A Chance to Restore Our Environment

Clean air. Clean water. Open space. ENVIRONMENT AMERICA Your Winter Report A chance to restore our environment Acting president Wendy Wendlandt talks about what we’ve lost under via Shutterstock. Vickers R. photo: Top via Shutterstock. Menno Schaefer Photo credits: the Trump administration—and how to get it back. Under the new Biden-Harris administration, we’re eager to get back to the work of building a better world, instead of fighting to fend off backsliding. And we’re looking forward to a president who will engage in that campaign with us. Yet we also need to repair the damage done under the previous administration: undoing the Clean Power Plan; weakening fuel economy efficiency standards; allowing commercial fishing in marine preserves; lifting a ban on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The list includes at least 100 protections for the environment that the Trump administration either ended or worked to undermine. Reading through the list is like flipping through a scrapbook of favorite photographs—which We rallied to the defense of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge someone has defaced with a Sharpie. and the wildlife—including caribou—that live there. Thousands of Americans—advocates, attorneys, biologists, epidemiologists, engineers, socially conscious entrepreneurs, increased fuel economy standards to match those state laws at elected leaders, government regulators, organizers and, last the federal level. but not least, ordinary citizens with extraordinary spirit and perseverance—have worked together to put these protections For a second example, in the years before online petitions, we in place, watchdog their enforcement, abide by them, and collected a million actual signatures from Americans who want- defend them. ed to keep still-wild areas in our national forests protected from mining, drilling and logging, and convinced then-President A couple of examples: Together, over many years, our clean Clinton to adopt the Roadless Rule. air advocates and climate activists helped fight for and win laws requiring cleaner cars in more than a dozen states, one Those snapshots of environmental progress belong to all hard-won campaign after another. Then we promoted and won Americans. Continued on page 3 VOLUME 13 | NO. 2 Winter Report | 2021 Thanks ‘The Fierce Urgency of Fire’: that will mitigate its worst effects into stark for making it Environment America Research relief. & Policy Center hosts webinar all possible “Once again, California has taken the driver’s on vital climate actions seat when it comes to cleaning up our cars and trucks and is paving the way for other states If you’re worried about extreme weather to follow,” said Dan Jacobson, state director events, you’re certainly not alone. of Environment California Research & Pol- On Sept. 22, our national research partner, icy Center, our national network’s research Environment America Research & Policy partners in the Golden State. Center, hosted a webinar called “The Fierce Urgency of Fire” to discuss how wildfires, Environment California Research & Policy hurricanes and other extreme weather events Center called for this goal as part of our underscore the urgent need for climate Destination: Zero Carbon campaign for a action. More than 100 people watched the broader move toward a zero-emission trans- presentation. portation system. SvetlanaSF via Shutterstock SvetlanaSF Lawsuit challenges last-minute push to drill in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge One of the Trump administration’s last actions could end up spoiling one of Amer- ica’s last great wild places. We took action to save it. On Aug. 24, Environment America, a coa- lition of environmental organizations, and the Gwich’in Steering Committee sued the Trump administration over its plans to begin an oil and gas leasing program in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Even after January’s change in administration, those plans could still result in lease sales going through. The sky in parts of California and “Any time that you’re faced with a huge Oregon turned orange in September problem, like how do we break our country “Not only will the Trump administration’s due to the nearby wildfires. and our planet’s addiction to fossil fuels and slapdash and tragic plan threaten one of the decouple everything from that, it’s a massive world’s most untamed wildlife areas, but it undertaking,” said Johanna Neumann, senior is also completely blind to the reality that, director of our Campaign for 100% Renew- in the 21st century, dangerously extracting able Energy. more fossil fuels from the ground is a fool’s errand when clean, renewable energy op- “Let’s make bold steps on solar, let’s make bold tions are rapidly on the rise,” said Steve steps on wind, secure that progress and then Blackledge, senior director for Environment do it again.” America’s Conservation Program. Home to polar bears, wolves, herds of caribou California is now home to and more than 200 species of migratory birds, the refuge has been in the crosshairs of fossil the country’s most ambitious fuel companies for decades. plan for electrifying our Our lawsuit alleges that the government’s transportation decision violates several federal statutes, including the National Environmental Policy On Sept. 23, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued Act and the Endangered Species Act. an executive order calling for all new cars and passenger trucks in California to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. The order came as wildfires continued to rage across Western states, bringing the urgency of Get more updates on our work online at climate change and the necessity of policies www.environmentamerica.org Environment America THoffman via Shutterstock Kimball Nelson Page 1 story continued: A chance to restore our environment In debates about water, air, land use, open From the first days of the Trump adminis- spaces and oceans, Environment America has tration, the president sought to un-protect researched problems and constructed solutions, the American environment—to throw the taken our campaigns to the American people, nation into reverse when it comes to the Thank you for supporting and collected public comments, and led groups of quality and sustainability of our land, water, sustaining our work—still done citizen lobbyists to Washington, D.C. We’ve air, oceans and open spaces. Making cars at a safe social distance—to lost more battles than we’ve won. cleaner, preserving wilderness, and dozens keep our air and water clean, to of other important ways we’ve collectively defend our public lands, and to But over the years, up against legions of protected our environment—and our chil- protect our climate and envi- well-funded lobbyists, we’ve beaten a lot of dren—were unravelled by the administration ronment for future generations. odds and notched some crucial victories for in four years. the environment. Your action and support al- Whether it’s in the courts, in Congress or lows us to keep up the work Why? Because, like most Americans, we in the executive branch, we are resolved to you’ll read about in these pages. could see that America the Beautiful was in restore these protections. Thank you for standing with us. danger of becoming less open, more covered with asphalt, more polluted, more barren of We’ve got a scrapbook with a lot of pages animal life, more dependent on dirty fossil left to fill. fuels and life-threatening chemicals, more overrun by the waste that those materials By Wendy Wendlandt, acting president, produce, and more bereft of wonder. And Environment America we could see, with our own eyes, glimpses of Wendy Wendlandt the dire future that lies ahead if we do not Acting President act immediately to curtail global warming. From sea to shining sea, there are so many special places Americans love—and over the past four years, far too many were threatened by actions the Trump administration took. Image contributions from Environment America activists Environment Image contributions from Winter Report | 2021 GeorgeColePhoto via Shutterstock 1543 Wazee Street, Suite 410 Denver, CO 80202 Environment America (303) 801-0581 NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID BROCKTON, MA PERMIT NO. 430 Your Winter Report VOLUME 13 | NO. 2 | 2021 Clean air. Clean water. Open space. Our mission: We all want clean air, clean water and Why we need to replace the Trump open spaces. But it takes independent research and tough-minded advocacy to win concrete results for our administration‘s ‘Dirty Water Rule’ ASAP environment, especially when In 2020, when companies asked the gov- streams and wetlands. In effect since June, the powerful interests stand in the way of ernment whether the waterways they’d like rule has narrowed federal protection of water environmental progress. to pollute or pave over were still protected bodies under the Clean Water Act, allowing That’s the idea behind [[C4_Name]],Environment under the Clean Water Act, in too many companies to win rulings that no federal pro- Inc.,America. a project We focusof Environment exclusively on cases, the answer was “no.” tection applied for 758 out of 1,085 waterways America,protecting Inc. air, Wewater focus and exclusively open examined by federal officials—including, more onspaces. protecting We speak air, outwater and and take open On Sept. 10, a report from Bloomberg Law recently, much of Georgia’s wildlife-rich Oke- spaces.action atWe the speak local, out state and and take national found that polluting businesses were taking fenokee Swamp. actionlevels to at improve the local, the state quality and ofnational our advantage of the Trump administration’s levelsenvironment to improve and the our quality lives. of our “Dirty Water Rule” to gain federal exemp- “Wetlands and streams are crucial to the environment and our lives. tions for their destruction of our nation’s health of our iconic waters—from the Okefe- nokee to the Puget Sound,” said John Rumpler, Deborah Ferrin via Shutterstock Deborah Ferrin senior director of our national network’s Clean Water for America Campaign.

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