FALL 2018
’ NATURE SVOICE
GRIZZLY BEAR © DESIGN PICS INC./ALAMY
For the 3 million Members and online activists of the Natural Resources Defense Council
IN THIS ISSUE
A grizzly bear in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, now under siege by oil and gas companies
NRDC vs. Trump: Big Wins So Far, Bigger Battles Ahead Alaska Mega Mine Loses Big Backer Scott Pruitt Ends His Destructive Reign at EPA Alaska Wildlife Faces Brutal Hunting Methods
NRDC works to safeguard the earth—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.
KEYSTONE XL GOES TO COURT
NRDC and our partners appeared in federal court to challenge the Trump Administration’s approval of a cross-border permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The administration used outdated information to speed approval for the risky 1,700-mile pipeline, which would carry millions of gallons of dirty tar sands oil every day from Canada to Texas, endangering critical water resources and wildlife habitat along the way. Keystone XL is facing several legal challenges, and a victory here could overturn the permit, dealing another blow to this beleaguered, climate-wrecking project.
Victory
VICTORY OVER MONSANTO
A California Court of Appeals has rejected Monsanto’s latest effort to remove the chemical glyphosate from the state’s public list of cancercausing chemicals. The World Health Organization found that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen in 2015, and California then listed the chemical as such under the state’s Proposition 65. Monsanto, which uses glyphosate in its Roundup weed killer, challenged the listing, but the court upheld the state’s right to refer to the work of expert scientific bodies in compiling its list of hazardous chemicals. The victory sends a clear message: corporations cannot dodge the public’s right to know.
Victory
STORES BAN PAINT STRIPPERS
After receiving petitions from 200,000 NRDC activists and other concerned consumers, home improvement giant Lowe’s became the first major retailer to announce it would ban paint strippers made with deadly methylene chloride and the toxic solvent NMP. Fumes from these paint strippers have caused more than 60 deaths, and NMP can harm fetal development, yet the Trump EPA has refused to finalize a proposed ban on them. Sherwin-Williams and Home Depot have followed Lowe’s lead, putting public health first while the EPA drags its feet.
C OV E R A RT I C L E
ALASKA MEGA MINE LOSES BIG BACKER I n the wake of intense public pressure generatedby NRDC and a coalition of Alaska Native and other local groups, Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals has terminated its agreement to invest in the Pebble Mine, the massive open-pit copper and gold mine proposed at the magnificent headwaters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay. The announcement came a mere three weeks after the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Toronto, at which NRDC joined Bristol Bay Native leaders in urging First Quantum to abandon its interest in the project. The delegation delivered more than 250,000 petitions from NRDC Members and other activists demanding that the company walk away from the proposed mega mine, which would devastate the Bristol Bay wilderness and imperil its wild salmon runs, among the most productive in the world. “First Quantum’s exit is a tremendous step forward,” said NRDC Western Director Joel Reynolds, “and the most recent
confirmation that the Pebble Mine is an international pariah because of its singular environmental, social and financial risks.” The mine’s sole owner—cash-strapped Northern Dynasty Minerals—must now restart its search for a new corporate partner for the ill-conceived scheme. That would seem a tall order, considering that three of the world’s largest mining companies— Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Mitsubishi—have each also abandoned the Pebble project since 2011, owing in no small part to immense local and inter national opposition. Yet the battle continues. Despite the findings of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama that the project would cause irreparable, even “catastrophic” harm to the Bristol Bay watershed, President Trump’s former EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, abandoned those findings. Now, Northern Dynasty is moving ahead with a grossly deficient permitting application that the
Army Corps of Engineers is expediting toward approval. Says Reynolds: “In opposing the permit application, we will do everything we can to force Northern Dynasty and the Trump Administration to heed the opposition of independent scientists and 80 percent of Bristol Bay residents. And if they don’t listen, we’ll see them in court.”
Bristol Bay wilderness, near the proposed Pebble Mine site
S P E C I A L R E P O RT
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Scott Pruitt Ends His Destructive Reign at EPA Scott Pruitt’s short, disastrous tenure as head of the Environmental Protection Agency came to an inglorious end in July, when the scandal-plagued antienvironmentalist finally bowed to overwhelming public pressure and resigned. NRDC led the charge to oust the former Oklahoma attorney general from the Trump Administration, rallying our Members and others in a massive campaign to Fire Pruitt! as he racked up a litany of corruption allegations while launching a scorched-earth assault on our environmental and public health safeguards. “Ethics matter. So does a commitment to EPA’s central mission,” says NRDC President Rhea
Suh. “Scott Pruitt failed miserably on both counts.” While Pruitt’s departure marked an important victory, the pause to savor it was brief: President Trump named Pruitt’s second-in-command, Andrew Wheeler—a former coal lobbyist with deep ties to America’s dirtiest industries—as acting EPA chief. No matter who Trump chooses to permanently run the agency, the president and his pick would do well to learn from Pruitt’s downfall. Says Suh: “If Pruitt’s successor also puts the interests of polluters ahead of protecting public health and the environment, he or she will encounter the same wall of resistance and meet the same fate.”
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BRISTOL BAY © ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM; SCOTT PRUITT © GAGE SKIDMORE
G O O D N EWS
CA M PA I G N U P DAT E
NRDC VS. TRUMP: BIG WINS SO FAR, EVEN BIGGER BATTLES AHEAD D
million acres of these public lands would not only imperil the spectacular monuments and their cultural treasures at the hands of fossil fuel developers, but also fundamentally threaten the landmark Antiquities Act—the very law that empowers presidents to permanently protect places of historic and cultural value. We’re battling to stop Trump from letting Big Oil raid other natural treasures as well, such as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska— also known as the Western Arctic Reserve—which is home to wolves, brown bears, two caribou herds and millions of migratory birds. Simultaneously, NRDC is fighting in court against the Trump Administration’s shredding of the Clean
“Trump never made any secret of his contempt for the laws that safeguard our environment . . .” Clockwise from top: A grizzly bear in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, now under siege by oil and gas companies; an endangered rusty patched bumblebee; Metate Arch in Devil’s Garden, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
NRDC has yet to lose any case that has been concluded in the courts. That includes the very first case, which dealt a knockout blow to attempts by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency to scrap rules aimed at reducing toxic mercury pollution by five tons every year. We’ve also successfully litigated against the administration’s efforts to shred vital safeguards protecting Americans against smog-forming pollutants generated by dirty coalfired power plants, to stall on important energy efficiency standards, to scuttle certain limits on potent greenhouse gas pollutants for the sake of the oil and gas industry, and to reduce the penalties paid by automakers that violate fuel economy standards.
Meanwhile, victories in eight separate suits filed under the Freedom of Information Act have exposed important behind-the-scenes dealings of top administration officials such as former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, helping to stoke public outrage and focus scrutiny on their ethical lapses and extreme antienvironment agendas. Among the suits still awaiting their day in court are some whose outcomes may be felt for generations to come. These include NRDC’s fight to protect two national monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. If successful, Trump’s move to strip federal protections from two
Water Rule, which protects the streams that feed drinking water sources for one out of every three Americans. We’re also preparing to sue the administration over its attempts to torpedo the landmark Clean Power Plan, which would clean up the dirty power plants that account for 40 percent of America’s climate change pollution. The list of high-stakes courtroom battles across every major front goes on. We are suing to stop the administration’s attacks on rules protecting us from pesticide abuse, including its rejection of a proposed ban on chlorpyrifos—which has been [Continued on next page.]
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onald Trump has never shied from gross exaggeration, but 18 months into his presidency, there’s at least one fact that can’t be overstated: his Administration is waging the most far-reaching and destructive assault in modern history on our environmental and public health protections. With the White House in the grip of a vociferously anti-science, pro-polluter president and Congress under the control of his allies, the courts have emerged as the last independent bastion where facts and scientific evidence still matter. As a result, they are proving to be the best venue for mounting an effective firewall against the Trump onslaught, while holding him and his administration accountable to the rule of law. Less than two weeks after Trump was sworn in, NRDC filed its first lawsuit against his administration, and we haven’t stopped since. To date, we’ve taken the administration to court nearly 60 times. These cases tackle the full range of Trump’s attacks, from his administration’s alarming attempts to throw open enormous swaths of our public lands and oceans to corporate interests, to its no-holdsbarred campaign to weaken and dismantle the system of safeguards that protects the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. The biggest potential beneficiaries of Trump’s war on the environment are corporate polluters, whose former employees and lobbyists now rank among the president’s top environmental appointees. “Trump never made any secret of his contempt for the laws that safeguard our environment and health, so we were ready from day one with an allhands-on-deck litigation strategy to fend off the attacks we knew were coming,” says NRDC Chief Counsel Mitch Bernard. “That strategy is now paying off, but we also have to gear up for even tougher legal battles ahead.” NRDC’s campaign of courtroom counterattack has demanded extraordinary resources—including the hiring of eight new full-time lawyers—and it has yielded a string of 17 important victories. In fact,
Alaska Wildlife Faces Brutal Hunting Methods
linked to neurological damage in children—and its refusal to limit the widespread use of neonic pesticides, which are killing off America’s bees and endangered species. We’re taking aim at the EPA’s dangerous plan to substitute the views of industry insiders for those of academic scientists in the crafting of environmental and public health safeguards. And we’re gearing up to challenge Ryan Zinke’s shocking scheme to throw open virtually all our coastal waters to offshore drilling. As we approach the two-year mark of Trump’s term, not only is NRDC’s docket of cases expected to keep growing, but the battles are likely to get more challenging. “This administration came to office with a tremendous amount of swagger and arrogance—what really amounted to an utter disregard for the rule of law,” Bernard explains. “They overreached and made mistakes, and we won some quick legal victories. But we’re under no illusion that our successes thus far will cause President Trump and his appointees to stop— or even pause—in their concerted assault on the environmental protections we once thought secure. Their next wave of attacks could be more sophisticated and lead to more drawn-out battles. “The good news is that the courts are upholding the rule of law. So, thanks to the support of our Members, NRDC will keep making sure that this administration is held to account. The federal courts remain our environment’s last, best line of defense.”
Wild snow geese migrating
Winning Back Vital Protections for Birds NRDC and our partners have sued the Trump Administration for rolling back protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. One of the nation’s oldest environmental laws, the act has saved millions of birds and is vital to safeguarding more than 1,000 species—such as wood ducks, cardinals and prairie falcons—from unauthorized hunting and industrial activities, including oil and gas development. For decades, the law has incentivized industries to minimize harm to birds from threats like power lines, toxic oil waste pits, wind turbines and pesticide applications. It has also held polluters accountable
NRDC Sues Newark Over Lead in Water Joining forces with the Newark Education Workers Caucus, a group of schoolteachers, NRDC has filed suit against the city of Newark, New Jersey, and state and city officials for violating the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The city’s own sampling shows shockingly high levels of lead, some of the highest recently recorded by a large U.S. water system. There is no safe level of lead exposure. Pregnant women and children are most at risk; even low levels are associated with irreversible damage to developing
for disasters like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which killed more than one million birds. BP was slapped with a $100 million fine as a result. But the Trump Administration’s new, industry-friendly interpretation of the law only protects birds from intentional killing. “Incidental” deaths, no matter how devastating or avoidable, are immune from legal action, leaving millions of birds at risk every year from poorly sited or polluting activity. “Gutting this 100-year-old safeguard is a disaster for birds,” says NRDC attorney Katie Umekubo. “We’re going to fight until polluters are once again held accountable for bird deaths that are completely preventable.” LEARN MORE
Nearly 70,000 NRDC Members and online activists have rallied to defend Alaskan wildlife, petitioning in fierce opposition to an Interior Department proposal that would allow certain cruel and extreme hunting practicesto return to Alaska’s wild national preserves. Among the vicious killing methods that the Trump Administration wants to bring back: allowing hunters to lure grizzly bears and black bears with bait so they can be shot point-blank, killing black bear mothers and cubs while they are hibernating, using dogs to hunt black bears, and shooting and trapping wolves and coyotes and their pups during the denning season. Such practices were specifically banned by the Obama Administration in 2015. “Most Americans—including the majority of Alaskans— oppose these antiquated and inhumane practices,” says NRDC Staff Attorney Zack Strong. A recent survey, for example, found Alaskans opposed killing black bear mothers and their cubs in their dens by a three-to-one margin, and 60 percent opposed bear baiting. “They say this is about expanding outdoor recreation,” Strong says, “but it’s really about ‘predator control’—killing off native carnivores in an attempt to artificially boost populations of prey animals like caribou and moose for hunters to shoot. It’s scientifically indefensible and contrary to the National Park Service’s own management policies, and it has no place on our national preserves—or any other public lands.”
nrdc.org/mbta
brains. Newark’s high drinking water lead levels are especially concerning because for years it has led all New Jersey cities in the number of children poisoned by lead, from a variety of sources. “Safe drinking water is a necessity, not a luxury,” says NRDC attorney Sara Imperiale. “Access to safe drinking water is particularly important in lowincome communities of color, where residents face repeated stress on their health from a wide range of environmental threats.” NRDC successfully settled a similar lawsuit in Flint, Michigan, in 2017, which will bring about the replacement of thousands of Flint’s water lines by 2020.
A wolf in Alaska, just one of the species threatened by a proposed return to extreme hunting practices
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GEESE © JEFF R. CLOW/GETTY; YOUNG BOY © BRYAN ANSELM/NRDC; WOLF © MICHAEL ROEDER/ISTOCK
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Former New York City mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg has announced the American Cities Climate Challenge, a major initiative to boost U.S. cities in their battle against climate change. The $70 million investment will be administered under the auspices of Bloomberg Philanthropies, with NRDC serving as a core partner in the groundbreaking endeavor, supporting participants by providing key strategic and technical assistance. The announcement, which came exactly one year after President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, builds on the resounding rebuke to that reckless decision from
mayors across the country. More than 230 cities—representing some 70 million Americans— have pledged “We Are Still In” and are committed to making progress toward the goals of the landmark accord. “Cities across America are on the front lines of climate change—their residents are feeling the heat and watching the floodwaters rise around them,” says NRDC President Rhea Suh. “This challenge will empower cities to pursue innovative policies and programs to cut their carbon pollution.” In the absence of federal leadership, the American Cities Climate Challenge is poised to dramatically accelerate climate-saving efforts.
Chicago’s skyline from Lincoln Park
The 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States were invited to apply for the challenge. The 20 cities with the best track records of achievement so far and a deep ambition to ramp up progress over the next two years will be selected as Leadership Cities. Each will receive a robust package of technical assistance and support valued at more than $2.5 million, including a philanthropy-funded Climate Advisor to facilitate the development and passage of highimpact policies focused primarily on the transportation and building sectors, which typically account for 90 percent of citywide carbon emissions. The balance of the investment will be used to grow global awareness of city policies, build a learning network between the cities and manage the initiative. By driving innovation and a healthy spirit of competition, these cities could ultimately serve as models for others seeking to substantially reduce their carbon footprint. All told, the largest cities in the United States have the potential to deliver 20 percent of our nation’s Paris target— cutting more than 200 million megatons of carbon pollution by 2025, the equivalent of closing 48 dirty, coal-fired power plants.
Let’s Stop the Silent Extinction of Giraffes By Paul Todd, Senior Staff Attorney, Nature program
We celebrated World Giraffe Day on June 21, but these iconic animals still need way more global attention. NRDC is working hard to prevent what many are calling the “silentextinction” of giraffes, whose populations have declined more than 40 percent in just the past 30 years, with fewer than 100,000 remaining in fragmented populations across Africa. More than a year ago, NRDC and our partners filed a petition urging the Fish and Wildlife Service to list giraffes as an endangered species. The agency is way behind schedule in moving the listing process forward. We owe it to these wondrous creatures not to delay the listing process another day. All giraffes are in serious trouble, but the situation has grown
critical for the West African giraffe, the Nubian giraffe in Ethiopia and South Sudan and the Thornicroft’s giraffe in eastern Zambia; only a few hundred of each remain. The United States has been a big part of the problem, importing almost 40,000 giraffe products over the past decade, including more than
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21,400 bone carvings, 3,855 skins and skin pieces and 3,700 hunting trophies. Rugs, pillows, knife handles and myriad other products made from giraffes can be found for sale all over the internet, not to mention gruesome photos of giraffes killed for sport by American hunters. An endangered listing would prohibit most imports and sales of giraffe products and reduce the number of giraffes that can be imported by trophy hunters. It’s hard to imagine the African landscape without these extraordinary animals, but unless we win new protections, they may not make it. NRDC and our partners will continue to fight for giraffes, both in the United States and internationally, before it’s too late.
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American Cities at the Forefront of Climate Fight Get $70 Million Boost
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