Environmental Defense

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE (ED), an environmental advocacy group headquartered in New York, began when a group of scientists teamed up with a lawyer, went to court, won a battle to ban the pesticide DDT, and incorporated as the Environmental Defense Fund in 1967. Environmental Defense now prefers to work creatively, without confrontation, for solutions to environmental challenges, the most serious of which it views as global warming, “through partnership with powerful market leaders.”

ED prides itself on having on staff “more Ph.D. scientists and economists than any similar group” and is noted for its “rigorous scientific approach.” It seeks not only to oppose policies that it deems detrimental to the environment, but also to propose workable, innovative alternatives. In 2007, Environmental Defense was a founder and organizer of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of environmental organizations and corporations advocating legislative action to address global warming.

Most of ED's more innovative solutions have been market-based. According to ED's chief economist, Dr. Daniel Dudek, market competition “has always been the most powerful engine of American innovation.” Solutions reached using this approach have included a 1989 Environmental Defense plan in which Southern California's largest urban water district encouraged and financed farm water conservation by buying the conserved water. This followed the creation of a market for water rights in California in the 1970s, that gave farmers an incentive to conserve water and sell it to cities, thus avoiding the construction of new dams. As another example, the cap-and-trade mechanism for curbing emissions, which was designed by ED and introduced in the 1990 Clean Air Act to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions that cause acid rain, is viewed by the group as “the centerpiece of international plans to reduce global warming pollution.”

ED has also proposed innovative solutions to wildlife conservation issues. Its Safe Harbor program assures landowners that protecting endangered species habitat will not result in burdensome restrictions on the use of their land. Its Catch Shares program advocates the creation of limited-access privilege programs that place control of specific marine fisheries in the hands of local fishing cooperatives, providing fishermen with incentives to limit their catch and restore depleted fisheries.

ED has also helped develop agreements among multiple stakeholders to set aside marine protected areas that allow fish stocks to recover. When working with McDonald's in 1991 to convince the fast-food chain to reduce packaging waste and introduce biodegradable food containers, the group used the market incentive approach to not on appeal to altruism, but to point out benefits to the corporation of improved efficiency and reduced waste. McDonald's Vice President Bob Langert commented, “Environmental Defense is probably the best non-governmental organization to find the intersection between profit and planet.”

The group also spurred Federal Express's 2003 use of hybrid electric delivery trucks in Sacramento, California, New York City, and Tampa, Florida, [Page 373]which not only reduced emissions by up to 90 percent, but also cut fuel use, and thus costs, by up to 57 percent. More examples include an incentive program in California that encourages residents to purchase energy-efficient air conditioners and refrigerators, a joint air-quality management district on the U.S.-Mexico border to improve local air quality, a sulfur dioxide permit program in the electric-generating sector in China, and a program of incentives in Russia used to measure and reduce greenhouse emissions. Environmental Defense has convinced Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), Mexico's state oil company, to promise to reduce greenhouse emissions, and has convinced the Texas State Environmental Agency to set strict pollution limits on backup electricity generators.

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