Posts by Geoffrey
Earthjustice Action Blasts Republican-Led Effort to Sacrifice Boundary Waters for Dirty Mining
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.J. Res. 140, a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn a Biden-era mineral withdrawal protecting approximately 225,000 acres of land in the Superior National Forest near the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area from new mining. The resolution aims to invalidate the mineral withdrawal to allow for a major mining project to open just miles upstream of America’s most visited wilderness area. This is the first time Congress has used…
Read MoreRepublican-Led Efforts to Undermine Clean Air Act Favor Industry Interests Over Public Health
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is holding a markup of a package of bills, including a number that would weaken the Clean Air Act. Taken together, the bills would diminish health protections afforded under the law and increase pollution, including by undermining national air quality standards and creating exemptions to fast-track permits for industrial projects so polluters can evade compliance measures. In response, Earthjustice Action Senior Legislative Representative Liz Ruben issued the…
Read MoreHouse Republicans Surrender to Chemical Lobby’s Wishlist
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, House Republicans introduced a discussion draft of a bill that would eviscerate the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), our nation’s primary chemical safety law. An overwhelming bipartisan majority of Congress rewrote TSCA less than a decade ago – strengthening the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the public from the thousands of new and existing chemicals in the United States. TSCA rightly requires the EPA to review chemicals across their life cycle to determine whether they pose “unreasonable…
Read MoreEarthjustice Action Statement on Environmental Appropriations Bills
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a package of funding bills to fund the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Department, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Following the vote, Earthjustice Action Vice President of Policy and Legislation Raúl García issued the following statement: “Without the work of Ranking Members DeLauro and Murray, this package…
Read MoreEarthjustice Action Statement on House Passage of Mining Regulatory Clarity Act
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act. The bill would undermine a hard-won court victory for public lands and would create more conflict over mines by allowing mining companies to claim an indefinite number of millsites on public lands and block other uses like recreation, conservation, and clean energy. After the House vote, Earthjustice Action Associate Legislative Representative…
Read MoreEarthjustice Action Statement on House Passage of SPEED Act
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act. The bill would gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by limiting its scope and drastically limiting government accountability efforts when federal agencies fail to adequately consider the health, environmental, or economic impacts of decisions. After the bill’s passage, Earthjustice Action…
Read MoreEarthjustice Action Celebrates Reintroduction of Public Health Air Quality Act
Washington, DC — Today, U.S. Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and U.S. Representatives Troy Carter (D-La.) and Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) reintroduced the Public Health Air Quality Act of 2025, a landmark bill that would strengthen the nation’s air quality monitoring infrastructure and give families and communities access to real-time data on toxic chemicals and other air pollution near their…
Read MoreDon’t Let “Permitting Reform” Help the Trump Administration Further Its Deregulatory Fever Dream
By: Stephen Schima, Earthjustice Action Senior Legislative Representative We can all agree that fighting climate change and mitigating its worst impacts requires us to think creatively, harness the power of American innovation, and quickly build the clean energy infrastructure of the future. But some in Congress are saying that to do so, we need to throw out bedrock environmental laws that have played an important…
Read MoreHouse Uses “Permitting Reform” to Give Polluters Permission to Contaminate our Water Resources
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3898, the Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act. The bill would significantly weaken several pollution controls in the Clean Water Act, shield polluters from accountability, and hamper the ability of states and Tribal governments to protect their water resources from well-documented pollution sources…
Read MoreRepublicans Seek to Weaken Clean Air Act Under the Guise of “Permitting Reform”
WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment will mark up a package of bills that would weaken the Clean Air Act. Together, the bills would create new loopholes and procedures to fast-track permits for large industrial projects regardless of the risk of increased pollution. The markup occurs as Congress is voting…
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