Washington, D.C. – A federal court late last week shut down the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt to exempt scores of thousands of waste incinerators from the protective controls that the Clean Air Act requires. EPA’s rule would have allowed thousands of tons of toxic pollution to go completely uncontrolled.

WASHINGTON (June 11, 2007) – The mounting quest for oil alternatives threatens drastic increases in heat-trapping global warming pollution and severe impacts on popular habitats across the United States and Western Canada unless clear safeguards are adopted quickly, according to a new analysis released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The warning comes as lawmakers are facing growing pressure to give huge new subsidies and other incentives to companies involved liquid coal, oil shale and tar sands.

WASHINGTON (June 7, 2007) – Leaders meeting at the G8 summit meeting in Germany today announced an agreement to pursue “substantial” reductions in global warming pollution. While the language falls short of objectives ultimately needed to contain the problem, the accord itself demonstrates a fundamental and important shift in the international global warming policy conversation, in which the Bush administration suddenly finds itself unable to forestall meaningful action.

WASHINGTON (June 5, 2007) -- The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers today released a long-awaited policy document that further muddies the waters regarding the waterways both agencies intend to protect due to a series of Supreme Court rulings on the scope of the Clean Water Act, according to policy experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

BOISE, ID – (June 4, 2007) Conservation groups today filed a lawsuit in Idaho federal district court challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for the Yellowstone area’s iconic grizzly bear population.   The legal challenge asks the court to restore the threatened status of the Yellowstone grizzly population because of ongoing and threatened habitat destruction, insufficient bear numbers, and inadequate legal protections. 

SAN JOSE, (June 1, 2007) – Just five months after California’s Global Warming Solutions Act became law, the state is off to a running start in devising the world’s most ambitious global warming pollution reduction plan and firmly placing the state at the epicenter of the fast-growing clean technology market, according to a new report released today by business and conservation groups.

WASHINGTON (May 31, 2007) – The vague, voluntary global warming goal announced today by President Bush confirms again that the administration continues to lag far behind leading American businesses and a growing list of leaders in both political parties that are pressing for concrete legal limits to cut global warming pollution according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

NEW YORK -- The Natural Resources Defense Council today applauded Stanford University for supporting an important shareholder resolution targeting ExxonMobil's position on global warming and called on the university to take further steps to publicly separate itself from the oil giant.

WASHINGTON (May 30, 2007) – In a startling rebuke to company management, an unprecedented number of ExxonMobil shareholders today voted in favor of a resolution that calls on the company to set global warming emission targets for both its products and its operations. Thirty-one percent of those voting at the annual shareholder meeting in Dallas said it was time for the company to start addressing the business and environmental challenge.

San Francisco, CA -- A federal judge ruled today that a government assessment of risk to threatened fish from massive pumps in the San Francisco Bay Delta is illegal and must be rewritten. State and federal water project managers relied on the "biological opinion" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to justify increased water exports to farms and cities south of the delta. Conservation groups sued the agency, arguing that its conclusion that increased pumping wouldn't harm the delta smelt ignored a steep decline in the fish's numbers and was not supported by science.

Washington, DC (May 24, 2007) -- Across the country, millions of Americans are heading to the beach this Memorial Day weekend for the start of the summer beach season.

Washington, DC (May 24, 2007) –Legislation that would protect 58.5 million acres of unspoiled forests, visited by millions of Americans every year, was introduced today in the U.S. Senate.

San Francisco -- The Bay Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Natural Resources Defense Council today sent a 60-day notice letter of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to respond to a March 2006 petition requesting changing the federal listing of the critically imperiled delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) from a threatened to an endangered species. The groups also sent an urgent request letter today to the California Fish and Game Commission requesting that the agency reconsider an emergency state listing of endangered for the delta smelt under the California Endangered Species Act.

WASHINGTON (May 24, 2007) – Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced the Marine Vessel Emissions Reduction Act of 2007 today in the U.S. Senate. The bill closes a regulatory loophole by directing the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the significant pollution emitted by ocean-going vessels at America’s ports.

SACRAMENTO (May 23, 2007) – The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and other municipal utilities in California will have to make long-term investments in clean electricity generation under new regulations adopted today by the California Energy Commission. The rules are required under the state’s landmark Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance Standard Act and will help California achieve its ambitious goal of reducing global warming pollution by 30 percent by 2020.

Washington, DC (May 22, 2007) – Legislation designed to return crucial Clean Water Act protections to our nation’s bodies of water was introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill, called the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007, was introduced by Representatives James Oberstar (D-Minn.), John Dingell (D-Mich.), and Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich), along with a bipartisan group of more than 150 co-sponsors.

Washington, DC (May 17, 2007) – After years of disproportionate funding cuts for the environment and natural resources, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate have passed a budget resolution which takes a decisive step in the right direction, according to environment and policy experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Washington, DC (May 15, 2007) – A report released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)  accuses the U.S. government of gross failure to use its authority to protect citizens from the potentially dangerous effects of nano-scale chemistry, according to scientists and policy experts at NRDC.

Washington, DC (May 14, 2007) – Members of Congress and the Bush administration reached a deal late last week on labor and environmental provisions to be incorporated in trade agreements with Peru and Panama, including key measures to address the imports of illegally logged timber from Peru’s Amazon rainforest. Environmental groups’ experts working on logging issues say that these measures could signal a new zero-tolerance policy from Congress towards the illegal timber trade and a first step to address the problems of illegal logging in Peru that were highlighted in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Susan Schwab from Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and other members of the House Ways and Means Committee in January.

WASHINGTON (May 14, 2007) – Announcements by the Bush administration today reflect the growing pressure on the White House to address global warming, gas prices and energy security, but offer precious little action, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).  Indeed, the Executive Order on global warming emissions from cars and trucks entangles EPA in even more red tape.