News & Updates

Groups appeal court stay of BLM methane waste rule

Apr 5, 2018

Conservation groups today appealed a federal District Court judge in Wyoming's stay of 2016 methane waste rule implementation. The 2016 rule compels oil and gas companies operating on public lands to take reasonable measures to prevent the waste of methane, the...

Court rejects flawed Mexican wolf management rule: Capping population, killing more wolves, cutting off habitat undermines recovery

Apr 3, 2018

TUCSON—Today, a judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ("Service") to go back to the drawing board on its deeply flawed 2015 Mexican wolf management rule. The court rejected the Service’s distortion of science to fit the political goals of increasing...

Court finds fracking approvals in Greater Chaco violate cultural protections

Apr 2, 2018

Santa Fe, NM – Over the weekend, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico issued a "preview" order indicating it will soon rule in favor of advocate groups challenging hundreds of federal fracking approvals in the Greater Chaco region on...

Court rejects BLM plans to mine 10 billion tons of coal, install thousands of oil and gas wells over 15 million acres in Powder River Basin

Mar 26, 2018

GREAT FALLS, Mont. – On Friday, a federal court found a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan allowing coal mining and oil and gas drilling on over 15 million acres of public land and mineral rights in Montana and Wyoming to be unlawful. The court found that BLM failed...

Conservation groups petition to end Enloe Dam hydropower license

Mar 16, 2018

River advocacy groups filed a petition in federal court today against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) challenging its recent decision to extend construction deadlines on the Enloe Hydroelectric Project on the Similkameen River in north-central...

BLM defers fracking around New Mexico’s sacred Chaco Canyon

Mar 2, 2018

Taos, NM – Late yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management announced its decision to defer an oil and gas lease sale of 4,434.37 acres near Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for consultation with Tribal and local leaders. The surprise...

BLM’s methane waste rule back in force following court decision

Feb 23, 2018

Late last night, a U.S. District Court granted a preliminary injunction striking down Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's attempt to delay for one year implementation of the Bureau of Land Management's methane waste rule. A coalition of government watchdog groups filed a...

Administration moves to trample taxpayers, public health, and climate via methane waste rule rollback

Feb 13, 2018

Late yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management issued a proposed rule rolling back core public safeguards to reduce methane waste on public lands by the oil and gas industry. The proposed revision capitulates to the worst oil and gas industry operators, undoing all...

ExxonMobil publicly acknowledges need for oil and gas methane regulations

Feb 5, 2018

Today, ExxonMobil natural gas subsidiary XTO publicly acknowledged the need for government regulation of oil and gas methane emissions. The announcement recognizes that voluntary measures alone are not enough to control this dangerous climate pollutant. Earlier last...

Wolf advocates sue: ‘Recovery plan’ sets Mexican wolves on road to extinction

Jan 30, 2018

Tucson, AZ —Today Southwestern wolf advocates challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in court over its 2017 Mexican wolf recovery plan, which violates the Endangered Species Act, excludes the best available science, and imposes an arbitrary population cap...