September Actions
What's At Stake
You may have heard of Project 2025, a policy playbook written by former government officials and the Heritage Foundation. This document has detailed recommendations for the environment and spells out a deregulatory policy agenda that would weaken and strip away our rights to clean air, clean water, and a healthy planet – the same protections that you, as environmental advocates, defend every time you take action with Earthjustice.
Project 2025 intends to weaken or repeal many bedrock environmental laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (which ensures communities have a voice in major projects built near them), the Clean Air Act (which requires the EPA to set health-based air quality standards), the Endangered Species Act (which is the most successful tool we have in protecting endangered species), the Antiquities Act (that’s the one that creates national monuments like Bears Ears), and more. These laws were passed by a bipartisan Congress half a century or more ago. Earthjustice advocates like you have submitted over one million comments on actions that depend on these bedrock laws over the last three years.
This playbook intends to prioritize mining and fossil fuel development on public lands, expanding Willow which is already the largest proposed oil and gas project on U.S. public lands, and target iconic landscapes like Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters among other national treasures. Earthjustice advocates have spoken up each time these precious places have come under attack, and so have we. We’ve been defending the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from fossil fuel development since the 1980s. Our litigation and advocacy helped secure a 20-year mining ban in the Boundary Waters. And we’re still fighting the Willow Project in court.
Though the scope of planning written down in Project 2025 is new, many of the ideas it presents are not. At Earthjustice, we’ve seen presidential administrations push similar agendas before – and through the courts we have pushed back. Here at Earthjustice, we’re prepared to defend the environment and communities no matter who holds political office. Earthjustice has seen this before during the Trump administration who sought to advance many of the same policies. Last time around, Earthjustice fought back and we’re still working to undo the damage. But this is why continued advocacy from dedicated advocates like you is important. Legal advocacy combined with action taking is a winning combination that gets results. Nonetheless, our fight to protect the environment is more important than ever, and we need your support. Supporters like you rise to the occasion during every comment period and opportunity – and it makes a difference.
Delivery to U.S. Congress, Environmental Protection Agency, and Canada
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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.