— Ch. 1 · Storm King And The First Lawsuit —
Natural Resources Defense Council.
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 5
The year was 1970 when a dozen concerned citizens gathered to stop a massive hydroelectric project on Storm King Mountain. This proposed facility in New York's Hudson Valley aimed to pump vast amounts of water from the river through turbines to generate electricity during peak demand. A group called Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference formed to challenge the plan, citing severe environmental impacts. They hired Whitney North Seymour Jr., his law partner Stephen Duggan, and David Sive to sue the Federal Power Commission. The legal battle resulted in a ruling that groups like Scenic Hudson had standing to challenge administrative rulings by government agencies. Realizing that continued litigation required a professionalized national organization, these lawyers joined forces with Gus Speth and three Yale Law School graduates from the class of 1969: Richard Ayres, Edward Strohbehn Jr., and John Bryson. They secured funding from the Ford Foundation to establish what would become the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Leadership Succession And Staff Growth
John H. Adams served as the council's first president until 2006, marking a thirty-six-year tenure for the founding staff member. Frances Beinecke took over as president from 2006 to 2015 after Adams stepped down. Rhea Suh followed as the third president, serving from 2015 to 2019. Gina McCarthy became CEO and president in 2020, having previously led the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration. She later transitioned to White House National Climate Advisor in the Biden administration during 2021. Manish Bapna, formerly of the World Resources Institute, was selected as the new president and CEO in 2021. As of 2019, the organization employed about 700 lawyers, scientists, and policy experts across offices in New York City, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bozeman, India, and Beijing. The group had grown to include over three million members by that same year.