December Actions
What's At Stake
Republicans will take power in the new year with an agenda that will benefit polluters at the expense of communities, weaken protections for our environment, and pose a serious challenge in our fight against the climate crisis.
But we’ve been here before, we know the harm, and we know what works. Our roadmap forward involves building partnerships with champions in Congress to combat every attempt to roll back and demolish health protections and building partnerships with groups on the ground working for better environmental protections. Earthjustice is also committed to defending scientific integrity as the bedrock of environmental policy, and defending transparent, evidence-based standards that hold polluters accountable.
That’s why it’s important to reflect on what we have accomplished together this year. Throughout it all, your advocacy with Earthjustice helped us safeguard our lands and waters, remove toxic chemicals from our everyday lives, make strides on stopping fossil fuels, and more. Your advocacy has helped us achieve important wins for the environment. Here are some of our wins:
- 49,801 comments were submitted urging the EPA to ban the cancer-causing chemical, trichloroethylene, a widely-used solvent linked to cancer and Parkinson’s disease. This chemical was banned earlier this month.
- 69,578 comments from Earthjustice supporters urged the EPA to update an existing rule to require almost all lead pipes in the U.S. to be replaced within a decade. After years of Earthjustice litigation and joint advocacy alongside communities affected by lead contamination, this rule was finalized in October of this year.
- 20,816 comments were submitted advocating protections for 28 million acres of public lands in Alaska. The Department of the Interior announced their decision to protect these lands from extractive development in August of this year.
- 29,118 comments were submitted by advocates like you urging for an end to coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. In May of this year, the Biden administration announced the end of coal-leasing in the Powder River Basin, which is the largest coal-producing region in the United States. This decision is a direct result of Earthjustice litigation that resulted in a federal judge forcing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to redo its environmental analysis for coal mining plans in Powder River Basin.
- 46,101 comments were submitted urging the EPA to adopt new rules that will help communities from being poisoned by six highly toxic PFAS chemicals via their drinking water. These rules, which were the first-ever national PFAS drinking water standards, were finalized in April of this year.
- 48,354 comments were submitted urging the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up toxic coal ash. In April of this year, the EPA finalized a new rule that will force power plants across the country to clean up hundreds of coal ash dumps that have been leaking toxic pollution into groundwater. This is a major victory for communities living near coal ash plants as the rule closes a loophole that left over half of coal ash exempt from federal clean-up requirements.
- 49,489 comments were submitted urging the EPA to strengthen regulations for particulate matter air pollution, commonly known as soot. This final rule will reduce the harms of deadly air pollution for communities across the country, including for those who already experience disproportionate pollution burdens, such as Black, Latinx, and low-income households. The more protective standard is a critical advancement for public health and an important first step in reducing the disparities experienced by these communities.
All these important victories happened in part due to the legal expertise of Earthjustice attorneys and the commitment of your advocacy. For the next four years, our planet and communities will be facing a serious challenge from an anti-environment administration. The Trump administration will be more prepared the second time around — but thanks to your support, so are we. Our fight to protect the environment is more important than ever, and we’ll need you in our corner as we forge ahead.
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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.