News & Updates
Agreement protects Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor from spraying of dangerous pesticide
Washington state officials have approved an agreement that will prohibit oyster growers from spraying a dangerous neonicotinoid pesticide to kill native burrowing shrimp in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. Neonicotinoids are a leading cause of pollinator declines and are...
Lawsuit targets feds’ failure to consider Colorado fracking’s climate harm
Conservation groups sued the Trump administration today to require an analysis of the climate risk from an oil and gas extraction plan covering nearly a million acres of public lands and minerals in western Colorado. The area surrounds the Bureau of Land Management’s...
Clean water advocates seek federal court order to force EPA to fix WA water pollution cleanup program
Declaring a key Clean Water Act program in Washington state broken, clean water advocates asked a federal court—in a second lawsuit this week—to order the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fix a program to restore polluted rivers, streams, and Puget Sound....
Clean water advocates ask court to reopen lawsuit to clean up WA’s polluted waters
Nearly three decades after first suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its failure to clean up Washington’s polluted waters, environmental groups returned to federal court to enforce the Clean Water Act. In the groups’ request to reopen a lawsuit...
Advocates force BLM to improve Colorado River Valley drilling plan
The Western Environmental Law Center, Wilderness Workshop, Western Colorado Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club recently won an important victory in Federal District Court. The lawsuit challenged BLM’s 2015 Resource Management Plan (the...
Groups sue EPA over Los Alamos pollution
Late yesterday, clean water advocates filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to force it to address extremely high urban storm water pollution in Los Alamos County, downstream from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Urban storm water...
Wildlife advocates fight to force feds to protect Sonoran desert tortoise
Today, wildlife advocates challenged the federal government’s denial of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for the Sonoran desert tortoise in federal court. WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center,...
NM conservation, labor, and community groups file with state Supreme Court to clarify Energy Transition Act applies to San Juan Generating Station closure
New Mexico environmental, community, and labor advocates, as well as Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), filed a motion yesterday with the state Supreme Court asking the court to clarify that the Energy Transition Act applies to proceedings on PNM’s closure...
New Mexicans speak out against EPA weakening oil and gas protections even further
Today, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler proposed to eliminate direct regulation of methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas, from the EPA’s New Source Performance Standards. In New Mexico, this would mean that 4,700 new and existing wells would...
NM environmental community releases guidance for state methane waste rule
Today, advocacy groups in New Mexico concerned about methane waste from the oil and gas industry released a set of core principles to guide the state as it begins its next step in developing a rule to prevent waste and safeguard taxpayers, public health, the climate,...
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