
News Releases
Coalition of environmental groups, Tribal leaders, experts: Public health and environmental safety, public funds protection central to preventing abandoned wells in NM
Today, a coalition of environmental groups, Tribal leaders, and experts submitted testimony to the New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission in support of long-overdue reforms to the state’s oil and gas rules to prevent “abandoned wells,” wells that operators abandon...
The fix is in: Clean water advocates file objection in Big Oil bid to reverse state ban on fracking wastewater discharge
Today, Western Environmental Law Center requested the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) reconsider holding a hearing on a rulemaking petition filed by an oil and gas industry-led organization that would allow treated fracking wastewater—called...
Court: Western wolves wrongly denied Endangered Species Act protections
Today, a federal district court in Missoula ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it determined that gray wolves in the western U.S. do not warrant federal protections. Today’s ruling means that the Service’s...
Trailblazing legal team honored for landmark Montana climate victory
Our Children’s Trust, Western Environmental Law Center, Gregory Law Group, and McGarvey Law are proud to announce that they have been awarded Public Justice’s 2025 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for their landmark victory in Held v. State of Montana—the first...
NEPA rollback bill, SPEED Act, would threaten environment, communities, provide legal immunity to polluters
Today, as the climate and biodiversity crises rage across America, Reps. Westerman and Golden introduced the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act. Under the guise of streamlining infrastructure permitting, the proposed law takes an...
Conservationists to House Natural Resources Committee: Permitting reform under Trump would spell disaster
A coalition of 27 western conservation groups sent a letter to Rep. Huffman and the members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources advising all to exercise extreme caution on permitting reform in advance of a July 22 hearing titled “Permitting Purgatory:...
Statement: Trump bill sets table for über-wealthy to feast on American families, environment for generations
On the eve of Independence Day, Republicans have passed an enormously unpopular bill (2-1 against) designed to transfer wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest 20% who already own 85% of the nation’s wealth. The bill will ravage America’s social safety net,...
Statement: Federal agencies torch ‘people’s environmental law’ en masse while U.S. Senate forces wildly unpopular budget bill through
Yesterday, federal agencies began publishing en masse radical changes to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules and policies significantly weakening and in some instances entirely eliminating otherwise longstanding protections essential to federal agency...
Trump to unleash Hell on crown jewels of undisturbed public lands by rescinding Roadless Rule
In an extreme overreach that will destroy treasured national forests, the Trump administration today announced plans to rescind the Roadless Rule, a popular, science-based provision limiting commercial logging and associated road construction in undisturbed...
Oregon lawmakers pass beaver protection bill to restore more than 100,000 miles of impaired waterways
Today, the Oregon Senate voted to pass HB 3932A to tap into nature’s free waterway restoration service and the state animal: the American beaver. Once Gov. Kotek signs the bill into law, it will close beaver hunting and trapping on public lands waterways that the...
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