Nature's Voice Summer 2021

SUMMER 2021

’ NATURE SVOICE For the 3 million Members and online activists of the Natural Resources Defense Council

IN THIS ISSUE

A humpback whale off the Alaska coast. President Biden has halted new drilling leases in federal waters.

Biden’s First 100 Days: Progress!

New Urgency Fuels Fight to Save Pollinators From Pesticides After Keystone XL, Other Pipelines Threaten This Battle Is Unapologetically for the Birds

NRDC works to safeguard the earth—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

Victory

MARINE MONUMENT SAFE FOR NOW The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case means that a lower court ruling will stand rejecting an effort by the com­mercial fishing industry to strip protections from Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The monument, designated by President Obama in 2016, protects an undersea land­scape of extraordinary scientific importance and is a biodiversity hot spot, providing food, shelter, and nursery habitat to a stunning array of marine wildl­ife. NRDC continues to fight in court to reverse President Trump’s attempt to dismantle the monument.

Victory

JUSTICE ON TAP FOR NEWARK Residents of Newark, New Jersey, are celebrating after securing safe drinking water protections, thanks to a major court settlement. In 2018, faced with some of the highest drinking-water lead levels of any major U.S. city, the grassroots Newark Education Workers (NEW) Caucus, represented by NRDC attorneys, filed suit against the city. Though progress has been made thanks to the lawsuit, the settlement ensures that Newark will finish the job by removing all remaining lead service lines—and NRDC will hold the city accountable to its commitment.

Victory

NEW FRACKING BAN ANNOUNCED In a historic win for our climate and for public health, fracking is now banned in the Delaware River Basin.

The vic­tory caps years of hard-fought advocacy by NRDC and our allies. Four of the five members of the Delaware River Basin Commission voted for the ban, including the governors of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. The move not only strikes a blow against the climate-wrecking fossil fuel industry but also helps protect the source of drinking water for 17 million people.

C OV E R A RT I C L E

BIDEN’S FIRST 100 DAYS: PROGRESS!

P

resident Joe Biden has wasted no time making good on his pledge to reverse the radical pro-polluter agenda of his predecessor and to accelerate the fight against climate change. On Day One, Biden fulfilled his vow to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and to cancel the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Soon after, he launched a series of bold executive actions that, taken together, amount to perhaps the most dramatic— and imperative—course correction the country has ever seen to safeguard our planet and health. That includes a moratorium on new federal leases for oil and gas drilling, a pledge to protect 30 percent of the country’s lands and 30 percent of its waters by 2030, and a revitalized and expanded commitment across the federal government to address the legacy of environmental racism and promote equity.

“Even as he inherited a raging pandemic and widespread economic devastation, Biden recognized

that the country couldn’t afford to wait for the kind of bold, decisive action neces­sary to counter four years of climate denial and anti-environment extremism,” says Mitch Bernard, NRDC president.

What’s more, Trump’s scorched-earth attacks have meant the Biden–Harris administration must also repair funda­mental aspects of the country’s systems for protecting the environment and public health, from restoring science as central to agency decision making to rebuilding key agencies that were decimated by Trump, such as the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. Central to that effort is what Bernard calls the Biden–Harris “A team” of appointees, which includes Deb Haaland as interior secretary and Michael Regan as head of the EPA, as well as NRDC’s own former president Gina McCarthy in the newly created position of National Climate Advisor.

Unsurprisingly, many of the same powerful

pro-polluter forces that championed the Trump administration’s destructive agenda have vowed to fight the new administration tooth and nail.

“NRDC’s mission to secure a safer, healthier, more just and sustain­able future remains as vital as ever,” says Bernard.

A humpback whale off the Alaska coast. President Biden has halted new drilling leases in federal waters.

S P E C I A L R E P O RT

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Haaland Makes History as Interior Secretary Former New Mexico congresswoman Deb Haaland became the first Native American to lead a cabinetlevel agency after the Senate confirmed her as President Biden’s interior secretary. “A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of the Interior,” Haaland tweeted prior to the historic vote. “Growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce. I’ll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land.” Haaland’s reputation as a passionate champion for Native communities and a determined advocate for climate action was among the key factors securing

her nomination, as was her track record as a consensus builder, which won her bipartisan support.

Still, Haaland faced a barrage of attacks during her confirmation hearing from senators who have long been allied with the fossil fuel and other extractive industries. Under Haaland’s predecessor in the Trump administration, oil lobbyist David Bernhardt, federal lands were handed over to such industries at a breakneck pace while tribal leaders and other stakeholders were routinely shut out of the decision-making process. Haaland will now play a key role in implementing the Biden–Harris climate plan and equity agenda.

WHALE © MARIDAV/ADOBESTOCK; HAALAND COURTESY DEBFORCONGRESS.COM

G O O D N EWS

CA M PA I G N U P DAT E

NEW URGENCY FUELS FIGHT TO SAVE POLLINATORS FROM PESTICIDES

C

“If the EPA delivers on that promise—if they follow the science—then the path is clear: They must restrict these dangerous chemicals.”

Clockwise from top left: An endangered rusty patched bumblebee gathers nectar; fresh produce could become scarcer—and more expensive—if pollinators continue to disappear; the popula­tion of monarch butterflies has plummeted by more than 80 percent in the past two decades; farmworkers are among those who face higher health risks from exposure to toxic pesticides.

court settle­ment, the EPA will now start analyzing the effects of the most widely used neonic, imida­ cloprid, on endangered and threatened species.

This comes at a moment when the Biden–Harris administration has vowed to restore science as central to protecting the environment and public health. “If the EPA under Biden delivers on that promise—if they follow the science—then the path is clear: They must restrict these dangerous chemicals,” says Fallon.

To that end, hundreds of thousands of NRDC Members and online activists have called on EPA

Administrator Michael Regan to do just that. (You can too—see Take Action, on the following page.)

The massive public mobilization kicks off a yearlong push to prevail on the EPA to heed the science and ban all bee-killing uses of neonics as the agency conducts its scheduled hazard review of the chemicals, due to be completed by the end of next year. After that, the EPA isn’t required to review neonics again for another 15 years.

“We have a limited window, and in that time we have to make sure we’re weigh­ing in at every stage of the process and making the strongest

possible evidence-based case against these bee-toxic pestic­ides,” says Dan Raichel, Pollinator Initiative acting director. “The science is on our side, but we’re up against a powerful indus­try that has billions a year in profits at stake.” At the same time, NRDC is fight­ing in court challenging the EPA’s reauth­orization of glyphosate, charging that in rubber-stamping the weedkiller’s continued use, the agency ignored criti­cal warnings from scientists and medical experts about the chemical’s serious environmental and health risks.

The outsize influence of the agrochemical industry has undoubtedly played a role as the EPA has allowed it to inundate the market with both neonics and glypho­sate virtually unchecked.

Roughly 300 million pounds of glyphosate are used in the United States each year, while neo­nics are applied to at least 150 million acres of cropland.

As sales of these agro­chemi­cals have soared, pollinator pop­ulations have tanked. In fact, American agricul­­ture became 48 times more harm­ful to bees, butterflies, and other insects over the past three decades, a frightening trend driven almost entirely by neuro­toxic neo­nics. Widespread use of glyph­o­ sate, on the other hand, has wiped out vital habitat for monarchs by killing off the native milkweed the butterflies need to survive.

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BEE COURTESY KIM MITCHELL/USFWS; PRODUCE © GRAFFIZONE/ISTOCK; MONARCHS © STEVE SATUSHEK/GETTY IMAGES; FARMWORKER © SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES

ould this be the year we turn the tide on the deluge of toxic pes­ticides that are wiping out our pollinators and imperil­ing our food supply? Hopeful developments, including big legal wins, have heartened the team behind NRDC’s Pollinator Initiative, our campaign to defend bees, monarch butterflies, and other pollinators from the torrent of agrochemicals un­­ leashed by companies like Bayer and Corteva. But that hope has been tempered by an ever-growing sense of alarm.

“Truly, we’re in a race against the clock,” says Dr. Sylvia Fallon, senior director of Wildlife at NRDC. “In terms of pollinator numbers, the news is almost uniformly bad.” U.S. beekeepers report that the country lost 43 percent of its honeybee colonies over the past year, the second-highest loss ever recorded. Meanwhile, the population of monarch butterflies, which has plunged by more than 80 per­cent in the past two decades, continues to decline, with the number of monarchs overwintering in Mexico dropping by 26 percent this year.

Fallon points out that while a number of factors are contributing to the pol­li­nator crisis, including habitat loss and the effects of climate change, the science is clear: Two of the most widely used agrochemicals in the United States—a class of insecticides called neonics and the weedkiller glypho­sate, also known as Roundup—are among the leading factors in the devastating declines of bees and monarch butterflies.

Even as the evidence against these pesticides has grown more damning, the Environmental Protection Agency has done virtually nothing to rein in their use. The coming year, however, could be a game changer. Several important legal victories won by NRDC have set the stage for action, including a federal court ruling that the EPA failed to consider the harm to mon­archs when the agency approved Corteva’s Enlist Duo, a next-generation herbicide that contains glyph­o­ sate, for widespread use. And thanks to a major

[Continued from previous page.]

“It’s like the agrochemical industry has forced us all into a game of chicken with Mother Nature.” risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, while the latter have been tied to higher rates of developmental and neurological damage. Health harms are particularly elevated in those who must come into frequent contact with these chemicals as part of their jobs, such as farmworkers and landscapers.

“For far too long the EPA has refused to stand up to the agrochemical industry,” says Raichel.

“We’re counting on our Members to join us in demanding the EPA stop putting Big Ag’s profits ahead of pollinator survival and people’s health.”

TAKE ACTION

nrdc.org/savebees

As part of its outrageous blitz of last-minute giveaways to industry allies, the Trump administration attempted to gut one of the country’s oldest wildlife conservation laws—and NRDC and our allies are fighting in and out of court to reverse the attack. At stake: critical protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), the century-old law that safeguards more than 1,000 wild bird species from threats like toxic waste and oil spills. Even as the law saves millions of birds each year and has been responsible for pulling many species, such as snowy egrets, wood ducks, and sandhill cranes, back from the brink of extinction, the Trump administra-

A Line 3 protest in St. Paul, Minnesota

After Keystone XL, Other Pipelines Threaten Following President Biden’s swift cancel­lation of the climate-wrecking Keystone XL pipeline, frontline Indigenous communities, joined by NRDC and other environmental allies, are rallying to shut down two more dangerous pipelines. Like KXL, the planned Line 3 pipeline would carry nearly a million barrels a day of dirty tar sands oil from Canada to refineries in the United States, vio­lating decades-old land treaties with the Anishinaabe people, imperiling numerous critical waterways with the threat of an oil spill, and putting our climate and health at risk. Mean­while, the notorious Dakota Access pipeline—which cuts through the Standing Rock Reservation and across

the Missouri River—continues to operate despite a court ruling that the Trump administration’s approval of the pipeline was unlawful. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has led an impassioned global protest movement to permanently shutter Dakota Access.

“Both pipeline projects violate bedrock environ­ mental laws and directly threaten the sovereignty of Indigenous communities,” says Anthony Swift, director of NRDC’s Canada Project. “Given the Biden administration’s commitment to pursuing racial justice and ending our country’s reliance on fossil fuels, halting both Dakota Access and Line 3 is the only logical choice.”

Lawsuits Target Trump-Era Clean Air Attacks With two recent lawsuits filed against the EPA, NRDC is continuing the fight to reverse the Trump administration’s egregious assault on decades of clean air progress for the benefit of corporate polluters.

The first suit aims to block a gaping loophole that allows industrial facilities to ex­­pand without adding any additional pollution controls and to use accounting gimmicks to hide their increased pollution. The second suit takes the agency to task for failing to update the federal limits on soot, a form of airborne particulate matter driven by the burning of fossil fuels that has

been linked to 50,000 premature deaths each year in the United States.

“Even as the country was in the grip of a deadly pandemic that targets our lungs, the Trump administration continued to put polluter profits ahead of protecting public health,” says John Walke, NRDC's Clean Air director. “We’re asking the courts to right these wrongs, to reject an unsafe health standard that worsens the impacts of COVID-19, and to reduce the disproportionate burden of deadly pollution on people of color and low-income communities.”

PROTEST © TIM EVANS/NURPHOTO VIA AP PHOTOS; CRANES © GLENN NAGEL/GETTY IMAGES

With pollinators responsible for one of the most fundamental life-sustaining processes on earth, their precipitous declines pose enormous threats, both to natural ecosystems and to our food supply.

“It’s like the agrochemical industry has forced us all into a game of chicken with Mother Nature,” Raichel says, pointing out that one in every three bites of food, including fruits, vegetables, and nuts, depends on bees and other pollinators.

Simply put, fewer pollinators equals less food, and that could mean soaring food costs and reduced access to healthful foods, which will hit low-income com­mu­nities and communities of color espe­ cially hard, since they already suffer disproportionately from hunger and food insecurity. A study published by Rutgers University in July 2020 found that healthy favorites such as apples, cherries, and blueberries are already “pollinator limited,” meaning a lack of pollinators is leading to lower crop yields.

There’s growing concern, too, about the humanhealth impacts of exposure to glyphosate and neonics. The former has been linked to an increased

This Battle Is Unapologetically for the Birds

Sandhill cranes

tion sought to eviscerate it. Under that administration’s rules, for example­, instead of paying a $100 million fine, BP would not have been held liable for the estimated one million birds killed by its massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“There has never been a more critical time to have robust protections for wild birds,” says NRDC Senior Attorney Katie Umekubo. “We are living amid a severe global biodiversity crisis, and climate change threatens to wipe out two-thirds of all bird species.” The Biden– Harris administration is moving swiftly to block its predecessors’ radical rollback of the MBTA. NRDC will stay in court until the Trump-era attack is fully reversed while campaigning to strengthen wild bird protections for the next 100 years.

The national and grassroots organizations that together make up the Strong, Prosperous, and Resilient Communities Challenge (SPARCC) were poised to move on to the next phase of the paradigm-shifting initiative—and then 2020 hit. Soon the country was swept up in a deadly pandemic, long-overdue reckonings with systemic racism, and a series of climate-driven natural disasters, including catastrophic wildfires. But rather than derail SPARCC, the tumultuous events of 2020 only served to underscore the urgency of its mission: to revolutionize pub­lic investment in the built environ­ment through a holistic approach that reduces racial disparities, builds a culture of health, and responds to the climate crisis.

“Initially we pivoted to focus on issues directly related to the crises at hand, such as advocating for a stronger federal evic­ tion mora­torium or immediate natural-­disaster assistance,” says Marissa Ramirez, SPARCC climate lead at NRDC, which helped launch the initiative in 2017. “But as the phrase ‘Build back better’ became a rally­ing cry, we were like, ‘Yes! And here’s how.’ ” Pathways to Community Prosperity, the on­­line platform re­­cently unveiled by SPARCC, provides a visionary blue­print for

building healthy, resilient com­ munities. From affirming the human right to safe, afford­able, en­­viron­mentally sustainable housing to making policy recom­ menda­tions that chart the way toward more equitable urban develop­ment, such as communitycentered lend­ing or invest­ ments in parks and open space that serve—rather than displace— long-term resi­dents, the plat­ form showcases the extra­ordinary potential of col­lab­o­ration between grassroots and national groups.

Take, for example, Pathways’ focus on equitable transitoriented development (ETOD).

While org­ani­zations like NRDC have long track records of advocating for public transit, ETOD adds vital new dimensions to

that advocacy. It not only recognizes the importance of ex­­pand­ ing transit networks to com­bat cli­mate change but also seeks to maximize the com­munity bene­fits of new transit projects through such measures as im­­ prov­ing neighborhood walk­ ability, preserving affordable hous­ing, and affirming the rights and dignity of those who rely on transit. Thanks in part to the advo­cacy of one local SPARCCaffiliated group, Elevated Chicago­, the Windy City recently released its first-ever ETOD policy plan. Says Sasha Forbes, policy lead on NRDC’s SPARCC team, “Instead of separate groups work­ing on separate issues, we’re har­monizing our agendas to cre­ate a model for trans­formative change.”

A Dirty Big Secret in Florida Paradise

By Alison Kelly, Senior Attorney, Nature Program

“Paradise Coast” is what the tourism indus­try often calls the south Florida area that en­­com­passes such natural wonders as Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Pre­serve. What folks who flock there may not know is that beneath many of those public lands, including Big Cypress, there is oil—and it’s privately owned.

Much of it is owned by corporations run by the politically powerful Collier family. Collier-related corporations also engage in real estate development, including a new 45,000-acre town in the habitat of the critically endangered Florida panther. The Colliers have also set their sights on accessing panther habitat in Big Cypress in a continued quest for oil.

Burnett Oil Company, the Colliers’ lessee, wants to expand oil drilling at one legacy drill­ing site in Big Cypress and also develop an entirely new area of the preserve consisting of wetlands and namesake cypress trees. There are hundreds of known Native cultural and

archa­eological resources located in the preserve, and one of Burnett’s proposed new well pads would be located adjacent to a Miccosukee Indian reservation.

During the Trump administration, Burnett conducted seismic testing, driving 33-ton vehicles off-road through preserve wetlands to hunt for oil. Four years later, it still has not completed the mitigation required by law to compensate for the extensive damage it caused to the wetlands. Now Burnett is applying for permits to facilitate new drilling in Big Cypress, which provides more than 40 percent of the water flowing into Everglades National Park.

In light of the Biden–Harris administration’s com­ mitment to equity and to fighting climate change, no drilling permits should be issued in Big Cypress. At min­ imum, the National Park Service must prepare a detailed environmental impact statement that considers alternatives to drilling. The agency must also engage in meaningful government-to-government consultation with the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Ultimately, this slice of paradise should not be sacrificed for more oil.

TAKE ACTION

nrdc.org/panthers

T O P R AT E D B Y C H A R I T Y N AV I G AT O R . O R G N AT U R A L R E S O U R C E S D E F E N S E C O U N C I L Mass transit in Atlanta, a SPARCC community

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Florida panther

STATION SOCCER © SOCCER IN THE STREETS, PHOTO COURTESY DAVE WILLIAMSON PHOTOGRAPHY; ALISON KELLY © REBECCA GREENFIELD FOR NRDC; TROPICAL PLANTS © EAKARAT/ADOBESTOCK; FLORIDA PANTHER © ISTOCK

In the Wake of 2020, a Bold Vision for Building Resilient Communities

N R D C VO I C E S