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Thomas Donahue, president and CEO of the Chamber, issued a statement today in response to heavy public criticism of the Chamber’s position on climate change. His attempts to tap dance out of a public relations disaster, like the Chamber’s defense of the status quo, will do nothing to address the serious questions of American energy […]

As we’ve reported here, here, and here, EPA has designed and released for public comment two options for new information labels one of which will go on new cars in 2012.  Both labels have a slick new look as well as helpful information comparing fuel efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, tail pipe emissions between vehicles, and […]

We know that Southeast fishermen and business owners aren’t happy with the long season closures in place for many popular snapper grouper species, but today marks a victory toward better management that will help move the fishery away from closures. Today the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council voted unanimously to explore a catch share amendment […]

The American Petroleum Institute (API) recently took a break from hosting anti-cap-and-trade rallies for oil company employees, and used its spare time to put out a study claiming the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) would be unfair to American oil refineries. Unfortunately their study uses some dubious assumptions – and makes some even […]

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. In June, EPA published a Federal Register notice that included Significant New Use Rules (SNURs) for two carbon nanotubes (as well as 21 other chemicals).  That notice certainly got the attention of lawyers in town (see here, here and here).  The nanotube SNURs would require anyone planning to […]

The post The nanotube SNURs: Nano step forward, nano step back first appeared on EDF Health.

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. I hate to say it, but Friends of the Earth, Consumers Union, and the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) have done a disservice to good science and policy with their new superficial report Manufactured Nanomaterials and Sunscreens: Top Reasons for Precaution. There are all kinds of legitimate safety […]

The post Superficial science in new nano sunscreen report first appeared on EDF Health.

By Rachel Hinchliffe

Back in 2000, EDF and FedEx joined forces to develop a hybrid diesel-electric delivery truck and selected Eaton Corporation to build it. The idea was that the drive train Eaton built – which reduces fuel consumption while cutting pollution – would eventually reach economies of scale and transform the industry.

A recent GreenBiz article about Eaton suggests this market transformation is starting to happen. In addition to FedEx, Eaton’s customers now include UPS, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Purolator-Courier, Frito Lay, Verizon, AT &T, Florida Power and Light and Wal-Mart.  Eaton’s CEO, Alexander M. "Sandy" Cutler, says hybrid trucks are “…finally taking off” and “…a lot of competitors are developing around the world.”

While there are over 1,400 hybrid trucks on the road or on order in North American fleets today, Cutler says we need to get to 10,000 to achieve economies of scale. Until we reach that level, financial incentives are critical in helping fleets offset upfront costs and realizing the full environmental benefits of hybrid technology. Our hybrid truck incentives guide plugs fleet managers in to the many state, regional and federal opportunities to reduce the cost of a cleaner truck.  For example, states like New Hampshire and New York – and soon California – offer funds toward 80% of the incremental cost of a hybrid truck. There’s also a generous pot of EPA money for hybrid trucks here in New England.

Money may not grow on trees, but it’s here for the picking.

Green leasing is becoming more popular in real estate these days as building owners and tenants find themselves codependent when it comes to reducing consumption.

Featuring: Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund Steve Cochran, Director, National Climate Campaign With your help, we passed climate legislation through the House. Just one more hurdle in the Senate and the bill will be on the President’s desk. But it’s a steep hurdle. We are up against formidable forces: industry opponents who already have […]

By EDF Blogs

Featuring:
Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund
Steve Cochran, Director, National Climate Campaign

With your help, we passed climate legislation through the House. Just one more hurdle in the Senate and the bill will be on the President's desk. But it's a steep hurdle.

We are up against formidable forces: industry opponents who already have hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank; an economy that makes everyone anxious and pushes the environment down the agenda; and right-wing media demagogues who are using climate legislation to gin up ugly populist anger.

We must win this fight. We have a window of opportunity, but the window will not stay open much longer. That is why the environmental community has agreed to come together in an unprecedented effort, reorganizing and mobilizing ourselves into one streamlined, turbo-charged campaign with only one goal: to get climate legislation passed.

Listen to our discussion on the challenges and opportunities we face in the coming weeks.

Download mp3 | Subscribe in iTunes

EDF recently enhanced one of our most popular resources for companies: PaperCalculator.org. Now fully updated with the latest scientific information, it is a robust tool for understanding how different paper choices affect the environment – whether you want to know how many trees were spared by reducing paper use, or the energy savings from choosing […]

Michael Oppenheimer and I have a post up on Huffington Post that explains why cap and trade is more effective than a tax at slowing and eventually halting global warming. Here are just the highlights: Environmental certainty. Let's keep our eyes on the prize: avoiding dangerous climate change. A legally binding cap is the only […]

For the past 10 years Doug Rader has worked with golden crab fishermen to protect deepwater corals off the South Atlantic coast.  Between formal Fishery Council meetings and hallway conversations, a compromise of allowable fishing zones will keep golden crab fishermen fishing and deepwater corals out of harms way.  The golden crab industry has a […]

Date: Monday, April 20th, 2009, 4:00 p.m. EST Featuring: David Yarnold, Executive Director Steve Cochran, Director, National Climate Campaign Congress has fired the starting gun on the most important legislative fight of our lives. Just last week, Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D- MA) released a draft climate and energy bill that could […]

Next Tuesday, EDF will release the second annual Innovations Review at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference. The Innovations Review is our survey of the most compelling — and implementable — new practices and technologies that generate environmental and business benefits for companies. The Review team has been toiling away for months looking for advances in […]

By Rachel Hinchliffe

We are actively recruiting fleets around the country interested in buying hybrid diesel-electric trucks to take advantage of funds made available in the recently-passed Stimulus Bill.

Last year we created the Northeast Hybrid Truck Consortium to help New England fleets buy hybrid trucks, leveraging last year’s allocation of EPA Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) funds. This year's ARRA Stimulus Bill created an additional (and expanded) pot of DERA funding, and we plan to leverage our success in EPA Region 1 into a national effort to pursue DERA funds to accelerate purchases of hybrid trucks. We are currently recruiting fleets to participate and are matching them up with other fleets and/or local NGO partners to meet DERA requirements. We can also provide generic language for DERA applications and can assist fleet managers with application questions.

We're recruiting private, municipal, and non-profit fleets across the country who would like to buy a hybrid diesel electric truck (or 10 or 100!) this year. If that describes your fleet, please contact Rachel Beckhardt at 617.173.2996 for more information. (This funding is on a very short timeline so please respond by 3/31/09.)

By Gernot Wagner

This week, Joe Stiglitz and Nick Stern published an opinion piece in the Financial Times titled "Obama's Chance to Lead the Green Recovery". They call for a "stable, strong" price for carbon, but do not say how that price should be set. I just posted a response in the FT's Economists' Forum. Here's how it begins:

Joe Stiglitz and Nick Stern are exactly right to emphasize the role President Barack Obama can play in leading the green recovery. They are also right to calling for a “stable, strong carbon price.” But it matters how that price is set. In the United States in particular, the right environmental, political and economic answer is a cap-and-trade system.

Take a look at the whole conversation. I also provided some more detail on the greenness of economic stimuli over at the Environmental Economics blog. Spoiler alert: China's trumps the United States' package 2:1.

This was originally posted on Huffington Post.  America is finally on the cusp of enacting a federal law to cap global warming pollution and the focus on how it will affect our economy has never been greater. When President Obama last week called on Congress to send him such a bill, he underscored the economic […]

By Rachel Hinchliffe

If you ever wondered, holding a really big check is a nice experience. Here is a photo of Gwen Ruta, VP of Corporate Partnerships, standing with Ira Leighton, acting regional administrator of EPA's New England Office, and a replica of the $400,000 award EDF received to introduce hybrid trucks to New England fleets.  It gets even better, since the EPA's $400,000 was matched by $200,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. EDF applied for the grants under the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA), and will use them to establish the Northeast Hybrid Truck Consortium.

Working with fleet managers around the region, we plan to introduce hybrid trucks that slash both greenhouse gas emissions and fuel costs — a win/win for corporate budgets, clean air, and the climate.

EDF jumpstarted the hybrid truck market with our partnership with FedEx and Eaton Corporation, which put the first commercially viable hybrid delivery trucks on the road in 2004. Since then we've built a lot of momentum — there are 37 models now on the market and over 80 fleets using them.

Today marks the first real breakthrough of hybrids in the New England market. New hybrid trucks emit over 90% less particulate matter – or "soot" – than the trucks they replace. The hybrid technology also improves fuel efficiency by about 40% over conventional trucks, saving money and helping improve energy security in America.

While hybrid trucks pay for themselves over their lifetime, their initial cost is still high because the market is developing. By concentrating purchases and leveraging federal and state funds, we can bring down the upfront cost and help hybrid truck producers develop the maintenance and marketing infrastructure they need to make hybrids a viable option for this region in the long term.

We are grateful to EPA and to DEP for recognizing the potential in this innovative technology, and look forward to putting cleaner, more efficient trucks on the road in New England.

Here's what Gwen had to say at the event (about 5 min.)

For more information, contact Rachel Beckhardt at rbeckhardt@edf.org.

“The days of Washington dragging its heels are over” – President Obama, Jan. 26, 2009 David Yarnold, EDF’s executive director, just sent this message out to our supporters, reflecting on President Obama’s actions this morning: I just witnessed history in the making. This morning, President Barack Obama signed two executive orders that could be remembered […]