Press Releases
New web tool digs into development decisions and flooding
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A new website and interactive mapping tool released today by the Southern Environmental Law Center will allow citizens, activists and policymakers to look at how both current and proposed infrastructure will fare...
Draft North Carolina General Permit for animal waste to gas projects curtails public input and fails to protect communities or the environment
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality on Tuesday issued a draft permit that would allow existing industrial animal operations to build and operate animal waste digester systems that use hog feces...
SELC statement on U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s revised proposed rule to downlist red-cockaded woodpecker
ATLANTA, Ga. — Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a revised proposal to reclassify the red-cockaded woodpecker. In response to the announcement, SELC Staff Attorney Ramona McGee released the following statement...
SELC, NAACP act to defend environmental justice, denial of Lambert Compressor Station permit
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — On behalf of the Virginia State Conference NAACP, today the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit in order to defend the denial of a permit for...
Conservation Groups Continue Fight Against Unnecessary $500 Million Mid-Currituck Bridge
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – On behalf of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation and local residents from the Currituck mainland and northern Outer Banks, the Southern Environmental Law Center today filed an appeal asking the United...
SELC statement on Youngkin Administration’s Executive Order to Remove Virginia from RGGI
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Yesterday Governor Youngkin issued an Executive Order directing a regulatory process to end Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a program designed to fight climate change that has already...
EPA to investigate discriminatory harm from N.C. hog operations after civil rights complaint
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — In response to a civil rights complaint filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Duplin County Branch of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and...
Administrative Law Judge Donald van der Vaart sides with Smithfield-owned hog operations on water pollution
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Yesterday the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings upheld the state’s decision allowing Smithfield-owned hog operations to use giant pits of untreated hog feces and urine to produce gas while spraying...
EPA takes critical action to address coal ash pollution
WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took critical steps to protect communities and clean water from toxic coal ash pollution by making it clear that utilities must deal with ash sitting in groundwater,...
New North Carolina executive order on climate and environmental justice is an important step forward
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—The executive order announced today by Governor Cooper builds on the goals originally established in Executive Order 80 to tackle climate change, and creates a much more comprehensive, economy-wide strategy inclusive of transportation...