News & Updates

WELC now accepting applications for summer 2018 legal interns

Oct 10, 2017

The Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) is accepting applications from law students currently in their second or third year of law school (2L or 3L) for summer 2018 legal internship positions to work with our attorneys in these locations: Helena, Montana; and...

Court orders Zinke, Interior to immediately reinstate BLM methane waste rule

Oct 5, 2017

Late yesterday, a U.S. District Court judge ruled the Trump administration's indefinite suspension of key aspects of President Obama's BLM methane waste rule this summer was "arbitrary and capricious." The court ordered the Department of Interior to "immediately...

Rulemaking sets stage for Trump and Zinke to eliminate or gut BLM methane rule

Oct 4, 2017

Tomorrow, the Trump administration is expected to propose a new rule to delay implementation of the BLM methane rule that curbs waste and pollution from the oil and gas industry on public lands. The proposal would delay for a full year controls on venting, flaring,...

Congressman Uses Falsehoods to Urge Reopening Kalmiopsis and Wild Rivers Coast for Strip Mining

Oct 3, 2017

Businesses, elected officials, and river conservation groups are speaking out against renewed threats to some of the most productive salmon streams in the Pacific Northwest and an important drinking water source and recreation asset for local communities. Chairman of...

Communities in Oregon and northern California prepare to fight fracked-gas pipeline and terminal for third time

Sep 22, 2017

Landowners, Tribes, and community groups are ready to stop the proposed Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline and Jordan Cove LNG export terminal for the third time in 12 years, following yesterday’s announcement by Veresen Inc. that it has filed its permit application for...

Zinke’s national monument report leaked, confirms recommendation to shrink Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Sep 18, 2017

Government transparency fails, as will legal illiteracy- Today, in the form of 19 fuzzy photos of computer screenshots, the American public saw for the first time Interior Sec. Zinke's recommendations to President Trump to illegally shrink and allow extractive...

Battle begins to restore protections for Greater Yellowstone grizzly bears

Aug 30, 2017

MISSOULA, Mont. —Today, WildEarth Guardians sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, challenging the agency’s flawed rule stripping grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of Endangered Species Act protections. The Service’s premature removal of crucial...

Incoming Chief Tony Tooke will bring experience, leadership to Forest Service

Aug 28, 2017

Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue appointed Tony Tooke, a career U.S. Forest Service employee since the age of 18, to lead the organization as its chief. Susan Jane Brown, wildlands and wildlife program director for the Western Environmental Law Center,...

Zinke defies public outcry and ignores likely job losses, will recommend Trump illegally shrink Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Aug 24, 2017

Today, the Washington Post reported Interior Sec. Zinke will recommend President Trump reduce the area of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon and California, or may also recommend a change in management of the monument. This recommendation defies the will of...

WELC statement on Charlottesville violence, hate in America

Aug 17, 2017

Taos, NM – Today, we acknowledge our responsibility to stand in solidarity with all people and communities of good conscience who oppose hatred and discrimination. Heather Heyer’s murder at the hands of a white nationalist in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend was...