I am the Executive Director of NRDC. The position is my second at NRDC. Beginning in 1994, I led the Clean Water Program for five years, before leaving in 1999 to serve as the head of the Environmental Protection Bureau for the Attorney General of the State of New York.
My first experience with NRDC dates back to 1980, when I worked on environmental issues in Washington, DC. President Reagan had just been elected and environmentalists needed to strengthen their efforts. After law school, I worked for the New York City Law Department. NRDC was working hard to protect the city's drinking water supply, so I joined forces with NRDC and, on behalf of the city, sued polluters. I also joined with NRDC in suing President Reagan's Department of Transportation for rolling back fuel economy standards. This was the very first lawsuit brought on the grounds of global warming. I knew then that NRDC was thinking big, and committed to solving complex problems over the long haul.
Cases like this underscore why I became an environmental lawyer in the first place: if you are right on the law, you can make tremendous progress. NRDC has distinguished itself by a history of groundbreaking environmental work. Through our lawyers, lobbyists, scientists and media experts, we're able not only to find solutions, but to do the hard work of putting them into place. This is part of why NRDC is, in my opinion, the leading environmental organization in the nation. And it's why I'm honored to be back.
Before I gained any of this professional experience, my dedication to protecting the environment began as I suspect it does for many people -- by spending a lot of time in the outdoors. I spent most of my youth mucking around in the woods near where I grew up, and then as I grew older I spent a lot of time hiking and climbing and canoeing and kayaking. I still try to get out every weekend and, when I do, I'm reminded of how quickly the planet is changing, and how much it needs our protection.
Posted February 9, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
It would be hard to find a country with more abundant and accessible renewable energy resources--and a greater need to tap into them--than Chile. I spent nine days in this beautiful country last month, where NRDC is working with government...continued→
Posted February 3, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Moving Beyond Oil
The fund America uses to repair and expand our highways transit systems is about to go broke. But instead of endorsing responsible and proven ways to balance the books, House Republicans have assembled a transportation bill so extreme it has...continued→
Posted February 2, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Solving Global Warming
The Wall Street Journal is one of nation's leading sources for business and economic news, but its editorial page has long been out to lunch on climate change. Even for the WSJ, however, the Op-Ed piece titled "No Need to Panic...continued→
Posted January 30, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Moving Beyond Oil
On the day that President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought corrosive Canadian tar sands oil through America largely for export, I was at an energy conference in Houston, listening to a tar sands representative talk...continued→
Posted January 20, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Moving Beyond Oil
What exactly did President Obama reject when he denied a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline? He denied a Canadian company the right to pipe their oil past Midwestern refineries and ship it overseas, tax-free. He said no to the...continued→
Posted January 19, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
Over the past few years, America has experienced a surge in fossil fuel development. Armed with new technology and funded by record profits, the oil and gas industry is finding new ways to tap reserves: Extracting natural gas by fracking;...continued→
Posted January 18, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
A new paper in Science says cutting soot and methane emissions with simple, existing technologies will slow climate change by as much as 1°F by the middle of this century. Soot, also called “black carbon,” is both a local, health...continued→
Posted January 16, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
A new EPA web tool documents global warming pollution from about 6,700 facilities across the United States, filling a critical gap in the public's right to know about pollution. Polluters have been required to report on toxic chemical emissions for...continued→
Posted January 9, 2012 by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
The Republican Party has turned the Environmental Protection Agency into a political punching bag in the past year. GOP lawmakers routinely call for abolishing the agency and scraping the government standards that protect us from pollution. These attacks are part...continued→
Posted December 21, 2011 by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment
The Obama Administration has announced the first national standards for mercury and other dangerous emissions from power plants. Now these dirty plants will finally be forced to clean up pollution that causes developmental delays in children, asthma attacks, cardiac disease,...continued→
Posted December 19, 2011 by Peter Lehner in Solving Global Warming
Ron Craft is a fourth-generation cotton ginner in Plains, Texas struggling through a tough year. Earlier in the fall, he predicted business would drop by 75 percent, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to hire as many workers. “I’ve...continued→
Posted December 8, 2011 by Peter Lehner in Solving Global Warming
While candidates on the GOP campaign trail continue to pretend climate change doesn’t exist, communities across the nation are already being pummeled by a hallmark of climate change: extreme weather events. A new extreme weather mapping web tool produced by...continued→
Posted December 7, 2011 by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy
Over the past few decades, the cost of wind energy has come down 90 percent. More than 85,000 people in nearly every state in the nation are now building parts for wind turbines. Sixty percent of a wind turbine's value...continued→
Posted December 5, 2011 by Peter Lehner in Moving Beyond Oil
More than one year after the Gulf oil spill, Congress has yet to pass a single law that will make drilling safer. Yet the GOP continues its reckless push for an expansion of domestic oil drilling, this time disguising it...continued→
Posted November 23, 2011 by Peter Lehner in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Solving Global Warming
I’m just returning from Honduras, where I spoke at a conference at Zamorano, Central America’s largest agricultural university. What I said, about farm pollution and opportunities to reduce it, was not nearly as exciting as what I saw. The whole place was...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
