Reversing its August 2008 decision, the California Fish and Game Commission recently voted to grant candidate status to the Pacific fisher under the California Endangered Species Act.

This begins the review process to determine if full protection is warranted.

Earthjustice and our colleagues at Center for Biological Diversity have worked to protect the fisher for many years, so this policy reversal is very good news.

We are thrilled to announce that "due to current economic conditions and increasing regulatory uncertainties," LS Power pulled the plug on the proposed White Pine coal-fired power plant near Ely, Nevada this week. The company will instead focus on delivering renewable power to cities, including Las Vegas.

While economic conditions look bad for any new power project, what may be less clear is which "regulatory uncertainties" LS Power references.

Well, we have a hunch.

The lungs of America got two big breaks this week with court rulings that protect them from air pollution emitted by power plants, factories, and diesel trucks.

And there is a strong hint of more to come.

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case defending an ill-conceived cap and trade system for emissions of mercury, lead, arsenic and other pollutants from the nation's coal-fired power plants. Earthjustice and our clients had argued that such a system would create toxic hot spots in regions across the nation.

Northern Californians have recently launched two grassroots efforts to oppose a proposed peripheral canal that would divert water from the Sacramento River and send it around the West's largest estuary to irrigate large industrial farms in the Central Valley and Southern California.

On January 17th, Water4Fish held a panel discussion at the International Sportsmen's Expo in Sacramento.

The panel, "Salmon: Recovery or Extinction," addressed the recently the released draft biological opinion which found state and federal water pumping plan are "likely to jeopardize" Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon, spring run Chinook, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon populations.

Joe Klein (author of Primary Colors, the scathing send-up of the Clinton years) gives President Bush quite a valedictory send-off today in the pages of TIME magazine.

Besides distaste for President Bush's "intellectual laziness," Klein lists a number of environmental actions that could be taken now in the final weeks of the Bush administration. Sadly, none of these are expected to happen.

We found it curious when the DC-based National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) sued a local air pollution board in California. Why would a big national trade association care about a local air pollution rule?

Well it turns out, NAHB had hoped to stop "Indirect Source Review" rules from spreading to other jurisdictions across the nation.

Earthjustice filed a defendant-intervenor brief defending the rule and you’ll be glad to know, the developers' lobby lawsuit was recently tossed out of court.

Unearthed blog editor, wordsmith, and all around superdad Terry Winckler gave me a hard time this week for being an "elitist" urban bike commuter. We had a good laugh over the use of the word. It got me thinking. What does the term "elitist" really mean these days?

Has elitist become political shorthand for "someone not like us?" The thought of calling someone who doesn't drive a car an elitist initially struck me as a perversion of the word's meaning. The working class folks I share bike lanes with each morning hardly feel "elite," more like Average Joes schlepping ourselves to work.

A Generational Challenge to Repower America

Delivered 7/17/08 in Washington, DC

The Energy Information Administration is the official energy statistic keeper for the US Government. Here is what they recently said about opening up the outer continental shelf to new oil drilling.

The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.

Today Americans first learned that former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written a tell-all book about his years in the Bush Administration.

According to press accounts, the administration was less than candid with the American people. McClellan now believes he told numerous untruths on behalf of the administration. While the administration will certainly dispute McClellan's account, the whole issue begs the question.

If the Bush administration was not straight with the American people about war, the economy, etc... what untruths were told by Mr. McClellan with regard to the environment?