The Conservation Law Center, a non-profit environmental law firm based in Bloomington, has hired Christian Freitag to succeed W. William Weeks as president and director of the organization. The Conservation Law Center provides legal counsel without charge to conservation organizations, works to improve conservation law and policy, and offers law students clinical experience in the practice of law and the profession's public service tradition.
Read MoreLast week, Sr. Attorney Jeff Hyman presented two panels at the Public Interest and Environmental Law Conference in Oregon. One panel on the Public Trust Doctrine and the other about the Endangered Species Act.
Read MoreIn an important decision, the court has ruled for the bats, setting a precedent which will mean more careful consideration of the environmental impacts of all federal decisions.
Read MoreThe CLC is continuing its efforts to promote responsible wind energy development. We collaborated with American Bird Conservancy, the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, and Union Neighbors United to drastically reduce the deaths of birds and bats, including federally endangered species.
Read MorePeter Murrey, Jeff Hyman, and CLC submitted comments on the new Fish and Wildlife Service mitigation policy, urging for more accountability and better protections for threatened species and habitats. This article sums up the proposed mitigation policy and our suggestions for improving it.
Read MoreJeff Hyman, Bill Weeks, and CLC are embarking on our second year arguing tor sufficient protection of the Endangered Indiana Bat from Wind Turbines. This article sums up our research and describes a possible solution to reduce the impact of increased wind energy on the Indiana Bat and other bat and bird species.
Read MoreOn July 6, CLC joined a coalition of environmental organizations to send a letter urging the National Marine Fisheries Service to take immediate action to conserve the endangered Southern Resident population of killer whales. After several drastic declines, only approximately 81 of these animals remain in the wild. Recent government research reveals that a variety of human activities threaten the killer whales year-round, but only the population's summer habitat in Puget Sound currently receives federal protection.
Read MoreThe Indiana Supreme Court has granted CLC's request for leave to file a friend of the court brief on behalf of the Hoosier Environmental Council. The State's authority to regulate or prohibit "high fence" deer shooting operations is at stake because the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled that the State Department of Natural Resources has no authority in the matter.
Read MoreWe are arguing in court that the endangered Indiana bat deserves more protection than it is getting in the process for approving wind energy installations. We came across a study that concluded that the protections we would like to see implemented will cost about 1 percent of the power the wind turbines can generate. Wind turbines produce relatively little power from gentle breezes. Bats, on the other hand, avoid flying when the wind blows at the speed it takes to generate wind power efficiently.
Read MoreOn behalf of the American Bird Conservancy, the Conservation Law Center filed an amicus curiae — a friend of the court — brief in a dispute over the approval of the construction of wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. The case is being heard in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C.
Read MoreThe CLC has submitted comments (together with American Bird Conservancy) on the Draft Upper Great Plains Wind Energy Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Western Area Power Administration are jointly seeking to streamline the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act for wind energy development in the six state UGP region.
Read MoreThe CLC recently submitted comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Beech Ridge Energy's Draft Habitat Conservation Plan and the Service’s associated Draft Environmental Impact Statement. BRE's 66-turbine wind facility in West Virginia currently operates under a court-ordered restricted schedule.
Read MoreThe CLC submitted comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Buckeye Wind LLC's application for an Incidental Take Permit for the federally endangered Indiana Bat. Buckeye Wind proposes to build a 100-turbine wind facility in Champaign County, OH, in an area that overlaps with the migration path of Indiana bats and their habitat.
Read MoreThe CLC recently submitted an amicus curiae brief for the consideration of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Conservancy of Southwest Florida v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The case involves the petition of a group of environmental organizations requesting the USFWS to designate critical habitat for the federally endangered Florida panther.
Read MoreThe CLC, in collaboration with American Bird Conservancy (ABC), recently submitted comments on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's initial plan to fast-track wind energy projects within a 200-mile-wide corridor through the Great Plains from Canada to the Texas coast. The corridor roughly follows the migratory path of the federally endangered Whooping Crane.
Read MoreRenewable energy sources such as wind and solar are critical components of our national strategy to fend off climate change, reduce pollution, and promote energy independence.
Read MoreThe CLC attorneys and Clinic interns will be participating in the second semester of a year-long series of interdisciplinary seminars on protecting animal migrations, an effort initiated by the environmental program of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
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