This week, an Iowa District Court sided with ELPC and a coalition of sustainable agriculture groups in a lawsuit over longstanding conservation provisions of the Farm Bill. The Swampbuster and Sodbuster programs incentivize farmers to help protect wetlands and reduce erosion. The programs are credited with reducing soil erosion by 40%, making farmland more productive and improving water quality.
The libertarian-leaning Pacific Legal Foundation, keen on removing wetlands from protection under the Clean Water Act, filed suit on behalf of a wealthy Chicago-based landowner against the federal government to decouple federal farm subsidies from these basic conservation requirements. ELPC and our Iowa partners intervened to retain those protections. ELPC Staff Attorney Katie Garvey said, “this decision is a win for family farmers who know that Swampbuster is fair, makes sense, and is worth protecting.”
RTA, CTA, Metra, and Pace must start planning service cuts, after the state legislative season closed without passing a transit bill. But the fight is not over. ELPC will work with our environmental, transportation, and labor partners to push for legislative action as soon as possible to save the system.
Michigan’s J.H. Campbell plant has been preparing to shutter for years, until the Trump administration stepped in at the last second, driven by ideology over sound economics, public health, and common sense. “This is just bad policy,” said Howard Learner, ELPC’s CEO. “It is moving us backward by imposing what may be significant costs on ratepayers to run a coal plant which is no longer economic and regulators have found is not necessary.”
The Ohio legislature passed a bipartisan reform package that will boost electricity supply, lower customer costs, and strengthen the state’s power grid. But there’s more work to be done. “Good energy policy manages both the supply side and the demand side.” said Rob Kelter, ELPC Managing Attorney. “As electricity use grows and prices rise, Ohio can’t afford to ignore the other half of the equation.”
Founded in 1993, the Environmental Law & Policy Center is the Midwest's leading environmental legal advocacy organization. We advocate, innovate, and litigate to protect the Midwest's environment from the Great Lakes to the Great Plains.
