Preserving The Arctic Refuge

Despite the power and infl uence of the Bush administration, the oil lobby and their allies, U.S. PIRG's Athan Manuel and a broad-based coalition have repeatedly stopped Congress from opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

Stopping The Bad Energy Bill

Twice in 2003 and 2004, U.S. PIRG staff have played a pivotal role in convincing enough Democrats and Republicans to vote down a harmful energy bill, despite the powerful utilities and energy industries backing the proposal.

Cleaning Our Air

In 2003, thanks to U.S. PIRG advocacy, the EPA issued tough rules to reduce pollution from dirty, diesel-powered farm and construction equipment.

Alerting Parents To Dangerous Toys

In November 2004, U.S. PIRG published its annual survey of unsafe toys, prompting six enforcement actions by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Over the last 19 years, the report has resulted in at least 100 recalls and other enforcement actions, and spurred passage of a toy safety labeling law in 1994.

Fighting Toxic Mercury Pollution

U.S. PIRG and our coalition partners collected a record number of public comments (more than 650,000) to the EPA, opposing the proposal to allow more mercury pollution from power plants for longer than the Clean Air Act allows.

Advocating Environmental Health Tracking

After winning the program's initial funding two years earlier, in 2003, U.S. PIRG won a major funding increase for an environmental health-tracking network that will help officials prevent disease related to environmental hazards.

Backing Corporate Reform

After a wave of corporate scandals, including Enron and Tyco, in 2002, President Bush approved a landmark, U.S. PIRG-backed law that will go a long way to help regulate accountants and hold corporate executives accountable to investors and employees.

Restoring Wild Atlantic Salmon

A U.S. PIRG Clean Water Act lawsuit against a Maine salmon farm company resulted in a landmark settlement in 2002. The company agreed to make sweeping changes to minimize pollution from its factory-style fish farms, and will pay $375,000 for wild salmon restoration.