EarthBlog

Mines approved with less public input and more environmental risk under Trump

The Trump administration is rushing to permit mines on federal public lands across the west without safeguards to protect our land, air, and water. Mine projects are being fast-tracked without public comment periods or proper environmental studies. Tribal consultation and endangered species protections are under attack. 

State laws and regulations are more important than ever to hold the line in the face of federal deregulation and corruption. But one county in California is considering giving up its control over any project that the Trump administration approves. 

California counties provide local oversight for proposed mines

California law requires that mining projects, including those on federal public lands, go through county permitting to minimize environmental impacts. Mining projects must comply with the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act and the California Environmental Quality Act, as well as other state laws and regulations that require tribal consultation, protections for endangered species, and for the Western Joshua tree. 

Taken together, these laws and regulations ensure tribes and the public are informed of potential impacts, and that decision-makers have the best information to protect California’s public lands.

San Bernardino County is considering revising its mining regulation. The County calls this a standard update, but sloppy drafting risks giving up local oversight for projects that have approval from Washington D.C. 

Because federal requirements are weaker than California’s, this means new mining projects will be approved without the public’s knowledge, and with serious impacts to treasured public lands, air, and water. These changes could make it easier for companies like Dateline Resources to mine in Music Valley, on the border of Joshua Tree National Park.

Opportunities to act

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors is holding a public hearing on the revised mining regulations at 9 a.m. on Tuesday August 18th. This is the first of two readings of the mining regulations ordinance.

If you live in San Bernardino County, please take action here and tell the board to deny the ordinance until it is revised.

For even more impact, you can give your oral comment in person or virtually at 385 N. Arrowhead Ave., 1st Floor, Covington Chambers, San Bernardino, CA 92415 or remotely by telephone. Online registration is available by clicking “Register to Speak.”

People who are not San Bernardino residents can help by spreading the word. Please reach out to friends in San Bernardino County to let them know what’s happening.

A mining claim in Music Valley in San Bernardino County

The post Don’t let San Bernardino County permit mines without public input appeared first on Earthworks.

Protect the Southeast Lake Cahuilla Cultural District

blog by Maya Grace Hausman

“I know that the Earth is alive, and she should not continue to be abused … I am hopeful that this society is ready to wake up.” Carmen Lucas, Kwaaymii Elder 

What is the Southeast Lake Cahuilla Active Volcanic Cultural District?

The proposed Southeast Lake Cahuilla Active Volcanic Cultural District is a 11,162-acre landscape located along the southeastern shore of the Salton Sea in Southern California. It has religious and cultural significance to the Kwaaymii, Kamia, Kumeyaay, Cahuilla, and Quechan Peoples. 

The unique desert landscape there was formed by a group of active volcanoes. Boiling mud pots bubble, geothermal steam rises into the air, and the Salton Sea occupies part of what was once Lake Cahuilla, California’s largest lake that ebbed and flowed in the desert. The valley floor is below sea level, and the mountains rise more than 5,000 feet around it. Tribal elders describe the mudpots as the heartbeat of Mother Earth and the rising steam as her breath. 

This important landscape is tied to the Creation stories of a number of California Indian tribes, such as the legend of the Great Snake, and holds religious importance. The region’s resources were and still are used for obsidian tools, clay sources, medicinal plants, and mineral paints. The region also encompasses land that Tribes have used to teach and to pass down histories, identities, and traditional knowledge to their children since time immemorial. 

“You can see the heartbeats and the steam. That is her breath, Mother Earth.”  Carmen Lucas , Kwaaymii Elder

These lands are currently under threat from industrial development fast-tracked by the Lithium Valley Specific Plan. The plan would allow geothermal powerplants, lithium extraction, and data centers to be built next to these culturally important sites without environmental study. 

State experts have warned that these projects will cause “significant and unavoidable” harm to the tribes’ resources. Sacred views will be impacted. Huge industrial buildings and cooling towers may block views of the mountains and night sky, which are essential for tribal ceremonies. Furthermore, the “heartbeat” may stop beating, as heavy drilling could alter the underground pressure and potentially cease the bubbling of the mudpots.

A geothermal facility is visible from the sacred site at Obsidian Butte

On top of this, “Lithium Valley” may have severe environmental impacts that Imperial County fails to fully address in their Programmatic Environmental Impact Report, such as further impairment to air quality and overuse of limited water. 

Listing on the National Register would provide some protection for these sacred sites. Every future project in the district would have to confront its impacts on the landscape honestly, in public, under the law. 

Why the National Register of Historic Places?

The National Register of Historic Places was established in 1966 under the National Historic Preservation Act and is administered by the National Park Service. It is the official registry of historic places considered worthy of preservation by the United States government. Listing carries legal weight. Any project that needs federal permits or funding must go through a formal review of its impacts on a listed site. 

In California, a place listed on the National Register is automatically added to the California Register of Historical Resources. Under state environmental law, that means agencies must treat harm to the district as significant and take real steps to avoid or reduce it. 

Often, tribal historic sites emphasize natural features with sacred and cultural connections, such as archaeological sites or natural landscapes. Elements of these landscapes are “Tribal Cultural Resources.” California protects these under the California Environmental Quality Act (or CEQA). California law requires agencies to consult with local tribes early in any land development process. The aim is to avoid or lessen any impacts to tribal heritage resources.

The ultimate goal of any site on the National Register is “stewardship of place,” or preserving and respecting these special environments for both current and future generations. 

What comes next

Gaining state and federal protection for these irreplaceable sites is urgent. Here are the next steps:

1. Put the district on the agenda: we are calling on State Historic Preservation Officer Julianne Polanco to add the  Southeast Lake Cahuilla Active Volcanic Cultural District nomination to the November meeting of the State Historical Resources Commission, along with positive staff recommendation. 
2. Vote for eligibility: When the Commission meets, they must vote to recommend this place as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. This vote conveys that the landscape is a vital part of American and tribal history. 
3. Move the nomination to the national level without delay: Once the state board approves the nomination, it should be sent to the National Park Service. 
4. The National Park Service will conduct a federal review of the nomination, coming out with a final decision on the listing within 45 days. 

Take Action: Defend the Heartbeat of Mother Earth 

This land does not exist simply as a means of extracting resources – nor does any land, for that matter. Instead, it contains an important, living history for the Kumeyaay, Kwaaymii, Kamia, Cahuilla, and Quechan people. Right now, this landscape is under threat from industrial development that could silence its “heartbeat” and block sacred views. While renewable energy is something to strive for, it cannot come at the expense of sacred land, and of the people who care for it. 

You can help ensure these lands are protected. Sign your name today to tell state and federal decision-makers that you support the Southeast Lake Cahuilla Active Volcanic Cultural District. 

Take action now to protect this district, the natural landscape, and its people. 

The post Defend the Heartbeat of Mother Earth  appeared first on Earthworks.

Residents of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” have defeated plans for what could have been the largest carbon sequestration and storage project in the world, adding to a long list of carbon dioxide facilities and pipelines across the state that communities have fought and defeated.

Hundreds of residents packed public hearings to share their opinions about the Air Products carbon capture pipeline.

On July 30, Air Products announced they abandoned their so-called Louisiana “Clean” Energy  Project, citing “expected financial returns not meeting stringent return criteria.” But we know the truth. Ever since the multi-billion-dollar project was announced more than four years ago, River Parish residents have demonstrated strong opposition to the project because of the considerable risks it would bring to communities, including: 

• Building an ammonia plant and carbon dioxide pipeline right next door to a primary school, putting children and teachers at risk of pollution and leaks.
• Industrializing Lake Maurepas, turning a beloved lake and important ecosystem into a toxic wasteland.
• Being built on the site of the former Orange Grove sugar plantation, where local communities raised the alarm regarding the presence of unmarked graves of people who had been enslaved on the property. 
• Using an unproven technology to bury carbon dioxide deep underground, turning communities and environment into testing grounds for something not guaranteed to work. 

The project would have injected carbon dioxide under Lake Maurepas for “permanent storage,” risking the livelihoods of residents nearby and people who trap, hunt, and fish as a living. 

Kaitlyn Joshua and Logan Wolf, Earthworks’ organizers who both live in River Parishes, have helped build opposition to the project since it was first proposed with many partners, building common ground across a diverse group of stakeholders. All the town halls, door knocking, public hearings and comment writing workshops eventually led to this win, further demonstrating to the petrochemical and carbon capture industry that their era of unchecked expansion in communities is over.

Earthworks’ organizers coordinated hundreds of door knocking events to educate residents on the project, its harms, and opportunities to engage with decision makers about their concerns for the project. 

We sat down with Kaitlyn to hear more about this win, the carbon capture scheme, and how community voices shaped this outcome. 

“So what I’m really noticing in this moment, and I think a lot of people can agree with this, is that it’s not a white, Black, Democrat, Republican issue,” Joshua says. “It is literally everybody’s issue at this point when it comes to CO2 build out across the state of Louisiana.”

Q: What does the blue hydrogen project being cancelled mean to the River Parishes and you personally?

A: Essentially, this particular halt of this project means that the work that we’ve been doing for years has merit, it has value, the grassroots organizing that we’ve been doing in these communities really does work. And most importantly it does mean that these industries are hearing our plea and understanding that folks are concerned about the impacts of carbon capture and storage and what CO2 pipelines could mean for the communities that they love, for the people that they love, for the kids that attend the schools, and for the neighborhoods that exist near these proposed pipelines.

Q: Why should people care about blue hydrogen and carbon capture?

A: I think that the reason why I’m so just committed to helping people understand why they should care about this particular technology is because it’s something that doesn’t work. It’s something that is kind of taking the focus off of something that could work and essentially put a place like Louisiana in a position to be able to address the climate crisis as we are seeing more aggressive hurricanes every single year, we’re seeing higher temperatures, more extreme weather. We used to not get tornado watches nearly as much as uh as much as we do now, and that’s something that’s extremely alarming and we need to be sounding the alarm — for lack of a better term — and helping industry understand that they play a major role in these climate crisis pieces and if we want to kinda make any type of change in this particular arena, then we’re definitely gonna have to work together to try and solve it instead of constantly coming up with fake solutions or false solutions.

Q: What’s the real impact on frontline communities?

A: Frontline communities stand to gain the least when it comes to carbon capture and storage. I know that the communities that I organize enjoy beautiful waterways and bodies of water across the state of Louisiana where we fish in, that we boat in. A lot of people have beautiful residential homes and retirement homes situated on these lakes and waterways and those would be completely dilapidated as a result of carbon capture storage. Literally — pipelines being constructed in the middle of these different bodies of water across the state.

We literally couldn’t have both anymore and I think what’s so sad about that is we’ve really done the work in south Louisiana to try to revitalize a lot of these different lakes and rivers so that people can enjoy them, so fishermen can continue their livelihoods, and that would be jeopardized as a result of CO2 pipelines being constructed, wells being drilled miles and miles underneath the lake and to what end? Right. And I think the moment that you allow one facility to take this on you’re allowing hundreds of facilities to take this on as Louisiana has already been coined as a breeding ground for CO2 pipelines. And that’s not just in south Louisiana unfortunately. We’re seeing that happen in central and making its way up to north Louisiana as well.

So what I’m really noticing in this moment, and I think a lot of people can agree with this, is that it’s not a white, Black, Democrat, Republican issue. It is literally everybody’s issue at this point when it comes to CO2 build out across the state of Louisiana. At this point everyone is becoming a frontline community. And I think that’s kind of in a weird way the beauty of us kind of coming together around this one particular issue that we have in common and being able to come up with creative ways to push back on it. 

Q: You’ve been organizing on the ground for years—can you describe what that looks like and how community voices shaped this moment?

A: I’ve been organizing on the ground for a few years now and can describe a little bit what that looks like and how community voices have shaped this moment. And it’s been a delicate dance, if you will.

First, I’ll start by saying Earthworks supported on the lake side, so in particular around the Air Products blue hydrogen facility. That fight started on the Lake Mareupas side which is situated in Tangipahoa and Livingston Parish which is southeast Louisiana and essentially a very affluent part of the district, if you will, and typically very conservative, if you will, and a lot of time a lot of these folks don’t necessarily have to deal with an industrial build out or petrochemical build out as it is, and this was their first time ever fighting industry. You wouldn’t necessarily find them as — they’re definitely unsuspecting allies for sure.

Lake Maurepas to be exact, to be specific, was the main kind of common denominator if you will around organizing on the lake side and we had a um term or like a campaign, if you will, that was “Save the Lake” that Earthworks was really instrumental on helping with and really excited to support the folks within Lake Maurepas Preservation Society, which started out about three years ago.

The momentum kind of built two years ago around legislative session but also at the local level where the lake side folks were able to pass resolutions on the local level in Livingston Parish, Tangipahoa, and I believe one more. Where basically, local governing bodies, we have city councils and Parish councils, who pass resolutions saying they did not want Air Products to come into Lake Maurepas, destroy it.

As I already alluded to earlier, Lake Maurepas took years or advocates took years to revitalize and constantly try to advocate on behalf of the lake which led it to becoming a wildlife management center officially. And so that fight was very interesting.

It was very much like, if it can be quite candid, a lot of white folks just, you know, advocating on behalf of the lake and, you know, us, you know, people of color, we have a very diverse group of folks organizing with Earthworks, supporting that work and we had to, you know, be very cautious in the way that we were organizing as we didn’t wanna kinda overlay the plan that we’ve used in the agenda and the lens of which we’ve organized is what I’m trying to say for the last few years. In certain other parts of the state we couldn’t just kind of, you know, use that same blueprint right over to Livingston and Tangipahoa, we had to kind of take the lead of the folks in that area, so that was a very unique thing.

All in all, it worked out. We’re still in community, still building with the folks on the lake side, and now that we’re on the Ascension Parish side, also organizing in St. James and St. John. 

And to be clear, St. James and St. John are the parishes that would bear the brunt of the CO2 pipeline construction. Ascension Parish is where the facility is situated, where the official announcement has happened from Air Products, where they have decided to halt construction of the CO2 carbon capture facility in Sorrento-Darrow area.

And so now that we are organizing this side, it’s also very interesting because it’s a mix of Black and Brown, white folks that are also pretty well off that typically enjoy, you know, a very luxurious lifestyle for the most part. Their kids go to really good schools, a great deal of them are already a part of industry but don’t necessarily buy into carbon caption storage and what that is and what that means and a lot of them are very well aware, very educated on the fact that carbon capture and sequestration has not worked anywhere in the world and they’re not bought into it right and Air Products has not sold them on the technology.

And so for them, it is the pushback on; I don’t want CO2 pipelines constructed near my home, what does this do to my property values, what does this technology potentially do, or what does a pipeline rupture or leak look like near the school that my kids attend. Right

So the conversations are a little different, but no matter what, those different narratives have certainly shaped the feedback and the responses and the public comments that we’ve dispersed throughout the different public hearings that we’ve been able to participate in in the last few years, whether in Baton Rouge at the primacy hearings or in Ascension Parish, or in St. John, St. James, or Livingston on the lakeside. And it’s been very interesting and really exciting to see people’s different world views on how they take on this CO2 pipeline facility.

The post Victory! Louisiana Residents Defeat Air Products’ Carbon Capture Project appeared first on Earthworks.

The United States government is responsible for environmental regulations. It has promised to take action on climate change. But lately, it has been going back on those commitments. 

Some state governments are stepping up to fill in the gaps.

Requiring Manufacturers to Take Responsibility for the Waste the Create

Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, is one of many interlocking policies that are crucial for developing a robust circular economy, where waste is reduced and reused. Without EPR policies, taxpayers and governments are left to clean up waste. That waste is often hard to recycle or reuse. 

But EPR policies make sure that companies that make things have to think about what happens to their products after they are used.

Communities on the frontlines of mining and mineral production benefit from good EPR policies and other policies that support a strong circular economy. Mining harms people and permanently damages the environment, including by contributing to greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. 

The easiest and best way to make mining less harmful is to do less of it. Recycling and reusing minerals that are already above the ground is part of that equation.

New Jersey Forges the Way for Electric Vehicle Recycling

In 2025, New Jersey became the first state in the country to pass an EPR law for electric vehicle batteries. 

The batteries in electric vehicles slowly become less effective. After ten to fifteen years, they usually stop holding enough power to make a car work. 

The New Jersey bill requires manufacturers to create management plans for electric vehicle batteries after they wear out. These batteries still have two-thirds of their original capacity. They can be used for other things, including stationary storage.

European Union Battery Recycling Policy Sets the Example

The governing body of the European Union has taken similar action. States can learn from the EU’s experience. 

A few years ago, the European Commission passed sprawling battery regulations. The rules touched on many parts of the battery supply chain. 

This includes EPR policies and recovery requirements for when batteries are recycled. 

Recycling is the next step after reuse in a strong circular economy. Ideally, it should only happen once the batteries have been reused and only under the strictest environmental and labor laws. 

New Colorado Law Sets the Standard for Electric Vehicle Battery Recycling

In June 2026, Colorado Governor Polis signed Senate Bill 26-003, End-of-Life Management of Electric Vehicle Batteries. Earthworks partners Western Resource Advocates and the Union of Concerned Scientists supported the law. 

Dr. Jessica Dunn at the Union of Concerned Scientists said the bill “will set the standard for the rest of the country.” 

It goes beyond what’s in New Jersey’s bill. SB26-003 requires recycling to recover a certain percentage of minerals. It requires battery-makers to report on how they’re recovering the minerals. It makes it easier to reuse batteries, too, by allowing auto mechanics, scrap yards, and other businesses to reuse or recycle batteries or have the automaker collect them free of charge.

Colorado’s bill is a victory for circular economy advocates. It’s also a victory for communities affected by mining or processing minerals for batteries.

States Can Lead the Way to Less Need for New Battery Minerals

National laws and regulations would be the best solution. Until those exist, other states should look to Colorado’s example. 

States where electric vehicles are popular or becoming popular can have the most impact. But every state that takes action can move us forward.

The post States Step Up to Require Recycling and Reusing Electric Vehicle Batteries appeared first on Earthworks.