News & Updates

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s rule to restore grizzly bears in Washington’s North Cascades went into effect. The agency passed the rule under section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act, which allows it to establish experimental populations of listed...

Today, WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project, and the Desert Tortoise Council and Tucson Herpetological Society, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to reconsider its 2022 decision to deny protective...

The Biden administration announced today that it will end coal leasing in the Powder River Basin – the largest coal-producing region in the U.S. The decision represents an historic shift in federal management of coal in the region, recognizing that the market has...

Today, conservation groups simultaneously moved to intervene and dismiss a lawsuit brought by Signal Peak Energy, which is seeking to force the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) to rush the environmental review of a proposed...

Early this morning, the Biden administration’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) completed a two-phased effort to modernize rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock community and environmental protection law in the U.S. The final...

The Biden administration is moving to the next development stage on a proposed plan that could reshape renewable energy deployment across the West. Today marked the closing of the public comment period on the administration’s draft plan to update the Western Solar...

Today, the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management released a final rule elevating the role of conservation in public lands management to match uses like fossil fuel extraction, improving the balance of its multiple-use mission. The Bureau manages 40% of all...

American Rivers today named the Rivers of New Mexico #1 on its annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers®, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that left virtually all of the state’s streams and wetlands vulnerable to pollution and harmful development....

Today, the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management (the Bureau) released its final oil and gas leasing rule. The rule contains welcome and decades-overdue fiscal reforms and provides discretionary guidance for best land stewardship practices, but falls short...

Today, 10 conservation groups challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“the Service”) over its failure to list western wolves under the Endangered Species Act  (non-stamped complaint here, stamped complaint will be posted here when available). The Service’s “not...