Nature's Voice Winter 2023

Victory

OUTCRY SPURS USPS REVERSAL

After its plan to invest in polluting delivery vehicles unleashed an enormous backlash—including more than half a million protest messages from NRDC Members and online activists—the U.S. Postal Service now says it will buy thousands more clean electric vehicles. “This announcement is welcome,” says NRDC Senior Advocate Britt Carmon, “but there’s still more the agency must do.” NRDC and our allies, who sued the Postal Service over its plan, continue to fight in court to press the agency to electrify more of its fleet.

Victory

CALIFORNIA GOES ALL-IN ON EVS

In a major win that could go a long way to rein in one of the country’s biggest sources of climate pollution, California has cemented its commitment to phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035, turbocharging the transition to 100 percent zero-emission vehicles. Washington, Oregon, Vermont, New York, and Massachusetts have already pledged to follow California’s lead, and more than a dozen additional states could soon follow, representing more than 40 percent of the U.S. passenger vehicle market.

Victory

ENERGY EFFICIENCY A WIN-WIN

The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to review and update energy efficiency standards for 20 categories of products, ranging from residential dishwashers to commercial refrigeration equip ment. The move settles a lawsuit brought by NRDC and our coalition partners after the department under the Trump administration failed to meet its legal deadlines to review the standards, and it marks a big win for both consumers and the climate. Updated standards are poised to save con sumers $650 billion in utility bills while avoiding at least a billion tons of carbon pollution by 2050.

UTAH MONUMENTS FACE NEW ASSAULT

Two spectacular national monuments targeted by President Trump are once again under attack following a pair of lawsuits filed by anti-environment forces in Utah. The suits seek to strip federal protections from nearly two million acres of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments, recalling Trump’s attempt to dismantle both mon uments in 2017. That move, which would have amounted to the largest single rollback of public lands protections in U.S. history, was immediately challenged in court by NRDC and our allies and ultimately reversed by President Biden. At press time, our legal team was moving swiftly to prepare the best strategy to again defend these magnificent public lands in court.

As radical as the assault on the two monuments is, there is far more at stake, as NRDC Senior Attorney Kate Desormeau points out: “The forces behind these

lawsuits have made no secret that their ultimate goal is the Supreme Court, where they hope to overturn a century of jurisprudence and hamstring the president’s authority to designate national monuments.” Ever since Congress granted that authority in the Antiquities Act of 1906, presidents from both parties have used it to protect some of the country’s most cherished cultural, historical, and scientific resources, from Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks (which began as national monuments) to Muir Woods and Alaska’s Misty Fjords. Yet extractive industries including oil and gas, mining, and commercial fishing have long sought to curtail the president’s ability to declare such priceless natural gems off-limits to their destructive activities. Their agenda was wholeheartedly embraced by Trump and his administration, and it continues to serve as the driving force for a wide-ranging legal assault on environmental protection in the United States (see related story, opposite page).

“National monuments protect some of America’s most special places for the benefit of everyone and for future generations,” says Desormeau, who is also leading our court fight to protect Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument from another industry-driven attack. “We’re determined to see that legacy live on.”

NRDC.ORG/GIVE

SPECIAL REPORT

Members Rally to Oppose Offshore Drilling Plan

In a powerful show of defiance against the outsize influence of the oil and gas industry and its cynical exploitation of the crisis in Ukraine, tens of thousands of NRDC Members and online activists have called on the Biden administration to scrap its proposal to open millions of acres of our oceans to offshore drilling. The administration’s new five-year offshore drilling plan proposes as many as 11 new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. The proposal would not only lock in years more of climate-wrecking fossil fuels but also further imperil coastal communities and marine wildlife with the risks of massive oil spills, pipeline leaks, and other harms, all while doing nothing to stabilize volatile energy prices now. That’s because most oil and gas from additional drilling wouldn’t hit the market for a decade, and the industry is currently using only a

quarter of the 11 million acres of ocean it already has the rights to drill. “Handing over more of our coastal waters to polluters is in direct conflict with our climate goals,” says NRDC Oceans Advocate Valerie Cleland. “The public has spoken; it’s now up to the Biden administration to listen.”

The environmental campaigns and victories featured in Nature’s Voice are all made possible through your generous support.

You can help NRDC defend the environment by making a special contribution:

Anti-environment forces are suing to drastically shrink Bears Ears National Monument.

NRDC MOBILIZES AS THREATS FROM TRUMP-PACKED COURTS MULTIPLY

It didn’t take a crystal ball to predict where the Supreme Court was headed. Ever since the last of Donald Trump’s three court picks was confirmed, a mere week before the 2020 election, all bets were that the nation’s highest court would take a dramatic rightward shift. Still, the end of the court’s last term in June packed a wallop. A major decision striking down a centuryold state gun-control law was followed the next day by headlines proclaiming the end of Roe v. Wade. A week later, on the last day of the court’s term, came the final bombshell: the decision in West Virginia v. EPA that severely restricted the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate climate-busting pollution from the nation’s power plants.

“You’ve got a six-justice majority who, in over turning Roe, tossed 50 years of legal precedent out the window,” says Mitch Bernard, NRDC chief counsel. “What they’ve effectively said is, every thing is on the table.”

If the demise of Roe was a seismic blow in the decades-long assault on women’s reproductive health, the West Virginia decision was no less cele brated on the far right by those who have been waging a relentless campaign to dismantle our country’s bedrock environmental protections. It didn’t take long, after landmark laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered

Species Act were passed 50 years ago, for rightwing think tanks funded by America’s dirtiest in dustries to begin concocting radical legal theories aimed at taking them down. As the West Virginia decision shows, these once-fringe theories are now finding a more receptive audience, and not just at the Supreme Court but at every level of a federal judiciary now stacked with more than 230 Trumpappointed judges.

“Already we’re seeing the dangerous theories that underpinned the arguments in West Virginia being deployed in other cases,” says Bernard. “And that’s only the beginning. These folks have made no secret that they don’t just want to weaken environmental protection in this country; they want much of it de clared unconstitutional.”

In anticipation of an onslaught of polluter-driven litigation aimed at advancing this radical agenda,

NRDC has launched a special fund—the Earth’s Best Defense Legal Fund—as we mobilize for the tough fights ahead. It’s only the second time we’ve created such a fund. The first was in the early days of the Trump administration as its attacks on our environment swiftly escalated into an all-out war. Thanks to the overwhelming support of our Members, we were able to mount a sweeping legal counterattack, filing more than 150 lawsuits against Trump and his lieutenants. Of the cases that have been preliminarily or finally resolved, we’ve scored victories in nearly 90 percent. The coming surge of post–West Virginia legal at tacks is shaping up to be no less extensive than the Trump-era assault, targeting everything from the fight against climate change to protections for our last wild places and fragile oceans, from critical safeguards for vulnerable wildlife to our right to

breathe clean air and drink clean water. Indeed, the first case heard by the Supreme Court this term, Sackett v. EPA, aims to gut the EPA’s ability to protect drinking-water sources for more than 100 million people. Meanwhile, NRDC is fighting three separate lawsuits meant to derail our climatecritical progress toward clean-energy vehicles, including a suit that could sink California’s historic plan to transition to 100 percent emissions-free car sales by 2035. And we’re battling on multiple fronts against a coordinated ideological campaign to drastically weaken the long-standing authority of presidents to designate national monuments. These attacks could strip protections from such treasured places as our country’s first marine na tional monument in the Atlantic, Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, as well as Utah’s spectacular Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments (see related article, opposite page). What’s more, as NRDC Litigation Director Michael Wall points out, we must be prepared for our docket of state-court cases to expand. That’s be cause the same polluter-allied forces trying to stymie climate progress at the federal level are also target ing vital climate action at the state level, such as the right of states to band together to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Then there are the dozens of fights in which NRDC is allied with members of marginalized

“These folks don’t just want to weaken environmental protection in this country; they want much of it declared unconstitutional.”

Clockwisefromtopleft: Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument is one target of an emerging onslaught of anti-environment litigation; the legal attacks could imperil efforts to rein in carbon pollution at a moment when melting ice caps and other signs urge rapid climate action; NRDC continues to stand with residents near the Port of Los Angeles and other communities fighting for environmental justice; the Endangered Species Act, credited with saving such iconic species as grizzlies, is also under attack.

The coming surge of polluter-driven legal attacks is shaping up to be no less extensive than Trump’s war on the environment.

Your Membership Support of NRDC Made a World of Difference in 2022

communities who are on the front lines battling en vironmental racism and injustice. Those battles range from a Bay Area community group’s fight to force agrochemical giant Corteva to stop toxic air pollution and control hazardous waste at a manu facturing facility, to New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents’ challenge of a plan that would send doz ens of railcars a day of highly explosive liquified natural gas trundling through their neighborhoods. These critically important cases can demand years of hard-fought litigation. Case in point: More than 20 years after their first lawsuit was filed, NRDC continues to stand in court with communities near the heavily polluting Port of Los Angeles in their fight for cleaner air.

It’s that kind of tenacity that long ago earned NRDC its reputation as “the earth’s best defense,” a leg acy that Wall and his team draw on today as they steel themselves for the post–West Virginia era ahead. “Our task isn’t to win easy cases,” Wall says. “Anyone can do that. NRDC’s litigation power comes from persuading jurists who do not see the world our way. Will we convince every judge? No. But we’ve repeatedly seen that, through uncompromising rigor and determination to see justice done, we can win cases in front of conservative judges. And given the hard-right turn of the judiciary, that makes our par ticular brand of litigation all the more necessary.”

To make a special tax-deductible gift to the Earth’s Best Defense Legal Fund, visit nrdc.org/legalfund .

BOLD U.S. CLIMATE ACTION

Historic federal legislation marked the boldest U.S. climate action to date, an investment of $369 billion to grow clean energy and shrink the nation’s carbon footprint.

NEW JERSEY LEADS ON BEES

The Garden State banned nearly all nonagricultural outdoor uses of “neonic” pesticides, the toughest restrictions yet on these dangerous bee-killing chemicals in the United States.

CLEAN AIR ATTACK REJECTED

The EPA reaffirmed the necessity of regulating mercury, lead, and scores of other hazardous pollutants coming from coal- and oilfired power plants, reversing a Trump-era move.

LIGHTS OUT FOR DIRTY BULBS

New Energy Department rules will phase out the use of highly inefficient incandescent light bulbs, a move that will save consumers $3 billion a year in utility costs.

TONGASS WINS REPRIEVE

In another Trump-era reversal, the Biden administration is working to restore protections from industrial logging to the oldgrowth wildlands of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

WHOA! TO TOXIC WEED KILLER

A federal appeals court ruled the EPA must reconsider its conclusions about glyphosate’s cancer-causing effects and promptly finish reassessing the herbicide’s ecological harms.

CLEAN CAR DRIVE REVS UP

The EPA finalized its strongest-ever vehicle emissions standards, which will cut carbon emissions by more than three billion tons and accelerate the transition to cleaner cars.

L.A. BEGINS DRILLING PHASEOUT

Home to the country’s largest urban oil field, Los Angeles County became the first in the nation to start the process of phasing out existing oil drilling.

BIG INVESTMENT IN ORGANIC AG

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $300 million initiative to expand healthy, climate-friendly farming by helping growers and ranchers transition to organic agriculture.

WOLF PROTECTIONS RESTORED

A federal court restored endangered species protections to gray wolves across most of the country, rejecting the Trump administration’s reckless attempt to delist the animals.

Ditch the Charmin! There Are More ForestFriendly TPs Than Ever

Great news for conscientious consumers who don’t want to keep flushing away some of the earth’s last great primary forests: The number of sustainable op tions for household tissue prod ucts is greater than ever before. Proof positive is NRDC’s most recent Issue With Tissue scorecard, which ranks the forestfriendliness of more than 140 tissue products including toilet paper, paper towels, and facial tissue. In all, 34 products re ceived a grade of A or A-plus— a record number!—even as major brands such as Charmin, Cottonelle, and Quilted Northern continue to earn Fs for driving the destruction of Canada’s eco logically vital boreal forest.

“Industry laggards like Procter & Gamble are fueling a tree-totoilet pipeline that is wiping out some of the most environmentally important—and threatened— forests in the world,” says Jennifer Skene, NRDC’s natural climate solutions policy manager, referring to the maker of Charmin, America’s top-selling toilet paper brand. Not only is Canada’s boreal forest the homeland of hundreds of Indigenous commu nities and habitat for abundant wildlife, it is the world’s most carbon-dense forest, holding twice as much carbon in its soils and trees as all of the world’s oil

reserves. Yet more than a million acres of the forest are clearcut each year, in significant part to make throwaway tissue prod ucts. Many major toilet paper brands, such as Charmin, are made almost exclusively from virgin pulp from centuries-old boreal forests in Canada. That’s in contrast to grade-A offerings made from 100 percent recycled content from companies such as Seventh Generation and Marcal, and also sold under private-label brands at stores such as Trader Joe’s, Target (Everspring), and

H-E-B (Field & Future).

“Clearcutting forests like the Canadian boreal to make sin gle-use tissue products is a climate crime,” says Ashley Jor dan, boreal corporate campaign coordinator. “We’ll continue to champion brands that are help ing to save our climate-critical forests while ratcheting up the pressure on P&G and others to stop greenwashing and start making meaningful change.”

To see the complete Issue

With Tissue scorecard, visit nrdc.org/tissue

Advancing Environ

mental Justice, 40 Years On

It was summer 1982 when residents of Warren County, North Carolina, galvanized in their determina tion to fight the state’s decision to allow toxic waste to be dumped in a landfill near their predominantly Black community. Dozens were arrested in a protest that would ignite a national movement focused on the intersection of race, class, and environmentalism. Forty years later, EPA Administrator Michael Regan chose this birthplace of the environmental justice movement to announce the creation of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. More than 200 full-time staffers focused solely on solving problems associated with environmental racism in our communities will be employed by the new office, which will also be charged with implementing $3 billion worth of climate and environmental justice block grants. I was fortunate to attend this important announcement.

It was humbling to gather with so many friends, colleagues, and trailblazers from the environmental justice community whom I’ve come to know and re spect. The moment was gratifying due to the progress we’ve made as a movement up until now, and it was motivating given how much farther we still have to go. “If we’re going to change how the system works, we have to change the structure of the system,” Administrator Regan said during his speech. I couldn’t agree more. Eliminating systemic racism and the effect it has on Black and brown communities is the chal lenge of our time.

The EPA’s new environmental justice office is poised to make a tremendous impact, but this chal lenge is bigger than any one agency, no matter how impressively staffed. We must continue to strengthen authen tic partnerships with frontline groups to build trust within marginalized communities. State and fed eral resources must flow quickly to areas with the greatest need, and technical assistance should be pri oritized to reduce bureaucratic hurdles. My colleagues and I at NRDC look forward to working with the EPA and its new office to achieve these goals.

Together, we must continue to act.

Dawone Robinson, Director of Southeast Government Affairs, Center for Policy Advocacy