Environmental Law & Justice Clinic

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News

Victory at the California PUC

The Clinic scored another victory for communities disproportionately impacted by air pollution. ELJC's participation before the California Public Utilities Commission led to the denial of PG&E's request to build a large natural gas-fired power plant in Antioch, CA (the Pittsburg-Antioch area is already home to 14 fossil-fueled power plants). GGU students' exceptional legal research and writing enabled the Clinic to argue successfully on behalf of our client, Pacific Environment. Students prepared written testimony and legal briefs. The Clinic argued that the plant was unnecessary and inconsistent with California's energy policy and renewable energy goals.

ELJC Wins Appeal on Behalf of Hinkley, CA Residents

The Clinic successfully defended its 2008 lower court victory overturning San Bernardino County's approval of an open-air sewage sludge compost facility in Hinkley, a rural Southern California town, with a sizeable Latino community. The County is now required take a hard look at whether a human waste composting facility should use today's technology and enclose the operation. Our clients said: "No one would help or listen until the legal teams at the Golden Gate University Environmental Law and Justice Clinic and the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment came to the aid of our community." ELJC Graduate Fellow, Lucas Williams, argued the appeal. Lucas is a former ELJC student.

Victory for Community Right to Know

The Clinic staff and students, representing Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, convinced the San Francisco Planning Department to require environmental review of the first ever biodiesel plant in the city, which will process 10 million gallons of biodiesel per year. The Clinic argued that the plant should not have been exempted from the normal environmental evaluation process without notifying the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, which already hosts many industrial facilities.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Meets with Local Environmental Justice Groups

Professor Kang, together with other Northern California environmental justice advocates, recently met with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson to talk about the agency's approach to environmental justice. In the meeting, Professor Kang emphasized that environmental decision makers must see the environmental conditions in which vulnerable communities live, listen to community members about their concerns, and develop a strategic, long-range plan to address those concerns.

ELJC Produces White Paper on Cumulative Air Pollution in the Bay Area

The Clinic recently carried out a critical review of air pollution control programs in the Bay Area and agency efforts to address cumulative air pollution issues in more highly polluted parts of the region. Our review and findings are presented in a white paper entitled, Zones of Inequity, Cumulative Air Pollution and Hot Spots in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Download Zones of Inequity.pdf

US EPA Presents 2009 Environmental Award to Environmental Law and Justice Clinic

On April 16, the US Environmental Protection Agency's Pacific Southwest Region (Region 9) presented the 2009 Environmental Award for Outstanding Achievement to the ELJC. Read the press release. or visit the EPA website.

ELJC Works to Fight Climate Change

Climate change impacts are already exacerbating conditions that create environmental injustice, both in the US and around the world. As part of our work to combat climate change, the Clinic is representing prominent climate scientists who are amici curiae (friends of the court) in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. US Environmental Protection Agency, a case before the federal appellate court for the District of Columbia. The Chamber of Commerce and others are challenging EPA's decision to allow the State of California to regulate motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. (Read our brief in a related case. Amici Brief.pdf)

The Clinic also recently submitted a comment letter on behalf of several Bay Area clients which calls on the US EPA to look more closely at environmental justice impacts when it regulates greenhouse gases. The letter advocates against trading greenhouse gases. (Read ELJC's Greenhouse Gas Letter.pdf)

Read Environmental Law Programs Brochure.pdf

Read Spring 2008 edition of GGU Environmental Law News