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Friday Finds: No Shark Fin Soup For You!

Congress puts the kibosh on shark fin soup Last week, Congress adopted legislation to curb shark finning, the practice of chopping off a shark’s fins and dumping the finless shark back into the water, all so that people can dine on shark fin soup, reports the Washington Post. Though shark finning is currently banned off of…

A Margin Error of…Times 20???

Just last week we marked the two-year anniversary of the Kingston, TN TVA coal ash spill. Today, Earthjustice, the Environmental Integrity Project and Stockholm Environment Institute’s U.S. Center have released an analysis of an analysis: basically the EPA overinflated (by 20 times!) the values for coal ash recycling. The EPA claims that coal ash recycling…

Court Rules in Favor of Mexican Environmentalists

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled against Mexico and its army in the case of two Mexican farmers who were persecuted as a result of their environmental advocacy. The Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), Earthjustice’s partner organization in international environmental law, submitted an amicus brief in the case supporting the farmers. Teodoro…

A New Chance for BLM Wild Lands

One of the more frustrating tactics used repeatedly by the Bush administration in environmental matters was something we called “sue and settle.” These were cases filed against the government by states, industrial interests, or others seeking, for example, to open up wild lands to development. The defendant—the government—would then capitulate to the demands of the…

Friday Finds: Oil Spill Sand Berm FAIL

Oil spill sand berms saturated in failure Miles of sand berms built to protect the coastline during the Gulf oil spill that cost millions of dollars were a huge waste of money, according to a presidential oil spill commission. During the spill, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal strongly insisted on having the berms, despite scientists and…

A New Year with Cleaner Air

Earthjustice is feeling merry today – and it’s not just the holidays. In part to our litigation, today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced timetables for setting greenhouse gas emission limits for power plants and oil refineries. In a press call making the announcement, Gina McCarthy—EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation…

Two Years After Billion-Gallon Toxic Ash Spill, EPA Still Dawdles

Today marks the second anniversary of the nation’s largest toxic waste spill, when a billion-gallon wave of arsenic-filled coal ash carried away three houses and destroyed a riverfront community below the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant in rural Tennessee. Two years and $400 million dollars later, critical problems remain. Despite removal of more…

California Regulators Weaken Control of Deadly Diesel Pollution

It’s always been amazing to me just how much money polluters are willing to spend to try to convince lawmakers and the American public that public health and safety regulations will cost them too much money. Seat belts and airbags, now standard features in all cars and trucks, were fought tooth and nail by the…

New Study Shows Hexavalent Chromium In Drinking Water

The nonprofit public interest organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) this week released the results of a study that tested the water supplies of 35 American cities. In 31 of the 35 cities tested, the known carcinogen hexavalent chromium was present in the water supply. The result of industrial manufacturing and processes, hexavalent chromium can seep…