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Press Release March 28, 2024

Communities Fight Back Against Industry Attacks on New Air Quality Standards

EPA’s updated soot standards under threat from legal challenges, potentially undermining air quality improvements for years to come

document March 28, 2024

Communities intervene to defend national air quality standards from industry attacks

Health, environmental, and community organizations, represented by Earthjustice and Clean Air Task Force, filed to intervene in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent strengthening of an air standard for fine particulate matter pollution, finalized in February. This landmark standard is designed to protect public health and would address environmental injustices but is being challenged in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by major trade associations and 25 states.

document March 27, 2024

Sign-on Letter: EPA LMWC March 2024

. It has been over thirty years since Congress told EPA to protect the public from the harms of this incinerator pollution, and environmental justice communities are still waiting for those protections. EPA has committed to advancing equitable outcomes in environmental justice communities and building meaningful engagement with these communities. The time to deliver on those commitments is now.

document March 27, 2024

EPA Comments: LMWC Proposed Rule March 2024

EPA’s proposed revisions to its LMWC Standards come over thirty years after Congress told EPA to protect the public from the harms of incinerator pollution. The Proposed Rule is a welcome, if overdue, step in the right direction towards achieving Congress’s mandate.

Press Release March 27, 2024

Community Groups Reach Legal Settlement with KIUC, State on West Kaua‘i Hydro Project

Pō‘ai Wai Ola and Nā Kia‘i Kai raised concerns about the energy project’s impact on the Waimea River

staff March 27, 2024

Geoffrey Fettus

Geoffrey Fettus is the managing attorney of the Toxic Exposure & Health Program at Earthjustice.

Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette collects water samples in the Cape Fear River near the Smithfield slaughter house in Tar Heel, N.C. (Justin Cook for Earthjustice)
Press Release March 26, 2024

Community, Environmental, and Animal Welfare Organizations Press EPA to Strengthen Water Pollution Control Standards for Slaughterhouses and Animal Rendering Facilities

Stronger standards would prevent hundreds of millions of pounds of pollution from reaching rivers and streams, helping to protect more than 22 million people

document March 26, 2024

EPA Comments: Slaughterhouse Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for MPP Point Source Category

Inadequately controlled water pollution from slaughterhouses and rendering facilities can make water unsafe for drinking, unfit for outdoor recreation, and uninhabitable for aquatic life, posing serious risks to human health and the environment, especially in vulnerable and under-resourced communities. After more than two decades, EPA finally has begun the process of strengthening water pollution control standards for these facilities, and the Agency now proposes to adopt the weakest of three regulatory options. EPA’s preferred option is inconsistent with the CWA and other federal laws.

Bitcoin mining machines in a warehouse at the Whinstone US Bitcoin mining facility in Rockdale, Texas, the largest in North America. Operations like this one have been boosted by China’s intensified crypto crackdown that has pushed the industry west. (Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images)
feature March 25, 2024

State Legislation Alert: As Alarm Grows Over Crypto Mining’s Energy Consumption, Bitcoin Lobbyists Peddle State Bills

A new “model” bill carves out special protections for crypto miners that can threaten the grid and raise electricity rates.

In the News: Houston Landing March 25, 2024

EPA gives ‘minor’ polluters a free pass, creating a regulatory void in Channelview

James Pew, Attorney, Washington, D.C., Office: “Just getting the EPA to use the authority it has had all along would yield huge benefits.”

Natural gas well pads, pipelines, and other associated infrastructure in the Upper Green River Basin in Wyoming. Once home to pristine, clean air and very little industrial activity, emissions from oil and gas production in this area now lead to unhealthy levels of smog. (Ecoflight)
Press Release: Victory March 25, 2024

Court Rules 2022 Wyoming Oil and Gas Lease Sale Was Illegal

Wyoming sale was one of the largest oil and gas lease sales held on public lands

document March 25, 2024

45V Public Hearing Testimony

Testimony from Auburn Bell, Legislative Representative for Earthjustice, during U.S. Department of Treasury’s public hearing on proposed regulations for section 45V Credit for Production of Clean Hydrogen on March 25, 2024.

A threatened Mardon skipper butterfly basks in the sun at Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. This butterfly is native to the Pacific Northwest region of North America and relies on specific grasses such as Idaho Fescue and Bluebunch Wheatgrass as host plants. The Mardon skipper is a species of conservation concern and its populations have been declining due to habitat loss and degradation. (Seth Coulter / BLM)
Press Release March 25, 2024

Supreme Court Denies Timber Industry Requests to Review Expansion of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Decision ensures that southwest Oregon rivers, fish, and wildlife remain protected

(Mitchell Gilbert para AIDA)
Press Release: Victory March 22, 2024

Fallo de la Corte IDH en Caso de La Oroya Sienta Precedente Clave para la Protección del Ambiente Sano

El tribunal estableció la responsabilidad del estado peruano en la violación de derechos de residentes de La Oroya, afectados por décadas de contaminación tóxica

In the News: City & State, New York March 22, 2024

NY lawmakers focused on environmental legislation this week

Liz Moran, Policy Advocate, Northeast Office: “Last year we really saw a remarkable sequence of events, where we had the wildfire smoke from Canada that made the air quality in New York unsafe to breathe, smoky for days. Not long after that, we had unprecedented flooding that led to the shutdown of the MTA and…

In the News: KGNU March 22, 2024

Suncor scores another three years to leak unlimited amounts of forever chemicals into a major Colorado water system

Ian Coghill, attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office, speaks with KGNU’s Alexis Kenyon

In the News: Grist March 22, 2024

EPA is regulating sterilizers, but not the warehouses that store sterilized products

Marvin Brown, Attorney, Washington, D.C., Office: “Up until eight years ago, a lot of people had no idea that the sterilizer facility, which looks like your regular office park facility, was poisoning them. Now we have this additional issue of these warehouses that are continuing to poison people, and most people have no idea that…

In the News: WHRO March 22, 2024

Stricter federal air pollution standards likely won’t help Hampton Roads communities plagued by coal dust

Seth Johnson, Attorney, Washington, D.C., Office: “Strengthening a standard is really important. It’s really important to set that benchmark and tell people, ‘This is what counts as safe air.’ But if you don’t know what the air quality actually is, the impact of the standard is going to be not as great as it could…