Fall 2024 Earthjustice Program Report

Earthjustice reports a series of legal victories in 2024, including a landmark settlement to decarbonize Hawaii's transportation system by 2045, the cessation of coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, and a historic Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling requiring Peru to remediate lead pollution in La Oroya. The organization also secured wins against cryptomining operations in New York, fossil fuel infrastructure expansion in New Jersey, and the loss of wetlands protections following the U.S. Supreme Court's Sackett v. EPA decision, notably helping Colorado pass legislation to reinstate wetland protections in May 2024. Additionally, the report highlights efforts to regulate PFAS in plastic containers, limit lead wheel weights, and protect endangered species such as the Cook Inlet beluga whale and Pacific sardine.

• In June 2024, Earthjustice secured a settlement with the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) to decarbonize the state's transportation system by 2045. The agreement requires HDOT to implement a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan within one year, invest in pedestrian, bicycle, and transit networks over five years, and allocate at least $40 million to the public electric vehicle charging network by 2030.
• Earthjustice achieved several victories against fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction, including a court ruling that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) failed to weigh climate harms when approving a methane gas pipeline expansion for New Jersey. In March 2024, a federal court also found that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the law by offering nearly 120,000 acres of leases in Wyoming without adequately considering impacts on groundwater, the climate, and the sage grouse.
• The Biden administration announced in May 2024 the end of coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, which is described as the largest coal-producing region in the U.S. and one of the world's largest carbon pools.
• In March 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the Peruvian government violated human rights by failing to address industrial lead pollution in La Oroya. This is the first instance of the court holding that industrial pollution can harm human rights, requiring the government to provide medical care, compensation, and an environmental remediation plan.
• The EPA finalized new standards in spring 2024 for fossil-fueled power plants, including the first-ever carbon pollution limits for new gas and existing coal-burning plants. The EPA estimates these limits will reduce annual carbon emissions by an amount equivalent to removing 328 million gas cars from the road.
• Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Sackett v. EPA decision in May 2023, which removed protections for over half of the remaining wetlands in the lower 48 states, Colorado became the first state to respond by passing a law in May 2024 to reinstate protections for all seasonal streams and wetlands.
• Earthjustice secured several biodiversity wins in 2024: an Idaho District Court halted wolf trapping and snaring during grizzly bear non-denning periods (March 1 to November 30); a federal court suspended an offshore oil lease sale in Alaska's Cook Inlet to protect the endangered beluga whale; and a court ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to set binding catch limits for the collapsed Pacific sardine population.
• Earthjustice successfully petitioned the EPA to begin a rulemaking process to regulate PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) found in hundreds of millions of plastic containers used for pesticides, fuel, and household cleaning products.
• In New York, a court ruled that the Greenidge Generation gas plant's Bitcoin mining operations are inconsistent with the greenhouse gas emissions limits established by New York's climate law.

APA

Earthjustice (2024). Fall 2024 Earthjustice Program Report. https://earthjustice.org/feature/program-report-2024

Chicago

Earthjustice. Fall 2024 Earthjustice Program Report. 2024. https://earthjustice.org/feature/program-report-2024.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=Fall 2024 Earthjustice Program Report |date=1 December 2024 |url=https://earthjustice.org/feature/program-report-2024 |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2024fall, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Fall 2024 Earthjustice Program Report}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2024}, month = dec, url = {https://earthjustice.org/feature/program-report-2024}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }