News & Updates
Legal appeal: Ecology’s rewrite of industrial dairy permits endangers public health; threatens waterways, aquifers, ecosystems across WA
Late last week, community, environmental, and food safety advocates challenged two permits that will allow industrial animal feeding operations to continue to discharge pollution into Washington’s waters. A unanimous 2021 Washington Court of Appeals decision required...
Legal complaint: Signal Peak Energy coal mine has damaged and destroyed Bull Mountains water sources
Conservation groups have filed a formal complaint with state and federal agencies against Signal Peak Energy, a criminally-convicted coal company operating an underground coal mine in the Bull Mountains just north of Billings, Montana. The complaint cites evidence of...
Forest Service committee recruitment signals upcoming forest plan changes
Today, the Forest Service announced it will establish a Northwest Forest Plan Federal Advisory Committee “to provide advice and recommendations on landscape management approaches that promote sustainability, climate change adaptations, and wildfire resilience while...
Proposed BLM methane waste rule less disappointing than expected, could be much better
Weeks after President Biden’s remarks at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt and following nearly 18 months of internal agency deliberations, conservation groups expressed their disappointment today in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) proposed rule to prevent...
Biden heeds public feedback, improves proposed methane rule
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to strengthen methane and other emissions standards as the Biden administration participates in the COP27 climate summit in Egypt. In short, the rule is strong, it could be stronger, and we will work with the...
Forest advocates knock out massive Trump post-fire logging loophole
This month, conservation groups finalized a legal agreement with the Bureau of Land Management to reverse a Trump-era rule excluding vastly more logging in post-fire landscapes from detailed environmental review. The agreement resolves a legal challenge the groups...
Biden administration flouts climate goals with Inflation Reduction Act’s first onshore oil, gas lease sales
The Biden administration is working against U.S. climate goals and failing to protect communities, water and wildlife by auctioning oil and gas leases on public lands under the Inflation Reduction Act, climate and conservationists said in formal comments submitted...
Conservation and community leaders intervene in oil industry appeal to defend New Mexico air pollution rules
The Center for Civic Policy, Naeva, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) today announced they have filed to intervene in an appeal filed by the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico (IPANM) with the New Mexico Court...
Western Environmental Law Center welcomes Deputy Director Sristi Kamal, Wildlands and Wildlife Program Director Sarah McMillan
The Western Environmental Law Center is thrilled to announce the addition of two new powerhouse environmental advocates to its leadership. Sristi Kamal joins the group today in the newly created position of deputy director. Sarah McMillan will begin as Wildlife and...
Advocates challenge Biden double-down on Trump-era fracking on sacred land in Greater Chaco
Today, a group of Diné and conservation groups challenged the Biden administration’s approval of fracking on nearly 45,000 acres—70 square miles—of the Greater Chaco region of northwest New Mexico. In April, the groups entered a legal agreement with the Biden...
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