Media Center

GOP Leaders Intensify Assault on Protections against Carbon Pollution, Dirty Drinking Water and Smog

November 2, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (November 2, 2015) -- The anti-public health, anti-environment Republican leadership in Congress is planning its most intense assault yet on environmental protections. Starting as early as tomorrow and continuing through November, they plan votes in both chambers to block…

Clean Water Rule Decision Delays Enforcement but Reinforces Need for Protections

October 9, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (October 9, 2015) – A federal court decision handed down today temporarily delays enforcement of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Clean Water Rule, which guarantees pollution protections for tens of millions of acres…

Michigan Governor Recommends Flint Reconnect to Detroit Water To End Lead Contamination Crisis

October 8, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO – In the wake of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s recommendation that the City of Flint reconnect to the Detroit water system to stem its lead-contamination woes, leaders from the ACLU of Michigan and the Natural Resources Defense Council today…

Groups Petition EPA for Emergency Response to Flint, MI Drinking Water Contamination

October 1, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO – In response to the ongoing drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, a coalition of local citizens and national groups petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today to take emergency action to secure safe, lead-free water for the City’s…

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…

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…

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.

Michigan Craft Brewers Raise a Glass to EPA’s Clean Water Rule

May 27, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (May 27, 2015) – Acknowledging the critical role of clean water for both brewers and the communities in which they operate, seven brewers in Michigan are raising a glass in support of EPA’s Clean Water Rule, announced today.

NRDC’s Award-Winning Film WILD THINGS to Premiere on Pivot

May 8, 2015 Press ReleaseCalifornia

LOS ANGELES (May 8, 2015) – The award-winning documentary film, Wild Things, produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), will premiere on Participant Media’s television network, Pivot, as part of “Doc Watch:” Wednesdays on May 13 at 9 p.m…

Groups File UNESCO Petition to Save Monarch World Heritage Site in Mexico

April 13, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (April 13, 2015)--The monarch butterfly refuge in Mexico, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is winter home to tens of millions of migrating monarchs, should be declared “in danger” because the remarkable transcontinental migration it was established to protect…

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.

House Budget An Assault on Our Health and Environment

March 25, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 25, 2015) – The Republican-led House today passed a 2016 federal budget resolution. David Goldston, director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, made this comment:

License Plates for Pollinators: Illinois General Assembly Mulls New License Plate to Fund Monarch “Butterfly Highways” Habitat Restoration

March 17, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (March 17, 2015) - Dwindling populations of monarch butterflies would get a boost from new legislation for a special Illinois state license plate featuring the state insect. Revenue from the sale of the monarch butterfly license plates would be…

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…

NRDC Sues EPA to Force Action on Monarch Butterflies

February 27, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (February 27, 2015)—The Natural Resources Defense Council today accused the Environmental Protection Agency of dragging its feet on efforts to save the imperiled monarch butterfly and filed suit to force the agency to act.