Uncategorized Archives

Unplugged: Improving Energy Efficiency a Gray Box at a Time

Inefficient electricity distribution transformers add up to large amounts of wasted energy.

In 2007, we filed a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration’s weak energy efficiency standards for electricity distribution transformers, those gray boxes mounted on utility poles that power all our homes and businesses. The results of that lawsuit are new standards from the U.S. Department of Energy that were published in the Federal Register on Thursday.…

Pick Your Wildlife Poison

It’s hard to know, sometimes, who to trust with America’s wildlife. For the most part, wildlife is managed by individual states, which do some good science and issue tags for hunting licenses. They are also, theoretically, on the front lines of ensuring that wildlife species don’t get into such trouble that the federal government needs…

Lean Green Two-Wheeled Machines Bike for Sustainability

In just one month’s time, 190 riders will cumulatively bike a total of 60,000 miles to spread the message: climate change is the most urgent problem we face today, and it’s up to us to take action. Our 4-woman team with the alias of “Lean Green Two-Wheeled Machines” will be riding on behalf of Earthjustice,…

A Reason to Celebrate Earth Day: No Arctic Ocean Drilling

Perhaps you’ve already read the good news by our crackerjack Alaska attorney Holly Harris, who reported that ConocoPhillips is the latest Big Oil company to postpone drilling in the oft-treacherous waters of the Arctic Ocean. Shell previously announced it was abandoning plans to drill there this year. A combination of Arctic fury and years of…

San Pedro River Faces a New Threat

The upper San Pedro River valley in Arizona is the epitome of the Wild West. Open and arid, stretching north from Mexico and lying in the shadow of the rugged Huachuca Mountains, the valley looks much the same as it did more than a century ago when miners and settlers uneasily shared the land. It…

Our Nation's Most Endangered River — The Colorado

Unrestrained thirst puts Colorado atop American Rivers’ threat list

California Senate Targets Unregulated Fracking

As reported in the current issue of Earthjustice Quarterly Magazine, oil fracking has become big news in California, where the practice is conducted in the shadows and is essentially unregulated—the Wild Wild West, if you will. (See: Extreme Energy: Out of Control Out West) That may be about to change. At least 10 bills have…

Outdated Toxics Law Exposes Americans to Many Chemicals

Just sitting on a couch can accelerate the release of flame retardant chemicals, which are harmful to human health. And no one should think they are safe from these chemicals—a CDC test analyzing blood samples from 2003 and 2004, finding that 97 percent of Americans carry flame retardants in their blood.

Manatees Dying in Florida's Algae-Choked Waterways

Florida tourism promoters are always looking to get stories in the newspaper to lure northern tourists — and their vacation cash — down here. But a recent story in the New York Times wasn’t what they had in mind.