Environmental Defense
"Environmental Defense (formerly known as Environmental Defense Fund or EDF) is a US-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group. The group is known for its work on issues including global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, and human health. It is nonpartisan, and its work often advocates market-based solutions to environmental problems."
Statements
"As EDF’s President Fred Krupp told the Environment and Public Works Committee last November, we must pass comprehensive climate legislation now, not next year or two years from now. By waiting we will have lessened our chances of preventing the most dangerous consequences of climate change, we will have raised the costs to the economy, and we will have sent the wrong signal to developing countries just when they’re weighing what obligations to take on in the international negotiations launched in Bali.
"As much as I want to impress upon you the urgency of action, I am equally concerned that you hear this: We can do this now. At this point in the debate, you’ve heard many arguments about why it’s impossible for us to act. Chief among them is the argument that the U.S. cannot and must not go forward without having secured caps on emissions from major developing nations. I will use my time before you today to rebut this assertion. The objective of national climate legislation is to create broad-based incentives for a new round of innovation in the economy away from high carbon content products to more efficient and profitable alternatives. We can design a U.S. carbon market that achieves our environmental goals while maintaining a level playing field for our companies and workers competing in the international marketplace and creating new market opportunities. Smart, creative policy design gives us a number of tools—both “carrots” and “sticks”—that will create strong incentives for international action and also give the United States recourse if incentives alone do not prove sufficient.
". . . Congress can craft strong climate legislation that reduces our emissions and encourages developing country actions while ensuring a level playing field for American workers and businesses; these are not mutually exclusive goals. We can get there with a suite of incentives that include carefully designed border carbon adjustment provisions as a backstop."
-- Testimony of Jennifer Haverkamp, Senior Counsel, Environmental Defense Fund, Before the Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate. February 14, 2008.
References
Testimony of Jennifer Haverkamp, Senior Counsel, EDF [pdf]
Environmental Defense Website - Global Warming
Wikipedia Entry: Environmental Defense Fund