Abstract The US-Mexico border is an enigmatic location, revealing in sharp relief the unevenness with which the modern global economy parcels out costs and benefits. The border is also home to multiple popular efforts to confront and exploit those contradictions, including the emergence of local and cross-border movements for environmental justice. This project presents case studies of community resistance and cross-border collaboration which have generated a uniquely binational borderland conception of environmental justice. I look first at one Tijuana community's efforts to confront the notorious industrial waste hazards of the region's export assembly plants. I then explore the binational politics of energy, focusing on Baja California's emerging role as an export platform for electricity and liquefied natural gas to meet US demand.