 | |
| Abbreviation | NRDC |
|---|---|
| Established | 1970; 56 years ago (1970) |
| Founders |
|
| Type | 501(c)(3) organization |
| 13-2654926 | |
| Purpose | Environmental activism |
| Headquarters | New York City,New York, US |
Area served | Worldwide[1] |
| Method | Advocacy, education, litigation |
| Membership | 2.4 million[2] (2015) |
President and CEO | Manish Bapna |
| Subsidiaries | NRDC Action Fund |
| Budget | US$151.6 million[2] (2015) |
| Staff | 700 (2020) |
| Website | nrdc |
TheNatural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States–based501(c)(3)non-profit internationalenvironmental advocacy group, with its headquarters inNew York City and offices inWashington, D.C.,San Francisco,Los Angeles,Chicago,Bozeman,India, andBeijing.[1] The group was founded in 1970 in opposition to ahydroelectric power plant in New York.
As of 2019, the NRDC had over three million members, with online activities nationwide, and a staff of about 700 lawyers, scientists and other policy experts.[3][4]
NRDC was founded in 1970.[5][6] Its establishment was partially an outgrowth of theScenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission, the Storm King case.[5] The case centered onCon Ed's plan to build the world's largesthydroelectric facility atStorm King Mountain in New York'sHudson Valley. The proposed facility would have pumped vast amounts of water from theHudson River to a reservoir and released it through turbines to generate electricity atpeak demand.[7]
A dozen concerned citizens organized theScenic Hudson Preservation Conference in opposition to the project, citing its environmental impact, and the group, represented byWhitney North Seymour Jr., his law partner Stephen Duggan, andDavid Sive, sued theFederal Power Commission and successfully achieved a ruling that groups such as Scenic Hudson and other environmentalist groups had thestanding to challenge the FPC's administrative rulings.[7] Realizing that continued environmentalist litigation would require a nationally organized, professionalized group of lawyers and scientists, Duggan, Seymour, and Sive obtained funding from theFord Foundation[5][7] and joined forces withGus Speth and three other recentYale Law School graduates of the class of 1969: Richard Ayres, Edward Strohbehn Jr., andJohn Bryson.[8][9]
John H. Adams was the group's first staff member and Duggan its founding chairman;[10] Seymour,Laurance Rockefeller, and others served as members of the board.[5]
In September 1979 The Ford Foundation pulled funding for the NRDC alongside theEnvironmental Defense Fund afterHenry Ford II said groups receiving foundation money were "antibusiness" and "biting the hand that feeds them."[11] The NRDC had recently challenged the FDA's interim approval for Coca-Cola's first plastic bottle made of acrylonitrile/styrene.[12] The FDA reported that test animals exposed toacrylonitrile had "significantly lowered body weight and other adverse effects, including lesions in the central nervous system and growths in the ear ducts."[13][14] and suspended its approval.
In the 1970s, NRDC sought to block expansion of theIndian Point nuclear power plant in New York.[15] It had advocated for the closure of the plant until it ceased operations in 2021.[16] NRDC has also sought to close theDiablo Canyon nuclear plant in California.[17] In 2018, the NRDC took no position on legislative proposals in New Jersey to subsidize three of its nuclear reactors.[18] NRDC has argued that nuclear power is not a viable energy source to mitigate climate change, arguing that it poses public health and safety risks through nuclear waste and nuclear proliferation.[19][20] In 2014, NRDC presidentFrances Beinecke said that the NRDC could not support nuclear power because it would lose donations.[21]
According to NRDC, rooftop solar power plays an "essential role... in our shared mission to confront the climate crisis."[22] However, its activism on rooftop solar has sparked controversy. In 2022, NRDC called for reductions in subsidies for rooftop solar power in California, prompting criticism of NRDC by other environmental groups.[23]
In 2012, NRDC sued the federal government to stop the 663.5-megawatt Calico solar station in the Mojave Desert in California. NRDC said the solar plant would imperil protected wildlife.[24]
NRDC's position on hydropower is that it is not arenewable energy source. When Indian Point was scheduled for closure, NRDC held no position on a proposal to build a transmission line to Quebec to access excess hydropower while arguing, "we certainly would not be on board where [hydropower] gobbles up the space we think should be covered by true renewables".[25]
NRDC states the purpose of its work is "safeguard the earth—its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends," and to "ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water and the wild, and to prevent special interests from undermining public interests." Their stated areas of work include: "climate change, communities, energy, food, health, oceans, water, the wild".[26]
As a legaladvocacy group, the NRDC works to accomplish environmental goals by operating within the legal system to reduce pollution and protect natural resources through litigation, and by working with professionals in science, law, and policy at the national and international level.[27] The NRDC's Center for Campaigns & Organizing (CC&O) also oversees the NRDC Action Fund, a separate501(c)(4) nonprofit organization which engages in political and electoral activities.[28]
NRDC publishedonEarth, a quarterly magazine that dealt with environmental challenges, through 2016. It was founded in 1979 asThe Amicus Journal.[29] AsAmicus, it won theGeorge Polk Award in 1983 for special interest reporting.[30]
The council's first president wasJohn H. Adams, who served until 2006.[31] He was replaced byFrances Beinecke, who served as president from 2006 to 2015.[32] The third president wasRhea Suh, who served from 2015 to 2019.[33]
In 2020,Gina McCarthy served as the CEO and president. She previously served as the head of theEnvironmental Protection Agency in the Obama administration and became White House National Climate Advisor in the Biden administration in 2021.[34][35][36] In 2021, NRDC selected Manish Bapna, formerly of theWorld Resources Institute, as their new president and CEO.[37] At their web site NRDC state they have about 700 employees including scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates.
NRDC v. U.S. EPA (1973), withDavid Schoenbrod caused theUnited States Environmental Protection Agency to begin reducingtetraethyl lead in gasoline sooner than they were going to.[38][39][40]
NRDC opposed theWater Rights Protection Act, a bill that would prevent federal agencies from requiring certain entities to relinquish their water rights to the United States in order to usepublic lands.[41][42]
NRDC supported theEPS Service Parts Act of 2014 (H.R. 5057; 113th Congress), a bill that would exempt certainexternal power supplies from complying with standards set forth in a final rule published by theUnited States Department of Energy in February 2014.[43][44]
NRDC has been involved in the followingSupreme Court cases interpretingUnited States administrative law.
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