Media Center

After More Than 40 Years, EPA Will Act on Hazardous Industrial Spills

February 17, 2016 Press Release

WASHINGTON (February 17, 2016) – The Environmental Protection Agency will put in place new safeguards to help protect communities from dangerous chemical spills at tens of thousands of industrial facilities nationwide, under the terms of a legal settlement approved by…

NRDC Statement on Federal Standard for Methane Pollution on Public Lands

January 22, 2016 Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 22, 2016) – The federal Bureau of Land Management today released a standard to address methane pollution from oil and gas industry operations on public lands.

New Legislative Package Announced to Protect Californians from Air Pollution, Health Impacts of Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Leak

January 11, 2016 Press ReleaseCalifornia

NORTHRIDGE (January 11, 2016) – Senators Kevin de León and Fran Pavley announced a package of new legislation that builds on Gov. Brown’s state of emergency declaration to ensure protections for Californians impacted by the natural gas leak in Porter…

New Report: U.S. Power Sector Continues to Reduce Air Pollution Emissions in Advance of EPA’s Clean Power Plan

July 14, 2015 Press Release

BOSTON, MA – The most comprehensive analysis to date on U.S. power plant air pollution emissions shows that most of the nation’s largest electric utilities have seen significant reductions in global warming pollution in recent years. The report’s release comes…

City Exiles More of Chicago's Petcoke Piles

June 24, 2015 Press Release

CHICAGO (June 24, 2015) – The City of Chicago recently informed a company storing massive mounds of oil refining waste on Chicago’s Southeast Side that no more of the material can ever move through one of its sites. The decision…

NRDC Praises New Ozone Health Proposals, Urges Safest Standards to Protect the Public

November 26, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (November 26, 2014)—The Environmental Protection Agency today moved to improve public health protections against smog, declaring as unsafe the pollution standards that have been in place since 2008. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said she would recommend a reduction in…

Chicago’s Petcoke Problem: No Happy 4th for Southeast Siders

July 3, 2014 Press Release

CHICAGO (July 3, 2014) – As Independence Day approaches, residents on the Southeast Side of Chicago continue to battle issues associated with the massive piles of petcoke heaped on the edge of the Calumet River, in close proximity to homes…

Supreme Court Reaffirms EPA Authority to Curb Power Plant Carbon Pollution

June 23, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (June 23, 2014) — Building on two prior decisions affirming the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to set carbon pollution standards like those recently proposed for power plants, the Supreme Court today upheld the core of EPA’s associated permitting requirements…

New Report Shows Decline in Carbon Dioxide and Other Pollutants from U.S. Power Plants, but State and Power Company Emissions Vary Widely

May 28, 2014 Press Release

BOSTON (May 28, 2014) A new report on U.S. power plant emissions from the country’s top 100 electric power producers shows a downward trend in nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxides (SO2), mercury and carbon dioxide (CO2) since 2000, with CO2…

Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Strong Health Standards for Soot Emissions

May 9, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (May 9, 2014)—A federal appeals court today unanimously upheld EPA’s latest health-based clean air standards for fine particulate matter, or soot. Inhaling soot pollution can have serious health consequences, ranging from increased asthma attacks, to heart attacks and premature…

Supreme Court Ruling Protects Millions from Air Pollution

April 29, 2014 Press Release

WASHINGTON (April 29, 2014) -- The Supreme Court today upheld, by a 6-2 vote, the cross-state air pollution rule, one of the most significant health standards ever adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency.