Our Stories

The Latest by Liz Judge

Advocacy Communications Director

June 20, 2011

Court: Only EPA Can Regulate Climate Change Pollution

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

Today, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling once again affirmed the Environmental Protection Agency as the most rightful and authorized regulator of climate change pollution in the land. While some in Congress have been trying to take this power away from the EPA, and have been attempting to block EPA controls on climate change pollution, the Supreme …

June 4, 2011

The March Toward Justice Begins

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

This week more than 600 concerned citizens will participate in the largest mass mobilization against mountaintop removal mining that this country has ever seen, Appalachia Rising: The March on Blair Mountain. Led by many of our dedicated friends and partners in Appalachia, hundreds of people from all across the country, from all stripes and walks …

May 6, 2011

Voices of Silence: People Living With Mountaintop Removal Mining

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

Last Thursday, the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment held an absurdly one-sided hearing entitled “EPA Mining Policies: Assault on Appalachian Jobs – Part I.” I’ve never heard so much agreement in Congress — but that was, of course, because the only people allowed to speak were chosen to speak because they were already …

May 4, 2011

Fair Congressional Hearing or Puppet Show: You Decide

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

On Thursday morning, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, will begin a two-part hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) policies on mountaintop removal mining. The committee, chaired by Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH) is calling the hearings “EPA Mining Policies: Assault on Appalachian Jobs – Part I and Part II.” Judging …

April 25, 2011

Oh Snap! Little Green Alien Takes Earthling To School

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

Well, it’s true that here on a blog, the currency is words. We’re supposed to tell stories through our prose. But today I’m going to go easy on the blog and yield the storytelling to a small collection of witty, beautiful, foot-stomping and surreal art by people who are mastering other mediums to talk about …

April 14, 2011

NY Times Casts Light on Lindytown, WV, Harms of MTR

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

Yesterday The New York Times featured a sublimely written story by Dan Barry on the effects of mountaintop removal mining on a small town in West Virginia called Lindytown. The story, called "As the Mountaintops Fall, a Coal Town Vanishes," traces the plummeting fall of an entire mountain and the town below it to the …

April 12, 2011

Why I Fight For Our Forests: Earthjustice's Tim Preso

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

Q & A with attorney Tim Preso, who works to protect our nation's forests and their critical natural resources and wildlife.

April 8, 2011

Shut Down the Government So They Can Blow Up Mountains?

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

[Update: Amid hurried negotiations late Friday to avoid a government shutdown, House sources indicated that a possible deal has been reached to prevent weakening the government’s regulation of mountaintop removal mining and climate change emissions. The uncertainty of this deal makes it all the more important for citizens to contact the White House and their …

April 8, 2011

Why I Fight For Our Forests: Earthjustice's Rebecca Judd

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

National forests are the single largest source of clean drinking water in the United States, serving 124 million Americans. Rebecca Judd, legislative counsel for Earthjustice, based in Washington, D.C., discusses her work to protect forests.

April 6, 2011

Senate Tramples Four Dirty Air Acts

By Liz Judge  /  Policy and Legislation Team & Washington, D.C. Office

The Senate just voted to reject four—count ’em 1-2-3-4—bad amendments that would strangle and block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from being able to limit dangerous carbon dioxide pollution from the nation’s biggest polluters. These Dirty Air Acts went down in the upper chamber today because enough of the Senate still obviously believes that the well-being, …