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A Chance To Do It Right On Western Coal
In 2009, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued an order taking aim at climate change, saying: “The Department is … taking the lead in protecting our country’s lands and resources from the dramatic effects of climate change…. The realities of climate change require us to change how we manage the land, water, fish and wildlife … and…
Read MoreSome Utilities Support EPA Power Plant Clean Up
Today’s major announcement from the EPA to cut mercury and other toxic air pollution from hundreds of coal-fired power plants across the country was welcome news here at Earthjustice. For nearly 15 years, we’ve been fighting in the courts for cuts like these so that our communities and our children can breathe a little easier. Turns…
Read MoreCleaning Up Biggest Polluters – Will Congress Have Our Backs?
As I write this, the Senate is debating an amendment to a small business bill that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from setting limits on carbon dioxide emissions from the nation’s biggest polluters. We’ve been making a lot of noise about this effort to cripple the EPA and obstruct health- and science-based standards for climate…
Read MoreEPA Clean Air Rules Will Create Up To 1.4 million Jobs
The power sector will invest almost $200 billion total in capital improvements over the next five years, total employment created by these capital investments is estimated at 1.46 million jobs, or about 290,000 jobs on average in each of the next five years.
Read MoreFirst Health Protections Against Coal Plants' Toxic Air Unveiled
Two decades ago, Congress promised the American public major reductions of the most dangerous air pollutants—toxics such as mercury, arsenic and lead that cause major health problems and can lead even to premature death. Today, after a long struggle in which Earthjustice proudly participated, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took historic action to clean up…
Read MoreEnding The Secret About Chemicals In Our Drinking Water
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but secret gas drilling chemicals don’t belong in drinking water. That’s exactly the kind of sentiment that makes it very inconvenient for Dick Cheney’s buddies at Halliburton who want to use secret chemicals to extract gas from the earth – a controversial method known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” You…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: Reaching Beyond Rhetoric
“We all have a responsibility to ensure that the American people have facts and the truth in front of them, particularly when fictions are pushed by special interests with an investment in the outcome.” – EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in testimony before Congress on March 10 in response to false claims by Republicans and special…
Read MoreOur Climate Reality and Our Congressional Deniers
On Tuesday, in a hearing in the House, representatives wrestled over whether they should accept the volumes of science produced by every major U.S. scientific and research institution that say that climate change is happening and our industrial carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to it. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bobby Rush (D-IL),…
Read MorePA Gov. to Energy Exec: You’re the Boss of Everyone
Fresh off his state’s radioactive river scandal, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has once again landed in hot water (no pun intended) over a line in his proposed budget which hands the energy executive he appointed to head the state’s economic development agency "supreme" decision-making power to fast-track gas drilling permits in the state. The man…
Read MoreAnd…The Nonsense Continues in the House
The questions came from all sides, but one in particular stood out: “How would HR 1 affect the EPA’s ability to protect the public?” asked Representative Henry Waxman, (D-Calif.) During testimony before the U.S. House Energy and Power Subcommittee on the EPA’s budget, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson answered Waxman’s question: “We understand cuts have to…
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