How The Earth Got A Lawyer EARTH JUSTICE EBRIEF 21JAN11

UPDATES on mountain top removal mining, Mineral King in California, coal ash waste, Kansas coal fired power plants, New England fisheries, oil drilling.....a lot of good reading in this e mail newsletter. Please read 

Thousands Pay Tribute to Judy Bonds: She Has Been to the Mountaintop--and We Must Fight Harder to Save It 4JAN11

posted on this blog on 21JAN11

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At a Glance: In The News Trip Mineral King Features unEARTHED In The Win Stew Take Action "Mineral King really opened the gate." – Attorney Jim Moorman, on why ordinary people can sue to protect the environment. Read Q&A. The Earth Gets A Good Lawyer For more than 100 years, miners, rascals and even Mickey Mouse failed to tame one of America's wildest places. Nature defeated most of those misguided adventurers, but it took the partnership of some plucky lawyers 40 years ago to finally preserve the Sierra's majestic Mineral King. Their pioneering efforts laid the cornerstone of environmental law and gave birth to Earthjustice.  Read More Support Us: Help Protect 40 Years of Progress! We've come a long way since our founding in 1971. But the Earth still needs a good lawyer. Help us continue to preserve our natural heritage, promote a clean energy future and safeguard our health in the courts and on Capitol Hill. With your support, we'll preserve the gains of the past 40 years and continue winning in the next 40.

From Earthjustice's blog: Oil Commission Befriends Science The oil industry swears it's learned its lesson from the Gulf oil spill—but the President's National Oil Commission says the industry hasn't passed the science test. Abandoned in the zeal to drill ever-riskier offshore waters, science must guide any decisions about future drilling. And that includes the fragile Arctic seas, says Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen. Read More Tr-Ash Talk: Community rebels against toxic landfill.  Read (Latest in a series on the dangers of coal ash.) Ray Wan: The Fake Faces of Coal.  Read Raviya Ismail: Overfishing ebbs off New England.  Read Around the world of Earthjustice: Lawsuit Reignites Kansas Coal Fight Represented by Earthjustice, advocates for clean energy were back in court to stop a major, polluting coal-fired power plant in Kansas. The permit had been denied for three years over greenhouse gas emissions, in a struggle that drew national attention. Read more.

Earthjustice and its allies won advances—or outright victories—across a broad front: Appalachia Saved From Biggest Mine For the first time in a generation, Big Coal's destructive march across Appalachia has been stalled. W. Virginia communities are cheered by the EPA's veto of a mammoth mountaintop removal coal operation.  Read Judge Allows Challenge To Otter Creek Mine A plan to destructively wrench coal from an unspoiled natural setting in Montana will face judicial scrutiny, thanks to a court order that lets Earthjustice proceed with a suit challenging the scheme. The strip mining plan would devastate the Otter Creek area and ultimately add billions of tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.  Read More Appeals Board Victory For Clean Water in Washington State The entire state of Washington could feel the impact of a state appeals board ruling that Clark County failed to protect clean water. The county's development standards violated state and federal law, according to the board. This is good news for rivers, stream and salmon threatened with extinction, and it's a victory for Earthjustice and those it represented in the case.  Read More

Take Action Take Action: Earthjustice offers our supporters a variety of opportunities to take action in support of strong environmental protections. Check out our Action Center for details or join us on Facebook today. Take action today! Connect Join us on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter! Watch us on YouTube! Earthjustice. Because the earth needs a good lawyer. Earthjustice is the nation's leading, non-profit law firm for the environment. To learn more about our work, visit our website, http://www.earthjustice.org. Photo Credits - 'The Earth Gets A Good Lawyer': John Rasmussen.  'Appalachia Saved From Biggest Mine': Site of the proposed Spruce mine (green valley to right). Photo by Vivian Stockman of OVEC, Flyover courtesy SouthWings.  Take Action: Samantha Bornhorst. ©2011 Earthjustice | 426 17th Street, 6th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612 | 510-550-6700 | enews@earthjustice.org