Latest news with #NRDC
E&E News
28-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Ex-Biden energy official lands senior green group gig
A veteran of the Biden administration's Energy Department is joining the Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental group announced Tuesday. Julie Cerqueira, who served as the Energy Department's principal deputy assistant secretary for international affairs during the Biden administration, has been hired as NRDC's chief program officer, where she'll join the green group's leadership team. In the new role, Cerqueira will help drive the organization's strategy; fundraise; and manage the group's climate and energy, environmental health, nature, green finance and international programs, NRDC announced. Advertisement 'Right now, we are called upon to defend everything the environmental movement has fought for over the last few generations — and to rebuild a future we can all feel more hopeful and excited about,' Cerqueira said in a statement. 'At a moment where so much is being destroyed at a pace that's hard to keep up with — I can't think of a better place to be.'
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Florida is hotter than your vacation
Tourists are flooding into Florida this Memorial Day weekend, headed to beaches, theme parks, and local hotspots. Meanwhile, locals are staying inside to avoid a record-breaking heatwave that feels more like July 2045 than May 2025. The holiday is considered the start of the summer. AAA's latest report said over 45 million people will travel this weekend, most of them will brave a road trip, hitting up each Buc-ee's along their way. But it's really hot. In 2001, the NRDC warned Florida about climate-driven catastrophe. Nearly 25 years later, those warnings read less like forecasts and more like headlines. This including a rise of sea levels and temperatures; damage to the Everglades, coral reefs, beaches, and coastal ecosystems; lower yields to Florida agriculture like sugarcane, tomatoes, and citrus fruits; and an increased risk of wildfires to forests, natural areas, and homes. There is also a higher risk for heat stroke, especially among senior citizens. Global warming presents Florida with serious challenges—challenges that threaten human health, economic prosperity, and treasured natural areas. The research indicates that over several decades, changes in sea level, average temperature, and weather will damage coastal property and beaches, water resources, human health, agriculture, and natural areas. "Feeling the heat in Florida" — NRDC, October 2001 NOAA's recent report included a forecast of increased activity for the 2025 Hurricane season, starting June 1. They predict 13-19 named storms, and 3-4 major hurricanes, yet some parts of Florida are still coping with recovery from last year's back-to-back hurricanes. There are steps the state can take to mitigate this harm. The NRDC suggested that Floridians actively reduce pollution, using more efficient and clean energy, and adapt. Yet two decades later, environmental measures in the Florida legislature aren't moving in that direction, with no help from the current federal government. But this doesn't stop the tourists, making tourism Florida's main industry. Some advice for vacationers from a Floridian: Make sure you pack lots of sunscreen, a sun hat, and a portable rechargeable fan. Seriously. Sunscreen. Wear lots of it during the day and try to stay out of direct sunlight. Even at the beach or pool. Northern winter skin cannot handle the UV levels in Florida. You will burn. It's not the souvenir you want to take home from your trip. Take a moment to rest somewhere cool at the hottest time of day (about 3:00 p.m.). It will probably rain at some point during the day, usually in the afternoon. Hurricanes are not just any other storm. If one is headed towards you, take it seriously. Florida is prone to flooding and storm debris, both of which kills more people than the actual storm. Advice from Tampa's celebrity meteorologist Denis Phillips: 'Don't freak out.' Be flexible and keep a positive attitude. Don't let the weather be the reason you have for unpleasant vacation memories. For tourists, Florida is still a playground. For locals, it's becoming a cautionary tale.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Community members express skepticism of EPA decision to lift Flint drinking water emergency order
Aonie GIlcreast raises questions about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to lift the emergency order on the city's drinking water, as residents gather at Christ Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church on May 20, 2025. | Kyle Davidson As Flint residents continue to push for accountability and clean water more than a decade since the start of the city's water crisis, attorneys from the ACLU and the NRDC gathered with community advocates at Christ Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church Tuesday night to honor the residents who pushed the city to complete its lead line replacement program. However, the end of the program does not mean the city's pipes are lead free, and with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Monday decision lifting the emergency order placed on the city's drinking water, Pastor Allen Overton of Concerned Pastors for Social Action said the hosts were conscious of how they used the word celebrate. 'We're here today to celebrate a huge milestone in the case that we brought back in 2016 against the city of Flint and the state of Michigan officials. After more than eight years, the court ordered lead pipe replacement program has been completed, with nearly 11,000 lead pipes removed. That should be the point,' Overton said. While this milestone is not all of the justice the community deserves, it is a huge achievement, he said. 'This community has been through so much. We were misled by our leaders. We had to take matters into our own hands by collecting water samples, educating ourselves about lead contamination and ultimately suing to force the government to fix the problem that they created. Thanks to the persistence of the people of Flint and our partners, the Natural Resource Defense Council and the ACLU, we are finally at the end of this project,' Overton said. In April of 2014, the City of Flint switched its water source from Detroit-supplied Lake Huron water to the Flint River but failed to properly treat the water with corrosion control, corroding the pipes and leaching lead into the city's water. Failure to treat the water with proper levels of chlorine also led to outbreaks of Legionnaires' Disease, killing 12 and sickening at least 87 people between June 2014 and October 2015. In March 2016, Flint resident Melissa Mays, alongside the NRDC, the ACLU of Michigan, the NRDC and Concerned Pastors for Social Action filed a suit in federal court to compel the city and the state to comply with federal testing and treatment requirements for lead and to replace all lead pipes within the city. That November, federal judge David M. Lawson ordered city and state officials to provide residents with either a faucet filter or regular door-to-door deliveries of bottled water. In March 2017, residents secured a settlement agreement with Flint and the state of Michigan, promising to replace all lead lines within the city. While the initial deadline for replacing the lines was set for early 2020, residents repeatedly found themselves back in court, with Lawson in 2024 finding the city in contempt of a previous court order requiring the city to meet certain milestones in replacing lead pipes. After replacing nearly 11,000 lead lines, ACLU of Michigan Acting Legal Director Bonsitu Kitaba said the city has nearly completed its obligations for the settlement. However, it has not replaced every lead line in the city, with several hundreds of pipes left to replace in vacant homes and some residents declining to have their home checked or their pipes replaced, Kitaba said. The city is required by law to replace all lead lines in the coming years, with the city committing to replacing any remaining lead lines this year, Kitaba said, encouraging any residents who need their lead lines replaced to call 810-410-1133, or email GetTheLeadOut@ Addie Rolnick, an attorney with the NRDC noted that the settlement requirements will remain until March 2026, meaning the city must continue providing filter cartridges and water test kits until then. After the settlement concludes, the city will still be required to replace all lead pipes and must monitor lead levels in the water and keep them below the state's 12 part per billion threshold under the Michigan Lead and Copper rule. While taking questions from community members, Rolnick emphasized that there is no safe level of lead in the drinking water, encouraging residents to continue using EPA-certified filters. As long as there is lead attached to the system, it will continue to impact pipes throughout the city, Mays said. While Mays, Overton and members of the NRDC and ACLU answered resident's questions, Aonie Gilcreast, 74, said residents were getting mixed messages about their water with the EPA's latest announcement. 'Collectively, we don't really know what to believe. We don't trust the system,' he said. While Overton clarified that the agency still held some concerns, that issue was a fight for the next day. 'If there's a problem with the EPA and the decision that the EPA has made, then we need to have a conversation with them offline to find out what it is that we can do, if there's something that we can do,' Overton later told attendees, emphasizing that that work would be driven by community members and their relationship with the attorneys. Overton later told the Michigan Advance that they had some concerns about the EPA's decision, agreeing with the NRDC that residents should continue to use filters as long as there's any level of lead in the system. 'Because we do have lead that still remains in our system, it would be destructive to tell people that we don't need the filters anymore. So we're going to begin that fight to find out exactly what is going on with that, to make sure that we keep things above board, that our residents are protected [and] taken care of,' Overton said. 'We've been bamboozled by the EPA as well as EGLE. So we want to make sure that what they're saying are the facts, they have the documentation that they've done, all the checklists are checked off, everything's been checked off to make sure that what they're saying is correct and it's best for this community,' he said. Mays additionally raised concerns about President Donald Trump and his administration's efforts to roll back environmental regulations, including a potential roll back of requirements for all the lead pipes in the nation to be replaced over the next 13 years, accompanied by lower limits for lead in drinking water. 'Flint is an example of right now what's happening in the country. We have people trying to run government as a business, and who are appointing unelected, uneducated people like Elon Musk and [the Department of Government Efficiency] to go in and gut all these regulations,' said Mays, who likened the government initiative's cost-based decision making to the decisions made by Flint's emergency manager, ultimately sparking the water crisis. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
E&E News
19-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
NRDC co-founder, Obama Commerce boss dies
John Bryson, who teamed up with Yale Law School classmates in 1970 to launch one of the nation's leading environmental organizations, died last week. He was 81. Bryson died May 13 at his home in San Marino, California, according to an obituary published by the California Institute of Technology, where Bryson served on the board of trustees. The cause of death was not specified. After co-founding the Natural Resources Defense Council with his law school classmates, Bryson went on to serve as chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, president of the California Public Utilities Commission and as chair and CEO of Edison International. Advertisement Bryson served as President Barack Obama's Commerce secretary from October 2011 until June 2012. He resigned from his post after he was involved in two car accidents while suffering from a seizure. President Barack Obama meets with John Bryson, former secretary of Commerce, in the Oval Office of the White House on June 21, 2012. | Susan Walsh/AP 'NRDC is part of the vast legacy that John leaves behind,' the green group's president and CEO, Manish Bapna, said in a statement. 'We will honor his memory by continuing to pursue the vision that John and his friends shared in creating NRDC. The work we do to protect people and nature continues in no small part because of his generosity of spirit,' Bapna said. Gus Speth, another NRDC co-founder, described the group as a 'ragtag group of law students' who had 'entered college as the civil rights movement was in full swing.' They 'shared the 1960s' sense of hope and the desire to bring about serious change in American society,' Speth recounted in a 2014 article. Speth and other NRDC co-founders John Adams, Richard Ayres and Edward Strohbehn called Bryson a 'natural leader, innovator and a dedicated environmentalist,' in a statement this week. 'He possessed a perfect mix of brilliance, determination and charm. At NRDC and elsewhere he leaves behind a record of remarkable accomplishments,' they said. When Bryson took the helm of Edison International in 1990, the Los Angeles Times reported that the pick was 'widely viewed as an inspired public relations move for the image-conscious utility.' Bryson was confirmed in 2011 as Obama's second Commerce secretary, despite objections from Senate Republicans who criticized his environmental roots. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) called Bryson an 'environmental extremist' as he sought to rally GOP opposition to the nomination. 'John is the rare nominee to present himself to Congress with endorsements from the [U.S.] Chamber [of Commerce], military suppliers, and the nation's leading environmental organizations,' then-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said during Bryson's confirmation hearing. 'If ever there was a time for someone who can bring us all together, this is that moment in history.' Obama praised his outgoing Cabinet member when Bryson resigned in 2012, saying the Commerce secretary had 'fought tirelessly for our nation's businesses and workers, helping to bolster our exports and promote American manufacturing and products at home and abroad.' Prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against Bryson in relation to the traffic accidents, saying his seizure had been responsible for the incidents. Bryson was born in New York City and raised in Portland, Oregon. He graduated from Stanford University and Yale Law School. He is survived by his wife, Louise Henry Bryson, and four daughters.
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Trump officials want to cut limits of Pfas in drinking water – what will the impact be?
The Trump administration has announced it would attempt to kill some of the strong new Pfas 'forever chemical' drinking water limits set in April 2024. While the moves would deliver a clear win for the US chemical and water utility industries, it's less clear whether the action will be successful, what it means longterm for the safety of the US's drinking water, and its impact on progress in addressing forever chemical pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is attempting maneuvers that violate the law, observers say, and even if they survive a legal challenge, progress under the Biden administration cannot be fully undone. There's also some momentum in regulatory and legal battles that public health advocates have won at the state level and in courts that will ultimately improve water piecemeal regardless of the EPA's backtracking. Still, the announcement raises a fresh round of questions about the water utility industry, which has led the attack on the new rules. And the announcement represents a blow on a popular environmental and public health issue that has seen notable successes in recent years. 'With this action, EPA is making clear that it's willing to ignore Americans who just want to turn on their kitchen taps and have clean, safe water,' said Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health at the NRDC. The non-profit is an intervenor on legal action on the issue, and lobbied for the limits. Pfas are a class of chemicals often used to make products resistant to water, stains and heat. They are called 'forever chemicals' because they do not naturally break down, and are linked to cancer, liver problems, thyroid issues, birth defects, kidney disease, decreased immunity and other serious health problems. The chemicals are ubiquitous in the environment and thought to be contaminating drinking water for more than 200 million people across the US. The 2024 Pfas rules marked the first time in 27 years the EPA had put in place new drinking water limits for contaminants. The EPA created limits for six Pfas compounds, and the Trump administration targeted four of those – PFNA, PfHxS, and HFPO dimer acid, more commonly called GenX. However, the Safe Drinking Water Act would in theory stop the EPA from simply killing or even weakening the limits because it includes an 'anti-backsliding' rule that prohibits a loosening of restrictions. It states that a revision 'shall maintain, or provide for greater, protection of the health of persons'. 'The EPA can't repeal or weaken the drinking water standard – this action is not only harmful, it's illegal,' Olson said. However, the water utility and chemical industries have sued to attempt to kill the limits for all six Pfas – not just the four covered in yesterday's announcement. The EPA and justice department under Joe Biden began defending the rules, and it's unclear how the Donald Trump EPA's will handle the cases for the four Pfas limits it announced it intends to undo. Kyla Bennett, policy with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and former EPA scientist, said she suspects the agency and the justice department will, in effect, try to lose the case. 'The DOJ could stop defending and do a shitty job and make the court say: 'These limits aren't science-based,' then strike them down,' Bennett said. It would then be up to legal intervenors like NRDC to defend the rules. Olson detailed the agency's other legal options, which involve revising the rule. That could take more time than the Trump administration has in office, but it delays the rules' implementation. 'It's going to take years and years, and they're going to kick the can down the road because they dont give a shit,' Bennett added. While the proposal shreds blanket protections against the four Pfas, it leaves in place limits for PFOA and PFOS. Reverse osmosis systems utilities are installing to remove PFOS and PFOA would catch most of the other Pfas, as well. However, not all water utilities are installing systems that can catch smaller Pfas, like GenX. Moreover, Chemours is responsible for high levels of GenX pollution around its Pfas plants in North Carolina and West Virginia. The consent agreements in place use EPA limits as the standard for cleanup and requirements for the company to provide impacted residents with safe drinking water. The full impact on those communities is unclear, but the EPA's plans are 'right on the bullseye of what Chemours wanted', Olson said. The development also highlights the need for reform of the country's water utility industry, which is leading the charge against the limits. What happens when the largely public industry charged with ensuring the country's water is safe opposes clean water rules, as it has repeatedly? 'It's definitely a huge problem,' Olson said. 'Most people would be shocked to hear that their water utility is spending precious dollars on lobbying, litigating and fighting against public health requirements, rather than using the money to install better water systems.' There are few good quick answers, advocates say. Still, there's some momentum that the EPA action and utilities won't slow. More than$12bn in legal settlement is already available for utilities that were a part of those suits. Meanwhile, the federal government has made more than $20bn available, and many projects are underway, while states have also enacted their own limits and made some money available. The Trump administration, for its part, wrote in its press release that it is 'keeping [limits] for PFOA, PFOS' and it is 'on a path to uphold the agency's nationwide standards to protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their water'. The statement did not impress campaigners. 'It's just lies and that press release was gas lighting,' Bennett said.
