“Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself” —Chief Seattle
With the anti-environment administration of President Elect Donald J. Trump looming over our Nation, it will be ever more urgent for all of us to be vigilant in protecting our right to clean air, clean water and clean places to live. We at the Locks Law Firm are “all in” and ready to fight to preserve those rights.
President Elect Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), E.Scott Pruitt, is a staunch critic of the EPA—the federal agency that is tasked with protecting our air, water and natural resources. Pruitt has rejected the scientific fact of climate change, calling it a hoax or a fraud. He repeatedly announced his intent to repeal all of the Obama administration’s environmental regulations. Agreeing with President Elect Trump, Pruitt lamented, wrongly, that you couldn’t use hairspray anymore because it damaged the ozone layer. Mr. Pruitt has called the EPA an “activist” organization, and as Governor of Oklahoma, Mr. Pruitt has sued the EPA dozens of times. The target of Mr. Pruitt’s lawsuits: anti-pollution measures put in place by previous administrations popular with the public because they help to protect clean air and water.
Mr. Pruitt has gone so far as file a lawsuit against a rule that restricted how much mercury could be emitted from coal plants. He lost.
Pruitt has sued to stop a rule limiting smog. He lost.
Pruitt is part of a lawsuit to block EPA’s efforts to address climate change via the Clean Power Plan. This matter has yet to be decided by the courts.
Pruitt has long been an advocate and mouthpiece of the coal and gas industry. He even went so far as to simply sign his name to a letter written by the lawyers for the Devon Energy Company that wrongly blamed federal regulators for “overstating” the amount of pollution from gas wells. But that’s not surprising since Pruitt hails from a state with major oil and gas operations, and throughout his political career he has been sympathetic only to industry concerns while repeatedly sacrificing environmental protections on the altar of business.
President Elect Trump has threatened to slash funding for environmental protections and climate change research. These cuts will likely filter down to the state and local level, stripping states and local municipalities of the resources needed to combat polluters on a local level.
We at the Locks Law Firm are ready to help you to protect your right to a clean, pollution free place to live. We are presently investigating and litigating environmental claims on behalf of private citizens and local municipalities against the polluters that damage properties and endanger the health of those who live, work and play there. We are standing up for the rights of all to have a safe, clean, pollution-free environment: today, and for generations to come.
If you would like to hear more about what we are doing at Locks to fight polluters, please call or email Steven P. Knowlton in our New York office at (212) 838-3333 ([email protected]) or Alfred Anthony in our New Jersey office at (856) 663-8200 ([email protected]).
