Resource Renewal Institute is a left-of-center 501(c)(3) organization which advocates for environmental issues.¹

Activities

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

The Resource Renewal Institute was a cosigner on an April 2021 letter to President Joe Biden asking the administration to promote weather dependent wind and solar power systems and “end the fossil fuel era.” The letter also advised the president to “Phase out nuclear energy as an inherently dirty, dangerous and costly energy source.” ²

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and from 1990 until 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ³ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ⁴ A 2020 analysis from Our World in Data reported that nuclear energy “results in 99.9% fewer deaths than brown coal; 99.8% fewer than coal; 99.7% fewer than oil; and 97.6% fewer than gas,” making it “just as safe” as wind and solar power production. ⁵ The U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that “nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean-air source” and that it would require “more than 3 million solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a typical commercial reactor or more than 430 wind turbines.” ⁶

Controversy

Settlement with Biden Administration

In April 2025, the House Natural Resources Committee announced it was launching an investigation into a settlement agreement made in January 2025 between the Biden Administration and several environmental activist groups that had previously sued the National Park Service in 2022 over claims the Service had illegally leased land  in the Point Reyes National Seashore national park in Northern California for commercial dairy and beef ranching, as well as claiming the such a move would increase carbon emissions as well as cause  “significant harm…to environmental, scenic, and recreational values.” ⁷ According to the settlement, several family-owned multi-generational cattle and dairy farms and ranches would need to be vacated and abandoned by early 2026. According to the Washington Free Beacon, environmental conservation group Nature Conservancy (TNC) was involved with negotiating the settlements, while payments of up to $40 million were made to ranchers who were also forced to sign “non-disclosure agreements.” According to the story, ranchers were allegedly pressured by the National Park Service to “stay quiet” as well as having TNC employees visit properties to “ensure compliance.” ⁷

The Resource Renewal Institute was one of the environmental activist groups involved in the settlements with the others including the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Western Watersheds Project, and Advocates for the West. ⁷

1. Resource Renewal Institute. “About RRI.” https://www.rri.org/about/. Accessed July 29, 2022.
2. Center for Biological Diversity, et. al. Letter to “The Honorable President Joseph R. Biden.” RE: NOW IS THE MOMENT TO ACCELERATE THE JUST, RENEWABLE ENERGY FUTURE AND END THE FOSSIL FUEL ERA. April 27, 2021. Accessed July 23, 2024. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2022-4-27_Letter-to-Pres-Biden-re-End-Fossil-Fuel-Era-Accelerate-Transtion-to-Renewable-Energy.pdf
3. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
4. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
5. Ritchie, Hannah. “What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy?” Our World in Data. February 10, 2020. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://ourworldindata.org/safest-sources-of-energy  
6. “3 Reasons Why Nuclear is Clean and Sustainable.” U.S. Department of Energy. March 31, 2021. Accessed July 19, 2024. https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/3-reasons-why-nuclear-clean-and-sustainable
7. Catenacci, Thomas. “Republicans Probe Secret Biden-Era Settlement With Green Groups To Shut Down Family Ranches.” Washington Free Beacon, April 10, 2025. https://freebeacon.com/politics/republicans-probe-secret-biden-era-settlement-with-green-groups-to-shut-down-family-ranches/