I’ve spent half my life chasing salmon with rod in hand and heart in mouth, but it seems that I am the one who’s been hooked. Enchanted, perhaps, is a better way of describing my love of all things salmon; thus, at 8 p.m. this Sunday, you’ll find me riveted in front of a TV watching the PBS special, Salmon: Running The Gauntlet.

From everything I’ve read and seen, this is one powerful documentary about the Columbia and Snake rivers salmon, and the heroic efforts of those who seek to save them. Shot and written from the point of view of the salmon, it takes you through the life cycle of a fish that faces hostility at every twist and turn of its existence. How any survive is part miracle, and part dedication by the kind of people who surround me here at Earthjustice.  

Florida Gov. Rick Scott

Coming from an Irish family and working for Earthjustice, I have an affection for green that is DNA-deep. But, I know the difference between the green of nature and the green of greed -- and nowhere is that difference so starkly obvious as in Florida. An explosion of green algae slime, fed by uncontrolled agricultural and sewage runoff, is taking over that state's famed waterways. It's murdering fish by the thousands, stinking up the air, fouling everything it touchs, and preventing recreation use.

It's like a green oil spill that can't be shut off. Or should I say, won't be shut off.

The source of this affliction is well known - and so is the cure: runoff limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after years of collaborative study with state authorities. All that stands in the way of their being implemented is the ultimate state authority: Gov. Rick Scott. Clearly in the back pocket of industry, Scott has rejected the plan, which would restore the tourist-friendly sparkle of waters that draw tourists by the millions each year. As Earthjustice attorney David Guest puts it:

Today—Earth Day—I was trying to figure out what kind of angle to write about, when I remembered a column I wrote last year, reflecting on the first Earth Day in 1970.

What struck me about that column is how it revealed that recycling, which we now take for granted as a cultural and financial institution, didn't exist on any kind of public scale just 41 years ago. The first Earth Day brought about this remarkable social change. Thus, in the spirit of recycling, I offer up last year's column, with its reflections on what it was like when it all began.

(In 1970, Terry Winckler organized the first Earth Day in Orange County, CA. A true grassroots movement, it exploded out of nowhere, he recalls, giving his war-weary generation something positive to rally around. Here are some of his recollections.)

It was a simpler, dirtier time, 40 years ago. Everybody littered and no one seemed to notice our trash-encrusted public places. Was recycling even a word in 1970?

As Chesapeake Energy Corp. struggles to contain a massive spill of toxic, hydraulic fluids yesterday at a natural gas fracking site in Pennsylvania, it also is struggling to explain how this dangerous event happened and how they are handling it. I mean, how do you explain away the poisoning of water supplies, waterways and farmers' fields?

Of course, you can't explain it away, but Chesapeake tried anyhow. They put out a news release that makes jaws drop and eyeballs roll. Fortunately, the group American Rivers was able to translate the release so that we all can read between the lines and understand what Chesapeake is really saying. Prepare to laugh and cry.

Earthjustice continues to be engaged with the consequences of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a year after it occurred:

• On Tuesday (April 26), our attorneys will be in oral arguments in the 5th District Federal Court, New Orleans, in our legal challenges to five new deepwater exploration permits, and one shallow water permit.
• An ongoing oil spill response plan case challenges the BP response plan, which claimed it could recover almost 500,000 barrels a day (it actually took three months to stop the spill of over 200 million gallons).
• We are intervenors in a deepwater drilling moratorium case.
• We are preparing to litigate with Shell over its permit application for a deepwater drilling rig in the Gulf. It proposes to drill in a high-pressure oil formation similar to what BP drilled in.
• We are seeking disclosure of ingredients in oil dispersants, such as were used in the Gulf oil spill a year ago. Our goal is to determine how toxic these dispersants are.

Imagine this in case of an Arctic oil spill

Just one year after the nation's worst oil spill, Shell Oil is reaffirming its plans to drill the Arctic Ocean next year. While that's not exactly breaking news, what is new is Shell's announcement of an oil spill containment plan designed especially for the Arctic Ocean environment. Here's that plan as described in the Wall Street Journal:

Shell said it has a three-tier, Arctic oil-spill response system consisting of an on-site oil-spill response fleet, near-shore barges and oil-spill response vessels, and onshore oil-spill response teams staged across the North Slope of Alaska that in the event of a blowout or spill could be ready to respond within one hour.

Courtesy redgreenandblue.org

After four years of trying, Big Coal’s national ambitions have again bogged down at the Kansas state line. 

A federal judge this week agreed with Earthjustice that the federal government failed to consider  environmental impacts of the proposed Sunflower plant expansion. The government has a financial stake in the plant because of loan arrangements made with plant owners by the federal Rural Utilities Service. The ruling could force the government to conduct an environmental impact review process on the proposed plant.
 
This is great news for clean energy advocates, because – at least for the time being – the ruling takes Sunflower’s future out of the hands of state politicians and their industry pals, who used backroom tactics to approve this polluting and unneeded behemoth.

As oil and gas prices again climb in response to Middle East travails, the phrase “Drill, Baby, Drill” has re-entered the national conversation—but it’s President Obama who did the uttering this time. And it sounds like he means it.

Obama mentioned the mantra Tuesday night in a speech about energy independence that came across like the opening shot in his 2012 bid for reelection. Alluding to “D,B,D,” the president said this is no time to be caught up in meaningless rhetoric that stampedes us to nowhere.

We have to end our national addiction to oil, he warned, giving environmentalists brief hope that he was pushing a clean energy agenda. But, before environmentalists could start feeling too warm and fuzzy, the president made clear that he meant… foreign oil. Curing that particular addiction, sez the prez, means we must start drilling domestically—offshore, onshore, in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, too. The Alaska mention stirred some hope among drilling enthusiasts there about the potential for drilling the Arctic.

Just one year after the worst human-caused oil spill in our history, Obama said we’ve learned our lessons and it’s time to start applying them—with deepwater drilling rigs. And, right on cue Wednesday, Shell Oil was celebrating its receipt of the first new deepwater oil drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP oil spill.

Teabag by teabag, the anti-environment faction in the House of Representatives has filled its federal government spending bill with amendments that will cripple protections for our water, air, natural resources, wildlife and public health. 

Not since the darkest days of the Bush administration have we seen such an onslaught on the environment—and the hits are still coming. By mid-day today (Tues., Feb. 15), the list has grown to include attacks on a number of endangered species, including wolves and salmon, and on the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to keep lethal pollutants out of the air we breathe and the water we drink. Some amendments are outright handouts to our nation’s worst polluters.

The spending bill will fund the government so that it can continue operating after March 4, but first the Senate must pass the bill. Today, Pres. Barack Obama warned that he would veto the bill as constructed.

The following is a list of the most harmful provisions and amendments proposed so far:

(UPDATE 2/10: For another take on the issue, check out this item posted on Grist from the Natural Resources Defense Council.)

Enemies of the Environmental Protection Agency are rallying today in Congress, but they may find their efforts blunted by an act of environmental weakness by Stephen L. Johnson, a former EPA administrator under President George W. Bush.

In 2008, we called for Johnson to resign because of his well-publicized attempts to gut the EPA's mission of protecting the environment. But, as we are just now learning, the EPA's mission was compromised more by what Johnson didn't do.

The evidence, in the form of a private letter by Johnson to Bush, was revealed last night just before today's hearing in Congress on whether the EPA should regulate greenhouse gases. Ironically, the letter is being used in defense of the EPA.