Environmental Entrepreneurs Update
July 31, 2002

This July 2002 E2 newsletter includes reports on the following activities:

1. California Victory on Climate Change
2. Message from NRDC President John Adams
3. Update on Freedom of Information Act
4. Observations on Alaskan Oil
5. Fall E2 Events
6. NRDC Victory in Maine
7. Navy Sonar Threatens Marine Mammals
8. Testing the Waters 2002
9. Earth Share: Workplace Giving
10. E2 Calendar Update

E2 News

California Victory on Climate Change

On Monday, July 22 California Governor Gray Davis signed the first legislation in history (AB1493) which will mandate reductions in green house gases from passenger vehicles. Please read NRDC President John Adams observations (below) on both this bill and on Senator Jeffords' "Four pollutant" bill (S. 556) which passed the Senate Environment and Public Works in July.

(photo by E2 Member Nancy Goebner)

E2 received significant press coverage for our role in the July 9 San Jose Mercury News and many other newspapers. After the bill was signed, E2 was invited to write an op-ed by the San Francisco Chronicle which was published on July 30. NRDC performed brilliantly in the legislative area under Ann Notthoff; the scientific work by Rowland Hwang and Peter Miller; and the legal, scientific and marketing work done by NRDC's Climate Center under the direction of David Hawkins.

E2 members should be very proud of their personal roles in this historic step to address climate change and also in their financial and moral support for NRDC which performed the day-to-day work in Sacramento.

E2 now has both the credibility to further advance our mission and the tools to make our efforts efficient for our members. The most recent example occurred last week when NRDC Legislative Director, Alys Campaigne requested immediate business support to help prevent the Homeland Security bill currently in Congress from eroding the protections provided in the Freedom of Information Act. We emailed an E2Alert at 8:30AM on July 17 asking for support. 24 hours after sending the alert we had 142 signature on our letter to Congress . Please see Alys' report below on the positive results of our efforts.

Message from John Adams, President, NRDC

Last week's remarkable legislative victory, the passage of California Assembly Bill 1493, was the country's first global warming legislation. The fight was tough; we faced overwhelming opposition from the transportation sector. But as Governor Davis, Assembly member Fran Pavley and others specifically acknowledged at the bill signing ceremony, Environmental Entrepreneurs was a key to our success. E2 was the only business voice at the table in the negotiations to pass the bill and was a critical counterbalance to the firepower of the vehicles industry. The bill, formerly known as AB1058, requires the California Air Resources Board to develop regulations by 2005 to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles beginning in model-year 2009. Because of special provisions in the federal Clean Air Act, other states can drop out of the weaker federal standards and choose to adopt California?s higher emissions standards. We fully expect legal challenges from industry in the coming months, but ? with E2?s help ? we are determined to win and take the fight to New York.

At the July 22nd signing ceremonies in Los Angeles and San Francisco, E2?s efforts were prominently acknowledged by the Governor and Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (the bill?s author). NRDC trustee Robert Redford spoke at the San Francisco ceremony while behind him the fog yielded to brilliant sun on the Golden Gate Bridge. E2 leaders Nicole Lederer, Bob Fisher and Bob Epstein represented E2 at the event. Bob E. was given the honor of speaking from the dais and inviting the Governor to sign the actual bill.

The seeds for the victory were sown on July 1, after a big push during the last weekend in June, when the California state legislature passed the first bill to regulate global warming pollution from cars and light trucks with a 41-30 vote. The auto industry launched a multi-million dollar campaign to defeat an earlier version (AB 1058) of the bill, based on false claims that the bill would ban SUVs and raise taxes. NRDC worked closely with California groups and other national groups on a coordinated response. This included polling, television and print advertising, and a variety of ways to activate California members, celebrities and voters. The state Senate passed an alternate bill (AB 1493) that addressed the industry claims point-by-point. It was this new bill that passed and was signed by Governor Davis. This was truly a collaborative effort involving several groups, including E2, and a great victory for the environmental community.

The other big win was in Congress where the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont, passed the Clean Power Act (S. 556), which is the first national legislation to regulate carbon emissions from power plants along with the other major pollutants ? sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury. While we have a long way to go to get this bill signed into law, the signing was a historic step. It is the first time legislation has passed the EPW Committee that explicitly controls carbon dioxide emissions, the most significant global warming pollutant. It has been a five-year effort to move this bill forward, but this is only the starting point of what will be a monumental fight in Congress to control the largest source of global warming pollution in the U.S. (As many of you know there is an all-out effort to weaken the clean air act funded by the most heavily polluting industries in the country.)

You can read NRDC's press releases related to these events (AB1493 and S556), and a terrific article from the Washington Post. These wins on climate change are a breath of cool air in what has been a hot summer. Thanks for all your support.

Best wishes, John

Help Support our New York Efforts

We are asking all E2 members to identify their own contacts in New York who might be interested in joining E2 and supporting the clean car campaign in New York. We would be happy to contact your referrals directly with your introduction, or provide you with email materials with which to contact them yourselves. Please send referrals to Roger Ullman (rogertullman@hotmail.com ) in New York - and thanks for helping to broaden our influence in this important initiative.

Update on E2Alert to Protect the Freedom of Information Act

The letter from 142 E2 members was tremendously successful in pressuring the Senate to amend the wording of the Homeland Security bill to protect the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Alys Campaigne, NRDC?s Legislative Director in Washington DC, delivered it to the House and Senate committees on Thursday, July 25th and brought it to a meeting on Friday with key staff from Senators Feinstein, Bennett, and Kyl's offices. All three offices have been driving the debate on the secrecy and immunity provisions in the Senate. Just hours before the mark up of the Homeland Security bill, Senator Leahy and Senator Bennett worked out a compromise that is a vast improvement over the White House and House Homeland Security legislation. Now the debate will move from the Committee to the Senate floor. The language is an improvement in many ways.

Though the subject of heated debate, the issue hasn't fared as well in the House of Representatives. On July 25th the House passed its version of the Homeland Security legislation after defeating an amendment offered by Rep. Schakowsky from Illinois to strike the secrecy and immunity language. The vote was defeated on a nearly party line vote of 188-240. Reps. Waxman and Mink argued forcefully on behalf of the amendment and the effort laid the groundwork for debate in conference after the Senate acts on the bill.

NRDC and other public interest groups are continuing to make the case to the media about why these provisions are so damaging to the public interest and we will use this momentum to try to ensure that the Senate compromise will prevail through the floor and in conference where we will work to retain the Senate language. A recent Washington Post editorial points out the flaws in the proposal. Other good articles and editorials are popping up around the country and we hope the drumbeat will continue.

So stay tuned for the final resolution as the Senate takes up the legislation as early as this week. And again, many thanks for lending your voice to this important battle!

Observations on Alaskan Oil

On June 23-26 NRDC hosted a small trip to visit both the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Prudhoe Bay oil field. We began our visit at Arctic Village, a small town south of the Refuge inhabited principally by Gwich'in Athabascan Indians. The tribe depends on the caribou herd that calves in the Refuge, and has played a major role opposing oil development there. The Gwich'in receive almost no financial support from oil and are focused on preserving their historic way of life. In contrast, Inupiat Eskimos living on the Northern edge of Alaska depend principally on whales and other marine life for food. They oppose drilling offshore because it threatens the whales but favor drilling in the Refuge to continue the financial support that the villages adjacent to oil development receive. Both groups are Alaska Natives, but they take opposite sides of the issue.

Our visit to the Refuge was unlike any camping we have ever done before. A bush plane landed on a natural gravel bank of the Kongakut River about 12 miles west of the Canadian border and 12 miles south of the Beaufort Sea. The land is rugged, devoid of trees but teeming with all sorts of life whose existence is dependent on the two to three months they have without the bitter cold. It is a magical place.

At Prudhoe Bay, we were the guests of BP who showed us their facilities for cleaning up environmental hazards, the wells themselves and their plans for the gradual winding down of the facilities. The impression we had of the politics of drilling in the Refuge were enlightening. BP can get a much better return on capital by drilling in Russia and many other places and have no particular interest in investing in the Refuge. The pipeline from Prudhoe to Valdez peaked at 2 million barrels per day, is currently running at 1 million and at about 300,000 it is no longer profitable to be used. The main benefit of additional production sites (and there are additional sites in the current drilling area) is to keep the pipeline profitable for as long as possible.

The state of Alaska, which derives most of its revenues from taxes and other levies on oil production pays a small amount annually to every citizen and has no state income tax. This payment may not generate as much support for the oil industry as one might think for two reasons. First, many of the oilfield workers live outside the state half-time. Second, the residents are a mixture of people who want to live in Alaska and are looking for a sustainable economy, and those living there only for the immediate opportunity.

The other business opportunity for Prudhoe Bay is the delivery of natural gas. We were told that in addition to the political and engineering issues associated with developing a gas pipeline, the current price of natural gas doesn't make this compelling. The earliest this might happen is 10 years off which is also the earliest date that the oil pipeline might be below its profitable capacity.

The current risk to the Refuge is the energy bill in Congress. The House has approved drilling but thanks in part to the tremendous work by NRDC and others, the Senate continues to oppose. Negotiations to reconcile the House and Senate bills are currently underway. The oil industry will probably continue to be an observer to the process, with some companies indifferent to the outcome, but anxious not to alienate the state of Alaska.

Fall E2 Events

Coming up this fall we have E2 events planned in New York, Northern California and Southern California. The New York events will focus on developing membership and momentum for supporting the New York State clean car campaign. In Northern California, we will focus on the politics of the environment in Congress, and the administration's attempt to rewrite the rules for enforcement of environmental policy. We will look at the market for "clean technology" startups - particularly in the field of energy generation and efficiency. We also will focus this fall on supporting the adoption of marine sanctuaries in the northern Channel Islands. Our schedule of events for Southern California was not finalized at the time this newsletter went to press but will be published in the August newsletter. Look for events in both Los Angeles and San Diego in October or November.

NRDC News

Major Court Decision on Mercury Case.

On Monday, the United States District Court for the District of Maine delivered a surprise decision that will force the clean-up of the Penobscot River, the most mercury laden body of water in the U.S. Early last year, NRDC, led by senior attorneys Mitch Bernard and Nancy Marks, and the Maine People's Alliance brought suit against Mallinckrodt Inc. (a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Tyco International) for polluting the Penobscot River with mercury. The case was a real David and Goliath battle. The opposition's staff and resources far outweighed our own, and the company is so politically well-connected it was even difficult to find co-plaintiffs. Nonetheless, the Court found that Mallinckrodt's mercury discharges, from a chemical plant it operated from 1967-82, may imminently and substantially endanger human health and the environment. The Court ordered Mallinckrodt to fund an independent study of mercury contamination along 20 river miles downstream of the plant and in Penobscot Bay, and to perform appropriate and feasible remediation. We expect that Mallinckrodt will appeal the decision and are preparing for a renewed battle in the fall.

Navy Sonar System Threatens Marine Mammals

On July 16, 2002, the U.S. Navy was given a permit to deploy Low-Frequency Active sonar, a submarine-detection system, across as much as 80 percent of the world's oceans. The permit effectively exempts the Navy from the Marine Mammal Protection Act (see news story). According to the Navy, LFA functions much like a floodlight, scanning the ocean at vast distances with intense sound. Some defense experts believe that at the same time it "lights up" enemy subs, the LFA system would expose our own vessels to attack, thereby jeopardizing, rather than protecting, our troops. Unfortunately, because aspects of the system remain largely classified, there has been virtually no public discussion of the system's strategic viability.

Each transmitter in the system's long array can generate 215 decibels of sound, a level millions of times more intense than is considered safe for human divers. Worse yet, not far from the array of transmitters the signals begin to combine, and the result as the signals travel is sound as forceful as if as much as 240 decibels had been transmitted at the source. Sound has been shown to divert bowhead and gray whales and other whales from their migration paths, to cause sperm and humpback whales to cease vocalizing, and to induce a range of other effects, from distressed behavior to panic. What concerns marine scientists even more than short-term effects on individual animals, however, is the potential long-term impact that the Navy's LFA system might have on the behavior and viability of entire populations of marine mammals. NRDC is concerned that the permit is too broad to afford any meaningful protection for marine life and is working to persuade the National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider the permit.

Testing the Waters 2002: Water Quality at America?s Favorite Beaches

Beach closings and advisories continued to climb last year, according to NRDC's 12th annual beach report. Across the country, at least 13,410 closings and advisories were issued in 2001, a 19 percent jump over the previous year. In some areas, heavy rainfall contributed to the higher number of closings, but much of the rise resulted from increased monitoring, better testing standards for bacteria and other pathogens and more thorough reporting. These testing policies and practices have begun to reveal the true extent of water pollution at our nation's beaches. As monitoring improves and expands, as it should under a new federal law that aims to protect public health at our nation's beaches, the number of closings and advisories is likely to rise even higher. Read the quick summary, which includes the lists of "beach buddies" and "beach bums", the full report, or check the maps for local beach info.

Earth Share: Workplace Giving

NRDC is a founding member of Earth Share, which is a federation of America's most respected and responsible non-profit environmental and conservation organizations. Groups such as NRDC, The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund and the National Audubon Society are all working under one name to safeguard public health and the environment. Earth Share provides employers with an effective program to support the vital work of its member agencies through charitable workplace giving. Just as the United Way raises funds for its health and human service charities, Earth Share encourages employees to pledge a small amount of each paycheck to help solve environmental problems. If you do not have a workplace giving program, it is very easy to incorporate Earth Share into whatever payroll system you are currently using. If you have an existing payroll deduction giving program, like United Way, then adding another option is even easier. For more information about Earth Share visit their website. It is very important that companies offer their employees the opportunity to designate their work place giving to NRDC and other environmental groups. If you work for a company that does not provide the Earth Share option, call Shari Greenblatt at 212-727-4435 or sgreenblatt@nrdc.org, and she will work with you to ensure your company offers employees the opportunity to designate their workplace giving to Earth Share or its member agencies.

Wednesday, September 4, 2002 (9:30 AM - 3:45 PM) SpecialEvent

Channel Islands Fact-Finding Excursion

Monday, September 9, 2002 (6:00 PM - 7:30 PM) Focus Meeting

E2 New York State clean car campaign

This event will be at the NRDC NY office: 40 West 20th Street, NYC. For more information, please contact Ying Li at (212) 727-4437 or yli@nrdc.org.

Saturday, September 21, 2002 (3:00 PM - 5:00 PM PST) EcoSalon

An Afternoon with Senator John Kerry in Atherton, CA

Senator Kerry will discuss environmental policy in Congress

This event will be at the home of E2 members Jean and Duncan Davidson. Please respond to Hayley Sloan for more information. An invitation will be mailed to E2 members and their guests in late August. Space is limited.

Wednesday, October 16, 2002 (5:30 PM - 10:00 PM) Benefit

Oceans: SF Benefit Photography Auction, Butterfields, San Francisco

A celebrity auctioneer will host the evening in San Francisco. Co-chairs include Bob Epstein, Bob Fisher, Sue Hostetler, Nicole Lederer, and Kirby Walker. Tickets and packages for the event will be from $150 to $20,000. For more information or to join the benefit committee, please contact Hayley Sloan at (415) 777?0220 or hsloan@nrdc.org.

Thursday, October 17, 2002 (6:00 PM - 8:00 PM) EcoSalon

Fighting Environmental Rollbacks: Holding the Line on the Nation?s Most Important Environmental Laws

Oceans: NY Benefit Photography Auction, Sotheby's, New York

NRDC and Rizzoli are hosting a benefit auction at Sotheby?s featuring photographs donated by renowned artists including Harry Callahan, Linda Conner, Sally Gall, Lyle Gomes, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Richard Misrach, Minor White and the estate of Ansel Adams. The works are featured in a new book from Rizzoli, "Oceans ?, a photographic study of seascapes, with an introduction by NRDC trustee Robert Redford.

Tickets and packages for the event will be from $150 to $20,000. For more information or to join the benefit committee, please contact Jennifer Chapin at (212) 727?4451 or jchapin@nrdc.org. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event

Tuesday, November 12, 2002 (6:00 PM - 9:00 PM) EcoSalon

Start-up Experience in Clean Technology Markets

The evening highlight will be a moderated panel of senior managers from four stand out companies that have faced the start up challenge and are at various levels of development. Members will have the chance to listen to and speak with entrepreneurs in new energy markets whose companies are at seed, mezzanine, pre-IPO or post ?IPO stages.

This event will occur at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. Please respond to Hayley Sloan at (415) 777?0220 or hsloan@nrdc.org for more information. An electronic invitation will be mailed to E2 members and their guests in October. Space is limited.

E2 Membership

We hope you'll tell your friends about E2 and NRDC. To learn about E2 and our programs please go to www.e2.org Information about NRDC can be found at www.nrdc.org.

Thanks for your support. Comments, questions and introductions to possible new members are always welcome! Learn how to join E2 at how to join.

Bob Epstein, Nicole Lederer & John Sullivan
bob@bobepstein.to nicolelederer@netscape.net johnasullivan@att.com