WASHINGTON, D.C. March 13, 2019 – Environmental groups sued the Trump administration today to challenge an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico that will open up more than 78 million acres to offshore drilling without fully analyzing the risks to people, wildlife or the environment. The lawsuit, filed by Earthjustice on […]
Earthjustice
Posted inEnviro
First Comprehensive, National Study of Coal Ash Pollution Finds Widespread Groundwater Contamination
Washington, D.C. March 4, 2019 – An examination of monitoring data available for the first time concludes that 91 percent of U.S. coal-fired power plants with monitoring data are contaminating groundwater with unsafe levels of toxic pollutants. The study by the Environmental Integrity Project, with assistance from Earthjustice, used industry data that became available to […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Earthjustice Statement on Declaration of National Emergency to Build Trump’s Border Wall
Washington, D.C. February 14, 2019 – Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen released the following statement in response to reports of President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency to build additional miles of wall at the border. As the nation’s leading environmental law firm, Earthjustice played an active role in the fight against “waivers of law” […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Earthjustice: President Trump’s Cave Should Put an End to Government Shutdowns
Washington, D.C. January 25, 2019 – This afternoon, President Trump announced he will relent on weeks of demands for a border wall and sign Congressional Democrats’ clean three-week government funding bill, bringing an end to a record 35-day government shutdown that endangered nearly 800,000 federal workers’ livelihoods. The following is a statement from Martin Hayden, […]
Posted inEnviro
Wheeler’s EPA secretly moves to let more mercury in the air
WASHINGTON, D.C. December 28, 2018 – Today, Andrew Wheeler’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it wants to gut the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards, or MATS, which protects families from mercury and other toxic pollution from power plants and other sources. According to EPA, this rule prevents tens of thousands of premature deaths, asthma attacks […]
Posted inEnviro
Trump administration allows“incidental” injury to endangered whales in seismic blast zones
WASHINGTON, D.C. November 30, 2018 – Today the Trump administration will authorize companies to injure, harass, disrupt or even kill marine mammals in the course of surveying the Atlantic Ocean seafloor to detect oil and gas reserves. These seismic airgun surveys, a precursor to offshore oil and gas drilling, will affect marine wildlife across 200,000 […]
Posted inCalifornia
Earthjustice President Says Catastrophic Wildfires Show Need for Massive Investment in Clean Energy and Climate Resiliency
November 20, 2018 – Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen released the following statement in response to the climate change issues raised by the California wildfires: “As California struggles to recover from the most devastating wildfires in its history, we call on the nation’s elected leaders to take immediate action to strengthen climate resiliency and move legislation forward […]
Posted inCalifornia
California Recommends Few Restrictions On Pesticide Linked To Brain Damage
Sacramento, CA, Nov 15, 2018 — Today, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation recommended weak, temporary restrictions on the controversial, neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos. The California restrictions direct county agriculture commissioners to prohibit the use of chlorpyrifos on certain crops and eliminate aerial spraying. But despite numerous calls from scientists, communities, and a federal appeals court […]
Posted inEnviro
Largest logging project in the country in more than 30 years is moving forward on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska
JUNEAU, AK, Nov. 2, 2018 – The U.S. Forest Service released a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Draft Record of Decision (ROD) for its proposed Prince of Wales timber sale project, advancing plans for a record-breaking old-growth and young-growth logging project on Prince of Wales Island and the smaller neighboring islands in Southeast Alaska. […]
Posted inCalifornia
Supreme Court Halts Effort to Reinstate Failed “No Otter Zone” in California
WASHINGTON, D.C. October 29, 2018 – The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to review a Ninth Circuit decision that upheld the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s termination of a failed experimental program known as the “No Otter Zone.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had determined the program would harm the California sea otter by excluding […]
Posted inUS
Environmental, Civil Rights Advocates Demand Trump Administration Halt Move to Silence Freedom of Speech on National Mall
Washington, D.C. October 15, 2018 – In response to a National Parks Service (NPS) proposal to force the public to pay fees for demonstrations at the National Mall, Memorial Parks and President’s Park, 85 environmental, civil rights, and other advocacy organizations released a letter calling the move an attempt to place “a financial barrier that precludes […]
Posted inOp-Ed
Senate Completes Sham Nomination Process, Elevates Judge Kavanaugh to Supreme Court
Washington, D.C. October 6, 2018 – Abigail Dillen, President of Earthjustice, released the following statement in reaction to the Senate’s vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh this afternoon: “We at Earthjustice are ashamed. The process to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was an affront to the bedrock principles of fairness and justice […]
Posted inUS
Grizzlies Saved: Court Stops Trophy Hunt of Yellowstone’s Iconic Bears
MISSOULA, Mont. September 24, 2018 – Federal safeguards for Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bears were reinstated today after a judge ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to strip Endangered Species Act protections from the population was illegal. The decision spares the grizzlies from a planned trophy hunt scheduled to begin this fall in Wyoming and […]
Posted inEnviro
EPA again drags its feet on banning a pesticide linked to brain damage in children
SEATTLE, WA, Sept. 24, 2018 – Today, the Environmental Protection Agency asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case in which it decided that EPA must ban chlorpyrifos within 60 days. Filing the request has the effect of postponing the effectiveness of the court order. Trump’s EPA is putting off the ban […]
Posted inUS
National Monuments Lawsuits to Stay in Washington D.C.
Washington, D.C. September 24, 2018 – Today a federal judge ruled that the lawsuits to decide the fate of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments will be heard in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. This is the venue in which they were originally filed by the Native American Tribes […]
Posted inCalifornia
Groups Charge EPA with Failing to Enforce Air Standards in San Joaquin Valley
OAKLAND, CA, Sept. 18, 2018 – Today, community groups Committee for a Better Arvin and Committee for a Better Shafter along with Medical Advocates for Healthy Air, represented by Earthjustice, along with the National Parks Conservation Association filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its failure to enforce deadlines for the submission […]
Posted inUS
Mining Freeze Protecting America’s Most Visited Wilderness Area Dropped by Trump Administration
WASHINGTON, D.C. September 6, 2018 – A decision issued by the USDA today abandons the U.S. Forest Service’s request to freeze mining in the watershed of a beloved wilderness, exposing northern Minnesota’s pristine public lands and waterways to lasting impacts from sulfide-ore copper mines. USDA’s announcement that it will cancel the USFS application to the Secretary of Interior to withdraw 234,000 […]
Posted inCalifornia
California Just Became the Largest Economy in the World to Commit to Zero Carbon Electricity
Sacramento, Calif. August 28, 2018 – Today, the California Assembly passed Senate Bill 100 (SB 100), legislation that will transition the state’s energy grid to 100% clean energy by 2045. California’s commitment to clean energy comes as the Trump administration is dismantling protective standards for power plants and car emissions, unleashing climate and air pollution in […]
Posted inEnviro
EPA ordered to ban pesticide linked to brain damage in children
SEATTLE, WA August 9, 2018 – EPA must ban a widely used organophosphate pesticide linked to brain damage in children, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today. The appellate court ordered EPA to finalize its proposed ban on chlorpyrifos based on undisputed findings that the pesticide is unsafe for public health, and particularly harmful to […]
Posted inUS
Groups make final push in court to ban pesticide linked to brain damage in children
SEATTLE, WA, July 9, 2018 – Final arguments challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s refusal to ban a pesticide linked to brain damage in children will take place this morning in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A coalition of labor and health organizations represented by Earthjustice, will ask a panel of three judges to overturn […]