Ann Weeks

Our corner of the environmental legal community has been rolling in wins, this spring and summer, in court cases challenging the Administration’s environmental rollbacks. This is good news in the midst of the pandemic and the movement against systemic racism inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests, and should be celebrated not just by lawyers,

This morning, over 20 environmental, public health, and civil rights organizations have taken two legal actions to protect the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (“MATS”). The MATS rule, which was issued in 2012, is fully complied with at this point and has resulted in a 96 percent reduction in these health-harming toxic air pollutants emitted […]

In possibly the most cynical move to date by the Trump Administration in its efforts to revive the flagging coal industry, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler today signed a final rule reversing a twenty-year old finding that it is “appropriate” under the Clean Air Act to regulate mercury and other airborne toxics from coal-fired power plants—the […]

In comments filed late Wednesday, a coalition of Environmental, Public Health, and Civil Rights organizations have strongly opposed EPA’s proposal, 84 Fed. Reg. 2670 (Feb. 7, 2019), that it is not “appropriate” to regulate emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired electric generating units. The coalition states that EPA’s proposal […]

Among the casualties of conservative “principles” sacrificed to the crony capitalism evinced by the Trump Administration is that of using holistic cost-benefit analysis to help set environmental priorities.

Assistant EPA Administrator Bill Wehrum announced to the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee On September 27th that his Agency would soon be advancing an attempt to undermine the most successful air pollution reduction rules put in place by the Obama Administration – the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).

The Trump EPA’s proposed complete repeal of the Clean Power Plan represents a 180-degree turn from the position of the Obama Administration.

Donald Trump, accompanied by Scott Pruitt and Ryan Zinke, today signed a comprehensive and sweeping Executive Order purporting to roll back multiple final rules and Executive actions of his predecessor aimed at dealing with the climate and other environmental impacts of developing US coal and natural gas and oil. But even Administrator Pruitt will have […]