Media Center

California Legislature Sends Near-Total Ban on Ivory Sales to Governor Brown for his Signature

September 4, 2015 Press ReleaseCalifornia

SACRAMENTO (September 4, 2015) – In a show of bipartisan support for elephant protection, California’s ivory ban bill (AB 96 by Speaker Toni Atkins and Senator Ricardo Lara) passed the State Legislature and is on its way to Governor Brown…

Bill to Manage Utility Water Leaks Sent to Governor Brown for his Signature

September 4, 2015 Press ReleaseCalifornia

SACRAMENTO (September 4, 2015) – The State Senate today sent a water bill to the Governor’s desk that would help manage water losses by utilities. Nearly a million acre-feet of treated drinking water is lost to leakage each year; about…

COURT: Worst Mercury Pollution in Maine’s History Must be Cleaned Up

September 2, 2015 Press Release

BANGOR, Maine (September 2, 2015) – A Maine court today held the former owners of a chlorine bleach plant accountable for tons of mercury it dumped into the Penobscot River over the course of four decades. The judge ordered the…

Artist Jenny Kendler Creates Imaginative Experience of Butterfly Vision in Garden of Kentucky Wildflowers

August 27, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (August 27, 2015) – Louisville is about to be home to a provocative new public space designed to help people see like a butterfly. Chicago-based artist Jenny Kendler, who is currently Artist in Residence with Natural Resources Defense Council…

One-year anniversary of Toledo’s Water System Shutdown due to Lake Erie’s Algae Bloom; “We are all Toledo”

July 31, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (July 31, 2015) One year ago, the city of Toledo, Ohio, was forced to issue a two-day ban on drinking or cooking tap water for more than 400,000 residents (as well as 30,000 residents of southeast Michigan) due to…

‘Misguided’ Arctic Drilling Permit Approval has ‘Lit Fuse’ on Disaster for Pristine Ocean, Climate

July 22, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (July 22, 2015) – Shell was granted federal permits today that clear the way for the oil company to begin drilling in the Arctic Ocean.

Groups Sue EPA for Failure to Protect Communities from Hazardous Spills from Storage Facilities

July 21, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (July 21, 2015) – The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) and People Concerned About Chemical Safety (PCACS), joined by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), sued the Environmental Protection Agency today, citing its decades-long failure…

Court Rejects Green Groups’ Effort to Stop Bad-Deal Settlement Between ExxonMobil and Christie Administration Over Pollution

July 13, 2015 Press Release

MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. (July 13, 2015) – A New Jersey court today rejected environmental groups’ motion to intervene in litigation brought by the State of New Jersey against ExxonMobil Corporation over damages due for decades of toxic soil and water…

President Obama Bolsters Conservation Legacy with Three National Monuments

July 10, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (July 10, 2015) – The three national monuments created today by President Obama will protect some of America’s most biodiverse mountain ecosystems, wild tracts of desert and nationally significant fossil beds.

Independent Scientific Study Released on California Fracking and Oil Well Stimulation

July 9, 2015 Press ReleaseCalifornia

LOS ANGELES (July 9, 2015) – The California Council on Science & Technology today released its independent scientific assessment on the health and environmental impacts of fracking and oil and gas well stimulation in California. The report, produced in collaboration…

GOP Leaders Pack Anti-Environment Riders into Spending Bill

July 7, 2015 Press ReleaseUnited States

WASHINGTON (July 7, 2015) – Congressional Republicans have been working to add an array of anti-environment riders to the $30.17 billion fiscal year 2016 Interior and Environment appropriations bill, which already included a 9 percent cut to the Environmental Protection…

Dow Told to Shelve Herbicide Threatening to Push Monarchs Over the Brink In New York Times Ad

July 7, 2015 Press ReleaseNew York

(New York, July 7, 2015) – The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) placed an ad in The New York Times today to increase the pressure on Dow Chemical to “end this chemical arms race” against nature by shelving its toxic…

Alarming Decline in Monarch Population Justifies Immediate Action: NRDC Urges UN To Declare Mexican Butterfly Refuge “In Danger”

June 26, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (June 26, 2015)— Advocates for monarch butterflies are heading to a World Heritage Committee meeting in Bonn, Germany, urging immediate action to increase protections for the migrating monarch butterfly population that spends the winter in Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere…

EPA Agrees Monarch Butterflies are in Jeopardy, But Refuses to Use Authority to Limit Habitat-Killing Pesticide

June 24, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (June 24, 2015) — Confronted with the urgent and growing crisis of the imperiled monarch butterfly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today utterly failed to seize an opportunity to use its authority to limit the use of glyphosate…

Health and Environmental Safeguards Under Attack by GOP Leadership

June 18, 2015 Press ReleaseUnited States

WASHINGTON (June 18, 2015) – Congressional Republican leaders are adding numerous anti-environmental measures to must-pass appropriations bills and moving them through the House and a key Senate committee this week, despite a presidential veto threat and support for health and…

Ocean Victory: More than Two Dozen Undersea Atlantic Coral Canyons Now Protected

June 10, 2015 Press ReleaseNew York

NEW YORK (June 10, 2015) — The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council today voted to protect 27 named deep sea canyons divided into 15 protection zones, as well as a vast swath of surrounding deep sea habitat, off the region’s coast…

Coal Industry’s Financial Woes Threaten to Shift Billions in Cleanup Costs to U.S. Taxpayers, Says New Report

June 9, 2015 Press Release

BOZEMAN, Mont. (June 9, 2015) – As the financial pressures on the coal industry mount, a new $3 billion threat to taxpayers is emerging in the form of self-insured coal companies potentially walking away from reclamation obligations, leaving the public…

Groups Seek to Intervene in New Jersey Lawsuit Against Exxon Over Decades of Toxic Pollution

June 9, 2015 Press Release

TRENTON, N.J. (June 10, 2015) – Environmental groups today filed a motion to intervene in litigation brought by the State of New Jersey against ExxonMobil Corporation over damages due for decades of toxic soil and water contamination in the northern…

NRDC Statement on EPA Draft Study of Fracking & Drinking Water Risks

June 4, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 4, 2015) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today released its long-awaited draft study of the potential impacts of fracking on drinking water supplies around the country.

Interior Dept. Announces Plan to Save the Greater Sage-Grouse

May 28, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (May 28, 2015) -- The Interior Department today unveiled a plan to protect and preserve the habitat of the greater sage-grouse, an iconic species of the West that is threatened by commercial development and energy projects.