In this time of very bleak environmental news, where all you see is degradation and decline, we have not one, but two significant victories.

First, the Republican Party for the most part has tried to sell-off or give away our precious and ecologically important public lands.  The House of Representatives attempted to do this via a 500,000 acre sell-off and were stopped cold recently.

Now at the end of June 2025, the Senate has rejected Senator Mike Lee’s (Utah) proposal to sell-off several million acres of our recreationally important public lands, as the budget bill is being debated and voted on.

10,000’s of U.S. citizens let their Representative and Senators know that any sell-off was a bad idea and the “People” won! Thanks to those Senators from both parties who stated publicly that they would vote against the entire bill if this bad proposal was kept.

But mostly, thanks to all Sierrans, other conservation and environmental organizations, and citizens who loudly and clearly stated that such impoverishment of our natural heritage and legacy wouldn’t be tolerated.

The second big victory is that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to listen to ExxonMobil’s shouts for more pollution in the Baytown and Houston Area.  The Sierra Club, Environment Texas, and Public Interest Network have waged a 15-year lawsuit to get ExxonMobil to pay fines for thousands of violations of air pollution laws and air permit requirements.  ExxonMobil will now have to pay $14.25 million dollars in penalties, the largest citizen’s lawsuit federal Clean Air Act penalty ever assessed.

By doing this, ExxonMobil will have publicly admitted and paid for its callous indifference for People’s health all so that it could save money and force its air pollution on the public.

Keep fighting the good fight.  Never give in!  Always believe in good and the need to protect our environment’s nest from pollution, degradation, and destruction.  Long live clean air and our right to it.