I grew up in the East, and was never any further West than Ithaca, NY, until my second year in law school. That summer I made my first trip West and fell in love with its wilderness areas, stunning landscapes and wonderful wildlife. Two years later, we moved to northern California where I've lived ever since. I have been incredibly lucky to spend my entire professional career at NRDC, beginning in 1972 as a part-timer, when my kids were little, and then graduating to a full timer as they got older. All of my work has focused on protecting the West's special places -- especially its federal public lands. I am now working to help the West respond effectively to the climate crisis and specifically to ensure that the region's renewable energy resources get developed in a way that protects our wildlands and wildlife. When I'm asked how it is that I've been able to do this work for so long, I always say it's because of the places I've fallen in love with along the way and the incredible people I've gotten to meet and work with over the years.
Posted October 24, 2011 by Johanna Wald in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy
Secretary of Interior Department Ken Salazar this week is expected to announce an important milestone towards adopting a program for managing solar energy development on public lands in the West. The Department Interior and the Bureau of Land Management will...continued→
Posted January 21, 2011 by Johanna Wald in Solving Global Warming
As my colleague, Leila Monroe of NRDC’s Oceans Program has blogged, the Interior Department has been very busy recently when it comes to renewable energy – both on and offshore. Earlier this week, Secretary Ken Salazar was blogging about the...continued→
Posted August 17, 2010 by Johanna Wald in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
We share exciting news this week as environmental groups, including NRDC, support our first utility scale solar energy project – the Lucerne Valley Solar Project near Victorville in San Bernardino County. This is the first solar power project, and the...continued→
Posted July 28, 2010 by Johanna Wald in Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
Is there any word more laden with catch phrases than “change?” We are told it is inevitable. That it is necessary. That it is hard. All this smacks of cliché, of course—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. We are...continued→
Posted May 4, 2009 by Johanna Wald in Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
On February 7, 2009, the New York Times carried a story on the obstacles facing new transmission lines. According to the story, the Interior Department took a year to approve one line "crossing a wild river and required a $5...continued→
Posted April 27, 2009 by Johanna Wald in Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
The West's renewable energy resource potential is huge. According to the Western Electricity Coordinating Council the wind potential alone exceeds the total U.S. energy demand. According to National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the solar potential of the southwest is more than...continued→
Posted April 22, 2009 by Johanna Wald in Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
NRDC's new Google Earth layer does an unprecedented job of identifying places where renewable energy development is inappropriate. But it's important to recognize the limitations of what we've done. We have not - I repeat not - greenlighted any lands...continued→
Posted April 13, 2009 by Johanna Wald in Moving Beyond Oil
The citizens of this country own millions of acres of land that are managed on our behalf by federal agencies. Millions of other publicly-owned acres are managed by state agencies. The federal lands in particular include places that are world...continued→
Posted April 6, 2009 by Johanna Wald in Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Until recently I've spent my entire career at NRDC - more than 30 years! - advocating for protection of America's public lands from damaging human activities like coal mining, oil and gas drilling, road building and the like. Yet, for...continued→
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