SALT LAKE CITY, UT, May 6, 2024 — The state of Utah has violated its fundamental legal duty to protect the Great Salt Lake against impairment due to dwindling water inflows, 36 law professors told a state court on Friday. The professors asked the court to consider an amicus – or “friend of the court” – brief on […]
Earthjustice
Posted inCalifornia
California Court Rules Kern County Oil, Gas Permitting Scheme Illegal
FRESNO, Calif.— A California appeals court ruled unanimously today that Kern County violated the law by using a flawed environmental review for its local oil and gas ordinance designed to fast-track permitting. This is the second time the court has ruled that the county’s rubberstamping of oil and gas permits violates the state’s foundational environmental […]
Posted inUS
Chlorpyrifos, Previously Banned Neurotoxic Pesticide, Again Allowed on Our Food, Despite Known Harms
Washington, D.C. December 19, 2023— Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the agency will not challenge the November ruling of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals that overturned EPA’s rule banning the use of the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos in food. This means that a handful of chemical companies, including Gharda Chemical, who filed […]
Posted inEnviro
Federal Appeals Court Rules Use of Antibiotic as Citrus Pesticide Is Unlawful, Vacates EPA Approval
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, December 15, 2023 — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled in favor of farmworkers and public-interest groups’ call for reversal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of the medically important antibiotic streptomycin as a pesticide on citrus crops. In the ruling, the court determined the EPA’s 2021 decision to allow spraying of […]
Posted inCalifornia
Court affirms expanded Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
WASHINGTON, D.C. July 18, 2023 – The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed the legality of an expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument made by President Obama in 2017, reversing a lower court decision that threw the Monument’s boundaries into doubt. This federal court ruling joins a victorious ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court […]
Posted inUS
Environmental Groups Respond to Department of Energy’s Approval of Alaska LNG Project
ANCHORAGE – Today the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would grant approval for the exports from the proposed Alaska LNG project, a $38.7 billion fossil-fuel infrastructure plan to export liquified natural gas (LNG). It would be capable of exporting 20 million metric tons of gas per year – a quantity that could result […]
Posted inEnviro
Court Restores Wolverine Protections While Agency Reconsiders Endangered Species Decision
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 […]
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 […]