Media Center

NRDC Ads: Sens. Portman & Toomey Voted for Polluters over Climate Action

March 24, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 24, 2015) – The Natural Resources Defense Council has launched a six-figure multi-state ad campaign taking to task two key senators for votes backing a big polluter agenda while praising three of their colleagues for voting to back…

NRDC Statement on New Rules for Fracking on Federal Lands

March 20, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 20, 2015) – The U.S. Bureau of Land Management today released its final rules that will apply to fracking on federal and tribal lands.

License Plates for Pollinators: Illinois General Assembly Mulls New License Plate to Fund Monarch “Butterfly Highways” Habitat Restoration

March 17, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (March 17, 2015) - Dwindling populations of monarch butterflies would get a boost from new legislation for a special Illinois state license plate featuring the state insect. Revenue from the sale of the monarch butterfly license plates would be…

Illinois Derailment Makes Bomb-train Risk Clear for Land of Lincoln

March 6, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (March 6, 2015) – A train containing 103 cars full of oil from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota derailed yesterday near Galena, IL along the Mississippi River.

Scientists to Obama: Stop Controversial Sound Blasting Threatening Atlantic Whales, Fish

March 5, 2015 Press Release

Leading ocean scientists from the U.S. and around the world today urged President Obama to halt a planned oil and gas exploration program off the Atlantic coast involving millions of underwater sound blasts that would have “significant, long-lasting and widespread…

Congress Shouldn’t Waste More Time on Keystone XL

March 4, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (March 4, 2015) – The Senate today failed, as expected, to override President Obama’s veto of a congressional bill forcing approval of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

NRDC Sues EPA to Force Action on Monarch Butterflies

February 27, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (February 27, 2015)—The Natural Resources Defense Council today accused the Environmental Protection Agency of dragging its feet on efforts to save the imperiled monarch butterfly and filed suit to force the agency to act.

China’s one-year ban on ivory imports is a big step forward – but more reform is needed

February 26, 2015 Press ReleaseNew York

NEW YORK (February 26, 2015) — In an important recognition of the role Chinese citizens’ appetite for ivory has played in helping to fuel the slaughter of African elephants, Chinese officials today announced a one-year ban on African ivory carving…

Ballast Water Bill Would Open Coasts and Great Lakes to Invasive Species Assault

February 25, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC (February 25, 2015) – The US Senate Commerce Committee reported a bill to the Senate that would exempt ship ballast water—the source of numerous damaging invasive species infestations in the Great Lakes, inland waterways and sensitive waters along…

After Veto, President Should Reject the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Once and For All

February 24, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (February 24, 2015) – President Obama today vetoed, as promised, congressional legislation to force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

New Study: Rapid Ocean Acidification Threatens Coastal Economies in 15 States

February 23, 2015 Press ReleaseNew York

NEW YORK (February 23, 2015) – The first nationwide vulnerability assessment for ocean acidification, published today in Nature Climate Change, shows that coastal communities in 15 states that depend on the nation’s approximately $1 billion shelled mollusk (e.g., oysters and…

Praising Pullman: NRDC Supports New National Monument Designations

February 18, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (February 18, 2015) – President Obama will be in Chicago tomorrow to sign an order designating the city’s Pullman District as a national monument. He is also expected to announce two other new monuments, Browns Canyon in Colorado and…

Atlantic Ocean Council Fails to Protect East Coast Coral Canyons

February 11, 2015 Press ReleaseNew York

NEW YORK (February 11, 2015) — The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council today postponed a vote on a protection plan for rare, ecologically-important and highly vulnerable deep sea coral communities off the region’s coast. The Council manages U.S. fisheries resources in…

Groups Go To Court to Protect Blueback Herring from Extinction

February 10, 2015 Press Release

Washington, D.C. – The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a coalition of fishing and watershed protection groups filed a complaint today in federal court seeking to reverse a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) not to list…

Green Leaders Urge President to Ban Bee-Killing Insecticides

February 5, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (February 5, 2015) — Top officials of leading environmental groups representing millions of Americans today urged President Obama to take strong and swift action against neonicotinoid insecticides that are devastating honey bee and wild bee populations, threatening the nation’s…

NRDC’s Suh Urges Congress to Support Clean Water Proposal to Protect Drinking Supplies

February 3, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (February 3, 2015)— Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, today urged Congress to support a proposed new federal Clean Water Rule, noting, “The fate of nearly two million miles of streams and tens of millions of…

Illinois Tollways to Become Butterfly Highways

January 29, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (January 29, 2015) – Today, the Illinois Tollway Authority agreed to work with the Natural Resources Defense Council to create a monarch butterfly restoration program that would plant milkweed along the agency’s 286 miles of roadways. The plant is…

Administration Drilling Plan Would Expose Eastern Seaboard, Atlantic and Arctic Waters to Blowout Risk

January 27, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (January 27, 2015) -- The Obama Administration proposed a five-year offshore drilling lease plan today that would expose much of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to oil and gas production.

Monarch Butterfly Numbers Show Migration Still at Grave Risk, Despite Uptick

January 27, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (January 27, 2015)—The low number of migrating monarch butterflies returning to their Mexican refuge shows that the migration remains under grave threat, even though the figures announced today are higher than last year’s, according to the Natural Resources Defense…

Obama Seeks Wilderness Designation for Coastal Plain of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

January 25, 2015 Press Release

WASHINGTON (January 25, 2015) -- President Obama today recommended to Congress that it designate the coastal plain of the iconic Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as a wilderness. The following is a statement by Rhea Suh, president of the…