CASE STUDIES
COAL MORATORIUM: Ensuring that Federal Action Followed Federal Rhetoric
My decision to use a media strategy was successful in getting not only a moratorium on the federal coal leasing program, but also a process to review and overhaul federal coal sales policy.
When President Obama said in his 2016 State of the Union address “I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet,” he was referring directly to the moratorium on issuing new coal mining leases on federal land announced the next day. And that moratorium was the result of a successful strategy that I co-designed and implemented.
As the leader of NRDC’s robust coal team and initiative, I represented NRDC in the Western Coalfield Alliance, a group of national, regional, and state organizations focused on reducing coal mining and production on federal lands in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. Up to 40% of the coal produced in the US is from those lands, and more of that coal was being exported due to declining demand in the US. Coal companies were dramatically ramping up their plans to export coal as part of their new business model aimed at ensuring their survival. Coal, a dirty energy, is responsible for significant carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Stopping new coal production is a strategy for reducing global warming at a supply or root source.
The initial meeting of the Coalfield Alliance resulted in a division of labor: some groups built opposition to building new coal export facilities in the Pacific Northwest, while NRDC took the lead on fighting the federal coal leasing program.
I commissioned an outside audit of the coal leasing program which had not been reviewed in 30 years. The resulting 75 page report found that taxpayers had been cheated out of $30 billion in unpaid leases. It was the first quantification of how much taxpayers at both the federal and state levels had been shortchanged, because leasing revenue is divided between state and federal governments. Clearly, the coal leasing program was broken. Putting a pause in the program was needed as a good governance measure until a full programmatic review of the program could be initiated and completed. Some staff at the Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management were receptive to the idea of a moratorium, but Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was lukewarm.
We got the moratorium in large part because of the negative media attention surrounding Interior’s decision to continue making available 10.2 billion tons of coal in Wyoming and Montana in what is known as the Buffalo Resource Management Area.
I decided that publicity about this decision could help persuade the Obama administration - specifically Secretary Jewell - to agree to a moratorium. I worked with a reporter from Vox who had a large following; he wrote an article about the BRMA plan and questioned the Obama Administration’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions. Allegedly, Obama himself read the article and was outraged by the move and his lack of knowledge of it.
Not long after that article ran, Secretary Jewell agreed to the moratorium on the federal coal leasing program. My decision to use a media strategy was successful in getting not only a moratorium on the federal coal leasing program, but also a process to review and overhaul federal coal sales policy.
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URBAN CLIMATE PREPAREDNESS: Incorporating Climate Data into a Midwest City’s Future Planning
Using data and powers of persuasion, we were able to get companies headquartered in Columbus to participate, including the Fortune 500 L Brands, Huntington Bank, American Electric Power, and Battelle, the largest nonprofit in the US.
In 2014, no Midwest city other than Chicago had a comprehensive climate vulnerability analysis nor a comprehensive climate preparedness plan. Yet Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy and huge floods in the Midwest (including 1993’s Great Flood on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers) showed that it was just a matter of time before cities in the region were affected by climate change. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 100 Year flood maps did not factor in climate change, but some draft maps projected increased flooding for key parts of Columbus, Ohio, including its famed ”Horseshoe” stadium where Ohio State University’s football team plays. And football is big business in Columbus.
NRDC decided that it made sense to approach the City of Columbus to help them develop a climate preparedness plan for several reasons. First, Columbus was vulnerable. Second, it was in Ohio, a politically important state. And third, it is representative of the entire country. In fact, Columbus is one of the top places in the country for opinion and market research because it is thought to be a reliable, representative cross-section of American opinion.
My job was to convince the Mayor, City Council and business and community leaders to create such a plan. Leading a team of local consultants, I got the Mayor on Board with the plan for a comprehensive vulnerability assessment. I then got a team from Ohio State University to commit to help run the process and was able to convince people from the Regional NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) office to come in and do the technical analysis and help with facilitation.
Using data and powers of persuasion, we were able to get companies headquartered in Columbus to participate, including the Fortune 500 L Brands, Huntington Bank, American Electric Power, and Battelle, the largest nonprofit in the US. Several of these firms had already begun analyzing their own vulnerabilities to climate change.
The year-long process involved working with the NOAA program and OSU to identify key climate threats to Columbus, and a vulnerability and risk assessment process that included over 90 stakeholders. The result of these efforts was the identification of two primary climate changes, eight related climate impacts, and fourteen priority vulnerabilities associated with these impacts, all specific to the City of Columbus. It was only the second comprehensive climate vulnerability analysis completed by any city in the Midwest.
CLIMATE AND WATER: Changing On-the-Ground Practice by Building Trust With Reliable Data
I co-led a groundbreaking campaign to mobilize big city and regional water managers and utilities in the Western United States to factor climate impacts into planning.
One of the most critical issues in the Western United States related to climate change is water availability and use. During my time at NRDC, I was involved in multiple efforts to map out the impact of climate change on water resources, including conceptualizing, commissioning and editing the first report of its kind analyzing the drought/climate nexus out to 2100 on a county by county level across the US. NRDC paid for a highly respected water industry technical consulting firm to do the research for that report; the same firm does a lot of consulting for numerous large water agencies, including those in the Western US.
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Building on that study, I co-led a groundbreaking campaign to mobilize big city and regional water managers and utilities in the Western United States to factor climate impacts into planning. This involved the first substantive summit of leading Western water managers and climate scientists.
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I enlisted the head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (including Las Vegas) as a champion, for she was very influential in Western water circles. Nevada is one of 9 states getting water from the Colorado River per an agreement in the 1920’s (remember Chinatown?), and the state receiving the least. So water deployment was an issue of great importance to Las Vegas. She co-sponsored the conference and invited other leading Western water managers. NRDC recruited the climate and water experts.
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As co-lead of the NRDC efforts, I helped bring in those expert climate scientists, including those who did the work for the In Hot Water report. The conference was attended by 60-70 water managers and climate scientists. It was the first significant conference to bring the two groups together, allowing for much valuable communication and relationship-building. It helped water managers access accurate climate data and incorporate it into their resource management plans: specifically, to reevaluate and adjust their metrics for both capital planning and managing water deployment and use.
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Some of these big city Western water managers subsequently became more vocal advocates for policies to address climate change.
WINTER SPORTS COALITIONS: Bringing Climate Change to Life Via Winter Sports Enthusiasts
The campaign involved often humorous billboards (“Stop Global Warming or the Snowman Gets It”), advertisements, posters, table tents, coasters, and stickers highlighting risks to the winter sports season.
A constant challenge in getting people to combat climate change is demonstrating how it affects their lives and the things they love doing. One place these effects have become clearly visible is on ski slopes and snow sports playgrounds in the United States and all over the world.
I’m a life-long skier myself and had been witnessing these changes firsthand: shorter ski seasons, less predictable snow patterns, and more extreme precipitation events. And so a similar-minded colleague at NRDC and I created a partnership with the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) to raise public awareness of climate change’s damaging effect on winter sports, and to try and influence policy to address the problem. We did this through the Keep Winter Cool advocacy campaign.
Working with an ad agency, we developed messages and materials aimed at getting influencers and snow-loving people to back climate-fighting policies. The campaign involved often humorous billboards (“Stop Global Warming or the Snowman Gets It”), advertisements, posters, table tents, coasters, and stickers highlighting risks to the winter sports season. The materials became ubiquitous at dozens of the best-known ski areas in the US. We were able to convince the NSAA to take a more aggressive political stand on the need for federal action to fight climate change. I also met with CEO’s of some of America’s best known ski resorts in largely successful efforts to get these executives to speak publicly more often to call for state and federal climate policies.
Another NRDC partnership I helped to forge was with POW (Protect Our Winters), a newly formed and influential climate advocacy group created by Winter Olympians and high-profile extreme athletes. We decided to partner with and financially support POW because their athletes held such credibility with skiers, snowboarders, and the general public. Our work together involved organizing multiple ‘lobby days’ that brought dozens of high-profile athletes to Washington to advocate for climate action. We had a hunch - soon validated- that it would be a lot easier to get a meeting with Members of Congress when you tell them you’ll be bringing along an Olympic gold medalist. POW is now a well-established organization, and today you’ll see POW patches on outfits of all ski area staff at places like Aspen/Snowmass.
TRUST FOR AMERICA'S HEALTH: Ending Health Disparities through Non-Partisan Expertise
The Trust for America’s Health has become one of the most respected voices in Washington DC on public health policy because of our deep technical expertise and our policy of taking no money from industry or government.
Health disparities in the United States have always been dramatic, with low-income minority communities bearing heavy loads of health conditions and diseases that often stem from environmental causes. When I saw a story about those health disparities, especially the extremely high asthma rates in Harlem, I decided to focus my attention on environmental justice and environmental health.
I was fortunate enough to meet with Shelley Hearne, DrPH, the chief staff person of a Commission on Environmental Health established by the Pew Charitable Trusts and chaired by former Senator Lowell Weicker. Over the next two years, Shelley and I talked about creating a policy-driven advocacy organization like NRDC for public health, to continue the Commission’s work.
With seed funds from my family, I co-founded the Trust for America’s Health, a non-partisan organization focused on environmental health and justice. TFAH’s mission is to promote optimal health for every person and community and make the prevention of illness and injury a national priority through non-partisan research, policy, and advocacy. I helped build a strong Board of well-respected public health officials, academic researchers, and funders, and I remain on its Board to this day.
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The Trust for America’s Health has become one of the most respected voices in Washington DC on public health policy because of our deep technical expertise and our policy of taking no money from industry or government. Our Executive Director and staff are often called on by elected officials from both sides of the aisle to help shape legislation and to testify before Congress.
During the Obama administration, TFAH helped develop key parts of the Affordable Care Act. Since then, it has been involved in defending the ACA in a strategic way by emphasizing its popular programs in vital congressional constituencies. Other policy issues TFAH has been involved with include childhood health disparities, the obesity epidemic, increasing access to quality food, the opioid crisis, ranking states in terms of their health status and outcomes, and monitoring health disparities and their causes across the nation.
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND: Leading through Philanthropy
During my tenure as President, RFF strengthened its commitment to battling climate change and fossil fuels, oversaw the expansion of our work to garner paid sick leave and equal pay for women and working mothers, and championed universal voter registration at the federal level to promote democracy.
I was fortunate to serve on the Board of the Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF) for 15 years, and to be its President for three years. During my tenure as President, RFF strengthened its commitment to battling climate change and fossil fuels, oversaw the expansion of our work to garner paid sick leave and equal pay for women and working mothers, and championed universal voter registration at the federal level to promote democracy, among other initiatives. Some of our work is described below:
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Fighting New Coal Power Plants
During a critical time for coal-fired power plant development, I led RFF’s strategy to fight the proliferation of these plants. RFF’s work under my leadership was instrumental in preventing the development of dozens and dozens of coal plants.
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In the mid-2000’s, energy companies announced plans to build about 180 new coal-fired power plants in the United States. This would have been a climate disaster. Fortunately, very few of these plants were ever built.
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Despite its relatively small size, the Rockefeller Family Fund played a leading role in mobilizing foundations to oppose the buildout of these dirty energy plants. Beginning at the end of 2005 and continuing until 2011, RFF staff spent time organizing opposition to the buildout, traveling around the country to determine how to defeat these projects. Working with the Energy Foundation and other foundation colleagues, RFF gradually increased foundation support for this work from virtually nothing to several million dollars.
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RFF wasn’t satisfied with shutting down coal plants, because we cared about the people who would bear the brunt of the economic consequences of this shift from dirty energy. We helped establish the Just Transition Fund, dedicated to supporting economic development and new employment for people working in the coal industry in Appalachia and Western states. It has since expanded to help other coalfield and power plant communities to transition to a more diversified economy with sustainable employment.
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Another RFF achievement of this period was the establishment of the Power Plant Finance Project (PPFP) in 2007, which later became the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). Some environmentalists had long understood that, while the finances of proposed coal plants were tenuous, environmental groups did not have the technical capacity to attack the shaky financial position of these plants and their owners. Through the PPFP, coal plant opponents began to use sophisticated financial arguments to oppose dirty energy project development. Over time, as IEEFA, the work of the organization expanded beyond coal to encompass the whole range of energy resources, including oil, gas, solar and wind. IEEFA now works globally with an annual budget approaching $8 million.
Other RFF Catalyzed Projects
Climate Change and National Security: While I was President of the Board, RFF developed the idea for and launched the project that connected climate change and national security. Working with the CNA Corporation (the former Center for Naval Analysis), we organized a military advisory board of 11 retired three- and four-star generals and admirals to conduct an analysis and write the first report on the connection, National Security and The Threat of Climate Change. This report led U.S. intelligence agencies to review the issue and include in a subsequent National Intelligence Estimate the risk posed by climate change as a vital matter of national security.
Universal Voter Registration: RFF began a push in 2007 among advocates and funders to pass federal universal voter registration (UVR). The issue had not been previously considered at the federal level. The initiative led to a bill sponsored by Senator Schumer and supported by the Obama administration. While it did not pass, the initiative led to a string of state UVR laws. There are now 19 states with UVR.
Florida Voting Rights Restoration: RFF was one of the initial funders and catalysts for the campaign that led to the passage of a state constitutional amendment in Florida requiring the state to restore voting rights to felons who completed their sentence.
Moms Rising: RFF worked with founding president Kristen Rowe-Finkbinder to create this new group that organizes women to advocate for economic and social justice policies important to mothers. Moms Rising/Mamas Con Poder is one of the first organizations to recognize and tap into the political power of this constituency. Initially focused on issues such as paid sick and maternal leave and voting rights, Moms Rising now works on multiple issues affecting families. It currently has over a million members in every state in the nation and an estimated blog and social media audience of over 5 million people.
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