Southern Environmental Law Center

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is the largest 501(c)(3)[2] environmental nonprofit organization in the southeastern United States, with more than 80 attorneys and 75 staff members working at the local, state, and federal level. Headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia, SELC has nine offices in six states: Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The organization also has an office on Capitol Hill.[3]

Southern Environmental Law Center
Formation1986 (1986)
FounderRick Middleton
Type501(c)(3)
PurposeEnvironmentalism
HeadquartersCharlottesville, Virginia, U.S.
Region
Southern United States
President
Jeff Gleason [1]
Revenue (2019)
60,076,970 [2]
Expenses (2019)29,119,018 [2]
Staff
80 attorneys [3]

Founded in 1986 by President Emeritus Rick Middleton, SELC is currently under the leadership of Executive Director Jeff Gleason. It is supported by charitable gifts from individuals, families, and foundations.[1]

Advocacy and litigation

In a unanimous decision, in April 2007 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled power companies could no longer continue to extend the lives of old, coal-burning power plants without installing modern pollution controls. This ruling led to the largest power plant cleanup in U.S. history. SELC attorneys then blocked or deferred companies’ plans to construct seven new coal-burning units across six states, helping to retire one-third of the existing coal plant capacity in the region.[4]

SELC’s years-long campaign to stop utilities from storing coal ash in unlined, leaking pits next to rivers has led to the largest ever cleanup of industrial pollution in the Southeast. The organization has reached agreements to store or recycle all coal ash in South Carolina. SELC’s work has prompted Duke Energy to clean up 8 of its 14 sites in North Carolina, with active cases at the rest. Its suit challenging TVA’s Gallatin plant resulted in the first time a federal court ordered a utility to excavate its coal ash.[5][6][7]

After a six-year campaign spearheaded by SELC, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy abandoned the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. SELC successfully challenged six key pipeline permits, halted construction, and secured a precedential ruling in favor of environmental justice in Virginia.[8][9]

The SELC is one of three environmental groups which filed suit against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service which "they say should have blocked the planned extension of the N.C. 540 highway across southern Wake County" because it would "threaten the existence of two endangered species of mussels that live in a creek the road would cross."[10] The Law Center argued the case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit where the court "vacated a key permit granted to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline," concluding "that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided no specific limits for the allowable impact on threatened and endangered species."[11]

An environmental justice lawsuit brought by SELC compelled a federal court to overturn a permit for a pipeline compressor station in Buckingham County,[12] Virginia’s, historic community of Union Hill.

The organization’s Protect Our Coast campaign helped persuade the Obama Administration to remove the South Atlantic from seismic exploration and the federal offshore leasing plan in 2016.[13]

SELC’s Solar Power Initiative is boosting solar growth in the South by removing disincentives and regulatory roadblocks.[14]

When the Trump administration announced its effort to gut clean water protections from wetlands and streams that feed drinking water sources for 200 million Americans (and 32 million people in the South), SELC responded with a federal lawsuit that more than a dozen other groups signed on to.[15]

Charity rating

SELC has a 100% score and the highest four-star rating from Charity Navigator, an independent charity assessment organization.[16]

See also

References
  1. "Middleton to hand off reins of Southern Environmental Law Center". Daily Progress. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  2. "Financial Statement". Southern Environmental Law Center PDF download. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  3. "Offices". Southern Environmental Law Center. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  4. "Looking back". C-Ville.com. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  5. "Lawsuit over coal ash cleanup comes to an end". mooresvilletribune.com. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  6. "TVA agrees dig up 12 million tons coal ash gallatin plant". knoxnews.com. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  7. "N.C. settlement results in largest coal ash cleanup in America". www.southernenvironment.org. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  8. "Atlantic coast pipeline canceled as delays and costs mount". nytimes.com. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  9. "Dominion and Duke Energy abandon Atlantic coast pipeline". www.southernenvironment.org. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  10. Stradling, Richard. "Environmentalists sue federal agency to try to stop NC 540". The Raleigh News & Observer. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  11. Rankin, Sarah. "Court vacates key federal permit for Atlantic Coast Pipeline". Associated Press. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  12. "Federal court overturns Union Hill compressor station permit". Virginia Mercury. January 7, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  13. "In Shift, Obama Won't Open Southeast Atlantic Coast to Drilling". The New York Times. March 15, 2016. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  14. "New Year, Same Solar Net Metering Battles". Greentech Media. January 12, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  15. "Groups Challenge Clean Water Act Revision". Coastal Review.org. April 30, 2020. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  16. "Charity ratings". Charity Navigator. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
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