News & Updates
Diverse coalition of 22 moves to defend Biden administration’s oil, gas leasing pause
Farmers and ranchers, conservation, recreation, and Tribal groups filed motions to intervene today to defend the Biden administration’s pause on federal oil and gas leasing pending the Department of Interior’s comprehensive review of the program. This action...
Sec. Haaland secretarial orders help restore integrity to Interior, U.S. leadership on climate
Today, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued two secretarial orders to chart a course for the department’s future—a future animated by the imperative to take climate action, honor commitments to Indigenous peoples, and invest in a clean energy future. In so doing, the...
200 groups to Biden: Align federal fossil fuel programs with U.S. climate goals
Hundreds of Native American, religious, business and conservation organizations today called on the Biden administration to do a comprehensive environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws to align federal fossil fuel programs with...
Federal judge voids western Colorado fracking plan, requires new analysis of climate harm
A federal judge late last Friday approved the Bureau of Land Management’s request to rescind the Grand Junction resource management plan following a lawsuit by environmental groups challenging the agency’s failure to analyze its potential harm to the climate. The...
New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission finalizes oil and gas venting, flaring rule; leak detection and repair rule forthcoming
Today, the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission (OCC) finalized a new rule proposed by the state’s Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) to limit venting and flaring of methane by the oil and gas industry. The OCC rule marks an important step...
Conservation groups ask court to reinstate protections on 3.4 million acres of critical northern spotted owl habitat
Conservation groups in the Pacific Northwest filed a legal challenge to reinstate federal protections on more than 3.4 million acres of federal old-growth forests, which are essential for the survival of the threatened northern spotted owl. The lawsuit asks the court...
Scientists, conservationists challenge plan to cut road through Mount St. Helens living laboratory, sensitive ecology
Today, a coalition of scientists and conservationists challenged in federal court a U.S. Forest Service plan to build a road through the Pumice Plain, the blast zone of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, to assess the integrity of a natural dam on Spirit...
Statement: Solidarity with Asian communities
The Western Environmental Law Center is appalled at the murder in Atlanta of one man and seven women, six of them Asian-American. This case appears clearly motivated by anti-Asian racism and misogyny. The case also appears clearly fueled by anti-Asian slurs from...
WELC congratulates, bids farewell to board member Daniel Cordalis
The Western Environmental Law Center offers heartfelt congratulations to board member Daniel Cordalis, who has been chosen to be Deputy Solicitor of Water at the U.S. Department of the Interior. He will step down from the WELC board of directors. We are sorry to lose...
Friends of the Clearwater to court: Motorized vehicles in Fish Lake’s sensitive habitat would harm bull trout, grizzlies, elk
Today, Friends of the Clearwater (FOC) filed a lawsuit to protect sensitive wildlife habitat in the proposed Great Burn Wilderness, which the Forest Service recommended for Congress to designate as wilderness in 1987. The suit seeks to protect Fish Lake from motorized...
Media Inquiries:
Brian Sweeney (email)
Communications Director
505-570-5567
Media List Signup:
"*" indicates required fields
English 
Español de México 