In a surprise decision that brought new hope to Alaska’sBristol Bay, British mining giant Anglo American — the lead company behind the Pebble Mine — announced that it is abandoning the project. The announcement dealt a heavy blow to the proposed gold and copper operation, which would produce some 10 billion tons of contaminated waste and threaten the greatest wild salmon runs on the planet. NRDC Members helped make this victory possible by deluging Anglo American with nearly one million messages of protest. The fight is not over yet — we’ll need new funding to ratchet up the pressure on the remaining companies behind the mine and win EPA action to protect Bristol Bay from large-scale mining.
Navy Refuses to Protect Marine Mammals from Deadly Sonar
The U.S. Navy says it will ignore a unanimous recommendation by the California Coastal Commission to reduce the harmful effects of naval sonar on the state’s marine mammals, which would violate California law. The Navy is planning to dramatically increase its use of dangerous sonar and high-powered explosives off the coast of Southern California during training and testing. It predicts that such operations will kill hundreds of marine mammals — and injure thousands of others — over the next five years. New research shows that the Navy’s California training is already putting entire whale populations at risk, including endangered blue whales, the largest animal on Earth.
Nobel Laureates Denounce Keystone XL
NRDC and our partners ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post that featured a letter from ten Nobel Peace Prize winners, calling on President Obama to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and lead the way beyond dirty oil.
U.S. Blocks Import
of Wild-Caught Belugas
The National Marine Fisheries Service has denied a permit — opposed by NRDC — that would have allowed the Georgia Aquarium to import 18 wild-caught belugas from Russia for public display purposes at aquaria around the country. We applaud the decision since Russia’s wild beluga population is still recovering after being hunted nearly to extinction in the 1960s. Read more.
CA County Cracks Down
on Fracking
In July, NRDC’s Community Fracking Defense Campaign scored a big victory when California’s San Benito County approved an ordinance imposing new safeguards on this dangerous form of oil and gas extraction, including a greater setback from homes and disclosure of the chemicals used during drilling or fracking. Read more.
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