Media Center

New Study: Tar Sands to Skyrocket West Coast’s Climate and Air Pollution

April 28, 2015 Press ReleaseCalifornia

SACRAMENTO (April 28, 2015) – The Pacific coast faces a looming health, climate, and environmental crisis posed by an influx of tar sands fuel from oil interests in Alberta, Canada, according to new analysis released today by the Natural Resources…

Coalition Ad Calls Upon President Obama to Save the Arctic, Protect Our Climate

April 28, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (April 28, 2015) – A broad coalition of environmental and native rights groups today placed a new full-page ad in USA Today calling on President Obama to stop Big Oil’s assault on the Arctic Ocean’s natural heritage and our…

Five Years After the BP Disaster, We’re Still Not Safe

April 16, 2015 Press ReleaseNew York

NEW YORK (April 16, 2015) – Next Monday, April 20, marks five years since the catastrophic BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and dumped millions of barrels of crude oil into the sea. Five years…

Allowing Shell to Rush Back into Arctic Drilling Could Be Disastrous For Climate, Pristine Ocean

April 10, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (April 10, 2015) – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today determined that Shell’s exploration plan for drilling in the Arctic Ocean is complete, clearing the way for a full review by the agency. BOEM now has 30 days…

The Mucky Mississippi: Algae Pollution Case Back in District Court

April 8, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (April 8, 2015) - A suit to force the Environmental Protection Agency to put limits on nutrient pollution dumped into the Mississippi River was sent back to District Court yesterday.

FRACKING’S MOST WANTED: Report Identifies Top 10 Oil & Gas Companies for Spills & Legal Violations

April 2, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (April 2, 2015) – Only three out the 36 states with active oil and gas operations make information about companies’ spills and legal violations easily available to the public, according to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council…

Court Rules Navy War Games Violate Law Protecting Whales and Dolphins

March 31, 2015 Press ReleaseCalifornia

LOS ANGELES (March 31, 2015) —A federal court today announced that the U.S. Navy’s training and testing activities off the coast of Southern California and Hawaii illegally harm more than 60 whale, dolphin, seal, and sea lion populations. The U.S…

Senate Leader Reid “A Giant” for Our Health and the Environment

March 27, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 27, 2015) – Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who has served in the Senate since 1987, announced today that he will retire when his current term expires in 2016.

White House Releases Ocean Policy Report

March 27, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 27th, 2015) – Today, the White House released its Report on the Implementation of the National Ocean Policy, a review of important actions that federal agencies have collaborated on with state governments, regional groups and local communities to…

DOE’s Petroleum Council Dead Wrong on Arctic Drilling

March 27, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 27,2015) - The National Petroleum Council, the largely industry-based oil and gas advisory committee to the Department of Energy, released a study Friday predicting the twilight of oil production through fracking and calling for drilling in the Arctic…

NRDC Statement on New Rules for Fracking on Federal Lands

March 20, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 20, 2015) – The U.S. Bureau of Land Management today released its final rules that will apply to fracking on federal and tribal lands.

Illinois Derailment Makes Bomb-train Risk Clear for Land of Lincoln

March 6, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (March 6, 2015) – A train containing 103 cars full of oil from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota derailed yesterday near Galena, IL along the Mississippi River.

Scientists to Obama: Stop Controversial Sound Blasting Threatening Atlantic Whales, Fish

March 5, 2015 Press Release

Leading ocean scientists from the U.S. and around the world today urged President Obama to halt a planned oil and gas exploration program off the Atlantic coast involving millions of underwater sound blasts that would have “significant, long-lasting and widespread…

Congress Shouldn’t Waste More Time on Keystone XL

March 4, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 4, 2015) – The Senate today failed, as expected, to override President Obama’s veto of a congressional bill forcing approval of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Ballast Water Bill Would Open Coasts and Great Lakes to Invasive Species Assault

February 25, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC (February 25, 2015) – The US Senate Commerce Committee reported a bill to the Senate that would exempt ship ballast water—the source of numerous damaging invasive species infestations in the Great Lakes, inland waterways and sensitive waters along…

After Veto, President Should Reject the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Once and For All

February 24, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (February 24, 2015) – President Obama today vetoed, as promised, congressional legislation to force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

New Study: Rapid Ocean Acidification Threatens Coastal Economies in 15 States

February 23, 2015 Press ReleaseNew York

NEW YORK (February 23, 2015) – The first nationwide vulnerability assessment for ocean acidification, published today in Nature Climate Change, shows that coastal communities in 15 states that depend on the nation’s approximately $1 billion shelled mollusk (e.g., oysters and…

Atlantic Ocean Council Fails to Protect East Coast Coral Canyons

February 11, 2015 Press ReleaseNew York

NEW YORK (February 11, 2015) — The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council today postponed a vote on a protection plan for rare, ecologically-important and highly vulnerable deep sea coral communities off the region’s coast. The Council manages U.S. fisheries resources in…

Groups Go To Court to Protect Blueback Herring from Extinction

February 10, 2015 Press Release

Washington, D.C. – The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a coalition of fishing and watershed protection groups filed a complaint today in federal court seeking to reverse a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) not to list…

Administration Drilling Plan Would Expose Eastern Seaboard, Atlantic and Arctic Waters to Blowout Risk

January 27, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (January 27, 2015) -- The Obama Administration proposed a five-year offshore drilling lease plan today that would expose much of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to oil and gas production.