Safe Food
2000: U.S. PIRG and the Genetically Engineered Food Alert coalition win a recall of taco shells, after lab tests confirm they contain genetically engineered ingredients not approved for human consumption.
Arctic Wilderness
2000: U.S. PIRG files pro-wilderness shareholder resolutions with the three largest oil companies pressing for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Thirteen percent of BP shareholders vote against drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
 |
| In 2000, U.S. PIRG's Gene Karpinski announces the submission of the first 500,000 public comments in support of protecting 58.5 million acres of wild forests. Two weeks before he left office, President Clinton protected the forests. |
Toxics Ban
2000: WashPIRG and coalition partners persuade Washington state to adopt a 20-year plan to eliminate all emissions of persistent bioaccumulative toxics such as lead and mercury.
Polluted Runoff
2000: WISPIRG helps win toughest-in-the-nation clean water standards for controlling polluted runoff from agriculture, urban areas, construction sites and roads.
National Monuments
2001: Congress approves a U.S. PIRG-backed initiative that prohibits oil drilling in national monuments. The action will protect some of the nation's most treasured forests, canyons and last-remaining prairie and grasslands.
 |
| Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco congratulates NJPIRG's Dena Mottola on the organization's role in passing the 2001 New Jersey Patients' Bill of Rights. NCPIRG won similar legis-lation for North Carolina that year. |
Clean Air
2001: U.S. PIRG helps win new federal standards that will cut pollution from diesel buses and heavy-duty trucks by more than 90 percent starting in 2007. The new rules will save 8000 lives a year from respiratory illness or cancer.
Safe Drinking Water
2001: U.S. PIRG helps reinstate tough limits on arsenic in drinking water.
Clean Energy
2002: U.S. PIRG efforts are instrumental in the defeat of a dirty energy bill.
 |
| Florida PIRG's Mark Ferrulo (left) and U.S. Rep. Bill Young helped lead the fight to protect Florida's shores from drilling. In 2002, the federal government cancelled Chevron's existing leases off the Panhandle. |
Arctic Wilderness
2002: By a vote of 54 to 46, U.S. PIRG helps win a critical Senate vote blocking drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Clean Energy
2002: California Gov. Gray Davis signs the CALPIRG-backed California Clean Energy Bill, ensuring that by 2017 the state will produce nearly as much clean energy as all 49 other states combined.