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California’s electric grid is amongst the cleanest in the country, and it’s getting even cleaner. A new report launched by EDF and Clean Air Task Force contains a set of recommendations on how we can grow the electric grid.

In the intense August heat of Sacramento, the California Legislature wrapped another year of policymaking. The second year of the 2021-2022 legislative session included some significant wins on long-term climate ambition, environmental justice, and clean transportation investments, even as the state fell short in drought response and near-term climate goals. These achievements, coupled with the …

By Lauren Ellis, MPH, Research Analyst, Safer Chemicals What’s New: A peer-reviewed study by Danish researchers found that a male fetus who is exposed to PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—also known as “forever chemicals”) during early pregnancy is more likely to have lower sperm quality in early adulthood. It’s the first study to explore the …

Tom Neltner, Senior Director, Safer Chemicals This is the sixth in our Unleaded Juice blog series exploring how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets limits for toxic elements like lead, arsenic, and cadmium in food and the implications for the agency’s Closer To Zero program.  A core tenet of FDA’s Closer to Zero program …

Statement from the Environmental Defense Fund

Though trucks and buses only comprise about 6% of vehicles on North Carolina roads, they’re responsible for more than 60% of the sector’s air pollution.

As we gear up for COP27, we need to realize how far we have to go when it comes to global food security. The post World Food Day has come and gone, with food security still out of reach for people and planet first appeared on Growing Returns.

By: Katelyn Roedner Sutter and Michael Colvin This past summer, Californians have been hit hard by inflation: rising food costs, utility bills and nowhere more obviously than at the gas pump. The cost to fill up a tank has many potential causes and lots of experts are weighing in — see here, here and here.

EDF applauds the California Air Resources Board staff for proposing to strengthen the 100% pollution-free truck sales target. Now, CARB must vote to adopt the strengthened regulation to ensure that the next generation of Californians won’t grow up breathing the nation’s dirtiest air.

Today, EDF welcomes the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations aviation agency, passage of a commitment to a sustainable future for global aviation by adopting long-term goal of 2050 net-zero emissions goal for international aviation.

EDF statement by Dr. Margot Brown on the Enforcing & Empowering Environmental Justice Act

By Lauren Navarro and Tom Cackette The Advanced Clean Fleets rule is a purchase requirement for medium and heavy-duty fleets to adopt an increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks. It will complement the previously adopted Advanced Clean Trucks regulation requiring manufacturers to sell ZEV trucks. Together the two regulations are the most important means of achieving …

President Biden’s $370-b plan is crucial; it is about US squaring up to threats of climate change, and promoting climate justice.

EDF statement of Emily Steinhilber, Director, Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds, Virginia

Worldwide Electric Vehicle Investments Will Grow to More Than $626 Billion By 2030 – New Report

This blog was co-authored with William Barber III, Founder and CEO at Rural Beacon Initiative. With the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act elevating the importance of state implementation of climate action, North Carolina is well-positioned to make critical progress to reduce climate-warming pollution from the electric power sector. Last year, the state took …

This blog was authored by Alice Alpert, Senior Climate Scientist at EDF. Meaningful methane emission reductions are not only possible—such efforts can potentially have a massive impact on warming. Readily available methods to reduce methane can deliver a whopping 0.25°C of avoided temperature rise by 2050. This year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

FDA’s approach to setting draft action levels for lead in juice is based on ill-conceived presumptions.

Roya Alkafaji, Manager, Healthy Communities and Lindsay McCormick, Senior Manager, Safer Chemicals Denver Water has one of the most successful lead service line (LSL) replacement programs in the country. Since it began the program in 2020, the utility has replaced nearly 14,000 LSLs—prioritizing lines to buildings serving vulnerable populations, such as child-care facilities. Denver Water …

Maricel Maffini, consultant and Tom Neltner, Chemicals Policy Director In May, FDA decided to allow continued use of nine ortho-phthalates in food packaging and processing equipment but punted on deciding whether or not using those phthalates is safe. We’ve written about the petitions that resulted in the decision, along with the agency’s decision to “abandon” …

As the water situation becomes particularly dire in Oregon's Harney Basin, EDF and Culp & Kelly, LLC have released a new Voluntary Agreements Analysis report to advance the community’s understanding of one potential approach for locally driven water management.

EDF statement from Carol Andress, AVP, Congressional Affairs and Climate Policy

Farms, ranches and forests can get the U.S. 17% of the way toward the national goal to cut emissions in half by 2030.

Major steps forward by many of the world’s leading economies should be cause for cautious optimism at this year’s Climate Week — tempered with a clear-eyed perspective on the work still to be done.

EDF statement from Katelyn Roedner Sutter, Senior Manager, U.S. Climate