Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund One of the least energy efficient products in modern history, the incandescent light bulb dating back to the days of Thomas Edison, is about to be permanently retired in California as of Jan. 1, 2018, and in 2020 for the rest of the nation. California is demonstrating its […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Today, on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council, I wrote the National Marine Fisheries Service to let them know that if they don’t take immediate action on our request that they list the Gulf of Mexico Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) as endangered, we’d sue. Last year, the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Today, the Trump administration took yet another step in abandoning America’s role as a global leader in tackling the mounting threat of climate change. The President and his team removed climate change from a list of national security threats identified in the National Security Strategy of the United […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Proposed Mine Threatens World’s Biggest Salmon Fishery and is Opposed by Overwhelming Majority of Alaskans First Quantum Minerals today announced an option to potentially acquire half of the highly controversial Pebble Mine project—a colossal gold and copper mine proposed at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. First Quantum […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund In a gift to the wealthiest Americans—and at the expense of our environment—President Trump is trying to push his reckless tax scam through before Christmas. As early as tomorrow, congressional Republicans hope to reward their corporate donors and wealthy patrons with a staggering $1.5 trillion in government handouts […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Late last night the New Jersey State Senate introduced its controversial lame duck bailout for the state’s nuclear plants. As expected, the proposal is a standalone subsidy that follows almost none of the best practices for transitioning from uneconomical nuclear plants, as set out in our issue brief. […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Photo: businessinsider.com Those stacks of papers on the right with President Trump represent life-saving rules and safeguards. They look very different through the eyes of a parent of an asthmatic child, or a worker handling hazardous substances, than they do to a CEO concerned about quarterly profits. The […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Ahead of his upcoming State of the State address on January 3rd, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled his first environmental priority of 2018—calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require more clean-up of toxic PCB contamination in the Hudson River. And if they refuse, New York State […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Welcome to our weekly Trump v. Earth column, in which onEarth reviews the environment-related shenanigans of President Trump and his allies. President Trump, accompanied by (from left) Vice President Pence, EPA chief Scott Pruitt, and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., prior to signing an “energy […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund The Public Utilities Commission of Colorado (“the Commission”) will soon decide the future of Xcel’s energy efficiency programs. Earlier this year, the state legislature gave the Commission authority to set new ten-year savings goals. This summer, the Commission cleared the way for greater savings by eliminating the utility’s […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Tony Fischer via Flickr A detailed new analysis from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the body in charge of New York’s electric grid, confirms that the lights will stay on in New York when the Indian Point nuclear power plant closes in 2021. The study is […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund This week, the City Council of New York City grilled the de Blasio administration over how it’s handling the massive sewage overflows that plague the NYC’s waterways. As I’ve written before, the City’s plans to address this mess are deeply flawed and would continue to allow massive amounts […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Darkest Hour is the slightly fictionalized history of Winston Churchill’s first month or so as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in late spring 1940. The title is based on the situation that the British government and nation were in at that time: Hitler had just invaded France […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Activists at the U.S. Climate Action Center for the America’s Pledge and We Are Still In campaigns at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, November 2017 Martin Meissner/AP Photo From his flagrant dismissal of the scientific consensus on manmade climate change to his eagerness to see […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Today, the Endangered Species Coalition released its 2017 Top Ten Endangered Species Report – “Suppressed: How Politics Drowned Out Science for Ten Endangered Species” – chronicling how politics is trumping science (pun intended) and threatening the survival of 10 endangered species in the Trump era. The species run […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund A Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee recently held an oversight hearing on the National Ocean Policy, sometimes known by its wonkier name of Executive Order 13547. The policy promotes coordination among the dozens of state and federal government agencies that make decisions about offshore businesses and marine life. […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund A coalition of local and national environmental groups, including NRDC, today formally urged the New Jersey Legislature to take the time needed to determine whether the state’s nuclear plants require financial support, and if so to craft an approach that is narrowly tailored and fully protective of employees, […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, hosted dozens of mayors from the United States, Canada, and Mexico for the North American Climate Summit to discuss city leadership in tackling climate change. Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy’s Christiana Figueres opened the […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund Republican Bill Threatens to Derail the Future of Sustainable U.S. Fisheries Management America’s ocean fisheries are some of the best managed in the world. No question about it. And as Congress has worked to reauthorize the law that governs fishing in our federal waters, the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), […]
Published by the Natural Resources Defense Fund The Story Behind the Conclusion: Lack of Regulation Leads to Plant Closings and Economic Loss I grew up in Cleveland in the 1950s. For the past century, Cleveland had been a high-tech industrial powerhouse. But it was already visibly in decline, and this blog explains some of […]