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2020: A Year in Earthjustice

2020:
A Year in Earthjustice

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Sasha Arutyunova

2020 was a year of deep sorrow.
Yet, in the face of the unrelenting challenges,
you accomplished extraordinary things,
for the earth and its people.

Photographer Sasha Arutyunova made this image of a spring blossom in Brooklyn, New York, in mid-April when the city’s hospitals were being overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases.

Because of you,
Earthjustice’s 160 lawyers
represented 576 clients
in hundreds of legal battles —
for our health, our wild places, and our climate.

You saved Clean Water Act protections for rivers, lakes, and oceans in the “Clean Water Case of the Century” at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Story Our Clients
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Mid-Pacific Office represented the Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund, Sierra Club-Maui Group, Surfrider Foundation, and West Maui Preservation Association.

You stood with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as they were vindicated in the court of law, after years of perseverance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Story The Legal Team
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Northwest Office have represented the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in their legal fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline since 2016.

At the Oceti Sakowin Camp in 2016, from left, T. Peterson, K. Morrisseau, N. Scanie, and F. Youngbear-Tibbetts. (Joey Podlubny / CC BY-NC 2.0)

You protected the gateway to Yellowstone National Park from industrial gold mining in a monumental ruling at the Montana Supreme Court.

The Story Our Clients
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Northern Rockies Office represented the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Park County Environmental Council.

Visual courtesy of Eric Ian

You loosened the fossil fuel industry’s grip on our climate, lives, and lungs, battling polluting coal plants from Pennsylvania to South Africa, and celebrating the end to the Constitution Pipeline.

The Legal Team
Earthjustice's Coal Program works to end our nation’s reliance on dirty, expensive, and outdated coal-fired power plants, and to achieve a just transition to a clean energy economy. Our International Program works with organizations and communities around the world to establish, strengthen, and enforce national and international legal protections for the environment and public health. Our Northeast Office’s legal work includes regional advocacy promoting a shift from fossil fuels to clean energy sources and local efforts to enforce the rights of communities disproportionately burdened by pollution.

In the shadow of a coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania. (Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)

You held accountable the fossil fuel industry’s massive petrochemical buildout from St. James Parish to the Ohio River Valley.

The Story Our Clients
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Fossil Fuels Program represent RISE St. James, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, the Center for Biological Diversity, Healthy Gulf, No Waste Louisiana, Earthworks, and the Sierra Club. in the Louisiana case; and Buckeye Environmental Network, Concerned Ohio River Residents, Freshwater Accountability Project, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and the Sierra Club in the Ohio River Valley case.

Sharon Lavigne, of RISE St. James, kneels in a pew at St. James Parish, La. (Julie Dermansky)

You saved endangered North Atlantic right whales from the deafening harms of seismic airguns surveying for oil and gas.

The Story Our Clients
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Oceans Program represented the Surfrider Foundation and Sierra Club in the years-long legal and public battle challenging the Trump administration's issuance of Incidental Harassment Authorizations.

NOAA

In the global pandemic,
our lives and work changed.


Court arguments were delivered virtually.
Legal filings carefully mailed.

But two things remained constant:
your unwavering support, and
Earthjustice’s work to hold the powerful accountable.

You helped us take on new work to raise the public’s voice in the changed virtual world

Nuiqsut resident Martha Itta (right) spoke out against BLM's practices in virtual public hearings. (Bonnie Jo Mount / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

And called for equitable and just investments of COVID-19 relief funds and a halt to electricity and water shut-offs.

Receiving care after taking a COVID-19 test. (Eva Marie Uzcategui / AFP / Getty Images)

You held the line
against the Trump administration’s
unlawful assaults on our environment.


We filed more than 160 lawsuits in four years,
prevailing in 83% of legal challenges decided so far.

In this year alone,
you won ten of those critical victories.

You saved ancient forests on Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest from illegally approved logging.

Learn Our Clients
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Alaska Office represented the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Alaska Rainforest Defenders, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Audubon Society, Center for Biological Diversity.

Colin Arisman

You kept our Arctic Ocean free from oil drilling, when an appeals court tossed out the administration’s illegal approval of the first offshore development in federal Arctic waters.

Learn The Legal Team
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Alaska represented the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Defenders of Wildlife, and Pacific Environment in the legal challenge to the Trump administration's approval for the Liberty project, an artificial drilling island and underwater pipeline.

Vicki Beaver / NOAA

You halted the fire-sale giveaway to the oil and gas industry of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Montana, Utah, and critical sage grouse habitat.

The Legal Team
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Northern Rockies Office protect large, intact ecosystems, and seek to build ecosystem resilience by reducing pressures caused by oil and gas development, logging, road building, and off-road vehicle traffic. Our Rocky Mountain Office protects the region’s public lands and unique wildlife, challenges reckless oil and gas development and off-road vehicle use, and safeguards precious water resources.

Noppadol Paothong

You supported 30 million kids and science-backed standards, when a court struck down a Trump administration attempt to reduce school nutrition standards.

The Story Our Clients
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Sustainable Food & Farming Program filed an amicus brief on behalf of the American Heart Association, American Public Health Association, FoodCorps, MomsRising, and National Education Association.

Benjikat / Getty Images

You defeated the Justice Department’s opposition to funding for environmental projects in Michigan communities overburdened by decades of pollution.

Learn Our Clients
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Coal Program represented the Sierra Club.

Lizzie Gill for Earthjustice

You pushed forward with us
to solve our climate crisis,

by moving urgently to zero emissions
and 100% clean energy.

You secured $500 million in new investments for electrification of transportation and the passage of the nation’s first electric truck mandate.

You accelerated the rise of clean energy in energy forums nationwide — from Kansas to Puerto Rico, Wisconsin to California — where good lawyers are making an outsized impact on our climate future.

When we say we’ll sue,
it’s not a threat.

It’s a promise —
a promise that we will keep fighting
for our earth and its people.

For the treaty rights of Tribal Nations

The Story Our Clients
Attorneys in the Midwest Office, in partnership with the Native American Rights Fund, represent the Bay Mills Indian Community in their fight over the Line 5 pipeline. Attorneys in the Tribal Partnerships Program fight to ensure our tribal and Indigenous clients’ natural and cultural resources are protected for future generations.

Gravelle, of the Bay Mills Indian Community, lays tobacco down in prayer at a Line 5 pipeline protest.(Whitney Gravelle)

For an end to the menace of coal ash

Learn The Legal Team
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Coal Program have fought for decades for safeguards against the toxic waste coal ash.

Pete Harrison / Earthjustice

United Mountain Defense

For the waters of the United States

Learn The Legal Team
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Northwest and Rocky Mountain Offices are representing the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Quinault Indian Nation of Washington state, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa of Minnesota, the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, the Tohono O’odham Tribe of Arizona, Mi Familia Vota, Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, Idaho Conservation League, and the Sierra Club.

Ami Vitale / National Geographic

For communities threatened by the “forever chemical” known as PFAS

Learn The Legal Team
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Toxic Exposure & Health Program fight for meaningful regulation of dangerous chemicals, including assisting communities grappling with PFAS contamination.

Drinking water is a common exposure route to PFAS. (Atakan / Getty Images)

For our right to breathe and our right to a healthy environment

The Story Our Clients
Attorneys in the Washington, D.C. Office, represent Air Alliance Houston, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Clean Air Council, Downwinders at Risk, Montana Environmental Information Center, NAACP, and Sierra Club in the legal challenge over the rollback of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.

The Navajo Generating Station's smokestacks were demolished on Dec. 18. (Darcy Padilla)

New year, new career? We’re hiring. Join us!

And for much more.
You did a lot of good in 2020.
Thank you.


Now, let’s talk about 2021.



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