James Yskamp

Senior Attorney

Fossil Fuels Program

James Yskamp, Senior Attorney

Bar Admissions

OH, PA, WV

James Yskamp

Senior Attorney Fossil Fuels Program

Dustin Renaud
Public Affairs and Communications Strategist
drenaud@earthjustice.org

James Yskamp joined Earthjustice in 2021 as a senior attorney in the Fossil Fuels Program, with a focus on challenging new gas and petrochemical infrastructure in the Appalachian Ohio River Valley.

In the fall of 2014, James began his legal practice with Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services in Akron, Ohio, where he served as a staff attorney and supervising attorney until 2019. James represented clients in Ohio and Pennsylvania in a variety of environmental civil matters, including cases involving water rights, citizen suit litigation, air quality permitting, water quality permitting, mineral rights, pipeline challenges, and land use and zoning.

In 2019, James joined the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in Detroit, where he worked on environmental justice and water rights issues in the Great Lakes region.

In April of 2020, he joined Community Legal Aid Services back in Akron to work on housing rights and housing stabilization issues for low-income families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

James received his J.D. at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he spent three semesters in the environmental law clinic.

Dustin Renaud
Public Affairs and Communications Strategist
drenaud@earthjustice.org

Bar Admissions

OH, PA, WV

Quoted in the News

January 13, 2026

Canary Media

What a fracking-waste dispute says about Ohio’s energy double standard

“The law is very clear in our view that [the department] should be applying the rules in place at the time of permitting.”
April 2, 2024

The Athens News

Athens County residents receive update on K&H injection wells

“Ohio has injection laws because we take our neighboring states’ waste, we take on most of Pennsylvania’s waste and a lot of West Virginia’s.”
February 21, 2024

Louisiana Record

Louisiana environmental groups sue over EPA decision giving state agency authority over carbon-capture projects

“All three of those groups alleged that Louisiana doesn’t have the expertise and resources to implement the program.”