For a relatively small organization, Friends of the Earth has an impressive legacy. Through our more than 40-year history, we have provided crucial leadership in fights resulting in landmark environmental laws, precedent-setting legal victories and the exposure of political malfeasance and corporate greed.
Recent accomplishments
•    Preventing nuclear reactor construction. In 2011, after the post-tsunami nuclear disaster in Japan, we stopped the U.S. nuclear industry from raising electricity rates in Iowa in order to fund the construction of new nuclear reactors.
•    Blocking approval of a dangerous pipeline. Also this year, Friends of the Earth led the effort to expose corruption and pro-oil bias in the State Department’s review of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. Our work (and that of allies) generated pressure on the Obama administration, forcing it to hit the reset button and order a new review of the pipeline’s potential environmental impacts.
•    Ending polluter subsidies. For decades, Congress has given billions of dollars in subsidies to the corn ethanol industry, even though corn ethanol causes more climate pollution than regular gasoline. In 2010, Friends of the Earth assembled a diverse coalition to fight these subsidies and we aim to see them expire forever this December.
•    Reducing air pollution. In Spring 2010, our decade-long lawsuit aimed at reducing air pollution from ships came to a close when the EPA announced requirements that will effectively stop ships from burning extremely dirty bunker fuel. The EPA expects the reduction in smog created by the new rules to improve the health of people living near the coasts and save thousands of lives.
•    Forcing climate impacts to be considered when the government lends money. In early 2009, we settled a lawsuit against the federal Export-Import Bank. Our settlement requires the bank for the first time to take into account the impacts that any of its activities will have on the climate before it decides whether to carry them out.
•    Preventing counterproductive climate legislation from passing. In 2009 Friends of the Earth spoke out against a climate bill so loaded with loopholes and giveaways (including rolling back crucial parts of the Clean Air Act) that it could actually have created more pollution than business as usual. We built a coalition of progressive allies that demanded better and helped prevent the bill from being sold to activist as a real climate solution.
Accomplishments from years past
•    In 2002 we launched a campaign that has now led more than 1,000 companies to pledge to remove chemicals that harm human health from personal care products.
•    In 2003 we helped draft and pass California’s Clean Cars Law – the first law regulating the emission of greenhouse gas pollutants from passenger vehicles.
•    We persuaded President Clinton to issue an executive order in 1999 that requires the government to conduct environmental assessments of all future trade deals.
•    In 1990, we took the lead in passing the Oil Spill Pollution Act, requiring double hulls on oil tankers in the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill.
•    In 1992 our work with the Lower Elwha tribe in Washington State led to a federal law authorizing the removal of two dams that blocked historic salmon runs.

•    We challenged World Bank lending that caused environmental devastation in 1983, leading to the first-ever congressional hearing on the subject.
•    In 1981, we played a crucial role in the successful campaign to impose a moratorium on leases for offshore oil drilling in pristine areas.
•    In 1971, we led the fight to stop federal funding for the highly polluting Super Sonic Transport commercial airliner. We won.
•    In 1969, after an offshore oil spill in Santa Barbara, Friends of the Earth was born.