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The Latest by Sam Edmondson

Campaign Manager

Sam Edmondson was a campaign manager on air toxics issues from 2010 until 2012. He helped organize the first 50 States United for Healthy Air event. His desire to work at an environmental organization came from the belief that if we don't do something to change our unsustainable ways, we are in big trouble.

March 21, 2012

Breathing is Popular

By Sam Edmondson  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Breathing isn’t just a physiological necessity, relegated to the unconscious functioning of our reptilian brains. It’s actually quite popular. Darn popular! I imagine that’s so because not all breathing is created equal. There’s the satisfying lungful of sweet, clean air (I hope we have all had that experience). And there’s the cough-inducing, eye-watering, lung-busting inhalation …

December 23, 2011

VIDEO: In the Shadow of the Stacks

By Sam Edmondson  /  Washington, D.C. Office

The historic victory for clean air announced a few days ago—limits on the mercury, arsenic and other toxic emissions from coal plants—has been a long time coming. Congress called for these limits in 1990, but the coal power industry got to work undermining them straight away. As a result, instead of getting the breath of …

Marti Blake lives near the Cheswick coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania and has suffered serious health complications.
December 21, 2011

Major Win in Twenty-Year Fight to Cut Mercury

By Sam Edmondson  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Earthjustice’s litigation and advocacy helped to finally bring coal-fired power plants—the juggernauts of toxic air pollution—under EPA scrutiny. New rules released in December 2012 will slash mercury emissions by 90 percent and save thousands of lives.

December 21, 2011

President Obama Speaks Out on New Coal Plant Standards

By Sam Edmondson

The White House recently posted a video of President Obama discussing the new clean air protections that his administration released today to limit mercury, arsenic and other air toxic emissions from power plants. The President’s words underscore how momentous this occasion is. The fight for these protections is more than two decades old. Earthjustice entered …

December 7, 2011

Meet The Power Plants

By Sam Edmondson  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Imagine you live in a neighborhood full of families. There are many nice people, but a few households are real menaces. They’re loud, they burn things in the backyard, and they drive around so fast that you’re worried they’re going to run someone down The neighborhood bands together and one-by-one succeeds in getting these menaces …

November 30, 2011

Stepping Out of the Shadows

By Sam Edmondson

What’s it like to live in the shadow of a smokestack? Ask Kim Wasserman, executive director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and a resident of Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood—a culturally vibrant area on the city’s west side that many, including Wasserman, refer to as the “Mexican capital of the Midwest.” Wasserman and …

November 30, 2011

Big Air Announcement Coming in December

By Sam Edmondson

Mark your calendars. Dec. 16 is going to be a big deal—particularly for families with children across the country. I know that Alvin, Simon and Theodore are getting Chipwrecked that day, but that’s not what I’m thinking about. There’s something even bigger coming down: the Environmental Protection Agency is going to release final standards to …

November 17, 2011

The Dog Ate My Clean Air Standards

By Sam Edmondson  /  Washington, D.C. Office

In 1990, Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency a very important homework assignment: protect the American public from mercury, lead, benzene, dioxins and other invisible toxic air pollutants, because what we can’t see can hurt us. Twenty-one years later, these dangerous pollutants are still pouring forth in large quantities from smokestacks across the country. Some …

November 15, 2011

The Nation Is Sick of Soot

By Sam Edmondson

Sometimes, little things cause big problems. The tiny particles in soot pollution are 1/30th the width of a strand of your hair, and yet those tiny particles may be responsible for the premature deaths of tens of thousands of Americans every year. Earthjustice, Clean Air Task Force and the American Lung Association released a report …

November 1, 2011

They Took Our Jobs! (Not)

By Sam Edmondson

Today, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)—that’s “Ice-uh” for those unfamiliar with the congressman—ran a hearing in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about pollution from coal-fired power plants. The hearing unfolded roughly as expected, with one side—repped by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli—arguing that clean air standards are job-killers, and the other side—repped by Environmental …