Our Stories

The Latest by Lisa Evans

Senior Counsel

October 30, 2013

A Spooky Premise

By Lisa Evans  /  Washington, D.C. Office

What if EPA’s coal ash rule doesn’t close unlined lagoons? Wet dumping is the cheapest way, in the short-term, to dispose of toxic coal ash—but it is also the most dangerous.

October 24, 2013

TVA Five Years Later—Lessons Not Learned

By Lisa Evans  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Attorney Lisa Evans visited Harriman, TN, five years after the nation’s worst coal ash spill. After half a decade and more than a billion dollars, the visible ash is gone, but so is the entire neighborhood closest to the plant.

July 24, 2013

Absolutely NO on HR 2218

By Lisa Evans  /  Washington, D.C. Office

This week the House will vote on the “Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act of 2013” (HR 2218) sponsored by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV). The bill ruthlessly guts longstanding public health and environmental protections of the nation’s decades-old statute protecting communities from solid and hazardous waste disposal. This shameless industry giveaway creates a giant loophole …

June 18, 2013

Strike Three: CRS Makes Key Call on McKinley’s Coal Ash Bill

By Lisa Evans  /  Washington, D.C. Office

In advance of an upcoming vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week, the nonpartisan think tank, Congressional Research Service (CRS), delivered a frank memorandum evaluating HR 2218, the latest effort by Rep. McKinley (R-WV) to prevent the EPA from completing its coal ash rule. CRS exposes HR 2218’s superficial “fixes,” concluding that …

June 7, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: GOP Rushes to Quash Protections for Coal Ash

By Lisa Evans  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Reps. David McKinley (R-WV) and John Shimkus (R-IL) are on a mission to ram through an anti-public health, anti-public safety and anti-environmental coal ash bill. After filing their trifecta on the evening of June 3, the House Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy voted on June 6 to pass HR 2218, the Coal Residuals Reuse …

May 2, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: Danger in the Schoolyard

By Lisa Evans  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Recent sampling of paths constructed of coal ash near J.L. Wilkinson Elementary School in Middleburg, Florida reveal high levels of vanadium, a hazardous substance linked to cardiovascular disease and nervous system damage. Vanadium levels were up to seven times higher than levels deemed safe for residential soil by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Earthjustice …

February 1, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: Not In Our Drinking Water

By Lisa Evans  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Utility giant FirstEnergy Corp unveiled plans last week to barge 3 million tons of coal ash annually nearly 100 miles on the Monongahela and Ohio rivers for disposal in an unlined pit in LaBelle, PA. The ash comes from its Bruce Mansfield Power Station—one of the largest coal burning power plants in the U.S. There’s …

January 22, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: Bullying the Messenger, Burying the Truth

By Lisa Evans  /  Northeast Office

The Congressional Research Service, the non-partisan research arm of the Library of Congress, drew anger from two legislators after it issued an unfavorable report on their coal ash bills (S. 3512 and H.R. 2273). Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) have aggressively pursued the CRS since early December, after it gave both …

January 15, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: Is There Something In Missouri's Water?

By Lisa Evans  /  Washington, D.C. Office

In Missouri, rape apparently does not cause pregnancy, and it’s OK for children to eat coal ash. When Missouri Republican Todd Akin said last August that “legitimate rape” rarely results in conception, the congressman caused quite a stir—and this offensive nonsense, broadcast coast to coast, likely cost him a Senate seat. More provocative baloney was …

December 30, 2012

Landmark Mercury Decision is Jackson’s Legacy

By Lisa Evans

During her four-year tenure as administrator of the EPA, Lisa Jackson was a true champion for public health and environmental justice. One of her greatest legacies is the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, a rule that will help Americans breathe a little easier since it sharply limits the amount of mercury and other toxic metals …