For over three decades MCEA has protected Minnesota’s environment, in and out of the court room. MCEA has advocated for a healthy environment through courtroom litigation, mediation, administrative rulemakings, permit proceedings, and administrative hearings. Our major accomplishments include:

1974 - Successfully brought legal challenges to stop logging of virgin forests within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

1978 - Refuted Northern States Power Company's projected costs and future demands for energy for its proposed Tyrone nuclear power plant. Northern States Power Company was denied a permit to build.

1984 - Worked with the Sierra Club to bring a case against hunting the threatened Eastern Timber Wolf. A judge found hunting of the wolf to be illegal and ordered the Secretary of the Interior to increase the wolf's population.

1995 - Worked as part of the Minnesota Wilderness and Parks Coalition to protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Voyageurs National Park from motorized vehicles and an exemption from the Endangered Spices Act.

2003 - The Minnesota Court of Appeals rules in favor of MCEA in a Phase II stormwater permit. The court agreed the Pollution Control Agency must redo the permit and examine non-degradation of the rivers and lakes storm waters flow into.

2008 - Court orders Pollution Control Agency to regulate ballast water in Lake Superior ships to prevent spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia.

2008 - Drafted language, lobbied, and helped pass the Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment – a constitutional Amendment which dedicates funding to Minnesota waters, forests, parks, recreation, and the arts.

2009 - Prevented the construction of Big Stone II, a dirty coal-burning power plant that would have emitted an estimated four million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

See the Archive list to the left to learn more about MCEA’s involvement in a specific case or advocacy.