Earthjustice

Earthjustice fights to preserve healthy wild lands, wild life, and oceans. In response to the challenges posed by climate change, we focus on building biodiversity and protecting large, intact, and interconnected landscapes to provide the broadest range of options for wildlife to adapt to a warming world. Our key objectives include: protecting forests and public lands from roads and fossil fuel development; safeguarding keystone species (i.e. wolves, bears, salmon); defending the Clean Water Act nationally, protecting marine fisheries, marine mammals, and coral reefs; and safeguarding oceans from oil and gas drilling.

Earthjustice works at regional and national levels to improve public health by strengthening and enforcing regulations that protect against the effects of pollution and toxic chemicals in our air, water, food, and household products. Our key objectives include: strengthening National Ambient Air Quality Standards and their enforcement; cleaning up dirty industries and reducing emissions of air toxics; reducing the human health and environmental impacts of pesticides, protecting people from toxics; and representing disproportionately impacted communities to safeguard their rights.

Climate change threatens the world as we know it, and the chief culprit is the burning of fossil fuels. Through a robust program of litigation and advocacy, Earthjustice is working to spur a fast, transformative shift away from fossil fuels to clean energy, so that we can achieve the dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions we need before mid-century. Our key objectives include: hastening coal plan retirements; securing and defending strong air and water pollution standards for the coal sector; blocking construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure; stopping mountaintop removal mining and blocking new coal mines in the West; blocking fossil fuel transport and export schemes; securing strong standards to reduce methane pollution; advancing grid reform in states to scale-up clean energy; defending rooftop solar and distributed energy resources from attack; securing and defending state clean energy mandates; securing and defending federal energy regulations that facilitate grid transformation; and strengthening national energy efficiency standards.

A 501(c)3 nonprofit environmental law firm, we have a passionate belief that the power of the law can be used to preserve the environment and build a healthier future for all. We are the legal backbone for the environmental movement—the attorneys and legal strategists for both nationally known and community organizations. We take on many of the biggest environmental and health challenges of our time and stick with them, often litigating cases for years. The gains we achieve create ripple effects that improve the quality of life for this and future generations.

Because we represent our clients free of charge (thanks to the generous, continued support of individuals and foundations), an investment in Earthjustice has double the impact, supporting both Earthjustice and the organizations we represent.

We enforce and strengthen our nation's laws in order to fulfill the promise of our communities as safe, healthy places to live and work, and to safeguard the irreplaceable natural world. We are actively litigating more than 550 cases. Areas of casework include protecting threatened wildlife, restoring clean air and water, protecting people from pesticides and other toxic chemicals, reining in our dependence on fossil fuels, strengthening the rise of clean energy, and more.

We live in a country with many strong environmental laws. But laws are merely words on paper if they're not upheld. We're here because the earth needs a good lawyer.

Earthjustice is the first and largest nonprofit environmental law firm in the world and has built a strong reputation for building influential, broad- based coalitions that achieve high-impact, far-reaching results. Since our founding in 1971, Earthjustice has represented more than 1,000 public-interest clients—always without charge. We are the go-to attorneys and legal strategists for these organizations and individuals, from large national nonprofits to small community groups. We have more than 160 attorneys in fourteen regional offices, an international program, and communications and policy teams. As we grow, our impact grows.

Earthjustice has: saved tens of thousands of lives by securing clean air and clean water protections; protected nearly 50 million acres of our most pristine forests and wilderness; safeguarded hundreds of imperiled plants and animals such as wolves, grizzly bears, and salmon; protected national treasures like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone; restored flows to Hawaiian rivers and streams; defended the right of communities to limit or ban fracking; blocked oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean; secured bans on some of the most dangerous chemicals; advanced clean energy gains in more than 15 states; successfully battled to protect people for toxic air pollution; protected bees from toxic pesticides; contributed to the retirement of more than 200 dirty coal plants and stopped plans for new coal mines; blocked construction of west coast coal terminals; and played an instrumental role in establishing the link between human rights and environmental protection.

Our mission is to wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are fighting to protect our wildlife and wild places, from the Arctic to the Everglades to the vast wilderness within our oceans. We have long been at the forefront of safeguarding the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. We are waging an all-out campaign for a rapid shift away from fossil fuels to avert catastrophic impacts of climate change. On behalf of a wide array of local and national organizations, our attorneys are fighting in courtrooms and public utilities commissions across the country to hasten a transformational shift to clean energy. We have many challenges and tough fights ahead and these are fights we cannot afford to lose.