Media Center

Exposing Even More Gulf Waters to Drilling “is the last thing we need – and the last place we need it.”

September 29, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced plans to expand the waters available in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, as part of the new five-year leasing plan that will take effect in 2024.

California Could Lose Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for Lead Contamination Protections (Again)

September 29, 2023 Press ReleaseSacramento

Public health and environmental organizations urged stronger State leadership in efforts to remove lead from drinking water infrastructure throughout California. In a support letter, the organizations called on the California State Water Resources Control Board to address the state’s disturbing…

Asm. Carrillo and over 100 organizations call on Governor Newsom to sign AB 1167, the Orphan Well Prevention Act

September 27, 2023 Press ReleaseLos Angeles

Today, Assemblymember Carrillo and over a dozen advocates with climate, community and environmental justice organizations held a press conference to call on Governor Gavin Newsom to hold oil companies accountable by signing the Orphan Well Prevention Act, AB 1167, into law…

FERC Demands Gas Reliability Legislation following “Unprecedented” Gas Outages in Winter Storm Elliott

September 21, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – Today the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) released a much-awaited report assessing the failures of gas generators throughout the eastern U.S. during Winter Storm Elliott, concluding that Congress and state legislatures need…

NRDC Digital Tool Tracks Political Opposition to Offshore Drilling

September 21, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is launching an updated digital tool today to help people track where their Members of Congress stand on offshore oil and gas drilling. The Biden administration is expected to release a final five-year plan for federal…

Green Banks Hold Promise for Equitable Climate Solutions in US and Globally

September 19, 2023 Press ReleaseUnited States

NEW YORK – The United States and countries around the world are poised to exponentially increase investments to accelerate the clean energy transition, according to participants at a Climate Week green bank event today in New York City, featuring a…

EPA Ensures States, Tribes Can Protect Their Waterways from Harm

September 14, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule today that restores the ability of states and authorized Tribes to weigh in on federally permitted projects that could pollute or harm their waters, and to limit their adverse impacts. EPA…

Minnesota Declares Sept. 14 “Clean Grid Day”

September 14, 2023 Press ReleaseMinneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (September 14, 2023) – Today, as members of Minnesota’s grid operator Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) meet in Minneapolis to discuss the future of the Midwestern grid, Gov. Tim Walz declared September 14 “Clean Grid Day.” At the beginning…

Army Corps Considers Continued Operation of Destructive Dakota Access Pipeline

September 8, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a draft environmental impact statement today for the operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which threatens the lands, water supply, and valuable cultural resources of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Biden Administration to Cancel Arctic Refuge Oil and Gas Leases

September 6, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration canceled Trump-era leases for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, eliminating an imminent threat to drill within the refuge’s 1.6-million-acre Coastal Plain.

Governor Newsom and CA Legislature Agree on Path to Clean, Reliable Energy

September 1, 2023 Press ReleaseSacramento

Governor Gavin Newsom and the California state legislature have announced an agreement to protect the reliability of California's energy grid amid the state's transition to clean energy. The bill centers the procurement of clean electricity, expedition of electric infrastructure projects, strengthening…

More than 150,000 people called on Biden Administration to Fully Restore Endangered Species Act

August 21, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

More than 150,000 people are calling on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to fully restore the Endangered Species Act (ESA), following proposed regulations that resulted from federal lawsuits challenging harmful regulations…

NRDC: Biden Protects Iconic Grand Canyon Lands and Waters

August 8, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON (Aug. 8, 2023) — President Biden today established the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni - Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, under the Antiquities Act, permanently protecting more than 900,000 acres of some of the most iconic landscape…

FERC Interconnection Efforts "Raise the Floor" on Grid Decarbonization Pathways

July 27, 2023 Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) held a meeting on a forthcoming rule to improve interregional transmission. During their presentation, commissioners previewed efforts to standardize processes across different grid operators, increase accountability for action, and usher…

New National Monuments Recall Courage in the Face of Racial Terror

July 25, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON (July 25, 2023) – The Biden administration named three new national monuments under the Antiquities Act to memorialize Emmett Till and to honor the work of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, in memory of an egregious act of racial terror.

Feds Propose New Critical Habitat Designation for Endangered Whale 

July 21, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has submitted a proposed rule designating critical habitat for the highly endangered Rice’s whale. With only approximately 50 whales remaining, Rice’s whales are among the most endangered whales in the world, making this habitat designation essential…

House Majority’s Bill on Environmental Funding Is Atrocious

July 18, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – The razor-thin House majority, after weeks of delay and concessions to the most extreme elements of its fractured conference, has put forward its version of the annual appropriations bill that funds most of the federal government’s environmental programs and priorities. The…

President Biden Declines to Embargo Products from Mexico for Vaquita Violation

July 18, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

President Biden announced yesterday that he will not embargo products from Mexico despite its failure to halt the illegal wildlife trade threatening the critically endangered vaquita porpoise. The decision responds to the Secretary of the Interior’s recent certification under the…

NRDC Report: Building Batteries Better

July 10, 2023 Press ReleaseWashington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – A new report from NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) lays out key strategies so the transition away from fossil fuels and to electric vehicles can drive better mining practices.

Supreme Court Draws on Flawed “Major Questions” Theory to Strike Down Student Loan Debt Relief

June 30, 2023 Press ReleaseUnited States

The Supreme Court today struck down President Biden’s student debt relief program, drawing on the same so-called “major questions” rationale the majority relied on a year ago to the day in West Virginia v EPA.