Aug 19, 2020 | News Release
Climate groups sued the Trump administration today over its plan to expand drilling, fracking and mining across 1.7 million acres of public lands in southwestern Colorado, one of the fastest-warming regions in the nation. Today’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court...
Aug 7, 2020 | News Release
Yesterday, the State Supreme Court ruled against protecting flows in the Spokane River, rejecting arguments of river advocates, upholding the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology)’s drought-level flow rate decision. The decision subverts the will of the state...
Aug 5, 2020 | News Release
Today, the Western Environmental Law Center released a new report on venting and flaring in New Mexico authored by Thomas Singer, Ph.D., who served on the state’s Methane Advisory Panel. The report takes a close look at how much natural gas is being flared in New...
Aug 5, 2020 | News Release
Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif) and Steve Daines (R-Mont) introduced legislation today that would fast-track unsustainable logging, increase wildfire risk and jeopardize community safety. The measure stands in stark contrast to sensible, science-based legislation...
Aug 3, 2020 | News Release
Conservationists have brokered an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) to go back and reconsider its 2015 decision not to protect the Sonoran Desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The agreement – approved by a federal court...
Jul 29, 2020 | News Release
Today, New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) voted unanimously to replace San Juan Generating Station power with 100% renewable energy when the coal-fired power plant is retired in 2022. This decision will modernize power generation, improve public health, and...
Jul 29, 2020 | News Release
A nationwide coalition of organizations from the environmental justice, outdoor recreation, and conservation communities filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attack on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) this afternoon. The administration...
Jul 20, 2020 | News Release
Today the New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department and the New Mexico Environment Department released their long-awaited rules to reduce methane waste and pollution from the oil and gas industry in the state. WELC’s Dr. Thomas Singer, who...
Jul 16, 2020 | News Release, Reducing Methane Pollution on Public Lands: BLM/EPA Waste Rules
A federal judge late yesterday reinstated the Bureau of Land Management’s 2016 methane waste rule, aimed at protecting people and the climate from methane waste and pollution from oil and gas extraction on public lands. The ruling is the third defeat for the Trump...
Jul 15, 2020 | News Release
Today, the Trump administration finalized its proposal to gut more than 40 years of settled environmental law. The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released the final text of a sweeping rule which will eviscerate core components of the National...