Trump escalates war on nature with attack on Public Lands Rule 

Sep 10, 2025 | News Release

Today, the Trump Administration continued its ongoing attacks on America’s public lands by directing the elimination of the widely supported Public Lands Rule. These actions mark a dramatic escalation in the administration’s assault on public lands, prioritizing...

Environmental groups: Democrats must oppose SPEED Act, an unthinkable deregulatory surrender to fossil fuels

Sep 10, 2025 | News Release

Today, environmental groups delivered a letter signed by 26 conservation organizations to members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources condemning the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act (H.R. 4776) in advance of today’s...

Montana Public Service Commission declines constitutional responsibility to consider climate change

Sep 2, 2025 | News Release

This afternoon, the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) sidestepped its responsibility under Montana’s Constitution to consider climate change impacts in its regulation of Montana gas and electric utilities. This comes in response to a petition from more than 40...

Trump administration attempt to repeal Roadless Rule met with widespread opposition 

Aug 27, 2025 | News Release

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today opened an official rulemaking process to rescind the Roadless Rule, an extremely popular conservation policy enacted in 2001 to protect  more than 45 million acres of pristine lands in national forests across 36 states and...

Coalition of environmental groups, Tribal leaders, experts: Public health and environmental safety, public funds protection central to preventing abandoned wells in NM

Aug 8, 2025 | News Release

Today, a coalition of environmental groups, Tribal leaders, and experts submitted testimony to the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission in support of long-overdue reforms to the state’s oil and gas rules to prevent “abandoned wells,” wells that operators abandon...

The fix is in: Clean water advocates file objection in Big Oil bid to reverse state ban on fracking wastewater discharge

Aug 7, 2025 | News Release

Today, the Western Environmental Law Center requested the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) reconsider holding a hearing on a rulemaking petition filed by an oil and gas industry-led organization that would allow treated fracking wastewater—called...

Court: Western wolves wrongly denied Endangered Species Act protections

Aug 5, 2025 | News Release

Today, a federal district court in Missoula ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it determined that gray wolves in the western U.S. do not warrant federal protections. Today’s ruling means  that the Service’s...

Trailblazing legal team honored for landmark Montana climate victory  

Jul 28, 2025 | News Release

Our Children’s Trust, Western Environmental Law Center, Gregory Law Group, and McGarvey Law are proud to announce that they have been awarded Public Justice’s 2025 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for their landmark victory in Held v. State of Montana—the first...

NEPA rollback bill, SPEED Act, would threaten environment, communities, provide legal immunity to polluters

Jul 25, 2025 | News Release

Today, as the climate and biodiversity crises rage across America, Reps. Westerman and Golden introduced the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act. Under the guise of streamlining infrastructure permitting, the proposed law takes an...

Conservationists to House Natural Resources Committee: Permitting reform under Trump would spell disaster

Jul 21, 2025 | News Release

A coalition of 27 western conservation groups sent a letter to Rep. Huffman and the members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources advising all to exercise extreme caution on permitting reform in advance of a July 22 hearing titled “Permitting Purgatory:...