DISPATCHES
Protecting an Alaskan Beauty
 The sight of a yellow-billed loon, landing gracefully on the cool waters off Alaska's northern coast, is that of a bird calmly unaware of the threats to its survival. By some estimates, fewer than 17,000 yellow-billed loons exist, making it the rarest of all loon species. Their nesting sites are scattered across millions of acres in prime oil and gas territory, and the birds are slow to re-colonize when displaced from their habitat. What's more, their fish-based diet makes them particularly vulnerable to mercury pollution and contamination from oil spills and toxic solvents used in oil drilling. In 2004, NRDC began petitioning the Fish and Wildlife Service to list the loon as an endangered species; the agency's public comment period ended in August. Visit BioGems website to learn more.
-- Raluca Albu
Silicon Valley's Eco-Warrior
In August 2006, when the California State Legislature passed what has been widely touted as the most important global warming law in the United States, the environmental community cheered the dawning of a brighter, more hopeful future for the planet. In a display that won key votes throughout the state, venture capitalists, economists, industry bigwigs, and environmental advocates had joined forces in support of the legislation, which mandates a 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. In the days and weeks leading up to the vote, few advocates met with more business owners, corporate executives, and legislators than Bob Epstein, an NRDC trustee and Silicon Valley entrepreneur who in 2000 co-founded Environmental Entrepreneurs to advance economically beneficial solutions to environmental problems. For his leadership in the passage of the groundbreaking law, the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers honored Epstein with its first-ever KPCB Prize for Greentech Policy Innovators.
-- LMW
Come Play With Us in the Blogosphere
In recent months, NRDC has launched a number of interactive Web sites in order to better connect members and the general public with NRDC experts. The sites showcase news and information from our many new partners, from celebrity friends like Jack Black and supermodel Angela Lindvall, who can be found on itsyournature.org, to the fishermen, surfers, and gourmet chefs on youroceans.org who are working with us to protect fragile ocean ecosystems. Our newest virtual endeavor, switchboard.org, is a blog that offers an insider's perspective on the business of solving environmental problems. There you can connect with NRDC experts who react to the day
s news and respond to reader comments on issues like biofuels.
-- Lisa Whiteman
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Eye on Washington
The summer of 2007 saw heated debate over energy policy on Capitol Hill, and in the end -- finally -- signs of progress. In early August the Senate passed an historic energy bill that would raise the average fuel economy of a new car in America to 35 miles per gallon from today's 22.2 miles per gallon by the year 2020. Unfortunately, the Senate bill failed to include a renewable energy standard that would require utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity through improved efficiency programs and renewable sources such as wind and solar -- something that's already been done at the state level in New York and California, for instance. On the flip side, the House energy bill did include a renewable energy requirement, but it left out any mandatory increase in car fuel economy.
This month, NRDC's Washington staff, with the help of activists across the country, will be talking and working with congressional staff members to make sure that the legislative package coming out of conference -- in which a joint version of the bill will be hammered out -- includes both improved fuel economy standards and renewable energy requirements. Both provisions are cornerstones of the effort to cut energy consumption and greenhouse gas pollution. Stay tuned.
-- Julia Bovey
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