than a million acres of public lands in key habitat for sage-grouse, an iconic bird species of the Western United States. The Trump administration […]
Posted inCalifornia
Yurok Tribe and Earthjustice statement on Bureau of Reclamation shut off of needed Klamath River flows
San Francisco, May 18, 2020 — The Yurok Tribe, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), and the Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR), represented by the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice, are seeking a temporary restraining order to reinstate water flows in the Klamath River to protect threatened salmon. Earlier this year, the plaintiffs successfully […]
Posted inUS
Supreme Court Leaves the Clean Water Act Intact
WASHINGTON, D.C. April 23, 2020 – Today the Supreme Court issued its opinion in County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund siding with clean water advocates that point source discharges to navigable waters through groundwater are regulated under the Clean Water Act. The following is a statement from David Henkin, Earthjustice attorney who argued the […]
Posted inUS
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Prevails as Federal Judge Strikes Down DAPL Permits
Washington, D.C. March 25, 2020 – A federal court today granted a request by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to strike down federal permits for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. The Court found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it affirmed federal permits for the pipeline originally issued […]
Posted inEnviro
Trump’s EPA sued for concealing health studies, violating its chemical laws
Washington, D.C. March 18, 2020 – Today, Earthjustice and the Environmental Defense Fund released a joint investigation showing how Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency on a regular basis violates the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, which governs the manufacture, use, and distribution of chemicals. From August of 2016 through April of 2019, Earthjustice and EDF […]