Complete list of press releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Tony Kreindler, National Media Director, Climate, 202-445-8108, tkreindler@edf.org
Vickie Patton, Deputy General Counsel, 720-837-6239, vpatton@edf.org

(Washington – March 31, 2010) The Obama administration is preparing to finalize new fuel economy benchmarks and the first national standards for greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. history, putting the nation on a path to more efficient fuel use and significant pollution reductions from cars and light trucks over the next two decades.

“These standards will deliver a trifecta of benefits to Americans: less dependence on Middle Eastern oil, less pollution, and more savings at the gas pump,” said Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp. “Cleaner cars will deliver immediate results as the Senate finishes work on bipartisan climate and energy legislation.”

The new standards expected imminently from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation will apply to model year 2012 to 2016 vehicles, improving fuel efficiency by about five percent annually and reducing fleet-wide greenhouse gases 21 percent by 2030.

These passenger vehicles account for about 40 percent of all U.S. oil consumption and nearly 20 percent of all U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

The standards are expected to require vehicles to meet a combined average emissions level of 250 grams of carbon dioxide per mile in 2016, comparable to 35.5 miles per gallon.

The action is in response to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court mandate and will carry out President Obama’s landmark May 19th accord with major automakers, the Governor of California, the United Auto Workers’ Union, and environmental groups. Passenger cars and light-trucks emit nearly 20 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gases in the form of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons. In December, EPA found that these four contaminants and two other greenhouse gases endanger the human health and welfare of current and future generations.

California and 13 other states – Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington – adopted state clean car standards that provided the foundation for national scale emission standards.

EPA estimates that the new national standards will save consumers approximately $3,000 in fuel costs over the life of the new lower-emitting vehicle, and begin breaking America’s addiction to foreign oil. EPA projects the standards would cut carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 950 million metric tons and 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles sold under the program.

Cars, sport utility vehicles, minivans, and pick trucks used for personal transportation and passenger vehicles emit about 60 percent of all greenhouse gases from the transportation sector, the nation’s fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases.

The standards will strengthen national security by curbing America’s reliance on foreign oil and by beginning to address climate-disrupting emissions that exacerbate geopolitical instability. Military leaders have pointedly recognized these dual policy imperatives:

“We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today … [o]r we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives.” Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, former commander of U.S. Central Command. Source: John M. Broder, Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security, N.Y. Times, Aug. 9, 2009.

“Energy security and a sound response to climate change cannot be achieved by pursuing more fossil fuels. Our nation requires diversification of energy sources and a serious commitment to renewable energy. Not simply for environmental reasons—for national security reasons.” Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn, USN, Retired, Member of CNA Military Advisory Board. Source: Statement of Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, July 21, 2009, at 4, available at http://foreign.senate.gov/testimony/2009/McGinnTestimony090721p.pdf.

“Our dependence on foreign oil reduces our international leverage, places our troops in dangerous global regions, funds nations and individuals who wish us harm, and weakens our economy; our dependency and inefficient use of oil also puts our troops at risk.” CNA Military Advisory Board Report—Powering America’s Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security. Source: General Charles F. “Chuck” Wald et al., CNA Military Advisory Board, Powering America’s Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security, at i (2009), available at http://www.cna.org/documents/PoweringAmericasDefense.pdf.

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About EDF
Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts: Ramon Alvarez, Senior Scientist, 512-788-2246, ralvarez@edf.org
Chris Smith, Communications Director, (512) 691-3451 or csmith@edf.org

(Washington, DC – March 26, 2010) Environmental Defense Fund praised today’s international decision strengthening air pollution standards for ships traveling near North American coastlines. Action taken by the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee gives final approval to a joint application from the U.S. and Canada for the designation of an Emission Control Area (ECA) that would extend 200 nautical miles off of their respective coastlines.

“By making the case to clean up these big ships, the United States charted a course for cleaner air and healthier communities,” said Environmental Defense Fund Senior Scientist Ramon Alvarez. “The dangerous air pollution from these floating smokestacks is a serious health threat to tens of millions of Americans who live and work in port cities.”

This ECA provides the strongest clean air standards available under international law, slashing ozone-forming and particulate pollution from oceangoing vessels and saving up to 14,000 lives a year by 2020. The new regulations will dramatically improve fuel quality and reduce smog-forming oxides of nitrogen for all ocean-going ships entering the designated ECA.

The container ships, tankers and other large sea-going vessels that dock at more than 100 U.S. port cities currently burn low grade “residual fuel” or “bunker fuel” that is a major source of air pollution. This residual fuel contains sulfur levels 1,800 times greater than U.S. law allows for other diesel engines (about 27,000 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur).

In the U.S.-Canada ECA, the sulfur in fuel will be limited to 10,000 ppm starting in 2012 and then to 1,000 ppm in 2015. Most ship engines that are designed to run on bunker fuel are also capable of burning this cleaner fuel, so no significant ship changes or upgrades will be necessary.

Within an ECA, ships must also achieve an 80 percent reduction in smog-forming oxides of nitrogen starting in 2016. EPA air quality analyses show the pollution reductions resulting from the ECA will reduce exposure to lethal particulate pollution for millions of Americans.
A study by two leading researchers on shipping pollution, Corbett and Winebrake, shows shipping-related particulate matter emissions contribute to approximately 60,000 global deaths annually, with impacts concentrated in coastal regions on major trade routes.

Ocean-going ships contribute to unhealthy air quality across the United States. According to EPA, in 2001, these large ships emitted approximately:

• 745,000 tons of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen (NOx), a precursor to ground-level ozone and lethal particulate pollution. Ozone can aggravate asthma and decrease lung function in addition to other health effects and particulate is associated with early death;
• 450,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), a key contributor to acid rain that can also be transformed into lethal particulate pollution; and
• 54,000 tons of fine particulates (PM2.5), microscopic sized particles, which can be breathed deep into the lungs, bypassing the body’s defense systems. They are implicated in thousands of premature deaths each year and can aggravate chronic respiratory ailments like asthma.

Government officials estimate that foreign-flagged vessels make up 90 percent of the ship calls on U.S. ports. Ocean-going ships are also responsible for about 3 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas pollution.

The U.S. submitted its application in March 2009 – asking for the most rigorous clean air standards authorized under international law to apply to ocean-going ships calling on U.S. ports – and won technical approval of its request at the July 2009 meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contacts:
James Fine, 916-710-3371 (m), jfine@edf.org
Derek Walker, 410-980-0939 (m), dbwalker@edf.org
Lori Sinsley, 415-293-6097 (o), 415-902-8111 (m), lsinsley@edf.org

(San Francisco – March 24, 2010) California can grow its economy and reap immediate benefits from cleaner air while meeting air pollution reduction goals of its Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), according to an economic analysis released today by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and reviewed by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The analysis shows the economic impacts of CARB’s plan to implement AB 32 are likely to be small and positive, which is consistent with the growing body of research about the state’s climate change law. 

“We commend California’s Air Resources Board for giving us a more comprehensive snapshot of the economic impacts of its climate change law. When you add these findings to the billions of dollars worth of benefits already received from smart energy policies, one thing is clear: what the AB in AB 32 should really stand for is Absolutely Beneficial,” said Derek Walker, director of Environmental Defense Fund’s California Climate Initiative.

The agency combined a well-tested, peer-reviewed model of California’s economy known as the Environmental Dynamic Revenue Assessment Model (EDRAM), with an energy model, ENERGY2020, capable of showing changes in the generation mix, production costs and pollutant characteristics of the electricity sector. This pairing enables study of how energy costs will influence the relative balance of investments in infrastructure and labor in all economic sectors, thereby revealing the production and jobs implications of policies that put a price on climate change pollution.

CARB estimates that in 2020, fuel consumption will be 5% lower after implementing AB 32’s Climate Change Scoping Plan, the blueprint for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. California’s Gross State Product (GSP) is projected to be affected slightly; instead of growing to $2,502 billion in 2020, it is forecasted to be $2,498 billion with AB 32 implementation—a slight difference of 0.2% in the context of 35% overall growth from 2008 to 2020. The analysis also indicates that personal income and employment are projected to increase very slightly (0.1%).

“These findings are consistent with others that show California’s economy will be virtually unchanged through 2020,” said Dr. James Fine, an economist for Environmental Defense Fund, based in Sacramento. “There will, however, be important changes that save households money, greatly reduce our dependence on foreign oil and improve the health of our communities.”

One key finding is that California households will save money on energy, food and transportation after scoping plan measures take effect to create diverse energy supplies, higher vehicle fuel efficiency, and more efficient buildings and appliances.

While cost savings alone make a compelling case for California’s program, CARB’s analysis did not calculate several significant economic benefits of fighting climate change. Those benefits include the substantial costs of inaction. A 2008 report produced by University of California at Berkeley found that if no action were taken to address climate change, damages across sectors would result in tens of billions of dollars in annual costs and would “expose trillions of dollars of assets to collateral risk.”

Another benefit of cutting global warming emissions is that pollutants such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxide will also be reduced, resulting in cleaner air and healthier communities, and savings on health care costs and lost worker productivity.

“Keep in mind that these modeling studies are conservative because they can’t predict the range of breakthrough innovations that the proposed policies will inspire,” Fine said.

CARB’s analysis has been developed with input from its Economic Allocation Advisory Committee, a blue-ribbon panel of economists, business leaders and financial leaders.

Charles Rivers Associates (CRA) also released a study today that uses assumptions similar to CARB’s, except more conservative treatment of efficiency and biofuels investments. Nevertheless, the CRA results generally are in line with and corroborate CARB’s findings.

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About Environmental Defense Fund
A leading national nonprofit organization, Environmental Defense Fund represents more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.

(Austin) Participants of the Pecan Street Project today released a report of recommendations for transforming electricity delivery into a customer-focused clean energy system. The report stems from a year-long collaboration that included more than 200 volunteers from the City of Austin, Austin Energy, Environmental Defense Fund, The University of Texas, The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and more than a dozen local and national technology and energy companies.

The report is available for download at www.pecanstreetproject.org. The group also recently unveiled an introductory video that introduces many of the team members that have led the effort and explains what this unique project is trying to accomplish. Watch the video online here.

The Pecan Street Project was unique from the outset, said former Austin Energy general manager Roger Duncan, board president of Pecan Street Project, Inc. We set ambitious goals, and then asked our team of volunteer experts to help us chart a course toward them. This report represents the best thinking of technology company innovators, environmental leaders, people with deep experience in the utility industry and Austin citizens who gave their time to make a difference.

The report is divided into two sections:
(1) a detailed explanation of the rationale for the project and the process the group employed during 2009, and
(2) a list of 39 recommendations related to Austin Energy, water management, public policy, economic development and job training.

In just over a year, this effort has moved from a big idea to a firm list of recommendations, some of which are already being deployed, said Pecan Street Project, Inc. executive director Brewster McCracken. Austin has a remarkable opportunity to spur the next wave of American innovation. This report illustrates that we have a lot of work ahead of us, but it also shows that Austin has unique advantages that separate us from most other smart grid projects across the country.

McCracken was named executive director of Pecan Street Project, Inc., a non-profit organization formed in August 2009 as a result of the efforts early progress. This new non-profit organization has already begun executing one of the reports early recommendations a smart grid demonstration project at Austins Mueller community. The organization applied for and received $10.4 million from the Department of Energy in November 2009 to launch the project.

In addition to several Guiding Principles outlined in the report that set this effort apart from other smart grid projects, the Pecan Street Project chose a nationally recognized environmental organization, Environmental Defense Fund, to spearhead the year-long process.

“Smart grid doesn’t always mean green grid, said Pecan Street Project, Inc. board member and Environmental Defense Fund Energy Program director Jim Marston. These recommendations will help ensure that environmental benefits achieved here will be intentional not incidental consequences of a new energy system.”

Also unique is the level of support and cooperation from city officials, the University of Texas and members of the business and economic development community.

The University has a wealth of energy expertise in its engineering, architecture and business schools, said Pecan Street Project, Inc. board member and University of Texas engineering professor Dr. Tom Edgar. Our students, faculty, and staff are very excited about working on the energy roadmap outlined in the report.”

“This project could spark the next generation of Austin jobs the way our great semiconductor industry did in the 1980s,” said Pecan Street Project, Inc. board member and Austin City Council member Randi Shade. “This is a broad-based, cooperative effort that could pay economic dividends for decades, and we must seize the momentum that was created in the last year by so many talented experts.

This is one of the most innovative energy projects in the country, said Pecan Street Project, Inc. board member Jose Beceiro of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, and we anticipate it will attract new cleantech talent and companies to Austins growing clean energy economy.

About the Pecan Street Project, Inc.
Pecan Street Project, Inc. is a non-profit corporation created in August 2009. It is applying for 501(c)(3) status. Board members of the organization are:
- Roger Duncan, Former General Manager, Austin Energy (Board President)
- Dr. Tom Edgar, George T. and Gladys H. Abell Chair in Engineering, University of Texas (Board Secretary);
- Jose Beceiro, Director of Clean Energy Economic Development, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce (Board Treasurer),
- Isaac Barchas, Director, Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas
- Jim Marston, Director of Texas Regional Office, Director of Energy Program, Environmental Defense Fund
- Randi Shade, Austin City Council Member

For more information, visit www.pecanstreetproject.org.

About the Smart Grid Demonstration Project at Mueller
The Pecan Street Project, Inc. has recently begun implementing a smart grid demonstration project at Austins Mueller community that will integrate with Austin Energys next generation smart grid platform to create, operate, and evaluate an open platform Energy Internet. Pecan Street Project, Inc. was awarded $10.4 million in Department of Energy stimulus funding in November 2009 to execute the demonstration. Residential and commercial participation in the project will be voluntary. The Mueller community a public-private joint venture between the City of Austin and Catellus Development Group, a ProLogis company is located at the site of Austins former airport.

In addition to Pecan Street Project Inc., demonstration project team members include the University of Texas, Austin Energy, Environmental Defense Fund, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and the City of Austin. In addition, the demonstration project has a Technology Review and Advisory Committee with representatives from ERCOT, Bluebonnet Electric Coop, CPS Energy San Antonio and Pedernales Electric Coop.

The project will collect data and analyze the results against control groups and distribution feeder systems in other locations in the Austin Energy service area to quantify how the integration of these technologies impacts electricity usage and bills, the utilitys finances, environmental outcomes and overall system performance.

(Austin, Texas) A recently released report found the Fort Hood Recovery Credit System (RCS) to be an effective tool for meeting conservation goals for an endangered species, while increasing the ability of the U.S. Army to achieve its training mission. The report, produced by the Robertson Consulting Group, provides strong evidence that a three-year pilot test of the Fort Hood RCS was successful in achieving its goals.

“This recovery credit system appeals to a broad range of private landowners as it pays them for actions designed to recover the Golden-cheeked Warbler,” said Environmental Defense Fund Scientist David Wolfe, who chairs the RCS Science Committee that established the biological criteria for the RCS. “It truly is a market-based approach to endangered species conservation.”

Despite being one of the Army’s most active training sites, Fort Hood has the largest known population of endangered Golden-cheeked Warblers anywhere on the planet. The Army’s stewardship resulted in more than 50,000 acres of occupied habitat on Fort Hood, nearly one-quarter of the base. But increased training pressure in recent years forced the Army to seek a means of accommodating its expanding training mission, while continuing its contribution to warbler recovery. That’s when a problem-solving coalition, including EDF and an array of other state, federal and non-governmental partners, partnered to create the Fort Hood RCS.

How does RCS work? In essence, the federal agency, in this case the Army through Fort Hood, invests funds in conservation actions designed to benefit the Golden-cheeked Warbler on private lands. In return, Fort Hood receives credits that it uses as needed to offset actions on the base that may adversely affect the warbler and its habitat. The system is designed to ensure steadily increasing net benefits to the warbler through an annual set-aside of 10 percent of the available credits, and through habitat measurement criteria, which ensure that more acreage of habitat is conserved and appropriately managed on private lands than is adversely affected on Fort Hood.

Further evidence of the potential conservation value of the RCS concept is provided by the recent creation of the Utah Prairie Dog Habitat Credits Exchange, which borrowed heavily from the Fort Hood example, and is now undergoing pilot testing.
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Sean Crowley, 202-550-6524-c, scrowley@edf.org
Sara Hopper, 202-572-3379, shopper@edf.org

(Washington, DC—March 23, 2010) Fifteen conservation groups oppose cutting more than $2 billion dollars from the largest of USDA’s working lands conservation programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), to pay for a child nutrition reauthorization bill drafted by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill and vote on it tomorrow (Wednesday).

“This current proposal would not only rob farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners of conservation and environmental stewardship assistance in the next decade, but would take away well over $2 billion from the farm bill conservation baseline, or nearly half of the widely-lauded conservation increase in the 2008 Farm Bill,” said the groups in a letter addressed to Sen. Lincoln and the other Senate Agriculture Committee members. “This cut clearly violates the carefully negotiated compromise that you supported in the 2008 Farm Bill.”

“We understand and appreciate the critical need to provide additional funding for the child nutrition school meal programs,” the letter added. “There are other sources for this funding outside of the Farm Bill conservation programs that could be tapped to pay for these needs without taking away from the programs that support farmers and forest landowners in their efforts to provide conservation benefits in addition to food, forest products, and fiber. However, if Farm Bill resources are determined to be the only resort, then fairness demands that the conservation title should not bear the full burden of providing the solution.”

“Farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners are eager to share the cost of protecting the environment, but demand for participation in conservation programs routinely far outstrips available funding,” the letter concluded. “This proposal will only exacerbate that problem, and will undermine conservation practice adoption on-the-ground. Applied conservation provides clean water, energy conservation, erosion reduction, carbon sinks, improved wildlife habitat, wetland protection, and other important public benefits that should not be lost.”

The 15 conservation groups that signed the letter include:

American Farmland Trust
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Defenders of Wildlife
Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Working Group
Izaak Walton League of America
National Association of Conservation Districts
National Audubon Society
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
National Wildlife Federation
Natural Resources Defense Council
Partners for Sustainable Pollination
Pollinator Partnership
Union of Concerned Scientists
World Wildlife Fund

The full text of the letter can be found at http://www.edf.org/documents/10904_Child_Nutrition_Letter.pdf

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Contacts:
Tony Kreindler, National Media Director, Climate, 202-445-8108, tkreindler@edf.org
Pamela Campos, Attorney, 720-205-2366, pcampos@edf.org

(Washington – March 23, 2010) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today proposed new rules that would require the oil and gas industry to begin reporting emissions of greenhouse gases beginning next year, ensuring rigorous public disclosure of methane, which has a warming potential 24 times that of carbon dioxide.

“The public has been left in the dark about methane emissions from the oil and gas industry,” said Pamela Campos, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund. “EPA’s leadership in requiring disclosure of this potent greenhouse gas will mean more rigorous information and smarter policies to address pollution.”

The oil and gas industry is the second largest contributor to U.S. methane emissions, accounting for 23% of methane emissions in the United States in 2007. In 2007, methane emissions from oil and gas systems in the United States equaled the greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 24 coal plants.

EPA’s proposed rules would require data collection beginning January 2011 and reporting by March 2012, covering methane and carbon dioxide emissions from both on-shore and off-shore production facilities as well as processing and transmission facilities.

“Rigorous emissions data is the foundation of well-designed public policy,” Campos said. “Access to facility-based data from the oil-and gas sector is a critical first step towards achieving well-designed emissions reductions.”

In addition to the proposed methane rules, EPA released proposed reporting rules for other high-potency greenhouse gases which would require reporting from producers of SF6 and other fluorinated greenhouse gas products, electronics manufacturing, manufacturers of electrical equipment, and importers of pre-charged equipment and certain foams. EPA also proposed reporting requirements for facilities that inject and store carbon dioxide (CO₂) underground.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

Ann Hayden, (415) 293-6086-w, (510) 508-2557-c, ahayden@edf.org  
Sean Crowley (202) 550-6524-c, scrowley@edf.org  

(San Francisco–March 19, 2010) Environmental Defense Fund praised the National Academy of Sciences for issuing a report today validating the biological opinions that led to management actions last year to save salmon and other endangered fish, which reduced water deliveries to some farmers in the Central Valley. 

“The National Academy of Sciences report clearly validates the biological opinions,” said Ann Hayden, EDF Senior Water Resource Analyst and a member of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan steering committee. “It’s time to stop pitting the economic interests of farmers against fishermen and move forward to find solutions. We have pushed the Bay-Delta system to brink of collapse, and saving it—and the jobs that depend on it—is going to require increased cooperation among all interests.”

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Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Sean Crowley, 202-550-6524-c, scrowley@edf.org
Sara Hopper, 202-572-3379, shopper@edf.org

(Washington, DC—March 18, 2010) Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) yesterday introduced a child nutrition bill that would cut more than $2 billion dollars from the largest of USDA’s working lands conservation programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), according to a leading conservation group. As a result of EQIP’s nationwide popularity, Congress increased funding for EQIP in the 2008 Farm Bill by $3.4 billion over 10 years. Senator Lincoln’s proposed EQIP cuts would wipe out more than two-thirds of that increase.

“We support better child nutrition, but there are better ways to pay for this worthy bill than by cutting USDA’s conservation programs,” said Sara Hopper, director of agricultural policy for Environmental Defense Fund and a former staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “The Environmental Quality Incentives Program is a great deal for taxpayers because it spurs private investment in public benefits, including cleaner water, cleaner air and improved wildlife habitat. It’s one of several conservation programs that assists farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners in Arkansas and other states who offer to spend their own time and money to improve the management of their land to benefit the environment.”

EQIP allows farmers to share with USDA the cost of implementing practices on working agricultural and forest lands that deliver a broad array of environmental benefits, including improved water quality, soil quality, air quality, forest health, and wildlife habitat. Farmer demand for the program routinely outstrips available funding; in the most recent year that USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) published EQIP enrollment numbers—Fiscal Year 2008—farmer demand for the program was so great that NRCS was forced to reject nearly half a billion dollars ($487 million) worth of applications by almost 24,000 farmers nationwide, about one third of all farmers who applied.

“Congress passed the 2008 Farm Bill with broad bipartisan support, and the investment it made in conservation was one reason for that broad support,” Hopper concluded. “We are disappointed to see Senator Lincoln propose cutting conservation funding so soon after taking over the chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee. We hope she and other members of the committee will consider alternative ways to pay for child nutrition legislation as this bill moves forward.”

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Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.

(Washington, DC – March 18, 2010) The Carlyle Group (Carlyle) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today announced the creation of EcoValuScreen, a pioneering business review process that unlocks opportunities for operational improvement and value creation through enhanced environmental management at potential investments. The new analytic tool was developed in partnership with The Payne Firm (Payne), an international environmental consultancy, and builds on Carlyle’s established due diligence practices and EDF’s proven Green Returns approach.

EcoValuScreen goes beyond the traditional focus of risk mitigation during the due diligence process by identifying opportunities for operational enhancements that will lead to better environmental and financial performance before making an investment. This process will be used by Carlyle professionals to more effectively evaluate the operations of a target company, identify the most promising environmental management opportunities and incorporate them into the post-investment management, governance and reporting plans of Carlyle’s portfolio companies. Carlyle will first implement EcoValuScreen in its U.S. and European buyout funds.

“Our goal is to increase returns for our investors while enhancing environmental performance,” said William E. Conway, Jr., Managing Director and Co-Founder of The Carlyle Group. “We believe that financial performance and environmental improvements are complementary and in the best interests of our investors. This builds on our earlier work to develop and implement principles for responsible investing and establishes a new best practice for private equity investments. We are pleased to partner with EDF and we continue to explore other opportunities for collaboration.”

“This is a first for the private equity sector. In an industry where environmental due diligence has been limited to the downsides of liability and risk mitigation, we now have a way to systematically uncover the upside of real opportunities to enhance business performance while improving environmental performance,” said Gwen Ruta, Vice President, Corporate Partnerships, EDF. “Together with our Green Returns framework for improving environmental performance of assets already under management, this new due diligence screen expands the significant role that environmental management can have in creating value in private equity and across the many industries and companies it touches.”

To develop the screen, Carlyle, Payne and EDF examined more than 320 current and former Carlyle portfolio companies to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce costs and minimize environmental impacts across five key areas – greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, water use, priority chemicals and forest products. The analysis revealed a high correlation between environmental impacts and common business activities that occur across Carlyle’s investments. The analysis also identified specific initiatives to enhance the environmental performance of these activities while driving financial savings. The new due diligence screen is designed to be flexible, broadly applicable and easily incorporated into Carlyle’s established due diligence practices.

To validate and improve this concept, Carlyle will apply the new screen and work with EDF to make refinements as necessary. Additional information about the screen is available at http://edf.org/duediligence, and case studies of its use will be made public when available, with the mutual goal of sharing lessons learned and best practices throughout the industry.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contacts: Sean Crowley, Environmental Defense Fund. 202.572-3331, scrowley@edf.org
Emily Guidry Schatzel, National Wildlife Federation, 225.253.9781, guidrye@nwf.org
David J. Ringer, National Audubon Society, 601.642.7058, dringer@audubon.org

(Baton Rouge, LA—March 16, 2010) Five local and national conservation groups working on coastal Louisiana restoration are calling on Louisiana’s Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration (OCPR) to amend its Fiscal Year 2011 draft plan for coastal restoration and hurricane protection.

“Restoring the wetlands and making sure that our levees are strong and reliable must be backed up with necessary resources, so residents and businesses can build for—and live with—the always present remaining storm risk,” said a joint statement by Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Environmental Defense Fund, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, National Audubon Society and National Wildlife Federation. “Architectural, land use, and community planning solutions— such as elevation and evacuation planning, must work in conjunction with restoring wetlands and strategically placed levees—to reduce risk to people and property. The good news is that such techniques can be implemented in just a few years and they are very cost-effective.”

The groups are recommending that the state identify funding sources and specific projects for cost-effective, community-based programs that can reduce hurricane risk quickly, which the Army Corps of Engineers calls “non-structural” storm protection measures. They include: elevating homes, maintaining effective evacuation routes, using commercial flood mitigation techniques, instituting planning and zoning reforms, storm-proofing critical public facilities, and using flood insurance.

The groups are recommending the state amend the Annual Plan to:

1. Clearly articulate a commitment to providing leadership on establishing and implementing a strong non-structural program; and
2. Coordinate state agencies currently overseeing the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery funds to ensure that these funds work with coastal restoration and hurricane protection to provide resilience for communities.

“Without providing a framework for cost-effective, community-based programs that can diminish hurricane risk quickly, the draft plan greatly reduces the effectiveness of other restoration and protection projects,” the groups added. “Currently, unused disaster recovery funds can be tapped to implement these programs. The state should use these funds to ensure a more comprehensive strategy to defend coastal communities from storms.”

“The draft plan currently calls for a multiple lines of defense approach to restoration and protection in Louisiana, including long-term coastal restoration and strategically placed levees,” the groups concluded. “A robust, non-structural program must be an essential element of any natural hazards protection plan. Unfortunately, the draft plan lacks specific details for these cost-effective, community-based programs that can reduce hurricane risk in the near term. This omission must be rectified to protect millions of Louisianans from another Katrina.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sean Crowley, 202.572.3331, scrowley@edf.org  
David Goldberg, T4America, 202-412-7930, david.goldberg@t4america.org  

(Washington, DC—March 15, 2010) Congress should include comprehensive funding policies for the first time in the upcoming transportation reauthorization bill to both modernize freight transportation and clean it up by favoring innovations like those highlighted in a new report released today during a 1pm teleconference call (800-935-9319). Freight transportation currently is the most polluting and fastest growing transportation sector.

The clean freight innovation locations include, but are not limited to: Southern California; Chicago; Seattle; Norfolk, Virginia; and along the Gulf Coast between Port Manatee, Florida and Brownsville, Texas. (The report, video version of it and fact sheets are at: www.edf.org/goodhaul).

The report is timely since Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) recently vowed to take up a transportation reauthorization bill this year, and the EPW Committee has initiated a series of hearings on issues to be addressed in the bill. Senator Boxer has said she would use the $500 billion bill already introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as a framework.

“This report provides a roadmap for modernizing the U.S. freight system, making it more reliable and faster, and reducing greenhouse gases and air pollution,” says Kathryn Phillips, director of the California Transportation and Air Initiative at Environmental Defense Fund, whose staff produced the report. “House and Senate committees writing the transportation bill should ensure funding for freight improvement delivers environmental benefits too. This report shows it can be done.”
The report, The Good Haul, details 28 case studies of clean freight solutions that exist in the United States and internationally. Congress should direct any freight improvement funding to encourage clean freight solutions to improve freight’s performance and protect public health and the environment.

“Now is ideal time to tackle these challenges,” says James Corless, director of Transportation for America, a coalition of more than 450 organizations nationwide focused on creating a national transportation program for the 21st century by modernizing our infrastructure and building healthy communities. “The upcoming reauthorization of the federal transportation bill is a great opportunity to help achieve a smarter, greener freight system.”

Freight delivers nearly everything we buy, eat, manufacture, or build with to us via a complex system of shipping routes, rail lines, highways, ports, and rail yards. Unfortunately, U.S. freight movement represents 25 percent of transportation’s contributions to greenhouse gases, and its share of emissions is climbing twice as fast as passenger travel. By 2020, more than 90 million tons of freight are expected to move throughout the United States per day, a 70 percent increase from 2002.

Freight air pollution is an enormous health threat. The fine particle pollution from U.S. diesel engines—the most common engines used in freight—is estimated to shorten the lives of more than 20,000 people each year.  The California Air Resources Board estimates that in 2005 freight-related pollution and health effects cost the state nearly $20 billion and caused about 2,400 premature deaths, 2,000 respiratory-related hospital admissions, more than 60,000 asthma and lower respiratory cases, 360,000 lost work days, and more than 1 million lost school days. .
Below are brief summaries of some a few case studies featured in The Good Haul:

• Southern California: The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach launched the Clean Air Action Plan in 2006, which cleans up all areas of port activity: trucks, cargo handling equipment, locomotives, ships, even tug boats. Since implementation 18 months ago, the plan already has taken 2,000 dirty diesel trucks off the road and has created more than 3,000 jobs at the Port of Los Angeles alone. Video of Port of LA clean freight innovations is at: ww.edf.org/goodhaul.  

• Chicago: The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency program (CREATE) aims to reduce congestion and improve air quality by streamlining four major rail lines. Chicago handles nearly 30 percent of rail freight revenue and expects to see an 89 percent increase in rail traffic over the next 30 years. The program will result in more than $1 billion in health care savings from improved air quality and generate economic activity valued at more than $525 million. The program expects to create 2,700 annual jobs.

• Seattle: BNSF Railway installed four electric wide-span, rail-mounted gantry cranes at the Seattle International Gateway (SIG) intermodal facility. The cranes’ wide footprints allow them to span three tracks, stack containers and load and unload both trucks and railcars. The cranes produce zero onsite emissions and have increased throughput by 30 percent at the facility.

• Norfolk, Virginia: The Port of Virginia’s Green Goat hybrid yard switcher, a rail locomotive that moves short distances within a rail yard, provides fuel savings between 40-60 percent and is predicted to reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions between 80-90 percent annually.

• Along the Gulf Coast: Sea Bridge Freight, a coastal shipping service between Port Manatee, Florida and Brownsville, Texas, avoids an average of nearly 1,400 miles of congested highways. Compared to trucking, one Sea Bridge barge has the capacity to remove 400,000 truck highway miles on a single one-way voyage.

• Germany: Toll Collect, a distance-based GPS truck tolling system, with a category for engine emissions, has encouraged a shift to cleaner engines. The cleanest Euro V truck engines have increased from less than 1 percent in 2005 to more than 50 percent in 2008. Since 2007, Toll Collect has seen revenues of 3.4 billion euros ($4.6 billion).

• Norfolk Southern: This railway, which operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, is testing a battery-powered locomotive that produces zero onsite emissions with costs comparable to diesel-powered locomotives.

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 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Sean Crowley, 202.572.3331, scrowley@edf.org
Ted Toombs, 303.447.7210, ttoombs@edf.org

(Washington, DC – March 12, 2010) Conservation and rancher groups say a special initiative announced today by USDA’s National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) could help recover the greater sage-grouse. The initiative is designed to focus resources from two voluntary federal conservation programs NRCS administers: the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP). EQIP and WHIP help farmers and ranchers reduce threats to declining species and conserve their sagebrush core habitat areas.

“We have a chance to keep the greater sage-grouse off of the endangered species list if it shows recovery progress,” said Ted Toombs, Rocky Mountain Regional Director of the Center for Conservation Incentives at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and a member of several state technical committees for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). “This new NRCS initiative supports that goal across a very large landscape, which is an essential component to the larger recovery effort. We applaud these kinds of federal initiatives that encourage cooperative conservation efforts in sagebrush country, to stitch back together fragments of sage-grouse habitat on private working lands.”

“Thanks to this NRCS program support, ranch communities will be able devote more resources to sagebrush habitat recovery as well as initiate new cooperative habitat revitalization efforts,” said Leo Barthelmess, a rancher in Malta, Montana and founding member of the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, which works collaboratively with agencies, private landowners, non-governmental organizations and many other partners to conserve sage grouse habitat across a 1 million-acre landscape in eastern Montana.

The NRCS announcement follows last Friday’s determination by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that listing the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is warranted, but precluded by a backlog of other ESA candidate species, for at least one or more years. While the greater sage-grouse remains a candidate for listing, it still is possible to keep it off of the endangered species list if it shows recovery progress.

Sage-grouse populations have declined from an estimated 320,000 males in 1965-1970 to less than 90,000 males on just over 5,000 communal stomping grounds called “leks” in the western United States, as of 2007 (see fact sheet at: www.edf.org/documents/10857_SageGrouseFactSheet.pdf and photo of greater sage-grouse photo at: www.edf.org/content_images/GreaterSageGrouse.jpg). Greater sage-grouse currently occur in only 11 western states: California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The bird’s remaining U.S. strongholds are in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon, according to NRCS.

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Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.  
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Sean Crowley, 202.550-6524-c, scrowley@edf.org
Ted Toombs, (303) 447-7210-w, ttoombs@edf.org

(Washington, DC – March 5, 2010) The determination by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) today that listing the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is warranted, but precluded for now, confirms that some of America’s most treasured landscapes and game species are in trouble. It is a wake-up call for landowners, industry, and conservationists to work together to reverse the decline of the bird and the land it inhabits.

Greater sage-grouse currently occur in only 11 western states: California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming (see photo of greater sage-grouse at: www.edf.org/content_images/GreaterSageGrouse.jpg).

“An endangered species listing is no one’s first choice as a tool to fix broken landscapes,” said Ted Toombs, Rocky Mountain Regional Director of the Center for Conservation Incentives at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and a member of several state technical committees for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). “It is really a last resort option to keep species from going extinct.”

“The first, best option to protect species is for conservationists, farmers, ranchers, energy companies, the recreation industry, and other stakeholders to work together on habitat conservation and restoration, so that an endangered species listing can be avoided,” Toombs added. “Many western industries—including tourism, hunting and livestock—depend on the same thing as this iconic bird: healthy, productive, open lands.”

According to FWS, while the bird’s decline warrants listing, it must be delayed due to the backlog of other species that are already candidates for ESA listing. The decision means that the status of the greater sage-grouse will be evaluated every 12 months along with the status of the 279 other ESA candidate species. Making the greater sage-grouse a candidate species allows agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service to treat the bird as if it were an endangered species, and requires state and federal land management agencies to consult with FWS whenever a proposed development would encroach upon greater sage-grouse habitat. If the status of the greater sage grouse is more perilous next year or in subsequent years, FWS will be more likely formally list the bird under the ESA. When a species is formally proposed for listing, the endangered species designation process lasts about a year. While a species remains a candidate for listing, it still is possible to keep it off of the endangered species list if it shows recovery progress.

“We proactively take steps to protect wildlife, both in terms of the Best Management Practices we employ and by engaging third party experts to better understand, address and minimize impacts to wildlife,” said Byron Gale, vice president of environment, health and safety for EnCana Oil and Gas (USA), which uses the latest available research on greater sage-grouse to mitigate the impacts of drilling and has committed $21.5 million to the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust to protect wildlife habitat and other natural resources. “We pride ourselves on the numerous steps we have taken to protect the greater sage-grouse and other species of wildlife that share the land and our development sites. We are committed to doing our part to recover the greater sage-grouse and continuing our proud tradition of responsible resource development.”

“We are committed to implementing science-based conservation measures that reduce or eliminate threats to sage-grouse and at the same time allow for responsible renewable energy development in western states,” said Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), which supports research aimed at defining the best possible strategies for conserving wildlife species. “AWEA and the wind industry have shown their commitment to wildlife conservation by working with such collaborative efforts as the American Wind Wildlife Institute, the Bats & Wind Energy Cooperative and the recently created Sage Grouse Research Collaborative.”

“I know from experience that cooperative conservation projects at large scales can help livestock producers protect and recover critical habitats for species at risk,” said Leo Barthelmess, a rancher in Malta, Montana and founding member of the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, which works collaboratively with agencies, private landowners, non-governmental organizations and many other partners to conserve sage grouse habitat and the livestock community across a multi-million acre landscape in eastern Montana. “This is one just example of the livestock industry stepping up to help avert listing.”

To encourage and support cooperative efforts to help the greater sage-grouse recover, EDF recommends that the government:

1. Expand its Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs) program to help save the greater sage-grouse. CCAAs protect landowners who voluntarily adopt habitat restoration measures from future land use regulations in the case that this game bird is granted endangered status, with the goal of avoiding endangered species listing. However, if the species is listed in the future, the landowner is absolved of any obligations beyond the CCAA. Last month, FWS negotiated the first CCAA to protect the greater sage-grouse in the nation with landowners in southwest Idaho and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. FWS is negotiating similar pacts elsewhere in Idaho, Wyoming and other western states inhabited by ESA candidate species.
2. Use the Montana NCRS Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat Conservation Strategy as a model for other states to provide ranchers economic support to participate in cooperative, scientifically-based, on-the-ground conservation efforts for the greater sage-grouse.

The FWS determination is based upon the latest scientific information from the U.S. Geological Society (USGS) published in Studies in Avian Biology that details sage-grouse population declines, habitat loss and fragmentation of sagebrush ecosystems resulting from the cumulative effects of a variety of causes (see USGS fact sheet on greater sage-grouse at: www.edf.org/documents/10845_SAGRBriefingPaper1.pdf).

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Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit organization, represents more than 700,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington (March 5)—Environmental Defense Fund applauds the United States and Brazil for signing an agreement to launch a bilateral climate dialogue and to work together to slash global warming pollution and reduce emissions from tropical deforestation.

“This shows the world’s major nations are moving forward, and particularly the agreement to cooperate on deforestation is a real breakthrough,” said Jennifer Haverkamp, EDF’s director for international climate policy negotiations.

“Stopping tropical forest destruction is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to curb carbon pollution.”

The United States and Brazil agreed to strengthen climate cooperation and launch the bilateral climate policy dialogue on Wednesday, during Secretary Hillary Clinton’s visit to Brasilia.

The deal marks the first time the two nations have formally agreed to work together on policies to reduce emissions from deforestation, known as REDD. It also establishes a forum for ongoing discussions on how to advance international climate talks and the research and development of clean energy technologies, among other issues.

“Cooperation between the U.S. and Brazil has major implications,” said Haverkamp. “We can really move the ball forward with bilateral efforts like this.”

Tropical deforestation causes nearly a fifth of all global warming pollution, and a large portion of the total comes from Brazil’s Amazon Basin.

Brazil has already made huge strides to curb deforestation in recent years. In 2009, deforestation fell to its lowest rate in two decades.

Jennifer Haverkamp / (202) 316-4914 / jhaverkamp@edf.org
Andrea Welsh/ (202) 297-7723 / awelsh@edf.org