Lauren Piette: Earthjustice
What do you think the importance of your work being pro bono is to the community?
Piette: “I see pro bono environment work as hugely important. From my perspective, if a project is coming into your community that will pollute your air and water or harm the places you love, you should be able to fight back whether you have the financial resources to hire a lawyer or not. For me, I feel very honored to be able to do this kind of legal work for people who maybe otherwise wouldn’t have the resources to bring a lawsuit against a big, well-resourced company. I think, and I know my colleagues think everyone should have the right to protect the communities and people they love.”
A large part of your work is making access to environmentally friendly resources like power plants affordable. How do you think a country's wealth limits its ability to combat the devastations that occur alongside climate change?
Piette: “I think it dramatically impacts a country's ability to fight against climate change. It is no secret that climate causes natural disasters such as flooding or heat waves, and all of such devastations can impact your farmland, erode your coastlines, destroy towns and communities, ruin your means of industry, and of course, there are all the horrible impacts on the people themselves in terms of public health impacts. All of these cost a tremendous amount of money, and unfortunately, a nation's wealth has a huge correlation to your ability to protect against the devastating impacts of climate change. I definitely think that those two things are linked in a very unfortunate way.”
Statistically, the more industrial powerful countries cause much more damage to the environment than, say, a poorer, less industrialized country. Yet, these economically challenged countries have to deal with the effects. Do you think it is or should be an implied job of these wealthier countries, like the U.S. to allocate more funds towards the global issue?
Piette: “Yes, it's completely a responsibility of these wealthier, more industrialized countries to assist with the economic impacts of climate change. I think that there is some movement in that direction with the COP27 climate talks that recently happened, with the loss and damage fund that was set up to try and start the conversation and start the movement towards getting wealthier countries who have benefited from industrialization to begin putting up funds to pay for the harms that we’ve caused. I think that it is a great step, yet it doesn’t go far enough. There really is no way to quantify how much harm we’ve done to other countries and what an appropriate level of economic assistance would be, but I’m glad we are moving in that direction. Being able to provide financial assistance is huge but if we don't deal with the root cause of the problem, reducing climate change impacts by reducing the emissions that cause them. We both need to start taking responsibility for the harm we’ve caused and keep our eyes on the prize of reducing emissions.”
Among Earth justice’s many successes, they recently sued The Peregrine Project, insisting that it violated NEPA or the people’s environmental law. We understand that the legal pressure that EarthJustice put on the project was hugely successful in halting its plans to initiate environmentally harmful plans like the carbon bomb. Can you briefly explain NEPA and the importance of environmental work to prevent projects like this one from being carried out?
Piette: “The national environmental policy act is really essential in our environmental law tool kit. There is a lot in the law, but the three things I see as being the fundamental building blocks of the law are that it requires the community to get information about what project is being proposed in their area, forcing transparency. The second big piece of it is that it forces the government and the project proponents to really make decisions about the project that are driven by science. You must go through a pretty rigorous set of studies and analysis to make sure that the project you're proposing really is, first of all, the least environmentally burdensome option for what you are attempting to accomplish, and also making sure that you fully have analyzed and understood the full sweep of environmental harms that could come from your project. The third critical piece is that it allows for public participation, which is beyond huge. If the government is backing a project, it should be accountable to the people, so it is essential for there to be a way for people to tell the government what they think of a project. So these three pieces, information and transparency, scientifically driven data/analysis, and the opportunity for public participation combine to create this incredibly powerful tool for understanding. If necessary and appropriate it is also a powerful tool for fighting back against projects that are being backed by the government. Sometimes it can get a bad wrap because it can be considered more of a procedural law than a substantive law but in my line of work, the value of procedures that allow for information transparency and public participation go so far because you give the community the right to know what is happening in their backyard or next door. You also have the ability to create a full record that there can't be any secrets about what's happening. You require the project proponents to put on paper for all the world to see what environmental burdens will come from the project they’re proposing.”
Recently there has been a significant amount of progress in spreading awareness, educating, and starting the halting of climate change. Is there a project you are working on now or one that you have worked on recently that you are excited about or think will significantly stop climate change.
Piette:“I'm working right now because there is a lot of discussion at the federal and state levels about using hydrogen gas as a source of fuel for many different things. I’m working on this because hydrogen, although it can be an important tool for decarbonizing certain limited sectors and has some potential environmental benefits, it's mostly being discussed in a really harmful way and in a way that is entrenching fossil fuel infrastructure and our economy. The biggest takeaway here is that there is a tremendous amount of money going into hydrogen as a potential fuel source, and there is a lot of effort to try and greenwash hydrogen into this beautiful, environmentally friendly substance when it, most of the time, really isn’t. I feel really excited being a part of the environmental community and advocating calling out the lies spreading about hydrogen and drawing attention to the fact that for hydrogen to be environmentally beneficial, it has to be produced in very specific zero-carbon, zero-emission ways. It has to be used in very limited sectors. This project for me has been very interesting because it is an emerging issue, and its an issue that we are seeing some people who want to keep fossil fuel interest alive really trying to greenwash, but it's empowering to be able to push back and spread information about how hydrogen is not all it's made out to be.”
As you know, we are high schoolers in 11th grade but want to start making a difference. Is there a piece of advice or recommendation that you would give to us and other high schoolers that don't have the same resources as an adult may help contribute to stopping climate change or any subset of it?
Piette: “It is challenging, and I recognize those limitations, but the number one thing I would encourage people to do is make sure that you're really learning about this issue. I am inspired because I feel younger generations know way more about this issue than I did your age. I think that to the extent that you can, making decisions or encouraging your family to make decisions that are better for the planet. If you come to the crossroads where your family is in the market for a new car, maybe consider an electric vehicle instead of a gas-powered one. There are a variety of different decisions each of us can make. Of course, we all have different financial situations, and that is very real as well, but if it is in your ability to make these changes that are more environmentally friendly, communicating that and helping friends and family understand the benefits of these choices have is a really powerful tool. Also, it is important not to give up hope or lose sight; staying engaged and committed is extremely important in taking on this fight.”
