2011 ANNUAL REPORT NEW NATIONAL STANDARDS TO CUT 5 BILLION TONS OF GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION BY 2025 II EXCERPTS FROM NRDC PRESIDENT FRANCES BEINECKE’S SWITCHBOARD BLOG, POSTED DECEMBER 21, 2011 Obama Administration Announces Standards to Keep Our Families VICTORY Safe from Mercury and Other Pollutants henever I talk with parents of young children about my work, they often ask me about mercury pollution. They know it can harm children and pregnant women and they know it is perva- W sive, but they are unsure how to keep their families safe. Today that job just got easier. President Obama announced new standards to reduce mercury, lead, and other dangerous pollution from power plants. Now dirty coal-fired plants that fought standards for decades will finally have to clean up their act. This is a major breakthrough for American families. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that damages developing brains in children and fetuses… According to the Environmental Protec- tion Agency, coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of industrial mercury pollution. Much The magnitude of these of that mercury gets deposited in waterways, where health benefits could make fish absorb it, and when we eat the fish, we absorb this rule one of the biggest it too. environmental accomplishments This pollution is so ubiquitous that all 50 states advise people—especially women in childbearing of the Obama administration. years and young children—to avoid eating fish from certain contaminated waters. As of 2008, 38 states had statewide advisories. Yet despite the widespread nature of this hazard, power plants have been dodging mercury and other air toxics rules for years. Read more on this issue and other environmental concerns on NRDC’s vibrant staff blog at switchboard.nrdc.org. PAGE 4 PAGE 8 PAGE 10 PAGE 12 PAGE 14 Establishing a Reviving Our Defending Wildlife Protecting Health by Ensuring Safe and Clean Energy Future Oceans and Wild Places Preventing Pollution Sufficient Water From tailpipes NRDC sees landmark 11 million acres of NRDC files lawsuit to NRDC ratchets up to fighting tar sands, treaty protect oceans North America’s make our food safer. water victories NRDC is advancing from destructive forests are safer. month by month. clean energy. practices. III PAGE 16 PAGE 19 PAGE 22 Donors and Event Highlights Fostering Sustainable Our Capacity for PAGE 47 Bequests Communities Reaching Our Goals PAGE 48 Financial Statement New standards promote A broad range of advocacy greener development. tools, legal acumen, PAGE 50 Board of Trustees robust science, and top- PAGE 51 Officers notch communications sets NRDC apart. 1 n the 15 years that I’ve been on NRDC’s Board, I LETTER FROM have noticed people are drawn to the environmental movement for a host of reasons. I got involved because THE CHAIRMAN I wanted to preserve wild landscapes. Others join Ibecause they want to safeguard their children’s health, protect beloved animals, or promote sustainable technologies. Recently, polluting industries have tried to marginalize our issues. But NRDC is working hard to demonstrate that public support for environmental protection runs deep and wide in American society. Our influential members and partners have been especially effective in this effort. When the solar firm Solyndra defaulted on a federal loan guarantee last September, fossil fuel industries and their allies in Congress tried to renounce the entire clean energy sector. NRDC hit back hard. Our experts presented lawmakers with data about clean energy’s explo- sive growth and reminded journalists Solyndra was one of more than 5,500 solar companies in the United States. We also had another weapon in our arsenal: NRDC’s sister organization Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). This national group of leading business voices—representing more than 850 companies and 500,000 jobs in 41 states— believes economic prosperity and environmental protection go hand in hand. When the Solyndra debate flared up, E2 started releasing a weekly online job listing titled “What clean energy jobs? These clean energy jobs!” The bulletins show that in just six weeks more than 100 clean energy companies announced plans to create tens of thousands of American jobs. E2 brought a much-needed business perspective to a polarized political conversation. This wasn’t tree huggers talking about clean energy; it was executives and manufac- turers. On other issues, our Los Angeles Leadership Council tapped the entertainment and media industries to call for greater ocean protections this year. And our Global Leader- ship Council of influential ambassadors urged lawmakers to act as well. NRDC’s sister organizations complement the work our advocates do with outside groups, including labor unions, physicians and nurses, Latino community associations, and concerned parents. Together we are building a revitalized movement and showing lawmakers that environmental safeguards reflect fundamental American values of conservation, efficiency, security, and innovation. With that as our foundation, we can continue to achieve remarkable success. Daniel R. Tishman Chairman of the Board 2 LETTER FROM THE wo years ago, President Obama said he would release new fuel efficiency standards in 2011. NRDC wanted PRESIDENT AND these standards to generate transformative change, not incremental improvement. We knew America EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Tcould build better cars. And we knew we had to in order to slash dangerous pollution, confront climate change, and reduce dependence on foreign oil. NRDC launched the Go 60 campaign to build support for bold action. Our experts negotiated with the administration and automakers to craft ambitious standards. At the same time, we blasted the benefits of clean car standards to key audiences, including labor unions, car manufacturing states, auto shows, car bloggers, and national press outlets. Our strategy worked. In July 2011, President Obama proposed raising fuel economy standards to 54.5 miles per gallon, more than double the current average. Within 20 years, these standards will save drivers more than $80 billion a year at the pump and cut vehicle carbon pollution in half compared to today. We deployed a similar approach when the Environmental Protection Agency said it would release the first-ever national standards to limit mercury from power plants. Our experts fought for the toughest standards while our advocates built support among medical groups and concerned parents. In December, the EPA released a standard what will save thousands of lives and prevent more than 100,000 heart and asthma attacks every year. This was another great victory for NRDC and our allies. Once again we demonstrated the power of joining policy expertise and citizen support. We need this potent combination now more than ever: we are witnessing the most coordinated attack on the environment in four decades. The House of Representatives voted more than 190 times this year to block environmental and public health protections. Deep-pocketed polluters have used their influence to disparage the clean energy transformation. And GOP candidates for president have made climate denial a requirement for the position. NRDC has prevailed in difficult times before—from the Mideast oil crisis to the Gingrich revolution and beyond— and we did it by adapting and innovating. As we face another pivotal moment, NRDC has identified bold new strategies to achieve far-reaching success. We will build greater political influence to support elected officials who safeguard the environment and to challenge those who do not. We will use targeted communications to connect environmental issues with the basic concerns of American families, especially their health, their homes, and the air they breathe. And we will reach out to strategic part- ners, including those in the business community who create prosperity and protect the environment at the same time. These strategies will help us galvanize an army of people demanding environmental protections. Together with the expertise of our staff, the dedication of our Board of Trustees, and the passion of our members, our energized supporters will help us promote innovation above pollution, conservation over destruction, and a clean future instead of the dirty past. Frances Beinecke Peter Lehner President Executive Director 3 ESTABLISHING A CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE From soot to carbon dioxide, the cars, trucks, and ships crowding our roads and waterways spew dozens of toxic chemicals into the air we breathe. ENGINES OF CHANGE: NRDC IS FIGHTING FOR CLEANER AIR ransportation is the single larg- upheld the core provisions of the Port WINNING NATIONAL CLEAN AND est source of air pollution in the of Los Angeles’s clean trucks program, FUEL EFFICIENT CAR STANDARDS United States and accounts for including measures that ensure trucks T Following a decade of powerful advo- more than a quarter of U.S. greenhouse meet environmental standards for the cacy by NRDC, President Barack Obama gas emissions. That pollution is taking a long run. Meanwhile, we won a federal announced an agreement with 13 auto- serious toll on our health, its effects rang- district court ruling that the Long Beach makers in July to strengthen pollution ing from asthma and heart attacks to Harbor Commission had violated Cali- and fuel-efficiency standards for cars stroke and cancer. Diesel pollution alone fornia’s environmental laws when it and light trucks. The new standards leads to some 35,000 premature deaths weakened its program without first will require these vehicles to deliver the per year nationally. Meanwhile, climate performing the required environmental equivalent of 54.5 miles per gallon and change from the buildup of carbon diox- review. emit just 163 grams of carbon dioxide ide and other gases in the atmosphere At the regional level, we played a lead per mile by 2025. We began laying the is one of the most serious public health role in the development and adoption of groundwork for this victory back in threats facing our nation, according to a policy by the Los Angeles Metropolitan 2002, when California passed an NRDC- a new analysis by NRDC.