Our Stories

The Latest by Sam Edmondson

Campaign Manager

May 2, 2011

50 States United for Healthy Air

By Sam Edmondson

More than half of U.S. residents—154 million people—suffer from polluted air that is often too dirty to breathe. This troubling statistic comes by way of the American Lung Association’s most recent State of the Air report. In 366 counties across the country, residents are inhaling dangerous levels of ozone pollution and fine particles, which are …

April 21, 2011

John Muir's World: To Climb and See for Ourselves

By Sam Edmondson

Today is the 173rd birthday of John Muir. If the legacy of wildland preservation in this country were a river long with oxbows, falls and many notable tributaries, Muir’s contributions would certainly be the headwaters. Muir was the co-founder and first president of the Sierra Club and a steadfast advocate for the protection of wilderness. …

April 14, 2011

25,000 Lives Don't Matter Much to Them

By Sam Edmondson

Today, another indication comes that some members of Congress don’t breathe the same air as their constituents. Politico is reporting (subs. req’d) that House Republicans will soon introduce legislation to delay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to reduce the amount of cancer-causing, asthma-inducing, premature death-dealing pollutants in the air we all breathe—some congresspersons excepted, …

April 12, 2011

Clean Air Crosses The Partisan Divide

By Sam Edmondson

Clean air isn’t a partisan issue, although that’s admittedly easy to forget if you’re following the ongoing congressional clash over clean air protections (which sometimes seems as wide as the gap between the Grand Canyon’s north and south rims). The American public certainly isn’t so divided. A large majority—which includes citizens who identify as Republican, Democrat …

April 11, 2011

Congrats to Hilton Kelley, 2011 Goldman Award Winner

By Sam Edmondson

Port Arthur, Texas is home to a high density of oil refineries, chemical plants and hazardous waste facilities that have made the Gulf Coast city one of the most polluted in America. Asthma and cancer rates in the largely African-American neighborhood known as West Side—which sits at the fenceline of Port Arthur’s heavy industry—are among …

April 8, 2011

It's No Secret: Power Plants Can Clean Up Their Dirty Ways

By Sam Edmondson

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed last month to clean up the toxic air emissions of coal-fired power plants, it wasn’t a surprise. The date actually had been set for about a year, thanks to a court-ordered deadline won by Earthjustice and other groups. And for years prior to that deadline, a back-and-forth legal …

April 7, 2011

The U.S. Asthma Epidemic

By Sam Edmondson

People who suffer from asthma often say an attack feels like breathing through a pool of water or with a pillow covering their face. Unfortunately, millions of Americans know all too well what that’s like. In the United States, asthma is a bona fide public health epidemic: 17 million adults and 7 million children suffer …

March 21, 2011

New York Times Defends the Right to Breathe

By Sam Edmondson

Over the weekend, the editorial page of the New York Times once again defended the right to breathe clean air. This time, the paper focused on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recently proposed health standards for power plants’ toxic air emissions, which are expected to save as many as 17,000 lives every year by reducing …

March 18, 2011

Toxic Air's Toll: Thousands of Preventable Deaths

By Sam Edmondson  /  Washington, D.C. Office

The New York Times Green blog has a good post today that spells out in no uncertain terms the cost of delaying health standards for coal plants’ toxic air pollution: thousands of preventable deaths. Earlier this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took the historic action of proposing these long-overdue health standards, which are expected …

March 16, 2011

First Health Protections Against Coal Plants' Toxic Air Unveiled

By Sam Edmondson  /  Washington, D.C. Office

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 …