News & Updates

Late last week, a Federal District Court in Colorado ruled that thousands of acres of oil and gas leases in the Thompson Divide properly expired nearly a decade ago. This is just one of many leasing related battles that Wilderness Workshop (WW) and the Western...

Conservation groups sued the Trump administration today to challenge a massive Powder River Basin coal mining plan that the groups say ignores alternatives to coal, oil and gas leasing and fails to publicly acknowledge the harms from coal combustion, violating federal...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...