Climate & Health Advocate

Reports to: Climate and Health Program Director

Hours & Status: Full-time exempt, union-eligible role

Annual Salary: $64,453 - $86,275

Location: Colorado (Regular travel expected within CO for field visits, strategic meetings, networking with allies, and building familiarity with the lands and communities involved in the work).

Note:

WildEarth Guardians is hiring two positions to bolster our nationally-recognized Climate & Health team, known for its innovative and leading-edge approach to keeping fossil fuels in the ground and exposing the true costs of oil and gas pollution: the Climate & Health Attorney and the Climate & Health Advocate. Collectively, these roles will operate primarily in New Mexico and Colorado with an eye toward larger, west-wide policy around public lands leasing, oil and gas waste, impacts on frontline communities, and keeping it in the ground. We’re looking for candidates who have experience litigating, advocating, building coalitions, and winning in the oil and gas space. We are open to different approaches for filling these capacity needs with the knowledge that at least one role needs to be filled by a practicing attorney, ready to engage in federal court, state administrative proceedings, or both. We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds in this realm of work and seek the two best candidates to tackle the major problems facing the West.

Position Summary:

Reporting to the WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Health Program Director, the Climate and Health Advocate will develop, spearhead and implement strategies and tactics to expose the true cost of oil and gas extraction, with a particular emphasis on public lands, including lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The Advocate will leverage environmental and health liabilities to support and sustain action to end fracking and keep fossil fuels in the ground.

The Advocate will focus on policies and rulemakings that protect air, water, and public health –including addressing the growing threats of produced water contamination and oil and gas waste mismanagement– while working to hold regulators and industry accountable. The work will be focused within the Rocky Mountain West, primarily in Colorado, in close coordination with the New Mexico Climate & Health Advocate and the broader program team to ensure regional consistency and shared strategy.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Program-Focused Engagement (80%)

• Initiate and proactively engage in precedent setting rulemakings related to the regulation of air, waste, and water and to advance new policies through creative strategies and tactics.
• File and sustain comment letters, technical comments, and administrative appeals, challenging air pollution, produced water, and other environmental permits for oil and gas facilities.
• Collaborate with Program Director and Climate and Health team members, as well as other organizations and allies when engaging in rulemaking and other proceedings-including potential use of expert and non-technical witnesses, primarily focused in Colorado.
• Draft and submit comment letters, develop appeals targeting Bureau of Land Management decisions, with the aim of confronting ill-conceived development proposals and to strengthen land and resource safeguards.
• Review, provide analysis and recommendations on state legislation (as needed), as well as providing testimony on behalf of WildEarth Guardians to the Legislature and legislative committees, and administrative hearings and committees throughout the year.
• Monitor federal oversight of Colorado’s regulation of air and water, and develop litigation against the U.S. EPA for compliance over laws and regulations surrounding air and water.
• Assist staff attorneys in the development, filing, and prosecution of environmental enforcement cases in federal court, including cases under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.
• Participate in coalition-building strategies at a local, regional, and national level; maintain key relationships with partner organizations, key government officials, and represent the organization on task forces and committees.
• Perform duties as assigned.

Communications & Fundraising (10%)

• Communicate with the media to provide perspective and commentary on issues of importance to Guardians.
• Prepare press materials, including press releases, background bullet sheets, etc., in collaboration with the Program Director.
• Draft commentary for posting on WildEarth Guardians’ blog or for submission to opinion pages, and engage in social media as directed.
• Craft communications materials to assist in outreach to WildEarth Guardians members and supporters.
• Represent Guardians in related organization communication and outreach events.
• Provide support around fundraising, event planning, and office management (limited).

Community Engagement (10%)

• Develop and cultivate relationships with allied organizations in consultation and collaboration with the Program Director, lead in key coalitions and serve as resource in administrative and legal matters.
• Nurture and sustain WildEarth Guardians’ relationships with key elected leaders and officials in consultation and collaboration with the Climate and Health Team.
• Attend community meetings and interact with frontline allies.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of demonstrated legal and/or policy experience in environmental issues, such as litigation, administrative engagement, and rule and policy development.
• Experience with and/or understanding of legal engagement in the field of environmental advocacy.
• Knowledge of federal statutes such as NEPA, FLPMA, RCRA, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act, preferred.
• Experience writing and filing administrative comments, developing legal cases, and analyzing and interpreting legislative and regulatory language.
• Good standing with any bar admitted to, if applicant is an attorney.
• Experience as a public spokesperson with the ability to analyze and articulate legal concepts and other complex issues and to communicate them to a variety of audiences.
• Experience with lobbying and engaging with rulemaking and administrative policy efforts, with a preference toward experience in Colorado or other western states.
• An understanding of Western U.S. political dynamics, demographics, and cultural characteristics, with a distinct understanding of Colorado.
• Experience considering the impacts of oil and gas extraction, and other environmental issues on multiple communities, including communities of color.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Ability to build authentic relationships and coalitions with partner organizations, including environmental advocacy groups led by diverse, underrepresented, minority groups.
• Ability and willingness to learn and practice Guardians' Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion principles.
• Ability to use provided technology: Microsoft Office, Gmail, Google Drive, etc.
• Ability to learn from mistakes.
• Ability to work in a team with diverse groups/coalitions.
• Willingness to accept new challenges, bring forward critical thinking, and take initiative.
• A healthy degree of irreverence, outrage, and sense of humor.
• Ability to travel at least once a month.

Compensation & Benefits

WildEarth Guardians offers a friendly and flexible, team-based environment with an excellent benefits package. Benefits include full health, vision, dental, life, and disability coverage, a 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% match, paid and unpaid health and family leave, a sabbatical policy, sick leave, three weeks paid vacation to start, and fourteen holidays including your birthday. Salary is negotiable based on experience.

ADA Statement

WildEarth Guardians is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. In keeping with our commitment, WildEarth Guardians will take the steps to assure that people with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. Accordingly, if reasonable accommodation is required to fully participate in the job application or interview process, to perform the essential functions of the position, and/or to receive all other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact apply@wildearthguardians.org.

Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement

WildEarth Guardians is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, class, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, family/marital status, religion or other protected classes. We encourage applications from persons of color, women and LGBTQ+ candidates.

Studies have shown that women, non-binary people, and Black, Indigenous, and other people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet all of the qualifications listed. Guardians will consider lived experience and transferable skills as qualifying unless an item is labeled as required. We are most interested in finding the best candidates for the job. If you think you’d be a great fit for this position, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications.

About WildEarth Guardians

WildEarth Guardians’ mission is to protect and restore the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West. Headquartered in Santa Fe, NM, the organization has several remote staff throughout the West and has established offices in Missoula, MT, Boise, ID, Portland, OR, and Tucson, AZ. Guardians has a 33-year history of securing environmental protections that safeguard endangered species and other wildlife, advance pioneering supply-side climate policy, restore living rivers, and protect public lands. We do this by pursuing innovative and sustained legal campaigns, advancing bold and creative policy and legislative solutions at both the state and federal levels, and mobilizing grassroots and grasstops constituencies.

WildEarth Guardians offers a friendly and flexible, team-based environment with an excellent benefits package. Benefits include full health, vision, dental, life, and disability coverage, a 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% match, paid and unpaid health and family leave, a sabbatical policy, sick leave, three weeks paid vacation to start, and fourteen holidays including your birthday. Salary is negotiable based on experience.