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The Latest by Trip Van Noppen

Former President

Trip Van Noppen served as Earthjustice’s president from 2008 until he retired in 2018. A North Carolina native, Trip said of his experience: “Serving as the steward of Earthjustice for the last decade has been the greatest honor of my life.”

April 3, 2013

Going to Extremes is Bad Energy Policy

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

Just as clean, renewable energy is lifting off and the impacts of climate disruption become ever more visible, fossil energy production is becoming dramatically more extreme. But extreme fossil energy production is exactly what we don’t need. In just the last two years, I have seen the Louisiana coast’s oil-slicked marshes after the Deepwater Horizon …

March 26, 2013

It's Game Over for Foes of National Forests

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Alaska Office

Time has run out for the enemies of roadless wilderness. They spent 12 years trying to kill the national law protecting our forests, and yesterday a federal district court said they couldn’t have a minute more—the statute of limitations had run out.

March 15, 2013

Stacking the Halls of Justice

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office & Washington, D.C. Office

Over the past four years, the federal halls of justice have been left partially hollow as the number of judicial vacancies in the federal courts continues to mount—due to foot-dragging on nominations and partisan filibuster once nominations are made. These vacancies hobble the courts’ ability to do their core work, which includes determining the fate …

February 15, 2013

Obama Has Spoken, Now He Must Lead

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

Last week, President Obama demanded that Congress take action on climate change, or else he would. But, after years of political gridlock on the climate issue, coupled with rising seas and worsening droughts, one thing is clear: the nation simply cannot afford to wait any longer to take action. Though Congress may eventually pull together …

February 1, 2013

Time To Confront A Major Climate Pollutant: Soot

By Trip Van Noppen  /  International Program

As the environmental ministers of the Arctic nations, including the United States, meet in Sweden next week, they have an opportunity to show leadership on an important though less well-known climate pollutant, black carbon (soot). While carbon dioxide remains the most important, long-lasting pollutant forcing climate change, recent studies have revealed that short-lived climate forcers …

January 18, 2013

President Obama Must Lead on Climate Change

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

On Monday, President Obama’s inauguration will officially mark the beginning of his second term, and with it his second chance at finally taking strong action on one of the most important issues of our time, climate change. Two months ago, on the night of his re-election and in front of an audience hopeful to move …

January 4, 2013

Shell's Drill Rigs Requiring Extra Federal Attention

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Alaska Office & Headquarters Office

With one Arctic drill rig shipwrecked on an Alaskan island and the other reportedly under criminal investigation for possibly “operating with serious safety and pollution control problems,” oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is doing a pretty thorough job at proving the quest for oil in the pristine waters of America’s Arctic is just too dangerous, …

December 14, 2012

Victories Over Fossil Fuels Strengthen Our Resolve

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

Earthjustice has just won two major victories over fossil fuels that strengthen our resolve to make 2013 the year America turns from these dirtiest of energy sources and moves towards a clean energy future—the only real solution to climate change. On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency reacted to Earthjustice legal action by adopting drastic limits …

November 17, 2012

Climate Change Re-elected As Political Issue

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

Life doesn’t hand you many second chances to make good on promises. But that’s what the American public, with an assist from superstorm Sandy, has given President Obama: another 4-year opportunity to tackle climate change—the critical environmental issue of our time. He’s now talking about the issue again, after two years of near-silence, and just …

November 6, 2012

Voters Tell Obama: Get To Work On Clean Energy Future

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

The American people have reinvested their faith in a President who now has a second chance to put this nation on course to a prosperous future built on clean energy and with a far-reaching goal of ending mankind’s role in climate change. In the wake of superstorm Sandy, voters saw—and many continue to experience—the impacts …