Highlights from Our 2007 Annual Report

Eight critical victories from this year's list

Posted: 11-Dec-2007; Updated: 12-May-2008

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With the generous support of our members and friends, we achieved critical victories this past year. Here are some of our major accomplishments.

Climate

Doing a deal as green as Texas – The TXU Buyout: Environmental Defense Fund was invited to help draft the terms of the largest buyout in corporate history — the purchase of Texas electricity giant TXU. After a 17-hour negotiating marathon, the buyers agreed to withdraw plans to build eight old-fashioned dirty coal plants and reduce the company’s carbon emissions to 1990 levels. The deal was the result of our yearlong campaign to halt TXU’s rush to dirty coal. (Get the Facts on TXU.)

Getting major corporations on board for climate action: Environmental Defense Fund helped launch the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), an alliance of companies and nonprofit groups pushing Congress to pass a national cap on greenhouse gas emissions. Among the Fortune 500 companies that have signed on to USCAP: Alcoa, ConocoPhillips, DuPont, GE, GM, Pepsi, Shell and Xerox. (More on USCAP's call for climate action.)

Oceans

Giving fishermen a stake in building healthy fisheries: We helped design a new program for the Gulf of Mexico that allows profitable red snapper fishing year-round, while capping the total catch and assigning each fisherman a percentage share. So-called “catch shares” help revitalize fisheries by giving fishermen a stake in their overall health. We are promoting similar reforms for other ailing fisheries nationwide. (More on catch shares and our Gulf red snapper program.)

Developing new standards for buying farmed shrimp: We partnered with Wegmans Food Markets to develop a purchasing policy for farmed shrimp. The new purchasing standards require farmed shrimp producers to stop using antibiotics and other chemicals, avoid damaging sensitive habitats, treat their waste water and reduce the use of wild fish as feed. (More on the new farmed shrimp standards.)

Land, Water and Wildlife

Defending the environment by reforming the Corps: Environmental Defense Fund has been at the forefront of efforts to rein in the Army Corps, focusing on the agency’s most harmful projects. After we brought pressure this year, Congress voted to shut down the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and restore critical wetlands that serve as buffers against hurricanes. The new law also calls for the Corps to submit controversial new projects to independent review, a reform we’ve championed ever since we revealed the Corps was cooking its books to justify dubious projects nearly a decade ago. (More on our efforts to reform the Corps.)

Winning a new law that sets aside water for wildlife: With Environmental Defense Fund acting as a key negotiator, Texas has become the first state to legally protect natural river flows. The new law establishes a minimum flow for every river in the state, including the seasonal flooding and other natural processes that rivers, bays and estuaries need to thrive. We will promote the Texas law as a model for other states to restore such critical ecosystems as the San Francisco Bay Delta and the Colorado River. (More on finding solutions to western water wars.)

Health

Working with New York's mayor to green the Big Apple: Environmental Defense Fund helped Mayor Bloomberg develop his plan to turn New York into the nation’s cleanest city. His 127 initiatives range from cutting global warming pollution 30 percent by 2020 to making buildings more energy efficient. Our congestion pricing proposal to charge drivers to enter the busiest part of the city during peak times went from theory to near-reality in one year. We helped lead a coalition of 120 organizations backing the proposal and marshaled extraordinary support for the plan. (Learn more about traffic and health.)

Keeping EPA on track to clean up locomotives and ships: We led a national campaign to clean up highly polluting diesel locomotives and ships. In March 2008, EPA finalized rules that dramatically cut soot and smog pollution from trains and boats. The new rules will complement new regulations for diesel trucks, buses and construction equipment that we also helped win. (Read the article "Good News: Less Pollution From Ships, Trains".)