April, 06 2022, 11:06am EDT
Earthjustice Statement on Supreme Court Move To Reinstate Trump Era Clean Water Rule
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a Trump administration rule that significantly undermines state and tribal authority to protect water quality under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. The rule is in effect while the U.S. 9th Circuit of Appeals hears the case.
This decision will harm communities by allowing dangerous fossil fuel projects to get approved without full evaluation of the risks they pose.
WASHINGTON
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a Trump administration rule that significantly undermines state and tribal authority to protect water quality under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. The rule is in effect while the U.S. 9th Circuit of Appeals hears the case.
This decision will harm communities by allowing dangerous fossil fuel projects to get approved without full evaluation of the risks they pose.
"The Court's decision to reinstate the Trump administration rule shows disregard for the integrity of the Clean Water Act and undermines the rights of Tribes and states to review and reject dirty fossil fuel projects that threaten their water," said Moneen Nasmith, senior attorney at Earthjustice. "The EPA must ensure that its revised rule recognizes the authority of states and Tribes to protect their vital water resources in its ongoing rulemaking under Section 401."
The lower court and EPA's own review of the Trump rule have found that it undermines the Clean Water Act's goal of ensuring that states and Tribes are empowered to protect water resources that are essential to public health, ecosystems, and economic opportunity. EPA has already begun working on a revised rule to address those concerns.
With this decision, the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority is once again overstepping to advance their deregulatory agenda.
Earthjustice is representing the Suquamish Tribe, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Orutsararmiut Native Council, Columbia Riverkeeper, and Sierra Club in this case.
BACKGROUND ON SECTION 401 OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT
The Clean Water Act is one of our nation's bedrock environmental laws. Congress passed this popular law in 1972 to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters."
To protect water quality, Section 401 of the Clean Water Act creates a state-tribal-federal partnership, giving individual states and eligible Tribes the ability to review the impacts of many different types of federally licensed projects on waterways and wetlands within their borders.
States and eligible Tribes have up to one year to issue, condition, deny, or request more information regarding water quality and environmental harm from a proposed project. Some projects have the potential to significantly degrade local and state water quality by, for example, cutting trenches through hundreds of waterways, damming rivers, or destroying acres of wetlands.
States and Tribes review hundreds of 401 certification requests annually, allowing for better protection of water resources for all uses, including drinking water, commercial, tribal, and recreational fishing, swimming, critical wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation.
Earthjustice filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's changes to Section 401 on behalf of the Suquamish Tribe, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Orutsararmiut Native Council, Columbia Riverkeeper, and Sierra Club in September 2020.
In October 2021, a federal judge rejected EPA's request to keep the Trump era rule in place, in a victory for Earthjustice, our clients, and the states and tribes that use Section 401 to protect water quality. After an appeal to that decision, the 9th Circuit denied the request to reinstate the Trump rule.
Oil and gas industry groups and the states beholden to their interests filed a request to the Supreme Court to put the Trump rule back into effect while the 9th Circuit hears the case, or alternatively to take up the case immediately in March 2022.
The Biden EPA is expected to issue a new draft rule in spring 2022 and a final rule in spring 2023.
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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From Netanyahu to Orbán, Global Far-Right Figures Celebrate Trump Win
A veritable Who's Who of fascist-facing leaders lined up to congratulate the man who said he'd be a dictator on "day one" of his impending presidency.
Nov 06, 2024
Current and former far-right leaders around the world cheered U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's remarkable victory in Tuesday's election, in which the twice-impeached, 34-count convicted felon, self- and court-affirmed sexual assaulter, and insurrection-fomenting 78-year-old Republican won not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote in what some observers described as a "mandate for fascism."
In Israel—which the Biden administration buoyed with massive military and diplomatic support even as it faces a genocide case at the World Court for a war on Gaza that's killed more than 43,000 Palestinians—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump's victory is "history's greatest comeback" and represents a "powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America."
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister and leader of the Jewish supremacist Otzma Yehudit party, reposted an earlier message in which he proclaimed, "God Bless Trump."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was the first European leader to endorse Trump in 2016, lauded the Republican's "enormous win," which he called "a much-needed victory for the world."
Argentinian President Javier Milei—who campaigned as a libertarian populist but has governed like a neoliberal shock doctrinaire—hailed Trump's "formidable electoral victory."
"Now, Make America Great Again," he added. "You know that you can count on Argentina to carry out your task."
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—who Trump recently accused of sending gang members to the U.S. to insidiously reduce crime in his country—wished divine blessings and guidance for the president-elect.
Arab dictators—from the monarchs of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi—also congratulated Trump. Some, like Jordan's King Abdullah II, said they hoped Trump's second term would usher in an era of "regional and global peace and stability for all."
However, while Trump's first term saw the signing of the historic Abraham Accords that nominally normalized relations between Israel and some of its former Arab enemies, he also presided over what one of his former defense secretaries called a "war of annihilation" that left thousands of civilians dead and cities in ruins in Syria and Iraq.
Former right-wing leaders also cheered Trump's win. Disgraced former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—who like Trump incited an insurrection following his last election loss, but unlike Trump was slapped with an eight-year electoral ban over it—said Tuesday's result represents "the triumph of the people's will over the arrogant designs of an elite who disdain our values, beliefs, and traditions."
"This triumph is historic," Bolsonaro—sometimes called the "Trump of the Tropics"—continued. "Its impact will resonate across the globe... empowering the rise of the right and conservative movements in countless other nations."
On the flip side, progressive leaders around the world vowed to fight fascism—even as they shuddered at the specter of what horrors may come in Trump's second term.
"We are a global movement, made up of all faiths and backgrounds, united in our opposition to racism and hatred," said leftist U.K. lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn. "We will never abandon hope in a more equal, sustainable, and peaceful world."
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Is US House 'Only Hope' for Blocking Worst of Trump's Return?
"How much damage is done at the federal level to the progress we have made will... depend on the election outcomes inthe House of Representatives and the role it will play," said one climate expert.
Nov 06, 2024
While Republicans have won the White House and U.S. Senate as of early Wednesday afternoon, control of the House of Representatives remains too close to call—and may be the only governmental firewall against the GOP's fascist federal agenda.
Democrats went into the Tuesday election hoping to flip the House, which is now narrowly controlled by Republicans. There are 435 seats in the lower chamber, so the party to secure 218 of them will have the majority.
Various decision desks have called 179 to 193 House seats for Democrats and 200 to 210 for Republicans. The Associated Pressnoted that "vote-counting can take weeks in California, where most voters use mail-in ballots."
Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who won his ninth term on Tuesday, toldThe Hill early Wednesday that "in terms of the power trifecta, the House is the only hope for Democrats to maintain a check on our out-of-control Donald Trump," now the president-elect.
"The House is the only hope for Democrats to maintain a check on our out-of-control Donald Trump."
"The results tonight are grim... for the country, and Democrats offer those who believe in constitutional democracy the only hope of presence in the White House and an enabling Republican Senate," Connolly said. "So a lot is hinging on district-by-district results tonight."
The AP has called flips in New York's 19th and 22nd Congressional Districts, with Democrats Josh Riley and John Mannion ousting Republican Congressmen Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams, respectively. Democrat Laura Gillen is also on track to beat GOP Rep. Anthony D'Esposito in the state's 4th District; she has declared victory.
"Our livable future was on the ballot this year, and New York's climate movement delivered," declared Food & Water Action New York state director Laura Shindell, whose group endorsed Gillen and Riley. "New Yorkers voted like our lives depended on it, rebuking the dangerous pro-corporate Project 2025 interests seeking to boost climate-killing fossil fuels, dismantle clean air and water safeguards, and spread misinformation and distrust about the reality of the crisis we face."
"New York's newest congressional representatives have the backing of the state's grassroots climate movement—now, it's time to get to work fighting for our livable future against all odds, and delivering the climate wins that won them their seats," Shindell said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) similarly welcomed the "critically important" wins in his state on social media. Redistricting also helped Democrats pick up seats in Alabama, where Shomari Figures won the state's 2nd Congressional District, and Lousiaina, where former Congressman Cleo Fields claimed victory in the newly drawn 6th District.
However, the GOP has picked up two seats in Pennsylvania—with Republicans Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan beating Democratic Reps. Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright, respectively—plus three in North Carolina, thanks to redistricting. Republican Tom Barrett also flipped an open seat in Michigan's 7th Congressional District.
As Bloombergreported Wednesday:
Democratic House control would force Republicans to negotiate on trillions of dollars worth of provisions in the 2017 tax law that expire at the end of next year. It also would provide a check on Trump's "America First" foreign policy agenda, providing perhaps some hope to Ukraine and other allies of continued support.
The House under Democratic control also impeached Trump twice during his first term in office. He was never convicted by the Senate.
Key issues on the minds of progressive lawmakers and advocates across the country on Wednesday included reproductive freedom and the climate emergency.
"How much damage is done at the federal level to the progress we have made will... depend on the election outcomes inthe House of Representatives and the role it will play," Chitra Kumar, managing director of the Climate & Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote Wednesday.
Food & Water Action executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement that "control of the House is still undetermined, and it's critical that every vote be counted."
"If Democrats retake the House, it will be essential that they stand strong against Trump's reactionary agenda," Hauter stressed. "We've seen Trump's playbook before and we're prepared to confront him head-on—through the courts, in Congress, and through determined grassroots organizing that has been responsible for great progress in the face of adversity for generations."
Even if Democrats don't win a House majority, progressive organizers remain determined to combat the far-right agenda.
"Our story does not end with this election result; we have a lot of work ahead of us. The future we are dreaming of is worth fighting for."
"Despite the deeply disappointing results of the election yesterday, our work to build a better future for our families and our nation does not end here," said MoveOn Political Action executive director Rahna Epting in a statement. "Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans will continue to try and divide us in hopes we give up and clear the path for them to dismantle our democracy and take away our freedoms."
"As exhausted and defeated as we all may feel right now, giving up is not an option. The organizers, change-makers, and heroes before us have sacrificed far too much for us to drop the baton and surrender now," she continued. "Our story does not end with this election result; we have a lot of work ahead of us. The future we are dreaming of is worth fighting for."
Acknowledging the tens of millions of people who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and a Democratic Congress, Epting added that "together, we can defeat the far right by staying engaged, mobilizing our communities, and remaining defiant guardrails against their fascist vision for our country."
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Progressive Forces Vow 'Unprecedented Resistance' to Trump 2.0
"We're more prepared than ever to block the disastrous Trump policies we know are coming," said one climate group.
Nov 06, 2024
As voters across the United States grappled on Wednesday with the results of the presidential election, progressive organizers expressed disappointment and devastation but said they were "clear-eyed" about the road ahead: one that will require solidarity and a major mobilization to counter the policies and attacks put forward by President-elect Donald Trump.
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of ACLU, did not mince words about the "clear and present danger" Trump poses to U.S. institutions and democratic norms, noting that GOP president-elect is "dead serious" about targeting "the 'enemy within'—which, for Trump, means anyone who disagrees with him."
The ACLU fully expects Trump to seek "retribution against his political opponents and deploying federal law enforcement to shut down protests and muzzle dissent," but Romero emphasized that the 105-year-old organization has a long track record of defending freedom of speech and combating abuses of power, including during Trump's first term.
"We filed 434 legal actions against the first Trump administration, often winning landmark cases before Trump-appointed judges," said Romero. "One week into Trump's presidency, we were the first organization to challenge his Muslim ban. And when the administration sought to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, the ACLU took that fight to the Supreme Court and won. Our litigation also stopped the inhumane practice of separating immigrant families."
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), one of many groups that have warned a Trump victory would signal a disaster for the planet as scientists warn fossil fuel extraction must end immediately to limit planetary heating as much as possible, said the president-elect can expect to face "unprecedented resistance" from organizers.
"Trump 2.0 is going to get twice the fight from the protectors of our planet, wildlife, and basic human rights," said Kierán Suckling, executive director of CBD. "We've battled Trump from the border wall to the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and in many cases we've won. This country's bedrock environmental laws stand strong. We're more prepared than ever to block the disastrous Trump policies we know are coming."
Romero and Suckling's defiant tones were echoed by reproductive rights organizations that have spent the past two years fighting the nationwide effects of Trump's first term, which resulted in the right-wing supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court that overturnedRoe v. Wade, clearing the way for 21 states to impose abortion bans and extreme restrictions that have had deadly consequences for at least four women.
Despite those bans, said Destiny Lopez, acting co-CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, "more than one million abortions occurred in the United States in 2023."
"The anti-abortion movement, with Trump and [Vice President-elect JD] Vance's support, are poised to ban every single abortion going forward," said Lopez. "We're clear-eyed about what's coming. Guttmacher will meet this moment—alongside our state, national, and global partners—and mobilize all our resources to counter these attacks in pursuit of a strong, vibrant democracy that protects and upholds all of our rights."
On Tuesday, voters in seven of 10 states with abortion rights amendments on the ballot voted to protect reproductive freedom—initiatives that were strongly supported by groups such as the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR).
But with Republican lawmakers in the Senate—which will be controlled by the GOP starting in January—supporting a nationwide abortion ban, CRR president and CEO Nancy Northrup said the group is prepared for the new administration to compound the harms already done "with new, potentially far worse ones."
"The Center for Reproductive Rights is ready for this next fight," said Northrup. "We will vigorously oppose any and all attempts to roll back progress. We will scrutinize every action of the White House and federal agencies, amass the factual and legal record to counter agency actions, and work to stop harmful policies from going into effect. If they do, we will take them to court. We will vehemently fight any effort to pass a national abortion ban, to stop the provision of medication abortion by mail, to block women from crossing state lines to get care, to dismantle [United Nations] protections for reproductive rights and progress made at the national level in countries around the world, and more."
With Trump planning to further gut abortion rights, mobilize a mass deportation operation, and roll back climate regulations while keeping his promise to oil executives to expand fossil fuel drilling, journalist Mehdi Hasan of Zeteo urged all progressive organizers to make "'solidarity'... the most important word in our political vocabulary."
"Yes, a majority of American voters may have cast their votes for an unhinged racist and demagogue who is promising a 'bloody' program of mass deportation and a new and bigger 'Muslim ban,' but the rest of us need to stick together," said Hasan. "We need each other. And so, for the next four years, solidarity is the name of the game."
The term has been the rallying cry of the labor movement for generations, and United Auto Workers organizer Helen Brosnan echoed Hasan's call.
"The only way through is solidarity," said Brosnan. "We can't let what happens next divide us. We have to fight the billionaire class together."
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich did not hide his despair over Trump's victory, writing in his Substack newsletter that he was "heartbroken and scared."
But Reich urged progressives not to lose sight of "our first responsibility... to protect all those who are in harm's way," including women, immigrants, and transgender people.
How will we conduct this resistance?
By organizing our communities. By fighting through the courts. By arguing our cause through the media.
We will ask other Americans to join us—left and right, progressive and conservative, white people and people of color. It will be the largest and most powerful resistance since the American revolution.
But it will be peaceful. We will not succumb to violence, which would only give Trump and his regime an excuse to use organized violence against us.
We will keep alive the flames of freedom and the common good, and we will preserve our democracy. We will fight for the same things Americans have fought for since the founding of our nation—rights enshrined in the constitution and Bill of Rights.
The preamble to the Constitution of the United States opens with the phrase "We the people", conveying a sense of shared interest and a desire "to promote the general welfare," as the preamble goes on to say.
We the people will fight for the general welfare.
We the people will resist tyranny. We will preserve the common good. We will protect our democracy.
The National Immigration Law Center, which joined the ACLU in fighting Trump's Muslim bans and other xenophobic policies during his first term, said it "knew Trump could win and that is why we helped lead a movement wide effort to plan for this moment."
"Trump and his allies told us what he plans to do: mass deportations, ending birthright citizenship, ending the right to public education for immigrant children, internment camps, and using the military to hunt down immigrants. We should take him at his word," said Kica Matos, president of the NILC. "One thing is certain: we cannot and will not retreat. For more than 40 years, NILC has been steadfast in our fight to defend the rights of low-income immigrants and their loved ones. We successfully fought Donald Trump before, and we will do it again."
Reich reminded his readers that Americans "supported one another during the Great Depression" and other national crises.
"We were victorious over Hitler's fascism and Soviet communism," he wrote. "We survived Joe McCarthy's witch-hunts, Richard Nixon's crimes, Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam war, the horrors of 9/11, and George W. Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"We will resist Donald Trump's tyranny," he added. "Although peaceful and non-violent, the resistance will nonetheless be committed and determined. It will encompass every community in America. It will endure as long as necessary. We will never give up on America. The resistance starts now."
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