Buck In Brief

The Future of Earthjustice: Old Loves, New Causes

In Brief: As he flies the executive coop, departing Earthjustice Executive Director Buck Parker warns that global warming threatens all we love and all we have defended as an organization for three decades.

12/17/07

Last month I wrote about some of the changes I have seen in how Earthjustice works, especially in the years since 2000. In my last column as executive director I want to speak about some of the challenges we, our clients and our supporters face.

Before I get to the obvious issue of climate change, I want to say something about Earthjustice's historic commitments. Over the 35-plus years of our existence, no single group of people in the country has done more than Earthjustice lawyers to protect the public lands and forests, the wildlife, and the air and water quality of this country. Even as we rise to meet new challenges, such as climate change, we remain committed to the causes we have so successfully pursued in the past, from preserving old-growth forests in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Sierra to reducing toxic emissions from power plants and cement kilns. We are compelled to fight global warming because it threatens so much that we love and have protected. Much of what we do in the future will, and should, look like what we have done in the past.

Global warming is an issue we must and will address, both in its causes and its effects. Most immediately, our goal is to prevent the construction of additional coal-fired power plants that will only worsen the problem we have. Litigation challenging permits for new plants in Florida and elsewhere has forced the cancellation of plans for many of the 150 new coal-fired power plants that were being proposed only a year ago. Earlier this month, PacifiCorp, a utility operating in several western states, withdrew plans for two plants in Wyoming, noting that "within the last few months, most of the planned coal plants in the United States have been cancelled, denied permits, or been involved in protracted litigation" and that "coal projects are no longer viable."

Victory is far from won -- there are still dozens of new coal plants on the drawing boards -- but the coal plant cases illustrate that people are beginning to take collective action through the courts to address an issue that the administration and its allies in Congress have stonewalled for seven years. Litigation in the courts and before administrative agencies to force fossil fuels to pay their true costs through pollution controls, to eliminate hidden subsidies and to force improvements in energy conservation and efficiency already required by law will help push public and private investments in the direction they need to go –- toward conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy sources. I expect Earthjustice to continue leading this legal work.

Exacerbated by global warming -- although it would still be a problem without it -- is the dilemma of freshwater resources. When I became executive director 10 years ago, I said that this already was an issue we needed to address in the West (no great insight) and would become a problem in the East sooner than people expected (I get a little more credit here). A study we did then pointed to the Endangered Species Act as the single most effective tool for keeping water flowing in our rivers and streams.

Since then, the problem has worsened -- except where groups have gone to court, often using the Endangered Species Act, to force meaningful changes in river management. Cases brought against the Bureau of Reclamation to protect salmon runs and Native American fishing rights along the Klamath River in Oregon and northern California are forcing reforms in agricultural practices. Because of other cases, Congress is finally debating a bill to restore water and salmon runs to the San Joaquin River in California's Central Valley. We will see more litigation about water quantity, not just quality, in the future. Ultimately, there must be an agenda for wholesale review and modernization of water "rights" and allocations at the multi-state level.

The last challenge is an increasing number of issues that require an international approach, including international commitments that citizen groups, not just governments, can enforce. Areas of direct concern to the United States and our environment are global warming, the degradation of the Arctic, and trade agreements that could undermine our own state and federal environmental protections. International agreements increasingly recognize that nongovernmental entities bring unique perspectives and can play important roles in creating and enforcing international standards of conduct. Earthjustice lawyers, with their hard-headed appreciation of clear standards and commitment to citizen activism, must take an active role in shaping international environmental agreements as the environmental health of the United States and the planet become more dependent on their effectiveness.

On a closing note, I want to express my deep appreciation to all of you who have supported Earthjustice during the decade that it has been my privilege to serve as executive director. I hope and trust that you will continue supporting the organization as it moves into the future under the very able leadership of my successor, Trip Van Noppen -- still fighting for the places and creatures we love even as we take on new challenges. It is truer than ever that, "the Earth needs a good lawyer."

Vawter "Buck" Parker, Executive Director
buckparker@earthjustice.org