Jenny Cassel

Senior Attorney

Midwest Office

Jenny looks directly at the viewer with a friendly open smile. She's outside in a forest, surrounded by a thick bed of fallen brown autumn leaves. A few leaves still cling to the tree branches. Jenny's wearing a black and white knitted cap, and a ribbed long sleeve shirt with stripes of bright blue, dark blue, grey, red, and purple colors, under a silver vest with the Earthjustice and Patagonia logo labels on either side of the front of the vest.

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IL

Pronouns

she / her

Jenny Cassel

Senior Attorney Midwest Office

Timna Axel
Public Affairs and Communications Strategist
taxel@earthjustice.org

Jenny Cassel is a senior attorney with the Midwest Regional Office in Chicago. Jenny’s practice includes legislative, regulatory, permitting and litigation matters concerning fossil fuel pollution, including extensive work on power plants and pipelines.

She was a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition’s negotiating team for the 2024 SAFE CCS Act and the 2019 Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act and contributed to the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. She also has played a key role in advocacy to develop, strengthen, and implement federal and state rules concerning coal ash. Currently, her work is centered on advocacy for clean water, air, and land in the Midwest.

Before joining Earthjustice, Jenny worked as a staff attorney for the Environmental Law & Policy Center, where she brought enforcement suits and permit challenges against coal-fired power plants and co-led negotiations of a protective fracking law in Illinois.

Jenny is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and of Vassar College. She also has a Masters of Science in Social Anthropology from Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico, where she traveled throughout the Mexican state of Yucatán conducting field research for her thesis on utopian aspects of community theatre in Mayan villages.

 

Jenny Cassel es una abogada principal en la oficina regional del medio oeste de Earthjustice, en Chicago. Jenny ha trabajado en el litigio, la legislación, los permisos y la regulación de plantas generadoras de electricidad, combustibles fósiles, e infraestructura asociada con ellos en el ámbito estatal y federal.

Ella fue miembra del equipo de negociación de la legislación estatal aprobada en 2024 sobre la captura de carbono, y de la legislación estatal sobre las cenizas de carbono aprobada en 2019. También contribuyó al “Climate and Equitable Jobs Act,” adoptada en Illinois en 2021. Jenny ha jugado un papel importante en la abogacía acerca del desarrollo e implementación de reglamentos de la ceniza de carbón en los ámbitos federales y estatales. Actualmente, su trabajo se centra en la abogacía para mantener limpio el medio ambiente del medio oeste de los Estados Unidos.

Antes de unirse a Earthjustice, Jenny era una abogada en Environmental Law & Policy Center, en donde ella litigaba en contra de los dueños de plantas de carbón por violaciones de las leyes ambientales, y formó parte del equipo que formuló una ley comprensiva que regula a la práctica de “fracking” en Illinois.

Jenny se graduó de Northwestern University School of Law y Vassar College. Ella también obtuvo una Maestría en Antropología Social de la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, México, en donde viajó por Yucatán, México, llevando a cabo investigación de campo para su tesis sobre los aspectos utópicos del teatro comunitario en poblados Mayas.

Expert Posts & Articles

Aerial view of coal ash ponds next to the decommissioned Wood River Power Station in East Alton, Ill. in 2018. The power plant was demolished in early 2021.
May 4, 2026

Federal Coal Ash Safeguards are Under Attack: What Does it Mean for Illinois?

Prairie Rivers Network interviewed Earthjustice attorneys Jenny Cassel and Mychal Ozaeta.
Governor JB Pritzker signs into law critical legislation providing safeguards against the risks and harms of carbon capture and sequestration.
September 13, 2024

We passed a law in Illinois to protect communities from CCS. Here’s the view from the negotiation table.

While there were certainly difficult compromises, the protections secured by Illinois advocates are a significant victory.

Timna Axel
Public Affairs and Communications Strategist
taxel@earthjustice.org

Bar Admissions

IL

Pronouns

she / her

Quoted in the News

August 26, 2026

Chicago Tribune

Coal ash by Vermilion River raises alarms amid heavy rains

"The Consent Order provides for stipulated penalties for failure to comply with a variety of provisions in the Order; we continue to evaluate the appropriate follow-up in this situation."
March 13, 2026

Chicago Tribune

Illinois EPA rejects coal ash cleanup plan in Joliet, a ‘heartening’ win for environmentalists

“This is a place that has been fighting for so long and dealing with so many burdens. It is absolutely heartening to see the agency telling Midwest Generation, ‘Go back to the drawing board.’”
September 20, 2024

Inside EPA

Environmentalists Seek Protections After EPA Enforcement At Carbon Well

“What it tells me is that when we say things can and do go wrong, we’re absolutely correct. It absolutely validates the need for additional protections if and where CCS takes place.”
June 7, 2024

Grist

Illinois Legislature puts the brakes on a carbon capture boom

“We should not be creating more of a problem than we’re addressing with this. And that’s what this mandate will require.”
April 16, 2024

Energy News Network

Illinois bills seek to regulate carbon dioxide pipelines and sequestration

“Industry is trying to hand the keys to the state as soon as they’re done and say, ‘Good luck with that.’ We think Illinois already has enough Superfund sites, mines, wells, all sorts of other environmental hazards that need to be reclaimed.”
April 4, 2024

Energy News Network

Small pipeline, big risks: Carbon capture project sparks concern in rural Illinois

“Imagine if everyone along a pipeline corridor had to have oxygen, and know how to use it. That’s pretty terrifying. What if a kid is home alone?”

Latest Press Statements

March 11, 2026

Illinois EPA Denies NRG’s Inadequate “Preliminary” Closure Proposal and Monitoring Plan for Toxic Coal Ash at Lincoln Stone Quarry

Citizens Against Ruining the Environment (CARE), Earthjustice, Prairie River Network, and Sierra Club celebrate the decision to ensure better monitoring and clean-up of coal ash at the highly-polluted quarry
September 19, 2025

Corte de Apelaciones del Distrito de Columbia Falla a Favor de la Inacción de FERC Sobre la Propuesta de Gasoducto en Puerto Rico

La decisión de la corte añadió que FERC justificó su decisión de no imponer la sanción de inmediato con razones de “prudencia” para “estabilizar la red eléctrica de Puerto Rico en preparación para la temporada de huracanes de 2023”.
September 19, 2025

D.C. Circuit Rules in Favor of FERC’s Inaction on Puerto Rico’s Pipeline Proposal

The Court’s decision added that FERC provided “prudential” reasons for forgoing immediate enforcement to “stabilize Puerto Rico’s electrical grid in preparation for the 2023 hurricane season.”
En nombre de organizaciones comunitarias del archipiélago, los abogados de Earthjustice argumentaron que FERC había permitido a New Fortress Energy, a través de su subsidiaria NFEnergía con sede en Puerto Rico, la instalación y operación de un gasoducto sin la revisión ambiental y estatutaria requerida por la ley.
April 1, 2025

Órdenes que Permitieron la Expansión Irreconocida de la Infraestructura de Gas Metano en Puerto Rico Deben Deshacerse, Señalan Grupos

Comisión Federal Reguladora de Energía permitió, contrario a la ley, la expansión del terminal de gas metano en la Bahía de San Juan en manos de NFEnergía, sin consultar a las comunidades locales y sin la revisión requerida.
Earthjustice attorneys argued on behalf of community organizations in the archipelago that FERC had allowed New Fortress Energy, through its Puerto Rico subsidiary NFEnergía, to install and operate the pipeline without the legally required environmental and statutory review.
April 1, 2025

Court of Appeals Must Undo Orders that Allowed the Unlawful Expansion of Methane Gas Infrastructure in Puerto Rico, Groups Argue

FERC unlawfully allowed methane gas company NFEnergía to expand its terminal infrastructure in the San Juan Bay without consulting local communities and without the required review
A CO2 pipeline rupture in Yazoo County Mississippi in February 2020.
May 26, 2024

Environmental Advocates and Landowners Applaud Passage of CCS Protections Bill in Illinois, Warn Additional Protections Are Needed

Illinois passes some of the strongest carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) protections in the nation