Natural Resources Defense Council

• 1. Storm King And The First Lawsuit

  ›

  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.

  116

• 2. 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.

  27283032

• 3. The Nuclear Power Debate

  ›

  During the 1970s, NRDC actively sought to block the expansion of the Indian Point nuclear power plant located in New York. The organization advocated for the closure of this facility until it finally ceased operations in 2021. They also pushed to close the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in California. In 2018, the NRDC took no position on legislative proposals in New Jersey to subsidize three of its nuclear reactors. Frances Beinecke stated in 2014 that the organization could not support nuclear power because doing so would cause them to lose donations. NRDC argues that nuclear energy poses public health risks through nuclear waste and presents safety concerns regarding nuclear proliferation. They maintain that nuclear power is not a viable source to mitigate climate change effectively.

  12141516

• 4. Supreme Court And Administrative Law

  ›

  NRDC v. U.S. EPA occurred in 1973 with David Schoenbrod leading the case against the Environmental Protection Agency. This litigation caused the agency to begin reducing tetraethyl lead in gasoline sooner than originally planned. Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources Defense Council established that courts could not impose additional procedural requirements on administrative agencies beyond what was required by organic statutes or the Administrative Procedure Act. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council gave administrative agencies broad discretion to interpret statutes when Congressional intent remained unclear. Baltimore Gas & Elec. Co. v. Natural Resources Defense Council validated a Nuclear Regulatory Commission rule assuming permanent storage of nuclear waste had no environmental impact during licensing. Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council addressed the balance between possible harm and government interest when issuing preliminary injunctions.

  333435

• 5. Funding Cuts And Policy Shifts

  ›

  In September 1979, The Ford Foundation pulled funding for the NRDC alongside the Environmental Defense Fund after Henry Ford II criticized groups receiving foundation money as antibusiness. The NRDC had recently challenged the FDA's interim approval for Coca-Cola's first plastic bottle made of acrylonitrile/styrene. Test animals exposed to this material showed significantly lowered body weight and adverse effects including lesions in the central nervous system. In 2022, NRDC called for reductions in subsidies for rooftop solar power in California, prompting criticism from other environmental groups. They also sued the federal government in 2012 to stop the 663.5-megawatt Calico solar station in the Mojave Desert. NRDC argued that this specific plant would imperil protected wildlife despite its renewable energy status. The organization published onEarth magazine through 2016, which was founded in 1979 as The Amicus Journal and won the George Polk Award in 1983.

  79101819