Defending bedrock environmental safeguards

EDF and its allies held the line in court against repeated Trump administration attempts to roll back health and environmental protections.

Now we’re in a strong position to rebuild.

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Introduction

Clean air

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wins for the environment

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Trump wins

For four years, the president made it sound like he was winning his battle to roll back dozens of health and environmental safeguards. But the administration has actually failed to complete and successfully defend in court its major climate and clean air rollbacks.

Rosalie Winn Senior attorney on EDF's U.S. Clean Air team

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Rosalie Winn talks about EDF's legal strategy

During one week this summer, we won four major victories in three courts on climate change, air pollution and clean energy.

When Winn joined EDF in 2016, she envisioned a role crafting ambitious climate protections. Instead, she found herself battling an all-out assault on science and the law. Over the past four years, she helped EDF and its allies fight the administration’s dangerous deregulatory agenda.

In March, Winn argued her first case against the administration and won a major victory when the court blocked the rollback of a rule designed to reduce the waste of methane from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas.

Thanks to the relentless efforts of EDF and others, including health and environmental organizations and states, the Trump administration has lost more than 80% of the court challenges to its environmental deregulation, with 82 out of 100 cases ending either in rulings against the policies or in their withdrawal.

EDF builds coalitions to secure victories in the courtroom. It's about rulings, it's about changing policy, it's about changing minds. And time and time again, EDF succeeds in getting all three.

Richard J. Lazarus Howard and Katherine Aibel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; EDF Trustee

Overall, EDF and allies prevented the administration from permanently damaging our nation’s bedrock environmental safeguards. We also laid the legal groundwork to enable the incoming administration to undo the damage that has been done and restore strong protections.

“It’s time to reclaim America’s leadership with a new generation of durable and bold environmental protections for climate safety, public health and communities that bear an unjust burden of pollution,” says EDF General Counsel Vickie Patton.