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Imperial County, California, is planning the future of lithium development near the Salton Sea. Lithium is an important component of electric car batteries and has other uses ranging from military weaponry to consumer electronics. Residents have been promised that large lithium deposits in Imperial County offer a chance to create needed jobs while boosting green technology.

But a draft document shows that the county government is rushing through industrial development at the expense of local communities’ health, air, water, and landscapes that have deep significance for California Indian Tribes. 

The county released its draft Lithium Valley Specific Plan and Programmatic Environmental Impact Report in late December. This document is supposed to include a plan for extracting the area’s lithium reserves and understanding the environmental impacts of that extraction. In reality, it ignores Tribal Cultural Resources, glosses over potential environmental impacts, and fast-tracks unrelated industries.

The public now has an opportunity to comment. Imperial County residents are already making themselves heard. They are asking people across the country to join them in speaking out for a healthy, prosperous, and sustainable future for their community.

Take Action Now Disregarding Tribal Cultural Resources

The Salton Sea area is home to a landscape that is sacred to multiple California Indian Tribes. This irreplaceable area, known as the Southeast Lake Cahuilla Active Volcanic Cultural District, is home to lithium deposits, but it also includes mud pots, steam vents, and the only source of obsidian in Southern California, all of which are important in rituals, stories, and traditions. 

The Cultural District is recognized by state and federal agencies and has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. However, Imperial County’s plan does not recognize the district or analyze impacts to it. This means that the county does not plan to meet its responsibility to consult with impacted tribes on ways to reduce any harm to the Cultural District caused by industrial development.

Extracting Lithium Without Understanding Impacts

Members of the public have a right to be able to access and understand information about the environmental impacts of new industrial projects that impact the environment. The planned lithium extraction facilities would use a new technique, direct lithium extraction, which has never been used at commercial scale on its own. Like any mineral extraction, direct lithium extraction has potentially serious impacts related to waste, water, and air quality. 

The County’s draft plan does not provide enough information on lithium extraction to adequately analyze the total environmental impacts from building multiple facilities in the same area.  It would also change the local permitting requirements for lithium extraction plants that are built in certain areas — a total of 38,000 acres — to allow these facilities to skip individual reporting on potential impacts. 

By leaving important details out of the draft report and not requiring individual facilities to conduct additional impact reports in the future, Imperial County is putting people and the environment at risk. It is denying residents important information that could affect their health and wellbeing. 

Fast-Tracking Data Centers

AI data centers use massive amounts of water and electricity, a big concern in Imperial Valley, where water is a precious resource. A proposed data center is already drawing concern from residents. Data centers are unrelated to lithium development, yet they are included in the county’s plan. The plan would allow data centers under 1.3 million square feet (29.8 acres) to be built without further environmental review. This would allow corporations to skip important steps in the permitting process with potentially severe consequences for residents. 

Shrinking the Salton Sea and Polluting Air 

As the Salton Sea recedes, dust filled with toxic chemicals can blow into communities more than 100 miles away, causing respiratory problems and asthma, especially in children. The Salton Sea fills up because of run-off from farm irrigation. As farmland turns into industrial facilities such as lithium extraction plants and data centers, less water will go into the Salton Sea. This could make the shoreline recede even further. That would expose dry contaminated dirt, or playa, and result in more toxic dust. But the county’s draft report does not analyze the risks of increased dust pollution as the Salton Sea dries up and the playa blows into the air.

Take Action

Imperial County is now accepting public comments. Make your voice heard before March 2 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

La prisa por extraer minerales pone en riesgo a esta comunidad de California

El condado de Imperial, California, está planificando el futuro del desarrollo de litio en la zona del Mar de Salton. El litio es un componente importante de las baterías de autos eléctricos y tiene otros usos que van desde el armamento militar hasta los productos electrónicos de consumo. Los residentes se les ha prometido que los grandes depósitos de litio en el condado de Imperial ofrecen la oportunidad de crear los empleos necesarios, a la vez que impulsan la tecnología verde.

Pero un documento preliminar muestra que el gobierno del condado está acelerando el desarrollo industrial a costa de la salud de las comunidades locales, del aire, del agua y de los paisajes que tienen un profundo significado para las Tribus Indígenas de California.

Ahora el público tiene la oportunidad de comentar. Los residentes del condado de Imperial ya están haciendo oír su voz. Están pidiendo a personas de todo el país que se unan para exigir un futuro saludable, próspero y sostenible para su comunidad.

Desestimar los recursos culturales tribales

La zona del Mar de Salton alberga un paisaje que es sagrado para múltiples Tribus Indígenas de California. Esta área irreemplazable, conocida como el Distrito Cultural Volcánico Activo del Sureste del Lago Cahuilla, contiene depósitos de litio, pero también incluye ollas de lodo, respiraderos de vapor y la única fuente de obsidiana del sur de California, todos ellos elementos importantes en rituales, relatos y tradiciones.

El Distrito Cultural está reconocido por agencias estatales y federales y ha sido nominado para el Registro Nacional de Lugares Históricos. Sin embargo, el plan del condado de Imperial no reconoce el distrito ni analiza los impactos sobre este. Esto significa que el condado no planea cumplir con su responsabilidad de consultar con las tribus afectadas sobre maneras de reducir cualquier daño al Distrito Cultural causado por el desarrollo industrial.

Extraer litio sin comprender los impactos

El público tiene derecho a acceder a y comprender información sobre los impactos ambientales de nuevos proyectos industriales que afectan el medio ambiente. Las instalaciones de extracción de litio planificadas emplearían una técnica nueva: la extracción directa de litio, que nunca se ha utilizado por sí sola a escala comercial. Como cualquier extracción minera, la extracción directa de litio puede tener impactos potencialmente graves en los desechos, el agua y la calidad del aire.

El borrador del plan del condado no proporciona suficiente información sobre la extracción de litio para analizar adecuadamente los impactos ambientales totales de construir múltiples instalaciones en la misma zona. También cambiaría los requisitos locales de permisos para plantas de extracción de litio construidas en ciertas áreas —un total de 38.000 acres— para permitir que estas instalaciones omitan reportes individuales sobre impactos potenciales.

Al dejar fuera detalles importantes del borrador del informe y al no exigir que, en el futuro, las instalaciones individuales realicen reportes adicionales de impacto, el condado de Imperial está poniendo en riesgo a las personas y al medio ambiente. Está negando a los residentes información importante que podría afectar su salud y bienestar.

Acelerar centros de datos

Los centros de datos de IA consumen enormes cantidades de agua y electricidad, lo que es una gran preocupación en el Valle Imperial, donde el agua es un recurso valioso. Un centro de datos propuesto ya está generando inquietud entre los residentes. Los centros de datos no están relacionados con el desarrollo de litio y, aun así, están incluidos en el plan del condado. El plan permitiría construir centros de datos de menos de 1,3 millones de pies cuadrados (29,8 acres) sin una revisión ambiental adicional. Esto permitiría que las corporaciones salten pasos claves en el  proceso de permisos, con consecuencias potencialmente graves para los residentes.

El Mar de Salton se reduce y el aire se contamina

A medida que el Mar de Salton retrocede, el polvo cargado de químicos tóxicos puede llegar a comunidades a más de 100 millas de distancia, causando problemas respiratorios y asma, especialmente en niñas y niños. El Mar de Salton se llena debido al escurrimiento de la irrigación agrícola. A medida que las tierras de cultivo se convierten en instalaciones industriales como plantas de extracción de litio y centros de datos, menos agua llegará al Mar de Salton. Esto podría hacer que la orilla retroceda aún más. Eso expondría tierra seca y contaminada o playa y daría lugar a más polvo tóxico. Pero el borrador del informe del condado no analiza los riesgos de un aumento en la contaminación por polvo a medida que el Mar de Salton se seca y la playa se levanta en el aire.

Toma acción

El condado ahora está aceptando comentarios públicos. Haz oír tu voz antes del 2 de marzo a las 5 p.m. (hora del Pacífico).

The post Rushing Mineral Extraction Puts This California Community at Risk appeared first on Earthworks.

Why do US taxpayers now own millions of shares in mining companies? Elected leaders from both the US Senate and House of Representatives want to know, including how these investments affect taxpayers and whether or not they avoid unnecessary risks and conflicts of interest.

Today, a coalition of Ranking Members from the House Oversight and Investigations, Natural Resources and Senate Budget and Energy and Natural Resources Committees sent separate letters to the Administration and to seven mining and mineral processing companies demanding documents and answers to their questions. 

The Trump Administration is spending public money to take ownership stakes in mining companies in a way that allows officials to play favorites behind closed doors, smacks of conflicts of interest, and raises risks that oversight and enforcement will take a back seat to profit. Taxpayer dollars should go toward projects that benefit the American people, not toward enriching a few chosen corporate executives. 

The Congressional oversight letters request responses by February 26 from Secretaries Hegseth, Lutnick, Wright, and Burgum related to the Federal Government’s purchase of shares in Trilogy Metals, Lithium Americas, MP Materials, Vulcan Elements, ReElements Technologies, Korea Zinc, and USA Rare Earth (USAR). The investments in Trilogy Metals, LithiumAmericas, and MP Materials all follow a recent pattern where the Administration leverages federal grants in order to take equity stakes in mining companies. Mining is already a “boom and bust” business that operates on tight margins. Like many investments, these pose some risk of loss. 

One potential risk is over-supply from the taxpayer subsidies fueling this current “boom.” In November 2025, while signing a minerals deal with Australia, President Trump said, “In about a year from now we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them. They’ll be worth about $2.” Historic and recent volatility in metals commodities markets—like lithium’s recent crash—suggests the President could be right. 

Congress magnified this risk with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Subsidies in that Act include nearly $13 billion in direct Defense Production Act grants and approximately $350 billion in Department of Energy financing available for mines and other projects. Trilogy Metals, LithiumAmericas, and MP Materials, Vulcan Elements, ReElements Technologies, Korea Zinc, and USAR each received public financing through programs authorized or re-authorized under that statute. 

Some of this taxpayer-subsidized minerals boom may potentially fund fairly financially risky projects. Usually, publicly traded mining companies must attract investors by providing an independent study showing their project is feasible—that it can make money. Yet, the Trump Administration’s Executive Order 14241, “Immediate Measures to Ensure American Mineral Production,” waived this requirement for mines where American tax dollars are invested. Without a feasibility study, the public risks American tax dollars flowing toward speculative projects that may never materialize. 

In addition to the risks of over-supply and speculation, public ownership of mining projects creates a conflict of interest because the government is responsible for regulating the projects it is investing in. For example, the Trump administration bought 10% of Trilogy Metals, a company with no mine and almost no access to the site. To build and operate a mine, Trilogy Metals needs the Federal Government to permit the controversial 211-mile Ambler Road through 26 miles of Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic National Park, putting wildlife, public lands, and Alaskan subsistence communities at risk. And even with these permits, the project still faces significant legal and practical obstacles. 

The American public now owns stakes in projects that threaten irreplaceable ecosystems, Tribal rights, and sacred sites. For instance, in September 1865, the War Department’s cavalry massacred dozens of Paiute and Shoshone souls at a site now known as Peehee Mu’huh in Nevada. Nearby, in January 2021, the Federal Government rushed through a 15-month permitting process for Lithium America’s Thacker Pass mine without adequate input from Tribes and communities. The previous Administration later awarded the company a $2.3 billion loan to get started. But in 2025, when the company could not meet their loan conditions, the Trump Administration instead took shares in the company. 

Congress needs to exercise strong oversight to respect Tribal sovereignty, protect the American public, guard against speculative public investments, corruption, insider dealing, and ensure agencies carry out their responsibilities to protect wildlife and the environment. Mining causes permanent impacts to land and people. Our government should protect the public interest and ensure that projects proceed only with proper environmental protections, accountability to communities, and consent from Tribes. 

Resource nationalism—when a government asserts control over domestic natural resources—is not new to the United States nor anywhere else in the world. However, the United States is the only country in the world where any person, foreign or domestic, can privatize public minerals and pay zero in royalties to the American taxpayer. In fact, one of our country’s greatest mineral supply chain weaknesses is the nineteenth century statute that governs domestic mining. According to our 1872 Mining Law, miners do not ask for permission. They simply claim public minerals for themselves, leaving the government with very few options to secure those supplies without a contract to buy a portion of the mine’s future output.

In every other country in the world, the government exercises some discretion over mining activity according to terms in a lease, license, or concession conditioned upon royalty payments and revenue sharing. The blueprint for more mineral security isn’t secretive government investments in troubled mining projects. For a better way forward, Congress should pass the Mining Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Prevention Act, creating a modern system that provides mineral security, land use certainty, and taxpayer fairness. 

More: Read a press statement from Aaron Mintzes.

The post Trump Administration Investment in Mining Raises Questions About The Responsible Use of Taxpayer Money appeared first on Earthworks.

Drilling rig with hundreds of homes in Brighton, Colorado in the background

Late last year, Save the Aurora Reservoir (STAR), a community group based in Aurora, Colorado, celebrated a significant victory over the oil and gas industry at a hearing in front of the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC). After days of testimony, the ECMC voted 4-1 in STAR’s favor and stayed an application submitted by Civitas to drill 32 wells on its proposed State Sunlight/Long well pad, which would be located just over 3000 feet from hundreds of homes in eastern Aurora. 

Civitas argued that the proposed location complied with all relevant rules, including the state’s 2000 foot setback for oil and gas development, and was protective of public health. Even still, the ECMC sided with STAR in directing Civitas to consider alternative locations that would be more protective by being located further away from nearby homes. 

This decision signifies an important milestone. It also acknowledges something that Coloradans have continued to stress even after the state adopted new rules five years ago to mitigate the impacts of drilling and fracking on impacted communities: 

The 2000 foot setback should be seen as the minimum to protect public health AND Negative impacts from drilling and fracking activities are still experienced by thousands of Coloradans every year.

Hydrocarbon emissions from gas combusting engines on a well pad outside Aurora during fracking activities in 2025. The emissions from these sources are not directly regulated by the Air Pollution Control Division

Colorado’s rules are some of the strongest in the nation, but there are still significant gaps in regulatory oversight of harmful emissions from the oil and gas sector, particularly during drilling and fracking activities. During the hearing, we testified in support of STAR by sharing our findings showing that air quality monitoring conducted by operators during drilling and fracking misses harmful emissions events. 

We also shared relevant examples from our OGI surveys showing that even when emissions during drilling and fracking are identified, meaningful action to hold operators accountable for these emissions is limited because the state does not directly regulate most sources of emissions on pads during these activities. 

Additionally, recent health studies continue to demonstrate that negative health impacts from oil and gas development are strongly correlated with proximity, and that 2000 feet may not be the most protective distance.

Using Colorado data, studies published since the adoption of the statewide setback show increased risk of certain health impacts up to 4000 feet and, for childhood leukemia, even at over 3 miles away from oil and gas development. Studies also show that health risks are exacerbated by cumulative exposures, especially as the Front Range continues to suffer from one of the worst ozone crises in the nation, fueled in part by oil and gas development.

Finally, while the oil and gas industry continues to reassure Coloradans that they operate the safest and cleanest facilities in the nation if not the world, the reality on the ground suggests something different.

Just last year, a well pad owned by Chevron near the rural community of Galeton, Colorado suffered a major failure that led to a geyser of toxic compounds spewing from a well for days and blanketing nearby homes and the playground of Galeton’s elementary school in dangerous chemicals. While Chevron’s onsite air quality monitoring detected no concerning levels of air pollutants during the event, researchers from Colorado State University detected elevated levels of airborne benzene over a mile away from the pad.

Despite all this evidence suggesting ongoing impacts and concerning gaps in current regulations, STAR still faced an uphill battle in convincing the ECMC to take their arguments seriously, as the Commission is inclined to approve proposals from industry unless there is an egregious violation of a relevant rule.

Homes in Lochbuie, Colorado with a drilling rig in the distance

It would also be a disservice to STAR and the community members they represent to not highlight the significant time, energy, and resources they dedicated to achieving this outcome, particularly because it was almost entirely on a volunteer basis. While Colorado has made strides to decrease barriers to public participation and community input on industry proposals, many communities realistically do not have the capacity to mount organized opposition. 

It begs the question: How many well pad proposals have been approved over the last few years despite local concerns and opposition simply because nearby impacted individuals did not have the ability to confront a multibillion dollar oil and gas company in a formal hearing setting?

For these reasons, we should join STAR in celebrating this win. This was a hard-earned outcome that offers hope for other community efforts to oppose residential drilling.

It is important to be clear however that Civitas may still be able to get the original location approved if they convince ECMC that no other locations are feasible. Even if this unfortunate outcome awaits, it does not diminish the significance of what STAR was able to accomplish and the example it sets as Coloradans continue to fight for clean air and a healthy environment.

The post A Community Victory in the Fight Against Residential Drilling appeared first on Earthworks.

by Gwen Lachelt, Earthworks co-founder

Jim and Terry Fitzgerald were giants in the oil and gas accountability movement that took root in La Plata County, Colorado, in the late 1980s. They both died on December 30, 2025, when their home in the HD Mountains of southwestern Colorado tragically caught fire.

My first encounter with Jim was in January 1988, after front-page headlines announced plans to drill 1,000 gas wells in La Plata County. I was 24 years old, a brand-new community organizer for the Western Colorado Alliance and the San Juan Citizens Alliance, fresh off a three-month campaign to install a stoplight at a dangerous highway intersection. We were obviously ready to take on one of the most powerful industries on the planet—for the next 30 years.

Jim Fitzgerald is walking into the Denver Convention Center for a meeting of the Governor’s Oil & Gas Task Force

Jim left a message on my answering machine:

“Gwen, we’ve got to do something about this drilling thing—and we’ve got to do it now.”

I listened to that message over and over.

“Gwen, this is Jim Fitzgerald. We’ve got to do something about this drilling thing, and we’ve got to do it now.”

I finally tracked Jim down at his office at Fort Lewis College. And the rest is history.

The fight over gas drilling was all-consuming for decades. We went to court. We went to the state capitol. We ran bills, held hearings, and wore grooves in the pavement between Durango and Denver. When the state oil and gas commission was stacked with industry insiders, we decided to make that visible.

So Terry put on a chicken suit.

I put on a fox suit.

And we chased each other around the county courthouse and the state capitol to demonstrate that the fox was, in fact, guarding the henhouse.

La Plata County became the worldwide guinea pig for the industry’s massive experiment in extracting gas from underground coal seams—coalbed methane development. The pace of drilling and fracking made your head spin. The problems were endless. Water wells ran dry. Massive industrial operations were allowed within 150 feet of people’s homes. Houses spontaneously combusted as methane migrated into crawl spaces. An entire subdivision near Bayfield had to be abandoned and torn down. People could light their tap water on fire.

We fought for the most basic rights—for landowners to have a say in what happened on their own land, or even to be notified that drilling was coming. And many residents are still living with the impacts of the rush and frenzy of drilling in the late 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

Terry often reminded us that we were ordinary people fighting for the land against multinational corporations. And somehow, together, we won real victories—protecting vast landscapes from being drilled and safeguarding the HD Mountains they loved so deeply.

And we laughed. We had to. Terry even wrote letters to the editor signed by her lamb, Dinah. Dinah Lamb had strong opinions about gas drilling.

Jim and Terry, along with Travis Stills, Dan Randolph, Wilma Subra, Jill Morrison, Dan Heilig, Karin Sheldon, and I—and several others—founded the Oil & Gas Accountability Project in 1999 to support communities across the country facing drilling and fracking. In 2005, OGAP became Earthworks after merging with the Mineral Policy Center.

Terry in Wasilla, Alaska, during our People’s Oil & Gas Summit in 2003.

We had so much to offer because of what La Plata County had endured—being the testing ground for an industry racing to figure out how to extract methane from coal seams, no matter the cost to people or the land.

We organized People’s Oil & Gas Summits in communities facing drilling booms or living with legacy impacts: Denver, Wasilla, Farmington, Pittsburgh, and many others across Texas, Wyoming, and New York. We worked alongside residents to help them organize, understand their rights, and advocate for laws and policies to reduce—or, in some cases, prevent—harm.

In Alaska, communities stopped drilling and fracking on 600,000 acres in the Mat-Su Valley. New York banned fracking. We prevented hundreds of wells from being drilled in the HD Mountains of the San Juan National Forest after Jim and I found a federal statute—buried in a dusty volume in the basement of the old Carnegie Library in Durango—that required an environmental impact statement before large-scale gas development could proceed. I still remember us kneeling on the library floor, books of statutes spread open, going line by line until we found the silver bullet.

“Make them live up to their own book of rules” was one of our mottos.

We made huge incremental progress, as people like to say. And still, we couldn’t prevent everything. Many communities continue to live with the aftermath of that rush—that frenzy—of unfettered development.

But most importantly, we helped create community—across the country and beyond.

Jim and Terry were the very essence of participatory democracy. Not the abstract kind. The real, gritty, show-up, do-the-work kind.

Jim and Terry were the very essence of participatory democracy—not the abstract kind, but the real, gritty, show-up, do-the-work kind. They didn’t wait for permission or for someone else to lead. They showed us that change comes from ordinary people who care deeply, act boldly, and refuse to look away.

We are all standing on Jim and Terry’s shoulders. Every time we organize, every time we challenge power, every time we choose community over complacency, we carry them with us.

The post Tribute to Jim & Terry Fitzgerald appeared first on Earthworks.

It is with deep sadness that Earthworks mourns the loss of Katherine Jefferson Bancroft, who passed away this week. Kathy served as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Lone Pine Paiute Shoshone Tribe in California. She was a visionary protector of land, water, and culture in her homeland of Payahuunadü. 

We are grateful for everything Kathy taught us, and for the privilege to have served in solidarity with Kathy to protect Conglomerate Mesa from gold mining and advocate for reforming the 1872 mining law. In 2021, Kathy was invited to testify before Congress, sharing her family’s story of the US government forcibly displacing her Tribe from their own lands. 

Kathy constantly built connections between communities, raised awareness, and educated policymakers and environmentalists on Tribal sovereignty and environmental justice. She organized annual events with the Manzanar community of Japanese-Americans imprisoned by the US Government during World War II.

Faced with so many projects seeking permission to cross, dig, and drill on sacred lands, Kathy always stood firm to protect what matters. She won recognition for Patsiata (Owens Lake) on the National Register of Historic Places, protected burial grounds from desecration by a highway project, and tirelessly defended Conglomerate Mesa from a long line of gold mining companies. 

We feel Kathy’s loss deeply and know the world is a better place because of her leadership. We honor her memory by standing firm in our commitment to protect Conglomerate Mesa, and we send our deepest condolences to Kathy’s loved ones and community. 

If you would like to share a memory or tribute to Kathy to be included in her memorial, you can do so here.

A view of Patsiata

The post Honoring Katherine Jefferson Bancroft, protector of land, water, and culture appeared first on Earthworks.

A Toxic Tour is a guided, on-the-ground visit that brings tribal leadership, agency staff, and community members directly to areas with oil and gas well sites near homes, schools, and on lands adjacent to tribal jurisdiction. Earthworks collaborates closely with partner organization Diné CARE to make these possible and uses an Optical Gas Imaging cameras to make environmental & health and safety concerns visible to the naked eye. This blog reflects on just one of several Toxic Tours conducted in partnership with Diné CARE in the Navajo Nation Checkerboard in 2025.

Image Credit: Diné CARE’s Ali Tsosie-Harvey

The day started early to avoid the nearly 100 degree weather in the Counselor area. We loaded up with staff from the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and headed straight to our first stop, an oil well less than a mile from Lybrook Elementary School. We made three separate stops during this particular tour; the heat was sweltering as we looked through the FLIR camera. At the last stop of the day, the smell of chemicals hit us before we found a safe spot across the street, dust swirling around us as oilfield truck traffic made its way through. 

This tour wasn’t just about one well or one town. It was meant to show the ongoing risks frontline communities face when profits are put before people, when safety is not made a priority. The placement of well sites is a tricky issue in the Checkerboard of the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Nation. Well sites are nestled among the communities, and oilfield traffic uses narrow, dirt roads not meant to transport tons of weight and size.

At the core of our work is a simple goal: making sure communities have clean air, clear information, and the ability to speak up when something doesn’t feel right.

Hilcorp LADD #001R, visible behind the site is Dzith-Na-O-Dith-Le Community School

The living environment surrounding the well sites shows signs of damage: dying trees, wilted and discolored sagebrush. The proximity of well sites to homes is the most concerning. Some homes sit less than a mile from well sites, some even closer due to the Checkerboard. When you can smell the emissions before you see the site, when the dust swirled up by oilfield traffic clings to your skin, those concerns are valid and should be reported. 

What I appreciated most about tours like this one was the chance to slow things down and actually stand in it together. There’s a difference between talking about the impacts and experiencing them side by side: feeling the heat, smelling the air, watching the emissions show up on the camera display in real time. Those moments opened up honest conversations that don’t always happen in offices or on Zoom. It reminded us that community members are concerned for their daily lived experience. Being out there together made it harder to dismiss what people are seeing, smelling, and living with every day.

Image Credit: Diné CARE’s Ali Tsosie-Harvey

The Toxic Tours created space for shared understanding. These moments allowed leaders who make decisions about our lives every day to hear directly from within the impacted area, and to better understand the realities of living near oil and gas infrastructure. It reinforced the importance of collaboration between tribal leadership and their constituents. Addressing the daily concerns of communities in the Checkerboard of the Eastern Agency of the Navajo Nation is critical to their long term health and mitigating environmental impacts. 

As we look ahead to 2026, these tours remain a critical tool for awareness, accountability, and community wellness. They are an open invitation for tribal leadership to stay connected to the communities they serve, and give residents an opportunity to speak up about what they experience.

DJR Operating Lybrook E29 2306 #001H & #003H, black smoke emitting from flare stacks

These tours are not just about documenting problems. They are about building the relationships and understanding needed to protect the health, safety, and future of frontline communities across the Navajo Nation.

Clean air should not be negotiable. Community participation is how we move closer to that reality by showing up, asking questions, and making concerns visible. Participation matters. Being present matters. These Toxic Tours are where we will continue to practice all of it.

The post Standing In It Together: What One Toxic Tour Reveals About Life Near Oil & Gas Development appeared first on Earthworks.

One year into Trump’s presidency, the administration has moved aggressively to dismantle public health, environmental, and climate protections. The Trump agenda is delivering windfall profits to billionaires and large oil, gas, and mining corporations, while families pay the price through dirtier air, unsafe water, and higher costs. These rollbacks come alongside other federal actions that tear families apart and destabilize communities, leaving working families with fewer protections and greater risk. The result is a system where wealth continues to be funneled to the top, while everyday people face greater pollution, worse health impacts, and fewer protections in their own neighborhoods. 

Central to the administration’s approach is dismantling bedrock environmental laws that have protected our air, water, and health for more than 40 years. Here’s a brief rundown of the harms we are committed to keep fighting one year into Trump’s second, disastrous second term:

Gutting of NEPA: Changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), one of the United States’ bedrock environmental laws, move risk away from companies and onto communities, especially those already dealing with pollution. Meanwhile, billionaires walk away with the profits.

NEPA is a law that requires communities be given access to information about polluting industries near them and requires the government to assess how building and expanding sources of pollution impacts nearby families. It has protected the public since 1969. 

Under the 2025 rollbacks, federal agencies are no longer required to fully assess climate impacts, cumulative pollution – the compounding harm of multiple sources of pollution close together – or concerns of harm on historically marginalized communities often referred to as environmental justice assessments when approving oil, gas, and mining projects – or any other projects that impact nearby communities. 

Public participation has been limited, review timelines rushed, and scientific analysis treated as optional rather than essential. 

Potential Dissolution of the Endangerment Finding: Along with gutting NEPA, the administration is also trying to undo the EPA’s Endangerment Finding, one of the most important tools for protecting public health and the planet. Established in 2009, this scientific determination confirms that greenhouse gases — such as carbon dioxide and methane gas — endanger human health and welfare. It serves as the legal foundation for regulating climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. Eliminating it would strip the federal government of its authority to limit climate pollution, leaving families more exposed to extreme heat, worsening air quality, flooding, and wildfire smoke. 

Scaling Back Greenhouse Gas Reporting: At the same time, the administration has moved to halt or scale back the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which requires major polluters to disclose how much climate pollution they release. For years, this data has allowed regulators, researchers, and communities to understand where emissions come from and how fast they are rising. Rolling back reporting makes pollution easier to hide and harder to regulate, cutting off transparency and accountability as climate risks grow.

Letting Methane Pollute and Pollute: The administration has also begun rolling back methane pollution protections by pushing compliance deadlines, with more rollbacks still underway. Methane is one of the most powerful drivers of near-term warming and a major source of smog-forming air pollution. Allowing oil and gas operators to delay detecting and repairing leaks increases pollution in nearby neighborhoods. The human impact of this is higher rates of respiratory illness like asthma, and more missed work and school days. While industry billionaires benefit from looser rules, families are left paying the price through higher health costs and long-term environmental damage.

Recent actions at the EPA further reveal just how far the Trump administration has gone to put industry profits over people’s health. According to a recent news article, EPA plans to stop considering public health benefits when crafting air pollution rules, abandoning a long-standing practice of valuing reduced illness and premature death in regulatory decisions. This shift makes it clear who benefits and who suffers: billionaires and industry executives take home huge profits while ordinary families bear the cost of pollution and disease. 

President Trump is building a system set up to benefit billionaires and big fossil fuel and mineral companies, not ordinary Americans. Federal lands and waters are being opened to drilling and mining, clean energy incentives are being sidelined, and pollution standards are being weakened, all to keep money in the pockets of industry executives. Meanwhile, other countries are investing heavily in clean energy, which is safer and more affordable. By doubling down on outdated technologies, this administration is putting families at greater risk of pollution while also making everyday energy and food costs higher.

The administration’s retreat from global climate engagement amplifies the harms at home. By withdrawing from international climate commitments and undermining the scientific basis for climate action, the United States has stepped back from coordinated efforts to reduce global pollution. Climate change does not stop at national borders. Rising temperatures, worsening air quality, and extreme weather abroad directly affect food systems, migration patterns, disease spread, and economic stability here in the United States. Leaving the global stage does not protect American families — it exposes them. 

Despite the Trump administration’s decision to prioritize billionaire cronies over community health, climate stability, and the financial well-being of ordinary families, there is reason for hope. Across the country, states and cities are stepping up to protect communities, invest in clean energy, and hold polluters accountable. Local leaders are showing that it is possible to put public health first, create good-paying jobs in cleaner energy, and reduce the costs of energy and healthcare for families. And communities in the United States and beyond are mobilizing to stand up to polluters and protect families and the environment. 

Looking ahead to the 2026 and 2028 elections, Americans have the power to vote for leaders who prioritize people — not billionaires and polluters — and rebuild policies that protect our health, our wallets, and our future.

The post One Year of Trump: Disaster & Determination to Rebuild appeared first on Earthworks.

Concerning news arrived this holiday season: Yara, one of the largest ammonia traders and shippers in the world, could be teaming up with Air Products to try to get rich off of a new blue hydrogen and carbon capture plant proposed in South Louisiana. The corporation would acquire most of the hydrogen produced from the proposed Louisiana “Clean” Energy Complex. 

With this announcement, a project that could bring considerable safety and environmental hazards to the River Parishes and Lake Maurepas is closer to becoming a reality. However, it does not mean the project is a done deal. 

Air Products still has to reach many critical steps to make the project a reality, including permits, regulatory approval, final investment decision, and construction contracts. This may be difficult, given that the stock markets reacted to the announcement with a dip for Air Products, showing uncertainty. Plus, the project faces intense opposition from residents due to significant air pollution, proximity to homes and schools, and the project’s impact on Lake Maurepas.

The project claims it is “low emissions” because it would use a process called carbon capture and storage (CCS) to collect carbon dioxide pollution from the facility. However, carbon capture and storage has never been done in Louisiana. It shifts risk onto nearby communities by transporting and burying massive volumes of pressurized carbon dioxide that could leak or rupture, turning a climate fix into a local safety hazard.

The announcement comes after more than 300 residents attended a public hearing on air pollution permits for the project, where about 50 folks spoke out in opposition to the project. As we await the Army Corp’s decision for the permits, we are committed to keeping residents engaged and informed. Here’s the latest:

• New Report: Air Products’ CO2 Pipeline is Dangerously Close to a School and Neighborhood If you have not had a chance to read the official report released by Earthjustice, it shows that in the event of a pipeline rupture, dangerous levels of CO2 gas could blanket Sorrento Primary School and Orange Grove subdivision. 

• We’re Hiring Canvassers in Ascension Parish in 2026 We are hiring! Submit an online application to help us canvas (door knock) in Ascension Parish next year. 

• Write a Letter to Your Parish Council Members Elected leaders have the authority and responsibility to take action to protect their constituents. Use our website to tell your representatives about any concerns you have with the project.

The post Yara Tries to Get Rich Off of Air Products’ Controversial Blue Hydrogen Project in Louisiana appeared first on Earthworks.

On Friday, the 7th United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) concluded in Nairobi, Kenya. The Assembly ended without the decisive next steps for improved oversight of the mining industry that were called for by Indigenous Peoples, civil society, and mining-impacted communities.

A proposal for global coordinated action on minerals gets watered down

Every two years, governments from around the world come to UNEA to define common goals and strategies to address the Triple Planetary Crisis: climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. This year, Colombia and Oman proposed a mineral governance resolution that would create an open-ended working group tasked with identifying possible international instruments for coordinated global action on the environmentally sound management of minerals and metals, with a goal of reducing environmental impacts. 

The proposal also included a mandate for UNEP to facilitate a process to identify and develop, “global guidance for the resource recovery of mine tailings, addressing scientific, technical, economic, and environmental, social and governance dimensions.” Currently, there are no industry-wide guidelines for remining mine waste. Identifying and consolidating best practice would have been a welcome contribution to addressing the risks and channeling the opportunities presented in the billions of tons of mine waste stored at tens of thousands of sites around the world.

However, the approved resolution was a watered down agreement. It simply requests that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) convene dialogues on topics related to mineral governance, including “resource recovery from mining waste and tailings through sustainable approaches, such as circularity.” This is not the first time the UNEA has shied away from decisive action. The UNEA-6 resolution on minerals and mining also resulted in a disappointing lack of ambition.

A technical task force must be accompanied by political commitment

Concurrently, on December 10th, UNEP also announced the creation of a United Nations Task Force on Critical Energy Transition Minerals to coordinate the United Nations’ activities across all principles and actionable recommendations identified by the Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals.  

This Task Force could be a step forward in advancing the technical work needed to implement the Panel’s recommendations. However, it remains to be seen how meaningful it will be, and technical progress alone is not enough. It must be complemented by political commitment, which is why the final resolution passed at UNEA proved so disappointing. 

Indigenous Peoples’ representatives say the Assembly failed

The UNEA ended with a strong rebuke from the Indigenous Peoples Major Group during the closing plenary. Through their representative, Indigenous Peoples criticised UNEA for de-centering and marginalizing Indigenous Peoples, their knowledge and their environmental stewardship. They asserted that UNEA-7 had failed Indigenous Peoples and that relying on the systems that created the triple planetary crisis will not solve it.

Governments must meet the moment

The results of UNEA-7 are a disappointment but not a surprise. As the world acknowledges the need to address the potentially exponential growth of the mining sector and the harms it inflicts on communities and ecosystems, spaces for international coordinate struggle to meet the moment. From COP 30 to UNEA-7, rights holders and stakeholders push to secure the bare minimum while mineral consuming governments, like the United States, undermine meaningful change. Opportunities for improved accountability and oversight still remain, through the UN system, through bilateral agreements, but governments must step to meet the moment and ensure the rights of Indigenous Peoples, protect communities and guarantee a healthy environment.

The post The United Nations Environment Assembly Fails to Deliver on Mining Oversight…Again appeared first on Earthworks.