You don’t often hear positive news of the environment- especially in the U.S. these days, so when an email from the Natural Resources Defence Council of a similar title showed up in my inbox yesterday, I thought I would share some heartening tidings. BTW, the NRDC is one of the strongest environmental lobbies in this country, if not the strongest. I have been a monthly contributor for years and am also one of their email activitists. That means numerous times a month I send out emails to urging government officials to support environmental legislation.
The NRDC has filed 87 lawsuits against the current administration since its inception 2 1/2 years ago. On average that is one lawsuit every 10 days. Of those, 47 of those have been won in favor of the environment with only 3 setbacks. The others are still in litigation.
Some recent groundbreaking legal wins include: (Copied directly from the NRDC newsletter)
- Defending our natural heritage in the Southwest: A federal appeals court ruled in our favor, finding that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) illegally approved the drilling and fracking of oil and gas wells in the Greater Chaco region of New Mexico, a spectacular landscape sacred to indigenous tribes. The court reversed the approval of 25 drilling permits, and the landmark case has national implications for BLM decisions to allow drilling. Read more here
- Forcing energy giants to pay up: Another court blocked the Interior Department from trying to repeal regulations closing loopholes that enriched fossil fuel companies at the expense of taxpayers. The repeal would have let oil, gas, and coal companies avoid paying millions of dollars in royalties for mining and drilling on our public lands. Read more here
- Upholding President Obama’s permanent ban on offshore drilling: A judge ruled that Trump illegally sought to reinstate oil and gas leasing in the pristine, sensitive Arctic Ocean and wildlife-rich Atlantic deepwater canyons. Read more here
- Opening the door to protecting threatened giraffes: An NRDC lawsuit finally forced the Trump administration to concede that giraffes may warrant protection under America’s Endangered Species Act. Giraffe populations have plunged by 40 percent in the last 30 years. And America is a big importer of giraffe hunting trophies and bone carvings. Read more here
- Protecting whales on the brink: In the face of NRDC legal pressure, the Trump administration finally listed the Gulf of Mexico whale as endangered after dragging its feet for years. An estimated 22 percent of the species were decimated by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and there are only 33 of the whales left on the planet. Read more here
The NRDC is still waging dozens of other critically important courtroom battles: lawsuits to save the Clean Power Plan, protect national monuments like Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante, restrict the use of bee-killing pesticides, stop the climate-busting Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, and so many more.
Consider contributing to environmental causes no matter what country you reside in. I like the NRDC since most of the money received from donors goes directly to the cause.
Together we can make a difference. For more information go to NRDC.org
By Alanna Pass 