Episode 1 – Charlie Tebbutt
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Charlie’s office assists communities, organizations, tribes, unions and individuals across the United States in protecting themselves and their members from industrial pollution and chemical injury. Through litigation, negotiation, and grassroots campaign building, Charlie helps his clients enforce our nation’s environmental laws and hold polluters and regulatory agencies accountable. He has worked on “waters of the U.S.” protection issues throughout his career, including cases such as Northern California River Watch v City of Healdsburg, CARE v Henry Bosma Dairies, National Cotton Council v EPA, Center for Biological Diversity v BP, and an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of Western organizations in Rapanos v U.S.
During his more than 30-year career at the Western Environmental Law Center, the Atlantic States Legal Foundation, and in private practice, Charlie has brought citizen suit and toxic tort cases concerning pollution and chemical exposure against scores of Fortune 500 companies in 30 states. Charlie has litigated cases involving the Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Clean Air Act (as well as NEPA, FIFRA, CERCLA, EPCRA, and FOIA). Recent cases include Kupale Ookala and Center for Food Safety v Big Island Dairy (Hawaii) and Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v De Santis (Piney Point, Florida).
Charlie’s work has been featured in two books: Animal Factory, David Kirby (St. Martin’s Press 2010); and This Moment on Earth, John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry (Public Affairs 2007)). Charlie’s office has been lead counsel in RCRA imminent and substantial endangerment cases alleging contamination of the environment, particularly groundwater, from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), CARE and Center for Food Safety v. Cow Palace, et al., 80 F. Supp. 3d 1180 (E.D. Wash. 2015), and coal ash disposal, Sierra Club v. San Juan Coal Company, et al.,10-cv-00332-MCA-LAM (D. N.M. 2012) (Consent Decree requiring coal-fired utility to halt ground and surface water contamination). His office, which includes attorneys Dan Snyder and Parker Jones, filed an amici curiae brief on behalf of numerous religious organizations in the Juliana v. United States of America climate change case.
Charlie graduated from SUNY Albany in 1979 after also attending Simon’s Rock Early College. He received a J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law in 1987. He is admitted to practice in Oregon, Washington and New York, six federal circuit courts of appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Not all heroes wear shoes. That is the case with our first guest Charlie Tebbutt, a pioneering environmental lawyer who has spent decades suing corporations across over half of the country, defending citizens directly impacted by industrial pollution. Charlie shares his journey from activist to litigator and the value of standing up and standing out. In conversation with our host, Ashley Lukens, this episode highlights law as an avenue for social change, resilience in the face of corrupt systems, the link between human rights and environmental rights, and how an action as simple as taking a picture can support legal activism.
