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Fossil fuel drilling sites in Alaska's Western Arctic, in an around the Lake Teshekpuk area. (Kiliii Yuyan for Earthjustice)
Article November 12, 2024

Project 2025 Means More Mining and Drilling on Public Lands. We’ll Fight Back.

We are prepared to defend the environment and communities no matter who holds political office.

document March 15, 2022

Sage Grouse – Order on Phase 2 Summary Judgment Motions

Summary judgment order for phase two of the sage grouse case invalidating hundreds of oil and gas leases sold by the Trump administration. 

Press Release: Victory March 15, 2022

Court Strikes Down Hundreds of Trump-Era Oil and Gas Leases As Violating Sage-Grouse Protections

Trump administration violated federal law by leasing sensitive sage-grouse habitat for drilling

A fracking drill rig set in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
(grandriver / Getty Images)
Article November 12, 2021

Here’s Why Leasing Public Land to Oil and Gas is a Death Sentence for the Planet

Selling public land to companies that carve it up for fossil fuels is a bad deal for people and the environment.

In the News: The New York Times May 28, 2021

Biden’s Fossil Fuel Moves Clash With Pledges on Climate Change

Drew Caputo, VP of Litigation for Lands, Wildlife, Oceans: “I get that they’re being pressured politically. I get that there are thin margins. But the climate crisis doesn’t care about any of that stuff.”

Press Release May 6, 2021

Department of Justice Defends Trump-era Wyoming Leases

Earthjustice stands up to support 2015 sage-grouse plans, feds stand down

A male Greater Sage-Grouse performs a spring courtship ritual in Carbon County, Wyo.
(Noppadol Paothong)
feature: Victory January 5, 2021

Sage Against the Machine

Saving the greater sage-grouse was one of the largest conservation efforts in U.S. history. When the Trump administration tried to sacrifice it to oil and gas, the bird’s champions flew to its rescue.

The greater sage-grouse is one of many species threated by fossil fuel development in Wyoming.
(Stan Tekiela / Getty Images)
Press Release: Victory May 26, 2020

Court Strikes Down Trump Administration’s Sage-grouse Directive, Canceling Hundreds of Oil and Gas Leases

Administration violated federal law by leasing sensitive sage-grouse habitat for drilling

La protección del hábitat del urogallo de las artemisas fue el resultado de uno de los mayores esfuerzos de conservación en la historia de los Estados Unidos.
(STAN TEKIELA / GETTY IMAGES)
Press Release: Victory May 26, 2020

Corte Tumba Orden De Trump Para Cientos de Arrendamientos de Petróleo y Gas en Territorio del Urogallo de Las Artemisas

La administración violó la ley federal al arrendar un hábitat sensible de dicha especie para perforaciones

document May 22, 2020

Decision: BLM Sage Grouse

The U.S. District Court in Montana struck down the Trump administration’s attempt to gut a key part of the Bureau of Land Management’s 2015 plan to save the greater sage-grouse, an iconic bird species of the Western United States. The court invalidated a December 2017 BLM policy directive that has allowed millions of acres of oil and gas leasing in sensitive sage-grouse habitat. The court also struck down 440 oil and gas leases, covering about 336,000 acres (525 square miles), that BLM sold as part of its policy reversal.

case May 1, 2018

Saving the Sage Grouse

Conservationists filed suit in U.S. District Court in Montana against the Bureau of Land Management and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to demand that the administration uphold the deal made to save the greater sage-grouse and its habitat in 10 Western states. Under this administration, leasing and proposed leasing in sage-grouse habitat has increased, threatening the…

document April 30, 2018

Sage Grouse Complaint

This case challenges the Trump Administration’s systematic disregard of legally binding land management plans adopted to protect the greater sage-grouse. Greater sage-grouse once numbered in the millions across much of the western United States. The Lewis and Clark expedition and numerous other nineteenth-century observers commented on the birds’ abundance, and the grouse is an integral part of the western landscape. In recent decades, however, grouse populations have plummeted throughout their range due to habitat loss and fragmentation caused by oil and natural gas development and other activities.

A greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), near Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Dzurisin)
Press Release April 30, 2018

Conservation Groups Call on Trump Administration to Honor Sage-Grouse Agreement

Groups file lawsuit after administration violates federal law by deciding to lease sensitive sage-grouse habitat for drilling

A greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), near Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Dzurisin)
Press Release June 7, 2017

Zinke Order Opens Door To Cutting Protections For Sage Grouse To Benefit Dirty Fuels

Sagebrush ecosystem at risk from oil, gas and coal mining, threatening communities, sportsmen