LOS ANGELES (October 24, 2007) – In a major victory for public health, the Ninth Circuit court granted yesterday a request by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other defendants in a lawsuit involving ships and cleaner marine fuels. The stay of an earlier injunction guarantees the enforcement of California Air Resources Board (CARB) regulations while the lawsuit is heard. The regulations require ships to reduce their emissions as they approach the California coast. The majority of ships would comply with the rules by using cleaner fuels in their auxiliary engines.
LOS ANGELES (October 24, 2007) – In a unanimous13-0 vote today, the Los Angeles City Council granted an appeal presented by a coalition led by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) challenging an earlier decision by the City’s Board of Public Works (BPW) that had issued a permit to a controversial housing development in northeast Los Angeles. The action guarantees that a new environmental impact report (EIR) will be required before the project can move forward.
NEW YORK (October 23, 2007) – In a landmark settlement approved last Friday in federal court, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to adopt strict new environmental safety measures for dredging deeper shipping channels through a highly contaminated Superfund site that lies beneath the New York/New Jersey harbor.
WASHINGTON, DC (October 23, 2007) – Late last night, with the wave of a pen, the Bush administration negated 19 key environmental laws to facilitate the building of the already unpopular fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to public health and policy experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived the laws under the authority granted in the REAL ID Act of 2005.
WASHINGTON, DC (October 18, 2007) – Today marks the 35th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, one of the nation’s most prominent and successful environmental laws. On this anniversary, NRDC’s Executive Director Peter Lehner will appear before a Congressional committee to tout the law’s successes but also remind leaders that all is not well with the current Clean Water Act.
“The introduction and planned markup of America’s Climate Security Act by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) represents an important step forward in the overdue process to enact comprehensive, mandatory global warming legislation. Committee consideration of this legislation will help move us toward the substantial reductions in global warming pollution we need to protect our climate. The bill also recognizes the need to direct proceeds from the pollution allowance market to important policy objectives, including promoting clean energy solutions, protecting the poor and other consumers, ensuring a just transition for workers in affected industries, and preventing impacts abroad that lead to conflicts and threats to security.
WASHINGTON (October 17, 2007) – The Environmental Protection Agency must act now to set nutrient pollution standards and implement pollution control for the Mississippi River system, according to a new water quality report released by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) yesterday.
NEW YORK (October 17, 2007) – New maps resulting from analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) find that regions most affected by ragweed and smog substantially overlap with one another — leaving these regions particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming. As global warming boosts levels of both ragweed and smog, the risk of asthma and allergic reactions for people living in these overlapping regions will likely increase.
WASHINGTON, DC (October 12, 2007) – News that former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is a fitting recognition of their roles in elevating climate change to one of the world’s greatest areas of concern, according to Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
