Wild Skies

Clean air is a hallmark of the American West, but its cherished vistas are becoming marred by smog and haze.  Our Wild Skies of the West Campaign seeks to rein in air pollution from industrial development and urban sprawl and restore the grandeur and quality of life that makes the West unique.  Put simply, we need to protect the wildlife, wild places, and wild rivers from air pollution.

The reason for the West’s mounting air quality problems?  Unchecked oil and gas development, urban sprawl, and our continued reliance on dirty energy.  The result has been shocking:  smog levels have exceeded big city standards in areas as remote as western Wyoming and northeastern Utah, haze has infiltrated the West’s most remote backcountry, and communities are grappling with increased asthma rates.

Our efforts are focused on strengthening our air quality safeguards and ensuring our state and federal clean air laws are implemented and enforced to the fullest extent possible.  The West’s clean air is too valuable to lose.  With steadfast advocacy, we can keep clean air clean, and clear the dirty air as quickly as possible.

WildEarth Guardians is engaging on a number of fronts to protect our wild skies:

• We are using the Clean Air Act to hold the oil and gas industry accountable to preventing and reducing air pollution through out the West
• We are holding agencies like the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to their duties to safeguard clean air and limit oil and gas drilling and other destructive activities
• We are leading the charge to strengthen nationwide standards limiting air pollution from oil and gas drilling
• We are strengthening clean air plans for the West’s urban areas in order to promote sustainability, clean energy, and a move to clean fuels and mass transit
• We are ensuring that air quality in our National Parks and Monuments and Wilderness areas is restored to natural background levels
• We are ensuring States and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency live up to the requirements of the Clean Air Act and fully protect our health and the environment.