I'm the director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) Climate and Clean Air Program, and our chief global warming lawyer. I rejoined NRDC in March 2001 after serving for eight years in the Clinton administration, including as director of climate change policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This is my second stint at NRDC -- I first started here in 1978 and worked on clean air issues for the next 14 years, helping to win the Montreal Protocol to stop depletion of the ozone layer and the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990. Now we're working to cut the pollution that causes global warming here at home, and to reach agreement on global emission cuts.
Posted December 6, 2014 by David Doniger
Professor Laurence H. Tribe has had a long and distinguished career as a progressive legal thinker and a tireless advocate for such worthy causes as freedom of speech and LGBT rights. He won a 1982 Supreme Court victory for California...continued→
Posted December 2, 2014 by David Doniger
NRDC submitted our public comments yesterday on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan to cut the climate-disrupting carbon pollution from the nation’s electric power plants. NRDC supports EPA’s action under the Clean Air Act to clean up our...continued→
Posted November 21, 2014 by David Doniger
Delegates from more than 100 countries breathed some life into proposals to phase down production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the Montreal Protocol, the world’s most successful environmental treaty. Wrapping up a week of talks in Paris, diplomats agreed to hold...continued→
Posted November 20, 2014 by David Doniger
This post co-written with Meleah Geertsma. A new report co-authored by NRDC shows how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can strike a major blow against climate change by cutting leaks and other losses of methane from the oil and gas...continued→
Posted November 19, 2014 by David Doniger
This post co-authored with Starla Yeh, principal analyst of NRDC’s new report. The news about the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants just got even better: the proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) can save...continued→
Posted November 18, 2014 by David Doniger
On November 14th I had the honor of delivering the annual Fedder Lecture on Environmental Law at the University of Maryland’s Carey School of Law in Baltimore. Here are my remarks: It’s a great pleasure to speak with you today...continued→
Posted October 31, 2014 by David Doniger
This summer and fall the EPA has continued its marathon stakeholder outreach and listening process on its Clean Power Plan to clean up dangerous carbon pollution. The supplemental notice and new ideas that EPA issued for public comment on October...continued→
Posted October 8, 2014 by David Doniger
The federal district court in Lincoln, Nebraska, yesterday threw out a lawsuit by that state’s attorney general attacking the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed standards for carbon pollution from new electric power plants. Judge John M. Gerrard ruled that the attorney...continued→
Posted October 2, 2014 by David Doniger
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial writers have gone all aflutter over a flaky lawsuit to stop EPA from putting limits on the two billion tons of carbon pollution pouring from the nation’s power plants. The suit was brought by Murray...continued→
Posted October 2, 2014 by David Doniger
Researchers from Harvard, Boston and Syracuse universities have published new estimates of how many lives can be saved each year by EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standards for the nation’s 1500 fossil-fueled electric power plants. They’ve concluded these first-time carbon limits...continued→
Posted September 19, 2014 by David Doniger
This Sunday, I’ll be marching in the People’s Climate March in New York City with hundreds of thousands of other Americans and people from around the world. Our message is simple: For the sake of our children and grandchildren, our...continued→
Posted September 18, 2014 by David Doniger
EPA’s groundbreaking carbon pollution standards for the nation’s existing power plants, proposed last June, represent the most significant action our country has ever taken to tackle the pollution that drives climate change. NRDC is preparing detailed comments to submit this...continued→
Posted September 16, 2014 by David Doniger
Today the White House convened industry leaders to pledge reductions in and replacements for HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), the super-potent climate-changing chemicals used in air conditioning and refrigeration, insulating foams, and aerosol products. Held a week before President Obama joins world leaders at...continued→
Posted August 12, 2014 by David Doniger
Guest Post by Michael B. Gerrard The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed into law by President Richard Nixon on January 1, 1970, was the first U.S. environmental statute of the modern era. It requires the preparation of environmental...continued→
Posted August 10, 2014 by David Doniger
Amidst hundreds of supporters of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan at the Environmental Protection Agency’s hearings last month, a few highly-paid company men and their friends in Congress ventured to sing the praises of the nation’s dirtiest fuel...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
