March Actions
What's At Stake
From cleaner air, protections from toxic chemicals that hurt people and bees, new safety standards against chemical disasters, and cleaner transportation, this month we have seen positive movement on a variety of environmental issues that Earthjustice goes to court for. Some of these updates include:
- An insecticide linked to a nation-wide honeybee die-off remains banned in California after industry challenges were dismissed by the California Court of Appeals.
- The EPA finalized new safeguards in the event of a chemical disaster, which protects nearly 180 million people who live near chemical industrial facilities.
- A new rule was finalized regulating steel production which would prevent 64 tons of hazardous air emissions annually.
- Nearly 14 million people in the US live near facilities that emit one of the most toxic air pollutants – ethylene oxide. Now, a final rule updates regulations that will eliminate an estimated 90 percent of ethylene oxide emissions once implemented.
- There are new standards to lower tailpipe emissions from new cars starting in 2027, which will drive the country towards non-polluting, zero emissions passenger vehicles.
We couldn’t have gotten here without you. Despite these victories there are still legal challenges on the horizon and other environmental protections to pursue. We are in a crucial moment of progress, and we need your help to get some key initiatives across the finish line. Advocates like you speak up during every comment period and opportunity – and it makes a difference.
Delivery to Environmental Protection Agency, Biden administration, Department of Transportation, and U.S. Treasury
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Your Actions Matter
Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.
You level the playing field.
Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.
They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.
Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.
Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.
Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.
Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)
Your action is with us in court.
If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.
Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.
We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.
Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.
Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.
It’s the law.
Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.
Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.
Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.
Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”
When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.
What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.