RFF grantee, WildEarth Guardians, recently agreed to a settlement with Occidental over Oxy’s emissions of pollutants that were frequently above their permitted amount at a compressor station in New Mexico. In the lawsuit, WildEarth Guardians claimed that the emissions were not accidental but part of normal business operation which were in violation of a state-issued air permit. WildEarth Guardians built up their case by looking into Oxy’s publicly available reports filed with the New Mexico Environment Department.
Since 2006, RFF has focused its Environment program almost exclusively on climate change. Our program emphasizes public education on the risks of global warming and implementation of sound solutions. RFF is interested in the development of initiatives designed to enact aggressive policies at the state and national levels to reduce carbon emissions; disrupt the life cycle of fossil fuels from drilling and mining to transportation and exporting; bring diverse and compelling new voices into the climate debate; and examine how special interests are distorting science and delaying constructive steps to deal with this impending global crisis.
Initiatives
Climate Education
Meaningful climate progress will require breaking through the resistance of the fossil fuel industry and its allies. To accomplish this, we support programs designed to: engage and motivate citizens demanding change; deepen public recognition of the climate disruption now unfolding; unmask forces working to prevent climate progress, and policies, and require polluters to pay their fair share of the climate damages they caused to help the public meet enormous climate adaptation expenses we now face. Among numerous milestones, this work has led to: a ground-breaking report issued by senior U.S. military advisors that climate change is a national security risk; an active and thriving grassroots movement demanding climate progress; reporting by investigative journalists about what fossil companies knew about climate change (and when) and how some companies worked to deceive public the “catastrophic” damage climate change would cause; and authoritative analyses of how advocates can best advance climate policies in the current political environment.
Funder Collaborative on Oil and Gas
Over the past decade, RFF has worked in opposition to the coal industry while increasingly playing a leadership role in helping groups that are fighting the development of oil, gas, plastics, and petrochemicals infrastructure. The Funder Collaborative on Oil and Gas was launched in December 2018 out of recognition that curtailing U.S. oil and gas production and preventing development of massive new domestic infrastructure is an urgent and necessary part of solving the climate crisis. The Funder Collaborative’s core purpose is to limit ongoing oil and gas production; prevent the lock-in of GHG-emissions for new and expanded oil, gas, and petrochemical infrastructure; and weaken the industry’s financial standing and political influence.
Representative Grants
2020
Better Future Project
For general support.
EarthRights International
For its Climate Corporate Accountability program.
Environmental Integrity Project
For oil, gas, petrochemical, and plastics work.
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
For general support for its domestic programs.
New Mexico Voices for Children
For the Renewal of Economic Diversification Project.
New York Public Interest Research Group Fund
To support its project, Make the Polluters Pay.
PennFuture
To support policy work challenging fracked gas and petrochemical subsidies and buildout.
Texas Campaign for the Environment
For its work on oil, gas, plastics, and petrochemicals.