I’ve only had a couple of jobs in my lifetime. First, I was a schoolteacher in New York City. Then, after law school in the late 1960s, the first thing I did was apply for a job with a new group that would be a law firm for the environment. They told me to come back in a year and see if they were still around and whether they had any money to pay me. So, after one year at a small public interest firm, I joined the nascent NRDC, and I’ve been here ever since, except from 1977 to 1981 when President Carter appointed me assistant administrator for Air, Noise and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency. Don’t ask me about the noise part. I came back to NRDC after Carter left office, and worked throughout the next decade primarily on reauthorizing the Clean Air Act. In 2001, NRDC made a bold step in creating our Climate Center, and I am its founding director. Our goal: a comprehensive limit on heat-trapping greenhouse gases to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. I hope to use this blog to explain some of my ideas on how to make that happen.
Posted December 12, 2011 by Dave Hawkins in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
As EPA prepares the first-ever national standards for carbon pollution from new fossil fuel powerplants, the coal industry is embarking, predictably, on its latest dis-information campaign to try to block these desperately needed public health and climate safeguards. New coal...continued→
Posted May 5, 2011 by Dave Hawkins in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Solving Global Warming
I haven’t met Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and I am sure he is a nice man but he is definitely on the wrong track in attacking EPA and now the League of Women Voters. Back in April, Senator Brown voted...continued→
Posted March 30, 2011 by Dave Hawkins in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Solving Global Warming
Today the Senate is scheduled to vote on a handful of shameful amendments to the Clean Air Act. While the details differ, all these amendments have one thing in common – they aim to block or eliminate parts of the...continued→
Posted March 17, 2011 by Dave Hawkins in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Solving Global Warming
It’s a sad state of affairs when members on both sides of the aisle in Congress seem to think it is a good idea to attack the Clean Air Act – the landmark law that Richard Nixon signed and George...continued→
Posted February 9, 2011 by Dave Hawkins in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
Barry Goldwater famously said, “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Maybe so, but extremism in the defense of fantasy is a tougher sell. Still, that doesn’t stop some members of Congress from trying. Exhibit A this week...continued→
Posted September 15, 2010 by Dave Hawkins in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
I attended the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Clean Air Act at EPA yesterday. It was a breath of fresh air (sorry) to hear so many speakers from industry as well as health groups and from across political...continued→
Posted February 19, 2010 by Dave Hawkins in Solving Global Warming
In his recent blog, David Sassoon calls President Obama's creation of a task force for a Carbon Capture and Storage Strategy a big victory for the coal industry. Let me offer a few thoughts on why I believe this task force...continued→
Posted October 29, 2009 by Dave Hawkins in Solving Global Warming
This has been a busy week for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Hearings on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733) began on Tuesday and by the end of the day today, EPW will have...continued→
Posted September 16, 2009 by Dave Hawkins in Solving Global Warming
Climate Bill Cost Claims: "Correspondent" Falls Down on Job It seems that more and more opponents to action on clean energy and climate protection are succumbing to a virus more virulent than swine flu: the inability to tell the truth...continued→
Posted September 9, 2009 by Dave Hawkins in Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy
Well, my comments in a New York Times piece about natural gas have certainly provoked a lot of reaction, including some who thought I was arguing that coal is a better fuel from a climate standpoint than natural gas. Not...continued→
Posted July 7, 2009 by Scott Dodd in Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy
NRDC's David Hawkins is among the experts -- along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack -- scheduled to testify on Tuesday, July 7 before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee....continued→
Posted February 18, 2009 by Dave Hawkins in Solving Global Warming
In the Odyssey, Odysseus had to be tied to the mast to resist the call of the Sirens, who tried to lure his ship onto the rocks. These days the siren song of a carbon tax fills the ear of...continued→
Posted January 25, 2009 by Dave Hawkins in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Less than a week into office President Obama is acting to show the country and the world that the U.S. is back as a leader in the fight to protect the climate by taking on global warming pollution. The Washington Post...continued→
Posted January 18, 2009 by Dave Hawkins in Solving Global Warming
Joe Romm posted a pretty scathing comment about the USCAP Blueprint on his Climate Progress blog a couple of days ago. Here is my response. Joe, You are and will remain a respected friend. As an author and blogger,...continued→
Posted September 27, 2007 by Dave Hawkins in Green Enterprise, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy
Two passionate but confused individuals, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger lead the current issue of The New Republic with "A Manifesto for a New Environmentalism". They lambaste "environmentalists" for being fixated with a "pollution paradigm" that operates by "limiting human...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.
