Action Alerts

Texas residents deserve to breathe clean air

What's At Stake

Residents in El Paso, TX suffer from some of the worst air pollution in the country.

The main source of this pollution comes from the cars and cargo trucks that crawl through traffic as the vehicles wait to cross the Bridge of the Americas (BOTA), an international port-of-entry that connects the United States and Mexico.

Hundreds of thousands of commercial vehicles pass through this port of entry every year and as vehicles wait in line and sit idle each day, residents living nearby choke on the thick black smoke that pollutes the air. These pollutants, like ozone and fine particulate matter, cause life-altering health problems, such as asthma, lung cancer, heart attacks, and premature death.

Now, there is an opportunity for the public to weigh in and find a solution to this problem.

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The Bridge of the Americas is receiving $700+ million of federal Bipartisan Infrastructure funding for necessary upgrades and renovations. This long-overdue investment should be used as intended — to reduce our carbon footprint and address the impacts of fossil fuels on overburdened, vulnerable communities and their children.

We are asking you write a letter to the U.S. General Services Administration tasked with this modernization project and urge the agency to select Viable Action Alternative 4. This plan will improve public health by modernizing the Bridge to better accommodate pedestrian and passenger vehicles while closing the Bridge to highly polluting commercial vehicles. This is the only option on the table that promotes environmental justice by reducing dangerous air pollution and harm to surrounding communities.

The trucking industry is doing everything they can to avoid responsibility for their toxic emissions and be allowed to continue polluting communities. This is a critical moment to push the federal government to clean up the air for Texans who have been breathing this toxic pollution for decades. Urge the Biden administration to follow through on their promises of environmental justice and pursue Alternative 4.

Two bridges over a highway and canal, one filled with cars and trucks, with the city of El Paso in the background.
An aerial view of the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso Texas. (James Tourtellotte / U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

12 Days Remain

Delivery to the U.S. General Services Administration

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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.