Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
This post was co-written with Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. NRDC and Sierra Club are members of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, supporters of the clean truck program. "Cancer alley." That's what many Southern Californians...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , U.S. Law and Policy
It's been a good couple of weeks for the clean air advocates. First the federal appeals court in New York decided that a group of states and others could bring a nuisance case seeking to require the country's largest global...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy
During eight years as chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau in the New York State Attorney General's Office, I had the political backing necessary to take on large corporate polluters. Such support is crucial to enforce the hard-won standards contained...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Living Sustainably
This weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in a US Open event. No - not a tennis match - but something that is still an integral part of the US Open: the announcement of this year's greening initiative. This...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
A ferocious storm provided an electrifying backdrop for the recent kick-off of the Made in America Jobs Tour, the first of 22 rallies across the country to promote the job creating potential of a new clean energy economy. This tour...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
President Obama reached across the political aisle when he selected Representative Ray LaHood, a Republican from Illinois, as his Transportation Secretary. The appointment was met by some skepticism: LaHood's resume on transportation issues was decried as very thin. But Secretary...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , U.S. Law and Policy
As a lawyer, I've written about environmental harms quite often. Yet as I recently flew over several of the larger mountaintop mines in eastern Kentucky, I struggled to find the words to describe the devastation. The scars where trees, topsoil...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
TURRIALBA, Costa Rica -- There is a reason they call them rainforests. It was pouring as I put the first tree into the ground here in a new forest that NRDC is planting with the support of our members. The...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution
This is the final part of my three-part open letter to the new EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, regarding the changes that are needed to help us tackle urgent environmental problems more effectively. Yesterday, I wrote about how we can better...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution
This is part two of my three-part series on the ways the new administration, guided by a revitalized EPA, can strengthen environmental protections, and steer America away from the threats of climate change, toxic pollution and other environmental disasters. Yesterday,...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
My colleagues and I at NRDC were pleased at President-elect Obama's recent announcement that Lisa Jackson will head the Environmental Protection Agency. Lisa has been a strong, honest and knowledgeable voice for the environment as Commissioner of the New Jersey...
Posted by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
NRDC recently won a case in federal court that held accountable a major utility that tried to snooker the American public. This decision upheld a core purpose of much of NRDC's litigation, vindicating, in turn, a core principle of our...
Posted by Peter Lehner
At a recent climate conference, scientists John Holden and Thomas Lovejoy demonstrated the current horrors of climate disruption. They also asked a simple question: What’s the right target for CO2 in the atmosphere? Pre-industrial levels were around 280 parts per million. ...
Posted by Peter Lehner
Greedy shop owners are, sadly, not the only ones who both needlessly and thoughtlessly waste energy by keeping the doors to their air-conditioned shops open. A few Saturdays ago, I had to fly to Atlanta. Because of construction at La Guardia,...
Posted by Peter Lehner
We need a lot more environmental information to begin to address the lack of public understanding of environmental harms.This may seem obvious, but it isn’t. At a meeting a few years ago, I was shocked to find the head of...
