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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.”

The "Sacred Cod".
March 15, 2012

Why The Cod Is Sacred

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Northeast Office

Over the past few decades, Earthjustice legal victories have been working to shape an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management in New England.

February 22, 2012

Obama's Energy Efficiency Clock Is Running Slow

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

In his State of the Union address, President Obama stated that the administration would “not walk away from the promise of clean energy.” The president also recognized that, especially in these tough economic times, “the easiest way to save money is to waste less energy.” President Obama’s speech brings to mind a pledge he made …

January 17, 2012

Victories Bring Hope As 2012 Begins

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

As 2012 begins and election year politics accelerate, you are probably hearing some gloomy predictions about how our environment will fare this year. There is good reason for the concern: many in Congress are dedicated to eliminating long-standing environmental protections. Fossil fuel industry supporters are pulling out all the financial and rhetorical stops in their …

December 12, 2011

Obama's Historic Chance To Control Coal Pollution

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

This Friday, the Obama administration has the historic opportunity to rein in a coal industry that has been allowed to pour toxic emissions like mercury, benzene and arsenic into our lives without limit. There’s little question that the administration will set limits – the law requires it and the courts have ordered it. The question, …

November 19, 2011

Victory For America's Forests

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

Last month, protection for nearly 50 million acres of wild lands was resoundingly affirmed in a court decision that will benefit future generations. After 13 years of legal battles by Earthjustice on behalf of our allies, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the Roadless Rule, a landmark preservation act that protects our nation’s wild …

October 14, 2011

Let's Unplug Dirty, Old Coal Plants

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Headquarters Office

Across the nation, old coal-fired power plants are gasping for their last breath, having survived long past their prime because of political favors and weak government regulations. They would have died decades ago if not for a fateful policy compromise in the late 1970s that exempted existing power plants from new air quality standards in …

September 24, 2011

Preparing To Stop Shell's Latest Arctic Scheme

By Trip Van Noppen  /  Alaska Office

The Palmyra Atoll is a tropical coral reef island in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. It’s warm, tiny and far from the vast, frigid Arctic. And yet these distant, disparate places are as alike in one sense as any two places on Earth. Each is an early victim of humankind’s addiction to fossil fuels …

September 2, 2011

We Are Acting On Smog Rules Even If Obama Won't

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

This morning, the President tried to yank the rug out from under years of work by Earthjustice and our clients to clean up deadly smog in our air. In 2008, weak national standards for ozone, or smog, were adopted by the Bush administration, standards that the EPA’s own scientists said would not protect public health. …

August 16, 2011

Powerful Opposition to MTR in the Heart of Coal Country

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

A major new poll released today reveals some shocking truths about public opinions on mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. The polling, conducted by the Democratic Lake Research Partners and Republican Bellwether Research & Consulting and funded by Earthjustice, Appalachian Mountain Advocates (formerly the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment), and the Sierra Club …

July 22, 2011

Congress Puts Polluters in the Rider's Seat

By Trip Van Noppen

If you’ve ever suspected that Congress thinks of corporate polluters first and the polluted public last, the debacle unfolding in Washington, D.C. this week should leave you with little doubt—and a bitter taste. Many of our elected leaders have hijacked the process by which we fund government agencies to sack the environment like Odysseus did …