Administration Lawsuit Tracker: 266
Two Hundred and Sixty-six Center Suits Filed Against the Trump Administration
The Center for Biological Diversity resisted the Trump administration in every way possible — especially in the courts.
From the moment Trump took office to his very last day, our lawyers worked feverishly to oppose every attempt his administration made to worsen climate change, kill wildlife, endanger public health, and destroy public lands.
And it worked. The Center filed 266 suits against the Trump administration from its inception to its last day. We've won 9 out of every 10 resolved cases. Read on for details.
The Trump administration abandoned many species to extinction. Tell the Biden administration to save them now.
266. January 19, 2021 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Gutting of Federal Protection for Migratory Birds
The Center and other national environmental groups filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York challenging the Trump administration’s reinterpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which eliminated longstanding, vital protections for more than 1,000 species of waterfowl, raptors and songbirds.
265. January 18, 2021 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Failure to Protect Rare L.A. Fish Known for Elaborate Mating Rituals
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to protect Southern California’s unarmored threespine stickleback, a tiny scaleless fish known for its elaborate mating rituals.
264. January 15, 2021 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Failure to Cut Airplane Climate Pollution
The Center and other environmental groups sued the Trump administration over its finalization of the nation’s first-ever airplane climate emissions standards, which don’t actually reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
263. January 14, 2021 – Lawsuits Challenge Trump Administration’s Latest Assaults on Endangered Species Act
Earthjustice filed two lawsuits on behalf of the Center and allies in the District of Hawai‘i in response to the outgoing administration’s most recent attacks on the Endangered Species Act, the law that serves as the last safety net for animals and plants facing extinction.
262. January 14, 2021 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Over Gray Wolf Delisting
The Center and five other environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s rule that removed Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the lower-48 states (except for a small population of Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico).
261. January 14, 2021 – Lawsuit Aims to Protect Endangered Whales in California Shipping Lanes
The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth sued the Trump administration for failing to protect endangered whales from being struck by ships using ports in California. Ship strikes are a leading cause of death for blue, fin and humpback whales off California’s coast.
260. January 13, 2021 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Failure to Develop Recovery Plans for Two Critically Imperiled Salamanders
The Center for Biological Diversity and Healthy Gulf sued the Trump administration for failing to issue recovery plans for the critically endangered reticulated and frosted flatwoods salamanders.
259. December 23, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Decision to Gut Tongass National Forest Protections
A wide-ranging coalition of Indigenous communities from Southeast Alaska, businesses and conservation organizations, including the Center, filed a lawsuit targeting the Trump administration’s rollback of the federal Roadless Rule that protected the 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest, sometimes called America’s Amazon.
258. December 21, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Large Fossil Fuel Project Proposed in Alaska’s Arctic
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging a massive oil and gas project known as the Willow Master Development Plan in Alaska’s Western Arctic. Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.
257. December 18, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Permitting for Helium Drilling in Newly Designated Utah Wilderness
Conservation groups have sued the Bureau of Land Management to challenge its illegal leasing of 1,400 acres for helium extraction within the newly designated Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness in southeastern Utah.
256. December 18, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump EPA’s Approval of Radioactive Roads
The Center and other environmental, public health and union groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency for approving the use of radioactive phosphogypsum in roads. The groups also petitioned the agency to reconsider its Oct. 20 approval.
255. December 16, 2020 – Lawsuit Filed Against Trump Administration for Terminating Plan to Recover North Cascades Grizzly Bears
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s recent termination of a program aimed at restoring grizzly bears to the North Cascades in Washington.
254. December 15, 2020 – Lawsuit Filed to Stop New Oil Well, Pipeline in California’s Carrizo Plain National Monument
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration to reverse its approval of what would be the first new oil well and pipeline in Carrizo Plain National Monument since it was established in 2001.
253. December 14, 2020 – Conservation Groups Sue Feds Over Failure to Protect Wolverines
The Center is part of a coalition of conservation groups that filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to withhold Endangered Species Act protection from wolverines in the lower 48 states, where no more than 300 wolverines remain.
252. December 07, 2020 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Colorado’s Critically Imperiled Gunnison Sage Grouse
The Center for Biological Diversity and Western Watersheds Project sued the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect the Gunnison sage grouse from harmful livestock grazing in the Gunnison Basin, where the largest surviving population has been in steep decline.
251. December 01, 2020 – Second Lawsuit Aims to Finalize Endangered Species Protection for North Carolina Catfish, Salamander
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the second time for failing to protect two imperiled aquatic species in eastern North Carolina under the Endangered Species Act.
250. November 30, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Feds’ Failure to Protect Endangered Mount Graham Red Squirrel Habitat
The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect habitat essential to the survival and recovery of southeast Arizona’s highly endangered Mount Graham red squirrels.
249. November 19, 2020 – Lawsuit Filed to Save Endangered Nevada Butterfly From Ski Resort Expansion
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to save a rare Nevada butterfly from extinction. The Mount Charleston blue butterfly is threatened by the agencies’ approval of a major ski area expansion.
248. November 9, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Energy Department’s Failure to Update 25 Overdue Efficiency Standards
The Center and five other environmental and consumer groups sued the U.S. Department of Energy for failing to review and update energy efficiency standards for more than two dozen categories of consumer and commercial appliances and equipment, including large energy users like refrigerators and water heaters.
247. November 02, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges EPA Rollback of Limits on Toxic Water Pollution From Power Plants
The Center and eight other conservation groups representing millions of people sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its decision to drastically weaken national standards limiting toxic water pollution, including arsenic and selenium, from coal-fired power plants.
246. October 30, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges EPA Reapproval of Endocrine-disrupting Pesticide Atrazine
Public-interest groups, including the Center, sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its decision to reapprove atrazine, an endocrine-disrupting herbicide banned across much of the world.
245. October 29, 2020 – Lawsuit Filed Against EPA to Protect People in Seven States From Asthma-causing Sulfur Dioxide Air Pollution
The Center and two other conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to meet congressionally mandated deadlines for enforcing reductions in dangerous sulfur dioxide air pollution, which is largely caused by burning fossil fuels.
244. October 28, 2020 – Lawsuit Aims to Save Leopards From Import to U.S. as Hunting Trophies
The Center and other conservation and animal-protection groups filed a lawsuit challenging decisions by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that authorize leopard trophy imports from Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia into the United States.
243. October 15, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks Department of Energy Documents on Industry Influence Over Grid Resilience Model
The Center sued the U.S. Department of Energy for failing to release records about the agency’s collaboration with utility companies and the fossil fuel industry on an important, publicly funded study about the reliability and resiliency of North America’s power grid.
242. October 21, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Inadequate Federal Review of Gulf of Mexico Endangered Species
The Center and three other conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s failure to comply with the Endangered Species Act in its assessment of the harm the offshore oil industry inflicts on endangered and threatened marine wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico.
241. October 23, 2020 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Endangered Wildlife From Dangerous New Fungicide
The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety filed a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of a toxic new fungicide without fully addressing its lethal effects on endangered wildlife.
240. October 08, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Feds’ Failure to Protect Frontline Workers From COVID-19
Labor unions representing healthcare workers, teachers, transit operators and millions of other frontline workers joined with environmental groups, including the Center, to sue the federal government over its failure to provide adequate reusable respirators, N95 masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment to these essential workers.
239. October 07, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks Documents Tied to Cover-up of Groundwater Pumping at Arizona Army Base
The Center sued the U.S. Army, Fort Huachuca and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to release public records relating to the base’s coverup of a 2010 report showing groundwater pumping was harming the San Pedro River.
238. October 01, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Federal Failure to Protect Panama City Crayfish
The Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to finalize Endangered Species Act protections for the Panama City crayfish. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
237. September 29, 2020 – Lawsuit Aims to Compel Fish and Wildlife Service to Protect Bi-state Sage Grouse
The Center and other conservation groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect the imperiled bi-state sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act despite ongoing population declines.
236. September 29, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks Emergency Protections for Rare Nevada Wildflower
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management seeking protection for the rare Nevada wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat.
235. September 23, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Federal Failure to Protect Caribbean Lizards as Endangered
The Center for Biological Diversity sued Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect eight rare species of skink, a type of lizard, under the Endangered Species Act.
234. September 21, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Federal Approval of Alaska LNG Project
The Center and other conservation groups sued the federal government for approving the Alaska LNG project, which would export U.S. liquefied natural gas to Asia. The lawsuit challenges the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s May 21 approval of the project and refusal to grant a June 23 request for rehearing.
233. September 17, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks to Protect Arizona’s Verde River From Ravages of Illegal Grazing
The Center for Biological Diversity and Maricopa Audubon sued the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop widespread damage from cattle grazing along the Verde River, its tributaries and streambanks.
232. September 17, 2020 – Administration Sued for Records Detailing U.S. Role on Behalf of Glyphosate-maker Bayer in Pressuring Thailand to Reverse Plan to Ban Pesticide
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the administration for public records detailing the U.S. government’s efforts on behalf of Bayer, the maker of the herbicide glyphosate, to convince Thailand last year to reverse its planned ban of the cancer-linked chemical.
231. September 01, 2020 – Trump Administration Sued for Failing to Protect Nassau Grouper Habitat
Conservation groups sued the federal government for failing to protect the nearshore habitat of the Nassau grouper, which faces threats from pollution and climate change impacts such as sea-level rise and ocean acidification.
230. August 27, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Forest Service Failure to Protect Endangered Mouse, Streamside Meadow Areas in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Forest Service to challenge its failure to protect streamside meadows in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains from cattle. The areas are critical habitat for the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse.
229. August 27, 2020 – Lawsuit: Trump Administration’s Massive Powder River Basin Coal Plan Violates Court Order
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration to challenge a massive Powder River Basin coal-mining plan the groups say ignores alternatives to coal, oil and gas leasing and fails to publicly acknowledge the harms from coal combustion, violating federal law and a 2018 court order.
228. August 27, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges EPA’s Delay in Ensuring That Rules to Reduce Smog Are in Place for California, Colorado
The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Environmental Health sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to ensure that parts of California and Colorado have effective plans to reduce dangerous smog pollution.
227. August 26, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks to Restore Protection for Wolves, Grizzly Bears on Alaska’s National Preserves
The Center and twelve other groups filed a federal lawsuit to restore Obama-era protections for Alaska’s wildlife on national preserves managed by the National Park Service.
226. August 25, 2020 – Lawsuit Fights Trump Administration Plan to Open 18 Million Acres of Western Arctic to Oil and Gas Drilling
The Center and allies, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its plan to allow oil and gas drilling on 18.7 million acres of the Western Arctic, known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
225. August 24, 2020 – Lawsuit Aims to Block Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Center and other environmental groups filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the Trump administration’s decision to allow oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
224. August 24, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges EPA’s Failure to Clean Up Ventura County Smog
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to require reductions of asthma-causing smog pollution in California’s Ventura County, which is home to more than 850,000 people.
223. August 19, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration Fossil Fuel Plan in Colorado ‘Climate Hot Spot’
The Center and other conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Environmental Protection Agency’s suspension of pollution monitoring and reporting requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
222. August 18, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Suspension of Pollution Monitoring
Conservation groups, including the Center, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Environmental Protection Agency’s suspension of pollution monitoring and reporting requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.
221. August 18, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Refusal to Protect California Spotted Owl
The Center and other conservationists sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for refusing to protect California spotted owls under the Endangered Species Act.
220. August 5, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Mining Permits Near Boundary Waters Wilderness in Minnesota
The Center and other groups sued the Trump administration over its decision to renew 13 prospecting permits that could allow Twin Metals to significantly expand its proposed sulfide-ore copper mine at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota.
219. August 04, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Approval of Mining Road Through Alaska National Park
The Center and eight other groups sued the Trump administration to challenge its approval of a commercial gravel road that would destroy, degrade and pollute Arctic land and water and threaten the health of wildlife and people across a broad region of Alaska’s southern Brooks Range.
218. July 29, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Attack on Landmark Environmental Law
A nationwide coalition of organizations from the environmental-justice, outdoor and conservation communities filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attack on the National Environmental Policy Act.
217. July 21, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Failure to Release Records on End of North Cascades Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration for failing to release public records on the termination of a program to restore grizzly bears to the North Cascades in Washington.
216. July 20, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Order Opening Public Lands to Coal Leasing
A coalition of states, conservation organizations and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe launched a new challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to open millions of acres of public land to new coal leasing and mining.
215. July 09, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks Documents on President Trump’s Order ‘Expediting’ Fossil Fuel Project Approvals
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration to get public records showing how federal agencies are implementing President Trump’s order to waive environmental laws to fast-track oil and gas drilling, fossil fuel pipelines and other projects across the country.
Read more.
214. July 09, 2020 – Lawsuit Launched to Protect Endangered Wildlife in California Redwood Forest
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration to get public records showing how federal agencies are implementing President Trump’s order to waive environmental laws to fast-track oil and gas drilling, fossil fuel pipelines and other projects across the country.
213. July 14, 2020 – Keystone XL Faces New Legal Challenge Over Faulty Federal Review
The Center and other conservation and landowner groups filed a new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s approval of the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline to be constructed on federal lands.
212. June 17, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump OK of Commercial Fishing in Atlantic Marine Monument
The Center and allies filed a federal lawsuit declaring that President Trump’s June 5 executive order allowing commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was illegal.
211. June 11, 2020 – Lawsuit Filed to Force Trump Administration to Protect Arizona’s Mount Graham Red Squirrel From Extinction
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration to force two federal agencies to comply with the Endangered Species Act and protect the imperiled Mount Graham red squirrel in southeastern Arizona from extinction.
210. June 11, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks Trade Sanctions Against Mexico as Vaquita Porpoise Faces Extinction
Conservation groups sued the Trump administration to force a long-overdue decision to sanction Mexico over its illegal fishing and trade that is causing the vaquita porpoise’s extinction.
209. June 9, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Approval of Inadequate State Pollution Plan
The Center sued the Trump administration to challenge the EPA’s approval of Colorado’s inadequate plan to protect people, wildlife and special places from smog. The plan doesn’t control air pollution from industrial agriculture and gives Colorado a three-year “free pass” on Colorado’s pollution impacting other states.
208. June 1, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Delay in Protecting Rare Nevada Fish
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for unlawfully delaying action on a petition to protect a population of small, minnow-like fish under the Endangered Species Act. The relict dace population, which has been isolated for thousands of years in the Johnson Springs Wetland Complex near Wells, Nevada, faces an existential threat from Newmont Mining Corporation’s plan to expand the Long Canyon gold mine.
207. May 27, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Federal Approval of Jordan Cove Natural Gas Project
The Center and other conservation organizations filed a lawsuit challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector fracked gas pipeline.
206. May 27, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration Push to Gut Car Pollution Standards
Conservation groups sued the Trump administration to block a major rollback of fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles. The revised standards will worsen dangerous levels of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and cost consumers more at the gas pump without making the nation’s roads safer.
205. May 19, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks Records on Trump Administration’s Fossil Fuel Bailout
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Treasury Department for failing to release applications from the oil, gas, coal and plastics industries for federal COVID-19 relief funding under the CARES Act.
204. May 12, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s $7.2 Billion Transfer for Border Wall Construction
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration for taking $7.2 billion from the Department of Defense for border wall construction — which would wall off all remaining jaguar corridors along the U.S.-Mexico border — without congressional approval.
203. May 06, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Toxic Copper Mine Threatening Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Wilderness
Conservation groups, including the Center, sued the Trump administration over its May 2019 renewal of two mineral leases that pave the way for a massive copper mine at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota.
202. May 04, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks Endangered Species Act Protections for Humboldt Marten
The Center and Environmental Protection Information Center sued the Trump administration for its failure to finalize Endangered Species Act protection for the Humboldt marten.
201. April 27, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump EPA’s Attempt to Blame Mexico for Smog in California’s Imperial County
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to require reductions of dangerous smog pollution in California’s Imperial County, which is home to almost 200,000 people.
200. April 08, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Grazing Damage to Arizona’s San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area
Conservation groups, including the Center, sued the Trump administrationor failing to protect the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area from livestock grazing’s damage.
199. March 31, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Authorization to Kill 72 Grizzlies Near Yellowstone
The Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to allow 72 grizzly bears to be killed to accommodate livestock grazing in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, near Yellowstone National Park.
198. March 19, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks to Finalize Endangered Species Protection for Eastern Black Rail
The Center for Biological Diversity and Healthy Gulf sued the Trump administration and U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt for failing to finalize a decision to protect eastern black rails under the Endangered Species Act.
197. March 18, 2020 – Lawsuit Seeks Federal Protection for Wolverines in Lower 48 States
The Center and other conservation groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect wolverines as required by the Endangered Species Act.
196. March 18, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Refusal to Release Public Records on Hog Slaughterhouse Rules
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to release public documents detailing the potential harms resulting from reducing federal oversight and eliminating line-speed limits at pig slaughterhouses.
195. March 13, 2020 – Lawsuit Aims to Save San Pedro River, Slow Groundwater Pumping Tied to Arizona Military Base
The Center and partner conservation groups sued the Trump administration to prevent further damage to Arizona’s San Pedro River and its endangered species from excessive groundwater pumping in the Fort Huachuca area, including nearby Sierra Vista.
194. March 10, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Construction of Northern Border Road
The Center and four other conservation groups sued the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection over their decision to reconstruct a northern Idaho road on the Canadian border that would harm imperiled grizzly bears, mountain caribou and other wildlife in the Selkirk Mountains.
193. February 27, 2020 – Lawsuit Attacks Trump Failure to Protect 241 Species From Extinction
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to decide whether 241 plants and animals across the country — from the Midwest’s golden-winged warbler to Venus flytraps in the Carolinas — should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
192. February 24, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Failure to Update Plan to Save Houston Toads
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to update a deficient, 35-year-old recovery plan for Houston toads. This critically endangered species is now found only in the central coastal region of Texas, and fewer than 1,000 adults may remain in the wild.
191. February 20, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Forest Service Failure to Protect Endangered Mouse, Riparian Areas in Arizona’s White Mountains
The Center and other conservation groups filed suit against Trump's U.S. Forest Service to protect meadows and streams in eastern Arizona’s White Mountains from cows, horses and elk.
190. February 20, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration Delays in Protecting Ancient Lake Sturgeon
The Center and ally conservation groups sued the Trump administration for delaying a determination of whether imperiled populations of lake sturgeon will be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
189. February 19, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump EPA’s Delay in Protecting Denver Area From Harmful Smog From Oil, Fracked Gas
The Center and other environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to ensure the reduction of dangerous smog pollution from oil and gas drilling in Metro-Denver and the Front Range.
188. February 05, 2020 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration’s Failure to Protect Hawaiian Waters From Plastic Pollution
The Center for Biological Diversity, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii and Surfrider Foundation filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's Environmental Protection Agency for failing to protect 17 coastal water bodies around Hawaii from widescale plastic pollution that covers beaches, degrades coral reefs and threatens birds, fish, sea turtles and other wildlife.
187. January 30, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges EPA’s Dangerously Outdated Plan for Offshore Oil Spills
The University of California-Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to issue rules restricting use of chemical agents such as Corexit to clean up oil spills.
186. January 22, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump EPA’s Delay in Cleaning up Harmful Smog From Oil, Fracked Gas in 11 States
The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Environmental Health sued the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency for delays in ensuring reductions in dangerous smog pollution from oil and gas drilling in 11 states.
185. January 22, 2020 – Lawsuit Aims to Force Trump Administration to Halt U.S. Pangolin Trade
The Center and partner wildlife conservation groups sued the Trump administration to force officials to propose Endangered Species Act protections for critically imperiled pangolins.
184. January 21, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Failure to Protect Turtles in Louisiana, Mississippi
The Center for Biological Diversity and Healthy Gulf filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for failing to protect two species of map turtles under the Endangered Species Act.
183. January 16, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Suppression of Grid Study Bolstering Clean Energy Transition
The Center filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for failing to release documents about a $1.5 million study that examined how grid improvements can bolster renewable energy access.
182. January 15, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Fast-tracking of Louisiana Plastics Project
The Center and other conservation and community organizations sued the Trump administration for permitting one of the world’s largest plastic plants: Formosa Plastics’ proposed petrochemical complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana.
181. January 14, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Plan to Frack, Drill 1 Million Acres of California Public Lands, Minerals
The Center and other conservation groups sued the administration challenging the last step in the administration’s plan to allow oil drilling and fracking on more than 1 million acres of public lands and minerals in Central California.
180. January 13, 2020 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Failure to Protect Endangered Species From Livestock on Arizona, New Mexico Waterways
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to prevent livestock from damaging southwestern rivers and streams.
179. January 08, 2020 – Trump Administration Sued for Failing to Protect Green Sea Turtle Habitat
The Center and allies sued the federal government for failing to protect green sea turtle habitat, which faces threats from sea-level rise, plastic pollution and global warming.
178. November 22, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump’s Move to Block California’s Clean Car Standards
The Center joined eight other groups in suing the Trump administration for trying to prevent California and other states from setting more protective vehicle pollution standards.
Read more.
177. November 21, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration OK of Oil Waste Dumping in California Aquifer
The Center sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to consider threats to the environment and endangered wildlife before approving an aquifer exemption for the Arroyo Grande oilfield south of San Luis Obispo.
176. November 19, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed Over Trump Administration Failure to Update Plan to Save Red Wolves
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to prepare an updated recovery plan for the red wolf, a critically endangered native species that has declined to just 14 known individuals in the wild. Without help the once-common species — now isolated in North Carolina — could be extinct in the wild within five years.
175. October 30, 2019 – Lawsuit Aims to Protect Rare Nevada Wildflower From Exploratory Mining
The Center sued the Trump administration to protect the world’s only population of Tiehm’s buckwheat (Eriogonum tiehmii) from harm related to mineral exploration and a proposed open-pit mine.
174. October 30, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s California Fracking Plan
The Center and partner conservation groups sued the Trump administration to challenge its Oct. 4 decision to allow fracking and drilling on 725,500 acres of public lands and mineral estate across California’s Central Coast and the Bay Area.
173. October 28, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Habitat for 14 Imperiled Hawaii Island Species
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to protect critical habitat for 14 endangered Hawaiian species. The rare wildlife involved include 12 plants, one anchialine pool shrimp and 1 picture-wing fly. These species, such as the ko‘oko‘olau and hāhā, are highly vulnerable to extinction due to their small population size and desperately need protected habitat.
172. October 22, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Federal Killing of Washington’s Bears, Beavers, Bobcats
The Center sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program over its killing of thousands of native animals a year in Washington state.
171. October 22, 2019 – Trump Administration Sued for Failing to Release Gulf of Mexico Fracking Records
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to release public documents revealing the extent and risks of fracking of offshore oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
170. October 10, 2019 – Trump Administration Sued for Failing to Protect Hawaii’s Cauliflower Coral
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to protect cauliflower coral around the Hawaiian Islands. The bushy, shallow-water coral species has been devastated by ocean warming triggered by human-caused climate change.
169. October 8, 2019 – Lawsuit Targets Feds’ Failure to Consider Colorado Fracking’s Climate Harm
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration to require an analysis of the climate risk from an oil and gas extraction plan covering nearly a million acres of public lands and minerals in western Colorado. The area surrounds the Bureau of Land Management’s new headquarters.
16. October 3, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks to Include Climate Change in Glen Canyon Operations Plan
The Center and two other environmental groups launched a legal battle to force the required examination of climate change science in the federal management of Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River.
167. October 1, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Dunes Sagebrush Lizard in New Mexico, Texas
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal district court challenging the Trump administration’s continued failure to protect severely imperiled dunes sagebrush lizards under the Endangered Species Act.
166. September 27, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed Over Trump’s Move to Block California’s Clean Car Standards
The Center joined eight other groups in suing the Trump administration over its attempt to prevent California and other states from setting more protective vehicle pollution standards.
165. September 26, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Approval of Bee-killing Pesticide, GE Crop Uses on National Wildlife Refuges
The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety sued the Trump administration for approving the use of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides and pesticide-intensive genetically engineered crops on national wildlife refuges.
164. September 23, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Refusal to Protect Florida Lizard
The Center sued Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for denying protection to the Florida Keys mole skink under the Endangered Species Act.
163. September 12, 2019 – Climate Lawsuit Targets 130 Oil Leases on Public Lands in Utah
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration for failing to consider the climate pollution from 130 oil and gas leases spanning 175,500 acres of public lands in Utah.
162. September 10, 2019 – Lawsuit Targets Minnesota’s PolyMet Copper-Sulfide Mine Permit
The Center and allies sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to challenge a key water permit authorizing the PolyMet open-pit copper-sulfide mine to move forward. The mine would destroy 1,000 acres of wetlands and more than 1,700 acres of critical wildlife habitat in northern Minnesota's Superior National Forest.
161. September 05, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Refusal to Release Public Documents on Expanded Use of Antibiotics As Pesticides
The Center sued the Trump administration for refusing to release public documents related to its approval of expanded use of antibiotics as agricultural pesticides.
160. September 04, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Hilcorp’s Plan to Blast Cook Inlet Beluga Whales
The Center and other conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s approval of rules allowing Hilcorp Alaska LLC to harm Cook Inlet beluga whales and other marine mammals as it expands its offshore oil and gas operations in Cook Inlet.
159. August 27, 2019 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Wildlife-killing Program in 10 California Counties
The Center for Biological Diversity, Animal Legal Defense Fund and Project Coyote sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program over its outdated wildlife-killing plan for 10 counties in Northern California.
158. August 21, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Habitat for 12 Endangered Coral Species
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration for failing to protect 12 coral species around Florida and islands in the Pacific Ocean. The corals all received Endangered Species Act protection in 2014, but they did not receive the critical habitat protection the law requires.
157. August 21, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Attack on Endangered Species Act
Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Center and other environmental and animal protection groups against the Trump administration over its new regulations that dramatically weaken the Endangered Species Act.
156. August 20, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump EPA’s 200 Million-acre Expansion of Bee-killing Pesticide
The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety sued the Trump administration over its July decision to approve use of the bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor across more than 200 million acres of crops. The approval was granted despite the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency’s own scientists concluded that sulfoxaflor is “very highly toxic” to bees. The decision expands the pesticide’s use to a wide range of crops that attract bees, including soybeans, cotton, strawberries, squash and citrus.
155. August 19, 2019 – Trump Administration Sued for Failing to Protect Endangered West Coast Orcas
The Center for Biological Diversity and Orca Relief Citizens' Alliance (ORCA) sued the Trump administration for ignoring a legal petition to protect critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales in the heart of their Salish Sea habitat. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, followed news that three more of these starving orcas are presumed dead, dropping their population to just 73.
154. August 14, 2019 – Farmers, Conservationists Challenge Approval of Monsanto’s Crop-damaging Dicamba Pesticide
The Center and three other public-interest organizations representing farmers and conservationists made their legal case in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Monsanto. The opening brief, filed late Tuesday, challenges the approval of a pesticide that was designed to be sprayed on soybeans and cotton crops genetically engineered by Monsanto to tolerate being sprayed with dicamba.
153. August 14, 2019 – Lawsuit Takes on Trump’s Dirty Power Plan
Ten environmental groups, including the Center, sued Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency to overturn the administration’s Dirty Power Plan and reinstate the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, argues that the EPA failed its legal obligation under the Clean Air Act when it repealed and replaced the Clean Power Plan.
152. August 13, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump EPA’s Failure to Protect California’s Ventura County From Deadly Smog
The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Environmental Health filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for failing to finalize plans to curtail dangerous smog in Ventura County, Calif.
151. August 07, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Huge Offshore Drilling Sale in Gulf of Mexico
The Center and other environmental groups sued the Trump administration to challenge its fourth oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. The sale offers more than 78 million acres to offshore drilling without fully analyzing the risks to people, wildlife or the environment.
150. August 07, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges New Trump Administration Land Swap to Bulldoze Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
The Center for Biological Diversity and ally conservation groups sued the Trump administration to challenge a land-swap deal with King Cove Corporation aimed at putting a road through the heart of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Izembek is one of America’s most ecologically significant wildlife refuges, home to world-class wetlands that support millions of migrating birds, fish and caribou.
149. August 01, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Failure to Protect Atlantic Sharks, Giant Manta Rays From Lethal Fishing Gear
On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice sued the Trump administration for failing to protect oceanic whitetip sharks and giant manta rays from being captured and killed in U.S. fisheries in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The lawsuit notes that both species have suffered dramatic declines because of overfishing — either through intentional targeting or from being killed by fishing gear aimed at other animals.
148. July 31, 2019 – Lawsuit: Trump Is Failing to Protect Emperor Penguins From Climate Crisis
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to act on a petition to protect emperor penguins under the Endangered Species Act.
147. July 24, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Political Meddling in EPA Public Records Changes
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Environmental Integrity Project sued the Trump administration over sweeping changes to how the Environmental Protection Agency handles public-records requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The EPA’s new rule will take effect Friday.
146. July 15, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Fracking Leases Threatening Northern Arizona Groundwater
The Center and allies sued the Trump administration for leasing 4,200 acres of public lands for oil and gas extraction in Arizona’s Little Colorado River basin without any new environmental review.
145. July 10, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s OK of California Logging That Will Destroy Big Trees, Condor Roosting Sites
The Center and other groups sued the Trump administration to halt a logging project in a roadless area of Los Padres National Forest that would destroy prime habitat for endangered California condors. Because of the project’s remote location, it also would fail to protect communities from wildfires as federal officials have claimed.
144. July 10, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Dwindling Numbers of Mountain Caribou
The Center and ally conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to finalize endangered species protection and designate critical habitat for Southern Mountain caribou.
143. July 02, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Court Order to Stop Colorado Coal Mine Expansion Threatening Climate, National Forest
The Centerand four other conservation groups sued the Trump administration and called on a federal judge to block approval of Arch Coal’s West Elk mine expansion, which would invade the wildlands of western Colorado’s Gunnison National Forest.
142. July 01, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Decision to Exempt Factory Farms From Reporting Hazardous Air Pollution
Community and conservation groups, including the Center, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for overstepping its authority in exempting factory farms from pollution-reporting requirements essential to public safety, environmental health and animal welfare.
141. July 01, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Overdue Protection for Rare Salamander in California, Oregon
The Center and other conservation groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to respond to a 2018 petition requesting Endangered Species Act protection for the imperiled Siskiyou Mountains salamander.
140. June 27, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed to Force Trump Administration to Expand, Update Plan for Grizzly Bear Recovery
The Center filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s failure to update the federal recovery plan for grizzly bears. An updated plan should reflect current science and consider additional areas where grizzlies once lived and can now be reintroduced.
139. June 17, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Info on Trump Administration Eliminating Environmental Grades
The Center sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to release public records on why it abruptly stopped issuing public grades on environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act.
138. June 13, 2019 – Trump Administration Sued for Failing to Protect Imperiled Ice Seals’ Arctic Habitat
The Center sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to designate critical habitat in Alaska for two ice-seal species. Both bearded and ringed seals are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because climate change is melting their Arctic sea-ice habitat.
137. June 12, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Endangered Species Protections for Lesser Prairie Chickens
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration for failing to protect severely imperiled lesser prairie chickens under the Endangered Species Act.
136. June 11, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration’s Rollbacks of Offshore Drilling Safety Regs
The Center and nine other environmental groups sued the Trump administration to challenge rollbacks of the 2016 Well Control and Blowout Preventer Rule, a safety regulation meant to prevent another blowout like the one that caused the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.
135. June 06, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Permits for Longline Fishery Off California Coast
The Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network sued the Trump administration for permitting a new longline fishery in the Pacific Ocean.
134. June 03, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Federal Habitat Protection for Two Central Texas Salamanders
The Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to designate critical habitat in central Texas for the Georgetown salamander and Salado salamander.
133. May 23, 2019 – Lawsuit Aims to Force Trump to Protect Endangered Species Nationwide
The Center for Biological Diversity and San Francisco Baykeeper sued the Trump administration for failing to protect eight highly imperiled species across the country under the Endangered Species Act.
132. May 22, 2019 – Lawsuit Pushes Trump EPA to Address Asthma-causing Air Pollution in Phoenix, Northern California
The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Environmental Health sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to address smog and soot pollution affecting more than 1.5 million people in Arizona and Northern California.
131. May 16, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Approval of Massive Utah Oil Shale Development
The Center and ally conservation groups sued the Trump administration to challenge what would be the nation’s first commercial-scale oil shale mine and processing facility. The lawsuit says officials failed to protect several endangered species when they approved rights-of-way across public lands to provide utilities to the proposed oil shale development.
130. May 13, 2019 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration Renewal of Oregon Ranchers' Grazing Permit
The Center and allies filed a lawsuit challenging former Interior secretary Ryan Zinke’s order to renew grazing permits for Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond. Zinke’s January 2019 order, one of his last official acts, came despite the Bureau of Land Management’s 2014 decision to cancel the Hammonds’ privilege to graze on public lands following a series of arson fires.
129. May 07, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Massive Old-growth Timber Sale in Alaska National Forest
The Center and seven other conservation groups sued the Trump administration to stop its authorization of the largest logging project in the national forest system in a generation, including thousands of acres of old-growth timber in the Tongass National Forest. The lawsuit says the U.S. Forest Service is violating the National Environmental Policy Act and failing to comply with the agency’s own management plan for the Tongass.
125–128. May 07, 2019 – Lawsuits Challenge Trump Administration's Refusal to Release Documents on Pesticides
The Center for Biological Diversity filed four lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s failure to release a trove of documents detailing how the administration is regulating dangerous pesticides, especially as they relate to endangered species.
124. May 06, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Details on Ocean Chief's Oversized Role in Slashing Environmental Protections
The Center sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for refusing to release public records detailing the activities of Stuart Levenbach, the agency’s chief of staff. The NOAA chief of staff oversees the overall operations of the agency and implements the policy directives and objectives of the administration.
123. April 25, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges California Development's Threat to Condors, Tribal Religious Practices
Conservation groups (including the Center) and tribal groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for authorizing a Tejon Ranch Company plan to build luxury housing, golf courses and resort hotels on thousands of acres of critical habitat for California condors in Kern County.The lawsuit challenges the Service’s failure to adequately consult native people on the threats posed to condors by Tejon Mountain Village.
122. April 23, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Public Records on Border Wall Plans in National Wildlife Refuges
The Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to release public records on President Trump’s plans to build border walls through protected national wildlife refuges. Trump plans to build new, or newly fortified, border walls through at least six refuges that preserve some of the nation’s most fragile and spectacular landscapes.
121. April 17, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Endangered Species Protection for 24 Species Trump Administration Left Behind
The Center sued the Trump administration and newly confirmed U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt for failing to make protection decisions for 24 species of animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act. The list of wildlife left without protection includes the elfin-woods warbler, Franklin’s bumblebee and tricolored blackbird. They are among hundreds of species awaiting decisions about whether to be protected under the Endangered Species Act or to receive protected critical habitat.
120. April 15, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks New Critical Habitat for Endangered Mount Graham Red Squirrels
The Center and Maricopa Audubon filed a lawsuit in federal district court to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand critical habitat for Arizona’s highly endangered Mount Graham red squirrel.
119. April 3, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks Records on Trump Administration's OK of Bee-killing Pesticides, GE Crops on National Wildlife Refuges
The Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for public records on the Trump administration’s decision to allow bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides and genetically engineered crops on national wildlife refuges. The lawsuit follows an August 2018 decision by the Trump administration to reverse a refuge-protection measurethat prohibited the use of neonicotinoid pesticides and genetically engineered crops that trigger greater pesticide use.
118. April 3, 2019 – Lawsuit Aims to Protect West Coast Salmon for Starving Orcas
The Center and Wild Fish Conservancy sued the Trump administration for mismanaging West Coast salmon fisheries and harming critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales, a violation of the Endangered Species Act. That orca population has dropped to just 75 individuals, mostly because declining salmon runs have left them without enough to eat.
117. March 27, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Arizona's Waters, Wildlife From Proposed Rosemont Mine
The Center and three other conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal district court to overturn a key permit for the controversial proposed Rosemont Copper Mine in southern Arizona. The lawsuit challenges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ issuance of a Clean Water Act permit for the mine, which would threaten critical water resources and wildlife habitat.
116. March 26, 2019 – Lawsuit Filed Against Trump’s EPA for Failing to Protect Millions of Arizona Residents From Harmful Air Pollution
The Center allies sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to enforce air-quality standards designed to protect more than 7 million people in Arizona from harmful particulate pollution. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, where the EPA’s regional headquarters are located.
115. March 21, 2019 – Why Is Trump Skipping Endangered Species Act Review for Clean Car Rollback?
The Center sued the administration for withholding public records related to its decision that its proposal to gut vehicle fuel-efficiency and tailpipe standards does not require Endangered Species Act review. The proposal would radically increase vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic air pollutants that are a danger to people and wildlife.
114. March 21, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Utah's New Green River Water Contract
The Center other conservation groups sued the Trump administration to challenge the Interior Department’s decision allowing additional water to be taken from the Green River below Utah’s Flaming Gorge Dam. The decision was made without a full accounting of reduced Colorado River basin flows or how the region’s persistent drought and climate change could harm endangered species and recreation.
113. March 13, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Vast Expansion of Gulf Oil, Gas Leasing
The Center and other environmental groups sued the Trump administration to challenge an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico that will open up more than 78 million acres to offshore drilling without fully analyzing the risks to people, wildlife or the environment.
111 and 112. March 12, 2019 – Lawsuits Target Trump's War on Transparency at EPA, Interior Department
The Center filed a pair of lawsuits against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior and Fish and Wildlife Service for violating the Freedom of Information Act by failing to make records available to the public. The lawsuits, filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., coincide with national Sunshine Week.
110. March 1, 2019 – Native Village, Conservation Groups Challenge Winter Oil, Gas Drilling in Western Arctic
The Center joined the Native Village of Nuiqsut tribal government and other conservation groups, represented by Earthjustice, in filing a lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of ConocoPhillips’ winter exploratory drilling program in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, America’s single largest area of public lands.
109. February 16, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump's Emergency Declaration for Border Wall
The Center , Defenders of Wildlife and Animal Legal Defense Fund sued the Trump administration over the president’s emergency declaration to pay for his border walls. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., argues that the president is violating the U.S. Constitution by overstepping his executive authority and sidestepping Congress to appropriate more than $6 billion to construct walls along the southern border.
108. February 13, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Federal Secrecy on Pacific Bluefin Tuna Protection Denial
The Center sued the Trump administration for refusing to release public records on its denial of protection for imperiled Pacific bluefin tuna.
107. February 12, 2019 – Lawsuit Seeks U.S. Records on Huge Plastics Plant in Louisiana's Cancer Alley
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration for refusing to release public records related to an enormous plastics plant proposed along the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, La. The area is known as “Cancer Alley” for the high cancer rates among residents.
106. February 7, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Air-pollution Permit for L.A.-area Gas-fired Power Plant
Four conservation and public health groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approving a permit for a new gas-fired power plant in the Southern California city of Palmdale.
Read more.
105. January 31, 2019 – Lawsuit Challenges Massive Arizona Master-planned Community
The Center and allies filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of a permit that allows a huge master-planned sprawl development project near Benson, Ariz., to proceed. The Villages at Vigneto would transform 12,167 acres of largely undeveloped habitat into 28,000 residences, 3 million square feet of commercial space, four golf courses, fountains, lakes and a resort.
104. January 29, 2019 – Lawsuit Targets Federal Wildlife-killing Program in Wyoming
The Center and parter conservationists sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program over its outdated wildlife-killing plan for Wyoming. The lawsuit seeks an updated environmental analysis of the program, which kills thousands of the state’s native animals every year, primarily killing carnivores like gray wolves and coyotes that are important for balanced ecosystems.
103. January 4, 2019 – Public Records Lawsuit Seeks Emails on Trump Administration's Red Wolf Extinction Plan
The Center filed a lawsuit to force the Trump administration to release emails related to the development of a new, highly controversial management plan for the world’s only population of critically endangered red wolves.
102. December 20, 2018 – Lawsuit Pushes Trump Administration to Protect Arizona, New Mexico Snakes
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to protect critical habitat for the northern Mexican garter snake and narrow-headed garter snake. The lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson, notes that populations of both snakes occur at low densities or may already be gone in nearly 90 percent of their historic ranges in Arizona and New Mexico.
101. December 17, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Approval of Offshore Oil Drilling Project in the Arctic
The Center and ally conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s approval of the first offshore oil drilling development in federal Arctic waters. Hilcorp Alaska received approval in October to build and operate the controversial Liberty project, an artificial drilling island and underwater pipeline that risks oil spills in the sensitive Beaufort Sea and threatens polar bears and Arctic communities.
100. December 11, 2018 – Groups Sue Feds to Stop Seismic Airgun Blasting in Atlantic Ocean
The Center and other leading environmental groups sued the federal government to prevent seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean. This extremely loud and dangerous process, which is used to search for oil and gas deposits deep below the ocean’s surface, is the first step toward offshore drilling. If allowed seismic airgun blasting would harm marine life, including whales, dolphins, fish and zooplankton — the foundation of the ocean food web.
99. December 6, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Failure to Protect Giraffes
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration for failing to consider protections for Africa’s rapidly dwindling giraffe population under the Endangered Species Act. The suit challenges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s refusal to act on an April 2017 petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for giraffes.
98. December 4, 2018 – EPA Sued for Records of Andrew Wheeler Meetings With Oil Lobbyists
The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth sued the Environmental Protection Agency for refusing to release public records concerning meetings and communications with the lobbying firm Faegre Baker Daniels, the former employer of EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler.
97. November 29, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Failure to Protect California's Shasta Salamanders From Extinction
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Environmental Protection Information Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servicefor failing to act on a 2012 petition to protect Shasta salamanders under the Endangered Species Act.
Since the petition was filed, the species was split into three distinct species, each of which is rare and imperiled.
The salamanders are imminently threatened by plans to raise the height of Northern California’s Shasta Dam, which would result in extensive flooding of their habitat.
96. November 27, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Failure to Address Ocean Acidification in Oregon
The Center sued the Trump administration for refusing to recognize that ocean acidification caused by fossil fuel pollution is impairing the quality of Oregon’s coastal waters. The lawsuit notes that the Environmental Protection Agency is violating the Clean Water Act by failing to identify waters impaired by ocean acidification. That would allow those waters to be subject to pollution controls and other protective measures.
95. November 14, 2018 – Lawsuit Fights Trump Administration Effort to Strip Gray Wolves of Protection
The Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for violating the Endangered Species Act by never providing a comprehensive recovery plan for gray wolves nationwide, which is required by the law.
94. November 8, 2018 – Lawsuit Targets Zinke's Secretive Program Undermining Wildlife Protection
The Center sued the Trump administration to expose a secretive program that denies Endangered Species Act protection to imperiled species like the Pacific walrus. The lawsui follows controversy over the Species Status Assessment (SSA) program. Using the SSA, Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke and the Trump administration have denied protection to the walrus and are preparing to strip safeguards from the Canada lynx and American burying beetle.
93. Lawsuit Filed to Protect Critical Habitat for Endangered Florida Bonneted Bats
Conservation groups including the Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect critical habitat for endangered Florida bonneted bats. On the brink of extinction, the bat has been devastated by habitat loss to urban and agricultural sprawl and now faces the new threat of climate change driven sea-level rise.
92. October 18, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Online Access to Federal Elephant, Lion Trophy-import Records
The Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, Center for Biological Diversity and Born Free USA sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for violating the law by failing to post online elephant and lion trophy-permitting records on the Internet.
91. October 18, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Texas Border-wall Waivers
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration for waiving 28 conservation laws to speed construction of the border wall along the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
90. October 17, 2018 – Lawsuit Aims to Force Trump Administration to Protect Western Songbird's Habitat
The Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect lifesaving critical habitat for the western yellow-billed cuckoo in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Colorado and other western states.
89. October 1, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration for Gutting Methane Waste Rule
The Center, as part of a broad coalition of conservation and citizens’ groups, sued the Trump administration late Friday to challenge the Bureau of Land Management rescinding most provisions of its 2016 methane waste rule.
88. September 27, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Oil, Gas Lease Sales on Public Lands in Colorado, Utah
The Center and ally conservation groups sued the Trump administration for leasing more than 115,000 acres of public land in western Colorado and northern Utah for oil and gas development without adequate environmental protections. These lease sales, offered by the Bureau of Land Management, violate federal environmental laws and will worsen air quality in a region already laden with harmful levels of ozone pollution.
87. September 16, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Records on Trump's Refusal to Set Airplane Pollution Standards
The Center sued the Trump administration for refusing to release public records related to the government’s failure to develop greenhouse gas emission standards for airplanes as required by the Clean Air Act.
86. September 6, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Tennessee Valley Authority's Attack on Solar Energy in South
Five conservation groups, including the Center, sued the Tennessee Valley Authority for imposing discriminatory electricity rates that discourage homeowners and businesses from investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
85. September 4, 2018 – Zinke Sued for Refusing to Release Documents on Efforts to Strip Protection From American Burying Beetle
The Center sued Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to release public documents about the agency’s move toward stripping Endangered Species Act protections from the American burying beetle.
84. August 17, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Documents on Huge Toyota Factory's Threat to Endangered Alabama Fish
The Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to turn over documents on the impacts of Toyota and Mazda building a massive factory directly adjacent to one of only two populations of the critically endangered spring pygmy sunfish outside of Huntsville, Alabama.
83. August 16, 2018 – Trump Administration Sued for Failing to Protect Orcas' West Coast Habitat
The Center sued the Trump administration for failing to protect the West Coast ocean habitat of the last remaining Southern Resident killer whales. The critically endangered species is down to just 75 orcas, the lowest number in more than 30 years.The National Marine Fisheries Service failed to act on our 2014 petition calling for an expansion habitat protections off Washington, Oregon and California that could help Southern Resident killer whales, which are starving for lack of salmon and also being hurt by boat traffic and water pollution.
82. August 2, 2018 – Lawsuit Targets Trump EPA's 'Free Pass' for Colorado Oil, Gas Operations in Smog-reduction Effort
The Center, two other conservation groups, and Boulder County sued the Trump administration for illegally excluding oil and gas operations in parts of Colorado from a federal project to protect people from smog.
81. August 1, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Trophy Hunting Council
The Center and other conservation and animal-protection groups sued the Trump administration for illegally establishing the “International Wildlife Conservation Council,” an advisory panel full of people with personal or financial interests in killing or importing rare animals from overseas.
80. July 17, 2018 – Emergency Lawsuit Challenges EPA's Super-polluter Truck Loophole
The Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Defense Fund and Sierra Club filed an emergency motion for a stay or summary reversal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to stop enforcing production caps on super-polluting diesel “glider” trucks.
UPDATE:Just days after our motion, the EPA abruptly withdrew its decision to stop enforcing production caps on super-polluting diesel “glider” trucks.
79. July 17, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Expansion of Gulf of Mexico Drilling
The Center and other environmental groups sued the Trump administration for opening up more than 78 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to offshore drilling without fully analyzing the risks to people, wildlife and the environment. The lease sales targeted in the suit are the largest ever offered for oil and gas development in U.S. history.
78. July 2, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Habitat Protection for Four Mussels in Northeast, Midwest, South
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect critical habitat for four endangered freshwater mussels that live in 18 different states. The lawsuit noted that the biggest threats to the rayed bean, sheepnose, snuffbox and spectaclecase mussels are habitat loss and fragmentation resulting from dams, development and poor water quality. The mussels occur in New York, West Virginia, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
77. June 25, 2018 – Lawsuit Aims to Prevent Mining Pollution Near Boundary Waters Wilderness in Minnesota
The Wilderness Society, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Izaak Walton League of America, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., to prevent sulfide-ore mining at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota.
76. June 21, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration for Failing to Protect Gulf of Mexico Wildlife From Offshore Drilling
Earthjustice, on behalf of the Center and two other conservation groups, sued the Trump administration for failing to complete a legally required consultation about offshore drilling’s harms to threatened and endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico.
75. June 20, 2018 – Lawsuit Filed to Speed Habitat Protections for Two Appalachian Crayfish
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect critical habitat in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky for the Big Sandy crayfish and the Guyandotte River crayfish.
74. June 14, 2018 – Lawsuit Launched to Fight EPA's Pruitt for Illegal Delay in Reducing Asthma-causing Pollution Across Midwest, Florida
The Center and allies sued U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for failing to ensure that Detroit, Indianapolis and other localities that are home to millions of people have effective plans for cleaning up asthma-causing sulfur dioxide air pollution.
The lawsuit points out that the EPA has already determined that these 17 areas in 10 states have sulfur dioxide pollution at levels high enough to cause human health problems and to harm fish and forests. The polluted areas are in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
73. June 13, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Push to Slash Protections for Waterways, Wetlands
The Center and ally conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging two regulations that weaken Clean Water Act protections for rivers, streams, wetlands and other waterways, including a Trump administration decision to delay the 2015 Clean Water Rule for two years.
72. June 11, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Critical Habitat Protection for Threatened Alabama Fish
The Center sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect critical habitat for the spring pygmy sunfish under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., emphasizes that the spring pygmy sunfish has been driven locally extinct in two of three springs it was known to occupy.
71. May 30, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks to Force EPA to Curb Risks From Dangerous Pesticide Malathion
The Center and other groups sued the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for failing to protect endangered wildlife and the environment from the dangerous pesticide malathion. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have failed to complete the legally required steps to fully assess and limit the dangers of the neurotoxin.
Malathion is linked to developmental disorders in children and has been found by the World Health Organization to be probably carcinogenic to humans. Last year EPA scientists determined that the pesticide, manufactured by Dow Chemical, poses widespread risks to protected plants and animals.
70. May 24, 2018 – Lawsuits Seek to Restore Federal Protections for Migratory Birds
A coalition of national environmental groups, including the Center, filed litigation in the Southern District of New York challenging the Trump administration's move to eliminate longstanding protections for waterfowl, raptors and songbirds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).
Groups filing the litigation, National Audubon Society v. Department of the Interior, also included the American Bird Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
69. May 24, 2018 – Greens Sue Over Water Permit for Power Plant
The Center and allies (the San Juan Citizens Alliance, Amigos Bravos and the Sierra Club) joined Diné CARE in filing a legal challenge over the future of a controversial power plant on the Navajo reservation, the Four Corners Generating Station.
Our challenge declares that the Environmental Protection Agency failed to update a water-pollution permit for the power plant. At the time of the suit, the EPA had last issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for Four Corners in 2001, which expired more than 12 years before. Meanwhile, our challenge states, the plant has been dischargingp pollutants including copper, iron and chlorine.
68. May 11, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Overdue Endangered Species Protection for Giant California Fly
The Center filed a lawsuit over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's unlawful delay in deciding whether to extend Endangered Species Act protection to the San Joaquin Valley giant flower-loving fly. The hummingbird-like fly has been extirpated from more than 99 percent of its former range, with only one remaining population about 15 miles east of Bakersfield, where it is under immediate threat of extinction from sand mining. There may be just a few hundred left.
67. April 30, 2018 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Oil, Gas Leases Threatening Sage Grouse in Five States
The Center and ally conservation groups filed a lawsuit challenging Trump administration policies that gut protections for imperiled greater sage grouse and allow oil and gas leases on nearly 2 million acresof the birds' prime habitat. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Boise, says the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Lands Policy and Management Act when it approved eight massive oil and gas lease sales in Nevada, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.
Those leases were enabled by two Trump polices, one directive rolling back hard-won compromises to preserve dwindling sage-grouse populations across the West and another that cuts the public out of oil and gas planning on public lands.
66. April 26, 2018 – Lawsuit Targets Federal Shell Game Hiding Fracking's Harm to Colorado Communities, Wildlife
The Center and other groups sued Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Bureau of Land Management for approving new leases to allow fracking on more than 45,000 acres in western Colorado, including within communities and within a half-mile of a K-12 public school, without analyzing or disclosing environmental and public health threats as required by federal law.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, challenges leases in and around the towns of De Beque, Molina and Mesa on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains.
65. April 12, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Endangered Species Protection for Imperiled Pacific Island Songbird
The Center sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect the rare Tinian monarch songbird under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in D.C., notes that this small bird lives only on Tinian, a 39-square-mile island in the western Pacific Ocean that is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The bird is severely threatened by plans to expand military-training activities in the monarch's last remaining forest habitat.
64. April 10, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Public Records on Trump Administration's Approval of California Water-mining Project
The Center sued the Department of the Interior for failing to provide public records on Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt's communications and schedules. These records could shed light on the Trump administration's abrupt decision to allow an enormous California groundwater-mining scheme, Cadiz, Inc., to move forward without environmental review.
The suit also seeks the communications and schedules of Todd Willens, assistant deputy secretary, who is believed to oversee endangered species, water management and energy under Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
63. April 2, 2018 – Lawsuit Aims to Speed Endangered Species Protection for North Carolina Fish, Salamander
The Center filed suit against the Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect two imperiled aquatic species in eastern North Carolina under the Endangered Species Act. Our lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, seeks protection for the Carolina madtom, a small catfish fighting for survival in the Tar River basin, and the Neuse River waterdog, a permanently aquatic salamander found only in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico river basins.
62. March 27, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Federal Protection for Eight California Wild and Scenic Rivers
The Center filed suit in federal court to force the Trump administration to show how it will protect eight congressionally designated "wild and scenic" Southern California rivers, which wind though three national forests and other public lands and provide habitat for imperiled fish, birds and other wildlife.
UPDATE: August 17, 2018 – Lawsuit Forces Trump Administration to Protect Eight California Rivers
In August of the same year, the Trump administration agreed to a settlement with the Center requiring two federal agencies to prepare long-overdue management plans to protect the eight rivers.
61. March 22, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's New Mexico Border Wall Waiver
The Center and allies sued the Trump administration to challenge its waiver ignoring 25 laws to speed construction of 20 miles of border wall in eastern New Mexico, an area that's home to rare wildlife in one of the world's most biodiverse deserts.
60. March 21, 2018 – Lawsuit Demands Ban on Mexican Shrimp, Other Seafood to Save Vanishing Porpoise
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration for failing to follow federal law and ban shrimp and other seafood imported from Mexico's Upper Gulf of California and harvested with gillnets that drown the vaquita porpoise. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, N.Y., notes that fewer than 30 vaquita now remain. Vaquita reside in only one place on the planet: the Gulf of California, a narrow body of water between Baja and the Mexican mainland. Fishing with gillnets is driving the vaquita to extinction because the small porpoise is easily entangled and drowned in these dangerous nets.
59. March 21, 2018 – Trump Administration Sued Over Records of Coal Mining Threats to West Virginia's Endangered Species
The Center for Biological Diversity and Appalachian Mountain Advocates sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for refusing to release public records concerning coal mining and endangered species in West Virginia. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, demands records related to Endangered Species Act compliance for mines that could harm the Big Sandy crayfish and Guyandotte River crayfish. The suit comes after the Service failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests by the required deadlines.
58. March 15, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Failure to Protect Pacific Humpback Whales Threatened by Fishing Gear, Ship Strikes, Oil Spills
The Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Wishtoyo Foundation sued the Trump administration for failing to protect humpback whale habitat in the Pacific Ocean, where the animals face threats from fisheries, ship strikes and oil spills. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, aims to force the National Marine Fisheries Service to follow the Endangered Species Act's requirement to designate critical habitat within one year of listing a species as threatened or endangered and not authorize actions that would damage that habitat. Two Pacific Ocean humpback populations were listed as endangered and a third as threatened in September 2016. Read more.
UPDATE: August 24, 2018 – Lawsuit Settled to Protect Pacific Humpback Whale Habitat
57. March 13, 2018 – Trump Administration Sued for Withholding Records on Missing Climate Report
The Center sued the U.S. State Department for refusing to release public records regarding the overdue seventh U.S. Climate Action Report. The deadline to submit the report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat passed on Jan. 1.
56. March 8, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Unwarranted Killing of Colorado Mountain Lions, Black Bears
The Center fand partner conservation and animal-protection organizations sued the Fish and Wildlife Service for funding a Colorado Parks and Wildlife plan to kill hundreds of mountain lions and dozens of black bears without analyzing the risks to the state's environment.
The multi-year plan to kill black bears and mountain lions in the Piceance Basin and Upper Arkansas River areas of Colorado is intended to artificially boost the mule deer population where habitat has been degraded by oil and gas drilling. The killing plans were approved despite overwhelming public opposition, and over the objection of leading scientific voices in Colorado.
55. March 8, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Failure to Protect Walrus
The Center sued the Trump administration for denying Endangered Species Act protection to Pacific walrus. The lawsuit is being filed just as Arctic sea ice coverage is hitting a record low.
The Fish and Wildlife Service found in 2011 that the walrus warranted protection because climate change is destroying the sea ice it needs to survive. But a few months after Trump took office, the agency reversed course and found the species no longer merits protection.
54. February 28, 2018 – Lawsuit Seeks Stronger Protection for Streaked-horned Lark in Oregon, Washington
The Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the lack of protections for the streaked-horned lark, a songbird with distinctive feathered horns that has undergone massive declines across its range in western Oregon and Washington.
The lawsuit challenges the agency's October 2013 decision to protect the lark as "threatened" rather than the more protective "endangered" status and to create a "4(d) rule" that exempts all agriculture and airport activities from the prohibitions of the Endangered Species Act, regardless of whether they harm the lark.
53. February 14, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Refusal to Release Records on Pesticide Harms to Endangered Wildlife
The Center sued the Trump administration for illegally withholding public records documenting the widespread harm to endangered species posed by chlorpyrifos and two other pesticides, diazinon and malathion. In response to the Center's June 2017 request for the public records, the Environmental Protection Agency and Fish and Wildlife Service have failed to release any of the likely thousands of pages of crucial analysis conducted by the two agencies.
52. February 13, 2018 – Trump Administration Sued for Letting Oil Companies Dump Offshore Fracking Waste Into Gulf of Mexico
The Center for Biological Diversity, Gulf Restoration Network and Louisiana Bucket Brigade sued the Trump administration for permitting oil companies to dump waste from fracking and drilling into the Gulf of Mexico without evaluating the dangers to water quality, marine species or the environment.
51. February 2, 2018 – Conservation Groups Challenge Illegal Western Arctic Lease Sales in Court
Conservation and environmental groups, including the Center, filed a lawsuit to protect the nation's largest public lands reserve from oil and gas industrialization. The Trump administration's plans for a dramatic and reckless increase in oil and gas drilling in the Western Arctic would threaten core wildlife values and accelerate the impacts of global climate change, at a time when a transition to clean energy alternatives is urgently needed.
50. January 31, 2018 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration Plan to Bulldoze Alaska's Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
The Center and ally conservation groups sued the Trump administration to prevent a land swap that would allow construction of a road through the heart of Alaska's Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Izembek is one of America's most ecologically significant wildlife refuges, home to world-class wetlands that support millions of migrating birds, as well as bears, caribou and salmon.
49. January 30, 2018 – Lawsuit Fights Trump's Delay of Lifesaving Limits on Coal-plant Water Pollution
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency for delaying, by two years, new limits on cancer-causing water pollution from coal-burning power plants. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson, Ariz.
The unlawful delay of the EPA's 2015 Clean Water Act effluent-limitation rule would allow coal plants to continue discharging toxic pollutants like arsenic, mercury and lead known to be extremely harmful to the health of humans and fish.
48. January 30, 2018 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Fatally Flawed Mexican Wolf Plan
The Center and allies in a coalition of wolf advocates filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's deeply flawed recovery plan for the Mexican gray wolf, one of North America's most endangered mammals.
47. January 24, 2018 – Conservation, Tribal Groups Sue to Block Repeal of Federal Fracking Rule
The Center for Biological Diversity, as part of a coalition of environmental and tribal groups, sued to block the Trump administration's repeal of a 2015 rule designed to protect water, wildlife and public health from the harmful effects of hydraulic fracturing on federal and tribal lands.
46. January 18, 2017 – Lawsuit Filed to Save North Atlantic Right Whales From Death in Fishing Gear
The Center and other conservation and animal-protection groups sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to prevent critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from becoming ensnared by lobster trap lines and other commercial fishing gear. Scientists have found that entanglement is the leading cause of death for right whales, which have suffered an alarming die-off over the past year, overwhelming recovery efforts.
45. December 21, 2017 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration's Failure to Act to Save Vanishing Porpoises
The Center and other conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for failing to respond to their emergency request to ban certain seafood imports from Mexico's Gulf of California in order to save the critically endangered vaquita porpoise from extinction. The suit was filed with fewer than 30 vaquitas remaining on the planet after their population suffered a 95 percent decline over the past 20 years. Entanglement in fishing gillnets is the sole threat to the species survival. Scientists predict that the vaquita will be extinct by 2019 if fishing practices remain unchanged.
44. December 20, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Delays in Reducing Deadly Soot in California, Idaho, Pennsylvania
The Center and allies filed a lawsuit against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for failing to enforce air-quality standards that limit deadly soot pollution. The lawsuit seeks to force the EPA to ensure that communities in California, Idaho and Pennsylvania are taking legally required steps to meet clean-air standards to reduce soot, also known as fine particulate matter. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
43. December 19, 2017 – Lawsuit Aims to Halt Trump Administration's Suspension of Methane Pollution Rule
The Center and other government-watchdog groups sued the Trump administration for trying to suspend a federal rule aimed at curbing methane waste and pollution — the Methane Waste Prevention Rule, which would reduce waste of publicly owned natural gas by oil and gas companies — even after defeats in court and in Congress.
42. December 18, 2017 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration's Failure to Limit Deadly Ozone Pollution
The Center and ally environmental groups — plus three public-health advocacy organizations — filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to enact nationwide standards limiting deadly ozone pollution. The Trump administration violated the Clean Air Act when the EPA missed an Oct. 1 deadline to designate major metropolitan areas and rural regions across the country as out of compliance with clean air regulations.
41. December 15, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's OK of Colorado Coal Mine Expansion in Roadless Forest
The Center and other conservation groups sued the Trump administration to stop imminent expansion of the West Elk coal mine into roadless wildlands on the Gunnison National Forest. The lawsuit seeks a court order to prevent St. Louis-based Arch Coal from starting exploratory drilling and road construction immediately on pristine public lands on Colorado's West Slope.
40. December 7, 2017 – Conservation Groups Sue Trump for Illegally Slashing Bears Ears National Monument
Three days after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation taking an ax to Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah, the Cetner and eight other conservation organizations filed a lawsuit attacking the order as an abuse of the president's power. Following in the footsteps of the American Indian tribes who have already sued the president, Earthjustice is representing the organizations in a suit charging that the president violated the 1906 Antiquities Act and the U.S. Constitution by eviscerating the monument.
39. December 4, 2017 – Lawsuit Targets Trump's Slashing of Protections at Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante
Hours after Trump issued a proclamation taking an axe to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, the Center and seven ally groups filed a lawsuit attacking the order as an abuse of the president's power. Earthjustice is representing the eight organizations in our suit charging that the president violated the 1906 Antiquities Act by stripping monument protections from this national treasure: The Wilderness Society, the Grand Canyon Trust, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Natural Resources Defense Council are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit and represented by in-house counsel.
38. November 29, 2017 – Lawsuit Seeks EPA Records on Pruitt's Damaging Settlement Directive
The Center sued the Environmental Protection Agency for refusing to release public records regarding Administrator Scott Pruitt's directive that limits the agency's ability to settle lawsuits — even when delays in resolving a case result in significant environmental harm.
37. November 28, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's OK of Corporation's Plan to Drain California Desert Aquifer
The Center and other green groups filed suit in federal court challenging the Trump administration's approval of an enormous groundwater-mining and pipeline project in Southern California. The Cadiz water project, approved without environmental review, includes the construction of a pipeline through the Mojave Trails National Monument and other public lands in the area.
36. November 27, 2017 – Lawsuit Filed to Overturn Approval of Destructive Arizona Copper Mine
The Center for Biological Diversity, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition and the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the U.S. Forest Service's approval of a controversial open-pit copper mine in southern Arizona's Santa Rita Mountains. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, says the massive Rosemont Copper Mine would violate nearly a dozen state and federal laws, threaten critical water resources and destroy Coronado National Forest land.
35. November 20, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Elephant, Lion Trophy Import Decisions
The Center and Natural Resources Defense Council sued the Trump administration for allowing U.S. hunters to import elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe. The lawsuit aims to protect animals and resolve confusion created by the administration's recent contradictory announcements.
The suit came days after the Fish and Wildlife Service abruptly reversed an Obama-era ban on elephant trophy imports based on catastrophic elephant population declines. Fish and Wildlife also recently greenlighted lion trophy imports from Zimbabwe, despite the controversial killing of Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe in 2015.
Read more about our lawsuit update in March 2018.
34. October 25, 2017 – Citizen and Conservation Groups Challenge Drilling Near Paonia
The Center and allies filed a complaint challenging a 146-natural-gas-well master development plan, by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, sited 30 miles northeast of Paonia, Colorado, in the Bull Mountain Unit. The groups in the coalition filing the lawsuit is comprised of four citizen and conservation groups (including the Center) representing local farmers, ranchers, vineyards, wineries, recreationalists, property owners, residents and local businesses. The suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief for the BLM's failure to include a reasonable range of alternatives to its plan and/or take a hard look at the proposal's cumulative impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act.
33. October 3, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Refusal to Release Records on Climate Committee Dismissal
The Center sued the Trump administration for refusing to release public records about its sudden termination this summer of a federal climate advisory committee. The expert committee was working in support of the next National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated scientific report on global warming's threats to the United States.
32. September 28, 2017 – Lawsuit: Trump's EPA Is Failing to Enforce Air Pollution Conflict-of-interest Rules in Alabama, Mississippi
The Center and partner conservation and public-health groups filed a lawsuit to force the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that Alabama and Mississippi have measures prohibiting conflicts of interest on state boards overseeing air pollution permits. The two states had been violating conflict-of-interest requirements for nearly 40 years.
31. September 25, 2017 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Rare Jaguar From Rosemont Copper Mine in Arizona
The Center filed suit in U.S. District Court to challenge a controversial open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains of southern Arizona that would destroy prime jaguar habitat. The lawsuit challenges the "biological opinion" prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which led to the approval of the Rosemont Mine by the U.S. Forest Service in June.
30. September 11, 2017 – Lawsuit Targets Trump's Oil Drilling Leases in Nevada
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Land Management's June sale of oil and gas leases in northern Nevada. On June 14, the BLM offered nearly 200,000 acres of public lands in Nevada's Battle Mountain district for fossil fuel development, including fracking. The lawsuit argues the BLM failed to consider the potential consequences of oil drilling in the area, from contamination of critical desert water sources to emission of climate-altering greenhouse gases.
29. September 7, 2017 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration's Fuel Efficiency Giveaway to Automakers
The Center and allies filed a lawsuit to overturn the Trump administration's indefinite delay of higher penalties for new cars and trucks that do not meet minimum fuel-economy standards, with automobiles currently America's largest source of carbon pollution. The suit, filed in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenges a July decision by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to suspend a 2016 rule that increased penalties for new vehicles failing to meet fuel-economy standards.
28. August 30, 2017 – Groups Challenge Decision to Remove Yellowstone Grizzly Protections
A coalition of tribal and conservation interests, including the Center, filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to restore critical protections to the Yellowstone region's iconic grizzly bears before new threats, including hunting, push the population further into decline. The suit challenges a June 2017 decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the Yellowstone-area grizzly population from the list of species protected by the Endangered Species Act, which enables the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to move ahead with plans for trophy hunting of grizzlies.
27. August 9, 2017 – Lawsuit Targets Trump Administration's Refusal to Release National Monument Records
The Center sued the Trump administration for refusing to release public records about its review of national monuments and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's emails and schedule. For months, the Interior Department had failed to respond to the Center's requests for Zinke's communication records
Update: April 23, 2018 – Court Tosses Out Trump Administration's Suspension of Higher Penalties for Automakers' Fuel-efficiency Violations
26. July 13, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Massive U.S. Export of Wild Animal Pelts for International Fur Trade
The Center filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its program allowing the export of tens of thousands of wild animals trapped and killed for the international fur trade. The Service's program covers five “furbearing” species, including bobcats, river otters, wolves, lynx and brown bears, representing the deaths of about 80,000 individual animals annually in recent years.
25. June 28, 2017 – Lawsuit Demands Public Records on Approval of Toxic Heavy Metal Pollution of Water
The Center sued the Trump administration under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain public records on the approval of nationwide water-quality criteria for the dangerous heavy metal cadmium that are nearly 40 percent higher than determined to be safe for endangered salmon.
24. June 21, 2017 – Lawsuit Filed Against Federal Wildlife-killing Program in California
The Center and other environmental nonprofits sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services program over its outdated wildlife-killing plan for Northern California.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, seeks an updated environmental analysis of the program's killing of native wildlife including coyotes, bobcats and foxes.
23. June 20, 2017 – Lawsuit Seeks Documents on Trump Administration's Ties to Coal Industry
The Center sued the Trump administration for public records of closed-door meetings between the Bureau of Land Management and industry executives over the reversal of the Obama administration's “pause” on coal extraction on federal public lands.
UPDATE: The next month the Center ammended our suit.
22. June 6, 2017 – Lawsuit Seeks Federal Documents on Trump's Border Wall Prototypes
The Center sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for failing to provide environmental documents required for the construction of border wall “prototypes” in San Diego County.
21. June 6, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Delay in Cleaning Up Dangerous Ozone Pollution in Sacramento, Southern California
The the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Environmental Health sued Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt for delays in reducing dangerous ozone pollution in the Sacramento area and parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, demands that the EPA enforce deadlines to ensure that areas violating air-quality standards have plans in place to clean up their skies.
20. June 1, 2017 – Lawsuit Seeks Documents From Trump EPA's Closed-door Polluter Meetings
The Center sued the Trump administration for public records of closed-door meetings between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, states and industry groups over weakening wetlands protections under the Clean Water Act.
President Trump directed the EPA to rewrite regulations determining whether wetlands are protected as “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. Trump's executive order could potentially eliminate Clean Water Act protections for millions of acres of wetlands, which are critical to water purification, ecosystem health and habitat for hundreds of endangered species.
19. May 31, 2017 – Lawsuit Seeks Federal Briefing Documents on Trump's Border Wall
The Center filed suit against the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency for failing to provide briefing materials prepared for Trump's transition team that discuss construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
We requested the materials in January under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents may contain discussion of the feasibility, effectiveness or impacts of building Trump's wall. But so far the agencies have failed to provide the records.
18. May 23, 2017 – Lawsuit Targets Trump's Climate-change Censorship
The Center sued the Trump administration to uncover public records showing that federal employees have been censored from using words or phrases related to climate change in formal agency communications.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks to require four federal agencies to release climate-censorship records, in compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. The Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior and Department of State have failed to provide records requested by the Center or indicate when they might do so, violating deadlines established under the law.
17. May 18, 2017 – Lawsuit Demands Keystone Pipeline's Route, State Department Contracts
The Center for Biological Diversity and Thomas Bachand filed suit against the U.S. Department of State to obtain information on the route of the Keystone XL Pipeline, as well as contracts and correspondence with private consultants involved. The State Department is required to make public information about the route of the pipeline and related documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
We expanded our lawsuit a few days after filing it (on May 23), adding a new claim highlighting the proposed pipeline project's threats to critically endangered whooping cranes and other threatened species.
16. May 11, 2017 – Lawsuit Asks Court to Halt Federal Wildlife Killing in Idaho
The Center and parter green groups filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture's wildlife-killing agency from shooting, trapping, and poisoning Idaho's wild animals.
In the suit, Western Watersheds Project, WildEarth Guardians, the Center for Biological Diversity and Predator Defense — represented by Advocates for the West and a staff attorney at Western Watersheds Project —assert that Wildlife Services has written itself a broad, statewide authorization to kill native predators like coyotes and mountain lions, along with ravens and other animals, without taking a hard look at the impacts of its unscientific slaughter.
15. May 3, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Reversal of Arctic, Atlantic Drilling Ban
The Center and other conservation groups, along with Alaska Native groups, filed a lawsuit against President Trump challenging his decision to jettison a permanent ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
“Trump's attempt to let the petroleum industry suck oil out of every last corner of our oceans is reckless and unlawful,” said Kristen Monsell, an attorney at the Center. “We're taking Trump to court to stop his assault on our oceans and make sure Arctic waters and the Atlantic stay off limits to dirty, dangerous drilling.”
14.
May 3, 2017 – Lawsuit Aims to Force Release of EPA Chief's Emails, Schedule
The Center filed suit to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to turn over the emails and schedule of the agency's administrator, Scott Pruitt.
13. May 3, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges EPA Chief Scott Pruitt to Keep D.C., Philadelphia on Track to Clean Air
The Cetner and other conservation groups filed a lawsuit against EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for his failure to finalize deadlines by which the District of Columbia and Philadelphia must meet 2008 clear-air standards to control smog. Smog — also known as ground-level ozone pollution — poses serious threats to public health, wildlife and ecosystems.
12. May 2, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Fracking Plan for Ohio's Only National Forest
The Center and environmental allies sued the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management over plans to permit fracking in Ohio's only national forest, the Wayne, aiming to void BLM leases and halt fracking in the national forest. The lawsuit charges that the agencies failed to analyze threats to public health, endangered species and the climate before auctioning off more than 670 acres of forest land for large-scale, high-volume fracking.
11. April 20, 2017 – Trump Sued for Revoking Protections for Wolves, Bears in Alaska
In the first constitutional challenge of its kind, the Center sued the Trump administration for repealing protections for wolves, bears and other wildlife on Alaska's national wildlife refuges.
10. April 12, 2017 – Lawsuit Targets Trump's Border Wall, Enforcement Program
The Center partnered with Arizona Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva, ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, to sue the Trump administration over the proposed border wall and other border security measures — filing the first lawsuit targeting the Trump administration's plan to vastly expand and militarize the U.S.-Mexico border.
Three months later — on July 10, 2017 — we expanded our border wall prototype lawsuit to include the proposed replacement of a 14-mile segment of the border wall.
Read more about the lawsuit expansion.
9. April 12, 2017 – Federal Wildlife-killing Program Sued Over Carnivore Killing in Colorado
The Center and other conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services over its carnivore-killing program in Colorado, including controversial plans to kill as many as 120 mountain lions and black bears in the state — with fully analyzing the program's environmental impacts.
8. April 4, 2017 – Lawsuit Filed to Save Imperiled Native Carnivores From Deadly 'Cyanide Bombs'
The Center and three ally environmental groups sued the Trump administration for failing to protect endangered species from two deadly pesticides used to kill coyotes and other native carnivores: Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide, both used in M-44s — also known as “cyanide bombs.” Cyanide bombs had killed an Oregon wolf in February and in March temporarily blinded a child and killed three family dogs in two separate incidents in Idaho and Wyoming.
7. March 30, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump's Approval of Keystone XL Pipeline
The Center, Friends of the Earth and other environmental groups sued the Trump administration for approving the controversial Keystone XL pipeline with no public input on the decision and despite the project's serious threats to air, water, wildlife and public health — a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.
In November 2017 a federal judge ruled to allow our laswsuit to proceed, rejecting attempts by the Trump administration and TransCanada (the company behind the proposed pipeline) to have the suit thrown out.
6. March 29, 2017 – Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Order to Open Public Lands to Coal Leasing
The Center and six other conservation groups filed suit against the Trump administration over Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's order opening tens of thousands of acres of public lands to the coal industry — a day after the president's executive order rolling back protections for public health, the climate and the environment.
5. March 28, 2017 – Lawsuit Filed to Protect Wolves, Lynx From PolyMet Copper Mine in Minnesota
The Center, Earthworks and Save Our Sky Blue Waters filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service for their approval of the PolyMet 528-acre open-pit copper mine in Minnesota's Superior National Forest. The mine would destroy important habitat for gray wolves and Canada lynx, both protected by the Endangered Species Act.
4. March 27, 2017 – PolyMet Land Exchange Illegally Undervalues Public Land
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, the Center for Biological Diversity and the W.J. McCabe Chapter of the Izaak Walton League filed a separate suit over the PolyMet mine, in this case to overturn the Forest Service's decision to approve the largest land exchange in its history. The land exchange would give PolyMet thousands of acres of critically important wetlands in Superior National Forest, where mining operations would forever destroy the wetlands that form the headwaters of the St. Louis River.
3. March 23, 2017 – Lawsuit Launched to Protect Birds, Other Wildlife From Harmful Agricultural Pesticides Used on National Wildlife Refuges
The Center sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to end use of agricultural pesticides known to harm people and wildlife on the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges. In adopting a comprehensive conservation plan to guide management of the refuges over the next 15 years, the Service failed to consider alternatives that would reduce or eliminate use of toxic pesticides, prioritizing commercial agricultural interests over wildlife.
2. March 21, 2017 – Farmers, Public Interest Groups Sue EPA for Approving Highly Toxic Enlist Duo
The Center — along with farmers, other conservation groups and food- and farm-justice organizations — sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approving Dow AgroScience's highly toxic Enlist Duo, a novel mixture of the weed-killing chemicals glyphosate and 2,4-D posing extensive risk to rural communities, food supplies and the environment.
1. March 15, 2017 – Lawsuit Protects Floridians, 50,000+ Acres From Phosphate Strip Mining
The Center and three other environmental organizations sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife Service for authorizing the use of 50,000 acres for phosphate strip mining that would irreversibly destroy native plant and animal habitat in central Florida. The lawsuit aims to prevent mining that would threaten water quality and quantity by obliterating wetlands and habitat for animals already clinging to survival.