Complete list of press releases

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today released a whitepaper that examines the approach New York has taken to transform its 100 year-old electric system from a centralized, one-way grid to a multi-channel network of power and information. The paper, Driving Environmental Outcomes Through Utility Reform: Lessons from New York REV, is a roadmap for electric utilities seeking to accelerate decarbonization, or the elimination of fossil fuels.
 

“New York leads the way in shaking up the old monopoly utility business model,” said Elizabeth B. Stein, Senior Manager, New York Clean Energy Law & Policy at EDF. “Pushing electric utilities to provide supportive platforms for innovation and create opportunities for customers and service providers ensures everyone in the marketplace is well-positioned to adopt clean energy measures.”
 

Through “Reforming the Energy Vision” (REV), its comprehensive energy initiative to rebuild, strengthen, and modernize the electric grid, New York State has managed to deliver new business opportunities, policy outcomes, and environmental benefits that help move the state toward its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The state’s comprehensive regulatory reform is removing barriers to an evolving clean energy transition by setting up a platform for pursuing robust energy efficiency and renewable energy goals, and creating new opportunities for business and consumers.

Key learnings from NY REV provide fundamental criteria for electric utilities’ modernization efforts to bring about environmental benefits: 1) building smart platforms to deploy clean energy resources cost-effectively, 2) aligning utility earnings with environmental outcomes, and 3) engaging customers as market participants.
 

“Utilities can now manage electricity demand with a whole range of distributed energy resources including solar, storage, and electric vehicles springing up at the distribution edge of the grid,” said Ferit Ucar, Senior Clean Energy Economist at EDF. “New York is taking advantage of this new reality to modernize utility incentives, and align them with the state’s climate and energy goals.”
 

For more details, see our fact sheet and blog post on this topic.
 

The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) issued a new report that examines California’s reliance on natural gas storage facilities and their ability to be operated more safely. Although the report is a major milestone in the evaluation of California’s natural gas storage system and underscores the need for strong regulations to prevent and monitor for gas storage problems, the report sells short the value of policies that reduce the state’s heavy reliance on gas storage.As a result, the CCST report undervalues the range of options available to California for reducing the need for the massive natural gas storage facilities like Aliso Canyon.

“The 2015 Aliso Canyon gas leak proved natural gas storage facilities can cause major health and environmental problems if they aren’t maintained correctly. While CCST finds that proper site-level regulation and oversight can control these risks, it fails to recognize we must address the fact that California is attached at the hip to massive gas storage facilities for maintaining reliability.

“Natural gas storage is not always the best option for consumers and the environment. California should pursue policies to change the energy system as a whole – creating better standards that facilitate transparency in energy markets with lower costs and higher reliability."

• Timothy O’Connor, Director of the California Oil and Gas Program at Environmental Defense Fund

As the New Mexico legislature meets, a new report from Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) shows how a lack of positive environmental policy leadership from the Martinez and Trump Administrations is fueling a growing threat to the health of New Mexico’s children and families. It offers policy suggestions for New Mexicans and their leaders this winter and in the coming year.

The report, Enchantment at Risk, details how New Mexicans are being negatively impacted by air that has been fouled by industrial pollution and challenged by climate change, Superfund-level pollution and other dangerous substances fouling the state’s land and multiple threats to clean drinking water.

The challenge has been compounded by a retreat by state and federal political leaders. Governor Martinez cut New Mexico’s Department of Environment budget more than 20 percent shortly after taking office, and has kept it flat since.

In Washington, DC, the Trump Administration has been advocating draconian EPA budget cuts, hiring polluters who will protect their industries, rolling back environmental safeguards and putting politics over science.

“New Mexico can’t count on the kind of federal support it’s had in the past to protect its environment,” said Jon Goldstein, Director of Regulatory & Legislative Affairs at EDF. “If Washington is stepping back, then New Mexico’s leaders need to step up.”

The report highlights several steps to begin turning New Mexico’s environmental policy around, including fully funding the Environment Department, holding violators accountable, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, updating rules governing methane, and fighting for a functioning EPA in Washington, DC to be a full partner with New Mexico.

In December, Environmental Defense Fund released a report, State of Risk: New Mexico, focusing on how proposed cuts to the EPA could harm New Mexico

The European Parliament today voted for a measure requiring the European Commission to focus on reducing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, which is responsible for about a quarter of today’s planetary warming. The decision comes as a recent International Energy Agency analysis finds that globally, the oil and gas industry can feasibly cut up to 75 percent of its current methane emissions and just the reductions at no net-cost would have the same climate impact in 2100 as immediately closing all the coal plants in China.

“This vote shows European leaders are starting to see methane reductions as a climate win. It’s an important recognition of the fact that data continues to underscore the urgency and economic opportunity in slashing emissions from one of its largest sources – the global oil and gas industry.

“Europe is a big consumer of natural gas and is globally the 7th largest emitter of oil and gas methane emissions, emitting the same amount as Iran and Mexico. Oil and gas methane reductions remain a powerful way to deliver climate action at low cost.”

-Bryony Worthington, Executive Director, Environmental Defense Fund Europe

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and partners of the Central Valley Habitat Exchange have announced the launch of a new website (cvhe.org) to showcase the efforts of program participants who are conserving wildlife habitat in the Central Valley of California. These participants include a handful of California farms and ranches featured throughout the website in striking photos, personal testimonials and an interactive map.

The Central Valley Habitat Exchange is an innovative conservation program that provides new revenue opportunities for farmers and ranchers to create and maintain habitat on their working lands. The program pairs willing landowners with investors and mitigation buyers seeking to meet their conservation goals. Ultimately, the exchange was designed to streamline and attract new conservation investments, while increasing transparency and accountability.

“Our vision with the website was to make conservation come to life in the photos of local wildlife and the testimonials from stewarding landowners who are the real story behind the Central Valley Habitat Exchange,” said Ann Hayden, senior director of California wildlife at EDF. “The hope is that the website inspires more landowners and conservation investors to use the exchange as a way to achieve their own conservation goals.”

The most unique conservation innovations made publically accessible with the launch of the Central Valley Habitat Exchange website include the habitat quantification tool and the exchange registry.

“The habitat quantification tool is a one-of-a-kind, robust science tool for assessing both the quantity and quality of habitat for multiple species,” Hayden said. The website features an animated explainer video of the tool. “The exchange registry tracks and reports on the status and outcomes of each conservation project, offering the utmost transparency, accountability and confidence for investors, landowners and regulators.”

Roger Cornwell is the general manager of River Garden Farms, a 15,000-acre farm growing a variety of crops including rice, sunflowers, tomatoes, safflower, wheat, alfalfa and walnuts. Cornwell is one of the program participants featured on the exchange website.

“Sustainability is generational for us,” Cornwell said. “My roots are here and my family is here, so it’s important to me to care for the place where my kids and their kids will live. Participating in the exchange gives us the tools and support we need to be good stewards of the entire ecosystem.”

To learn more about the Central Valley Habitat Exchange and participation, visit www.cvhe.org.

(January 11, 2018) The state of Maryland and the city of Philadelphia held public meetings today about Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan – the latest in a week of independent listening sessions about that proposal to roll back the country’s only nationwide limit on carbon pollution from existing power plants.

The Clean Air Act mandates that EPA give concerned Americans an opportunity to verbally present their views to EPA officials before deciding about a repeal. Multiple cities and states around the country offered to host public hearings on the issue so their citizens could weigh in – but the agency originally planned only one public hearing, so states and cities began holding their own meetings. (EPA just announced three listening sessions for San Francisco, Kansas City, and Gillette, Wyoming. The agency is also extending the public comment period for the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, to April 26.)

EDF was represented at both hearings today.

In Annapolis, EDF’s Emma Averill testified about how the Clean Power Plan will protect the Chesapeake Bay from pollution and protect Maryland families from climate change.

“I am a lifelong Maryland resident … coastal areas like Maryland are especially vulnerable to stronger storms and rising sea levels. The Clean Power Plan is essential to achieving major, long-term reductions in the pollution that is driving these impacts,” Averill said in her testimony. “The Clean Power Plan would ultimately not only reduce carbon emissions but would also result in less nitrogen oxide pollution … Nitrogen pollution creates dead zones in the bay, seriously harming crabs, fish, and other marine life. Unhealthy levels of pollution negatively affect the livelihoods of all Marylanders who count on a healthy bay to improve the local economy.”

In Philadelphia, EDF’s Ben Schneider testified about the impact the Clean Power Plan could have on his family.

“I’m an environmentalist by trade, but I’m also about to be a father for the first time in a few months,” Schneider testified. “I worry about asthma attacks here in Philly, and I worry about them getting worse. I worry about climate change. I know that we need our leaders – in Washington, in Harrisburg, here in Philly, everywhere – to act now if we’re going to protect the world we leave our children.”

You can read Averill’s full testimony here and Schneider’s full testimony here.

Delaware held a public meeting about the proposed Clean Power Plan repeal on Monday and New York held its own hearing on Tuesday.

The Clean Power Plan is the single biggest step America has ever taken to address the growing threat of climate change. EPA’s own analysis shows the Clean Power Plan would prevent as many as 4,500 deaths from air pollution and 90,000 childhood asthma attacks each year. It would also support America’s booming clean energy sector – a rapidly growing, $200 billion sector employing more than three million people.

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) The California Public Utilities Commission voted today to approve ambitious utility programs aiming to electrify the state’s transportation system. The decision greenlights $42 million in initiatives for California communities, including using electric school buses to integrate renewable energy, installing charging stations in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and increasing electrification in the medium- and heavy-duty sectors. It also makes clear utilities need to focus on how they can harness the electricity demanded from these new electric vehicles as a tool to strengthen California’s electric grid. This is the first set of projects in a longer-term effort to reduce harmful pollution from transportation.

“Electrifying transportation is critical to meeting our state’s climate and clean energy goals while ensuring clean air for all Californians, particularly the communities hit hardest with harmful pollution. These new projects represent an important step forward in cleaning up the state’s dirtiest sector, bringing us closer to a sustainable future for the Golden State.”  

• Larissa Koehler, Senior Attorney, California Clean Energy

North Carolina House today passed 116 - 0 House Bill 189, legislation that will provide additional funding to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to increase scientific expertise and expand capacity to effectively detect and monitor pollution from unregulated chemicals. The action was prompted by ongoing contamination in the Cape Fear River basin caused by GenX, a toxic chemical that is unregulated by state and federal authorities. Statements may be attributed to David Kelly, EDF political affairs manager for North Carolina.

“House lawmakers took an important first step by directing additional funding to provide critically needed scientific expertise and technical capabilities at DEQ, but much more remains to be done.

“Studies to assess the state’s readiness to respond to chemical threats are useful only if legislative leaders act swiftly to provide additional resources and enact policy changes to strengthen public health and environmental safeguards.

“Senate leadership should quickly act on the legislation approved by the House. The beginning of the legislative short session in May will mark nearly a year since GenX contamination first made headlines. Families still waiting for substantive policy response from the General Assembly deserve action.”

(Washington, DC—Jan. 10, 2018) On June 29, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana (R-La.) along with co-sponsors from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Georgia, introduced H.R. 3133, the Streamlining Environmental Approval Act, which would amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Today the bill is being marked up in the House Natural Resources Committee. National conservation organizations working on coastal restoration – Environmental Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, and National Audubon Society – issued the following statement in response:

“In response to today’s markup of H.R. 3133 – the Streamlining Environmental Approval Act – our groups reaffirm our strong opposition to this legislation, which would weaken core provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, with potentially wide-reaching consequences for marine mammal populations without advancing coastal restoration priorities. Additionally, by removing important process safeguards – including NOAA’s ability to require mitigation and long-term monitoring of impacts from activities – H.R. 3133 favors exploitation activities at the expense of a more balanced approach to managing our ocean resources. We urge Congress to reject this attempt to modify the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which could needlessly result in increased harm to marine mammal populations, ultimately to the detriment of overall ecosystem health.

“As organizations working toward the restoration of coastal ecosystems and wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico and around the country, we continue to call upon Congress to provide robust funding to natural resources agencies including NOAA, increasing their consultation and permitting capacity and enabling them to more efficiently and thoroughly respond to a growing number of permit requests.”

(New York, NY – January 9, 2018) The state of New York hosted its own public meeting today about Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan – the country’s only nationwide limit on carbon pollution from existing power plants.

Elizabeth Stein, an Environmental Defense Fund attorney and mom, was among those testifying in support of the plan and its health benefits for New Yorkers.

“I’m a fourth generation New Yorker … Two members of my household suffer from asthma, a condition that can be exacerbated by ozone and particulate matter pollution,” Stein testified, citing two pollutants whose levels would decrease under the Clean Power Plan. “A recent study found that 2,700 annual premature deaths could be tied to [particulate matter] and ozone pollution in [New York] City.”

Pruitt has proposed to repeal the Clean Power Plan. The Clean Air Act mandates that EPA give concerned Americans an opportunity to verbally present their views to EPA officials before deciding about a repeal. Multiple cities and states around the country offered to host public hearings on the issue so their citizens could weigh – but the agency has held only one public hearing about the proposed repeal so far.

Now, in the absence of official EPA public hearings, some states are holding their own public meetings and listening sessions. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the New York City Mayor’s Office hosted one today at the New School in Manhattan. Stein testified there about the threat New Yorkers face from climate change – a threat the Clean Power Plan was created to address.

“Here in New York, we are seeing the kinds of events that become more intense and frequent with climate change with increasing frequency, most memorably in the case of Hurricanes Irene and Sandy,” said Stein in her testimony. “Climate change also increases the frequency of extreme winter weather events, including major snowstorms … Of the six heaviest snowfalls ever recorded in New York City, half have occurred during the lifetime of my oldest child, who turns 15 today.”

You can read Stein’s full testimony here.

Delaware held a public meeting about the proposed Clean Power Plan repeal yesterday, and Pennsylvania and Maryland have planned public meetings for later this week.

EPA has promised to hold three more listening sessions in San Francisco, Kansas City, and Gillette, Wyoming. However dates for those hearings have not been announced, and the public comment period for the proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan is scheduled to end in a week – on Tuesday, January 16.

The Clean Power Plan is the single biggest step America has ever taken to address the growing threat of climate change. EPA’s own analysis shows the Clean Power Plan would prevent as many as 4,500 deaths from air pollution and 90,000 childhood asthma attacks each year. It would also support America’s booming clean energy sector – a rapidly growing, $200 billion sector employing more than three million people.

(PHOENIX, AZ) During his State of the State address today, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey called on state leaders to come together to address the state’s ongoing water challenges.

“We agree with Governor Ducey that Arizona needs to speak with one united voice when it comes to securing the state’s water future. The Governor has shown continued leadership on water issues through efforts such as pushing to pass a Drought Contingency Plan and aligning state water policies to benefit all water users. Our water supplies are like a bank account, from which we are withdrawing more than we deposit. If our state doesn’t act responsibly and take action now, future generations could see our rivers run dry. The good news is that Arizonans are up to the challenge. Last year, the state cut river use by almost 360,000 acre-feet through voluntary reductions, and with the Governor’s leadership, we can pass much needed policy to protect the state’s most precious resource.”

• Kevin Moran, Environmental Defense Fund, Senior Director of Western Water

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today terminated the Department of Energy’s (DOE) proposal to provide new revenue and guaranteed profits to the owners of inefficient and aging coal and nuclear power plants. FERC additionally opened a new proceeding, requiring grid operators to provide information on resilience issues in their regions.

In doing so, FERC made clear that the DOE’s proposal did not satisfy “clear and fundamental legal requirements.” Instead, FERC stated that resilience issues should be identified through an unbiased, evidence-driven proceeding. This conclusion only further underscores the well-established grid practices, operations, and wholesale markets that have kept the lights on throughout the recent east coast cold weather event.

“FERC was right to reject the DOE’s costly and ill-considered proposal that would have undermined markets and an increasingly competitive, clean, and affordable electricity sector. FERC’s decision prioritizes deliberate, careful study over politicization.”

• Michael Panfil, Director Federal Energy Policy and Senior Attorney

(Wilmington, DE – January 8, 2018) EDF joined concerned citizens from across Delaware today as the state held a public meeting about the Clean Power Plan – the country’s only nationwide limit on carbon pollution from existing power plants.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has proposed to repeal the Clean Power Plan and leave unaddressed one of our nation’s largest sources of climate destabilizing pollution.

The Clean Air Act mandates that EPA give concerned Americans an opportunity to verbally present their views to EPA officials before deciding about a repeal. Multiple cities and states around the country offered to host public hearings on the issue so their citizens could weigh – but the agency has held only one public hearing about the proposed repeal so far.

Now, in the absence of official EPA public hearings, some states are holding their own public meetings and listening sessions. John Bullock represented EDF at today’s meeting in Wilmington, testifying that:

“Repealing the Clean Power Plan would be deeply harmful to the health and well-being of communities across the country. EPA has a legal and moral responsibility to protect Americans from air pollution that destabilizes our climate and damages our health.”

You can read Bullock’s full testimony here.

New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland have also planned public meetings about the proposed Clean Power Plan repeal for later this week. Representatives for EDF are planning to attend those meetings too.

EPA has promised to hold three more listening sessions in San Francisco, Kansas City, and Gillette, Wyoming. However dates for those hearings have not been announced, and the public comment period for the proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan is scheduled to end in a week – on Tuesday, January 16.

The Clean Power Plan is the single biggest step America has ever taken to address the growing threat of climate change. EPA’s own analysis shows the Clean Power Plan would prevent as many as 4,500 deaths from air pollution and 90,000 childhood asthma attacks each year. It would also support America’s booming clean energy sector – a rapidly growing, $200 billion sector employing more than three million people.

(Washington, D.C. – January 8, 2017) EDF joined the Environmental Law and Policy Center and WE ACT for Environmental Justice to call on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect Americans’ health from super-polluting glider trucks.

The groups filed comments with EPA opposing Administrator Scott Pruitt’s proposal to rollback emission limits for glider trucks – which can emit harmful pollution at a rate up to 450 times that of new freight trucks.

In their comments, the groups expressed that their strong opposition to EPA’s proposed repeal of these vital health safeguards, saying:

“The proposed repeal would … [result] in thousands of premature deaths from entirely avoidable exposure to glider vehicle pollution … The proposal would advantage a narrow slice of the freight truck manufacturing industry by exempting them from vital safeguards – at the expense of public health in communities across the country as well as freight truck industry members that have responsible invested in pollution controls.” (Comments, page 2)

Glider trucks are heavy-duty freight trucks that typically lack modern pollution controls. Glider trucks can emit harmful soot and smog-causing pollutants – including oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter – as well as cancer-causing diesel particulate.

EPA took action in the 2016 Clean Truck Standards to curb emissions from these super-polluting freight trucks, but Pruitt is now trying to create a legal loophole to allow glider trucks to evade modern pollution controls.

EPA’s was accepting public comment on the proposed rollback through last Friday, January 5. EDF also testified at the one public hearing EPA held about the proposed rollback.

You can find more information, and read the comments submitted by EDF and its allies in their entirety, on our website.

A breaking story in today’s Associated Press reveals Scott Pruitt is claiming credit for the completion of Superfund projects that, according to records, were essentially completed before the Trump administration took office. It is the latest in a string of smoke and mirror efforts that mask the overwhelming damage Pruitt is inflicting on EPA.

The sites—located in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Alabama, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, and Pennsylvania—had undergone years of cleanup prior to Pruitt’s swearing in. Since confirmation, Pruitt has paid lip service to the Superfund program, saying he would prioritize cleanup of hazardous sites, but his actions tell a very different story.

• Less funding- not more: Pruitt and President Trump proposed a 30 percent cut to Superfund’s budget, along with a 37 percent cut to Superfund enforcement and an 18 percent cut to Superfund Emergency Response Funds.
• Alarm bells on insufficient staff: As EPA hemorrhages staff—more than 700 have left since Pruitt arrived—the EPA’s Inspector General has sounded the alarm, saying: “Due to insufficient human resources to cover all Superfund site work, some regions have had to slow down or discontinue their efforts to protect human health and the environment.”
• Unqualified and ethically compromised staffing: The hiring of Albert “Kell” Kelly—a close Pruitt associate who is legally barred from working in the financial industry and who has no previous environmental regulation or oversight experience—to lead a Superfund task force.
• Wrong approach to public health risks: Implementation of a “lean” process at EPA, which EPA insiders say could be cover up for polluting companies looking to avoid full cleanup. A remarkable training video—produced by a state agency that was run by a top aide to Pruitt—instructs government employees to treat industries as customers, not taxpayers.
• A taskforce doing work in secret: A taskforce meeting on Superfund Elgie Holstein, Environmental Defense Fund’s Senior Director for Strategic Planning. “Bragging about Superfund work that you didn’t do while trying to cut its funding by 30 percent, ignoring your own IG’s warning about lack of adequate staffing, putting a buddy in charge, and using management principles that favor industry polluters over protecting health tells you all you need to know about Scott Pruitt’s disastrous EPA agenda.”

  Per EPA’s website, there remain over 1,840 active Superfund sites across the United States. Eliminating sorely need budget and advocating for shady procedures will do nothing to remedy their urgent need for cleanup.