WELC Statement: Interior to Rewrite or Rescind BLM Methane Rule

Jun 21, 2017 | News Release, Reducing Methane Pollution on Public Lands: BLM/EPA Waste Rules

Sec. Zinke provides conflicting information to court, Congress Yesterday, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke told the Senate Energy Committee the Trump administration will rewrite or rescind the Bureau of Land Management methane waste rule. The methane rule, which...

House Logging Bill (HR 2936) Guts Federal Environmental Laws, Literally Privatizes Public Lands, Creates Logging Free-for-All

Jun 21, 2017 | News Release

Tomorrow, the U.S. House of Representatives begins its consideration of HR 2936, known as the Westerman Bill after its author, Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR). The bill contains a cornucopia of loopholes, exemptions and categorical exclusions for environmental, judicial,...

Conservation Groups File Series of Lawsuits to Enforce Transparency Under Trump

Jun 14, 2017 | News Release

Federal Government Stonewalling Efforts to Obtain Public Information on Wildlife, Environment In a series of legal actions filed today and yesterday, WildEarth Guardians and the Western Environmental Law Center stepped up their efforts to compel the Trump...

Interior bows to oil and gas industry, allows continued methane waste

Jun 14, 2017 | News Release, Reducing Methane Pollution on Public Lands: BLM/EPA Waste Rules

BLM rule delay defies Congress’ will, harms taxpayers, public health, environment Today, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced plans to indefinitely delay implementation of key parts of the BLM methane waste rule beyond the original compliance date of...

Groups challenge expansion of largest coal mine in Montana

Jun 8, 2017 | News Release

Today, a coalition of conservation and clean energy advocates challenged a decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior to allow Cloud Peak Energy to strip mine nearly 100 million tons of publicly owned coal from 1,000 acres of public lands without ever conducting...

Protecting Spokane River summertime flows goes to court

Jun 7, 2017 | News Release, Protecting Healthy Flows in the Spokane River

Contacts: Andrew Hawley, Western Environmental Law Center, (206) 487-7250, hawley@westernlaw.org Dan Von Seggern, Center for Environmental Law & Policy, (206)...

Washington Wildlife Officials Too Quick to Kill Wolves

Jun 2, 2017 | News Release

Contacts: John Mellgren, Western Environmental Law Center, 541-359-0990, mellgren@westernlaw.org Amaroq Weiss, Center for Biological Diversity, 707-779-9613, aweiss@biologicaldiversity.org Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials late Thursday released a...

WELC statement on U.S. withdrawal from Paris climate agreement

Jun 1, 2017 | News Release

Contact: Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Western Environmental Law Center, 575-770-1295, eriksg@westernlaw.org Today, President Trump stated he will withdraw the United States from the...

Coalition Defends Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Feb 27, 2017 | Defending the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Expansion, News Release, Regional Resilience: Pacific Northwest

Late last Friday, local and partner conservation groups intervened in two lawsuits to protect the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument from challenges brought by timber interests. The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is one of the most biodiverse places in North...

Environmental groups challenge Ecology’s new permits for industrial dairies

Feb 21, 2017 | News Release, Washington State Sustainable Agriculture Campaign

Location: Seattle On Feb. 17, 2017, a coalition of environmental groups filed an appeal with the Washington state Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) challenging the Department of Ecology’s waste discharge permits for concentrated animal feeding operations...