On January 27, the EPA announced it’s determination that diesel produced from palm oil releases too many greenhouse gas emissions to qualify as a renewable fuel. Friends of the Earth applauds the EPA for recognizing the massive amounts of carbon emissions released from the production of palm oil, which has already led to the deforestation of 6.5 million hectares in Malaysia and Indonesia alone. A fuel that relies on deforestation for production is not…
As tens of thousands of people gathered last week for the opening of the National Association of Music Merchants’ annual trade show, I traveled to Anaheim, California to join musicians and other environmental groups to call on the industry to change the tune it’s singing in Washington by ending its support for illegal logging. As others noted, it was a real song and dance, literally.
Standing outside NAMM’s conference, renowned…
The tragic capsizing of the Costa Concordia in Italian waters on January 13, which left at least 16 dead and many more unaccounted for, cast a spotlight on the safety and environmental practices of cruise ships around the world. As search and rescue attempts come to a close the focus is shifting to the 700,000 gallons of bunker fuel onboard the grounded Concordia, which threaten to spill into the protected marine waters along the…
As someone who lives in California but works for a Washington-based advocacy organization, I often think about how decisions in DC impact life here in the Golden State. So late last year, when Congress froze funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency responsible for regulating the risky and opaque derivatives market, I shook my head in worry about the impacts it would have on California's climate change efforts.
Why? Because next year…
If you’d have asked me in the fall of 2009, when Friends of the Earth was first contemplating going all in on a campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, whether I thought we could force President Obama to reject TransCanada’s application for a permit, I would have said, “probably not, but we’ll put up a good fight.”
At the time, the environmental movement was fractured and demoralized after having tried and failed to…
The writing is on the wall for rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. But given recent oil industry efforts to make it appear otherwise, I thought it might be useful to provide a reminder that leading Obama administration officials and their allies are on the record: the rushed and arbitrary deadline required by December's payroll tax bill must lead to pipeline rejection.
The State Department said in a statement that, "Should Congress impose an…
The recent saga of a Russian fishing vessel that struck a submerged iceberg in the Antarctic Ocean illustrates the perils of polar shipping. Three ships originally tried to rescue the 32 crew members of the stranded vessel but were unsuccessful because of heavy sea ice. An icebreaker finally arrived after nearly two weeks and provided assistance, eventually forging a path for the fishing vessel to take to open waters. This sort of…
The State Department continues to stonewall on disclosing aspects of its internal conversations about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, more than a year after Friends of the Earth and several allies filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to the pipeline review.
Today, as the agency's Office of Inspector General reportedly nears the end of an investigation into potential wrongdoing, we are making public the…
Most of my work entails policy wonkery. Though important, especially in Washington, D.C., it often feels distant and far removed from the lives of ordinary people around the world and the lands they call home. Even most of the travel I do for work involves attending international conferences under the harsh shine of florescent lights. Whether in Cancun or Copenhagen, I actually spend far more time in hotel rooms and intergovernmental meetings than with…
In 2006, Friends of the Earth released a groundbreaking report, “Nanomaterials, Sunscreens and Cosmetics: Small Ingredients, Big Risks.” Since then, we’ve released updated reports every year, sharing more and more about these alarming risks, which could affect consumers, workers, and the environment.