Natural Resources Defense Council

From SourceWatch

This article is part of the Coal Issues portal on SourceWatch, a project of CoalSwarm and the Center for Media and Democracy.

A former project of the Tides Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) describes itself “the nation’s most effective environmental action organization. We use law, science and the support of more than 1 million members and online activists to protect the planet’s wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things. Worth Magazine has named NRDC one of America’s 100 best charities, and Charity Navigator has given NRDC four stars (out of a possible four).” ^[1]

As one of the largest environmental groups, NRDC has often been singled out for criticism by industry funded groups such as the Center for Consumer Freedom. (See Conservatives target the Natural Resources Defense Council and *NRDC and Alar for more details).

John H. Adams, Founding Director and former President

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Support for coal gasification

NRDC has espoused a pragmatic approach to coal that focuses on encouraging coal gasification and carbon capture and storage, a position that has frequently placed the organization at odds with local activists opposing projects such as the Empire Synfuel project in New York. “We can’t eliminate coal,” said Katherine Kennedy, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “So although other technologies are the ones we’re going to favor, we’re looking for solutions on the coal front, too.”^[2]^[3]

TXU Deal

As part of the estimated US$45 billion buyout, Texas utility TXU (now Luminant) settled a series of lawsuits with NRDC and Environmental Defense and agreed to cancel 8 of its planned 11 new Texas coal-fired power plants as well as several new coal-fired plants in Pennsylvania and Virginia, back federal legislation to create a cap-and-trade system regulating CO2 emissions, and double spending on energy efficiency. In return, Environmental Defense and NRDC agreed not to campaign against TXU’s remaining three Texas coal-fired plants.^[4] In March 2007, TXU announced its official withdrawal of the air permit applications for the eight cancelled plants.^[5]

The following proposed Texas coal plants were cancelled in TXU deal:

The following plants were allowed to proceed:

Officers

Frances Beinecke, Executive Director; Co-founder, The New York League of Conservation Voters
Robert Redford, Trustee and Director; Film actor & director; Manager, the Redford Foundation
Laurance Rockefeller, Trustee; Private philanthropist; Former chairman, Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Former chairman, Citizens Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality; Trustee, the Laurance Rockefeller Charitable Trust
John H. Adams, President & Co-founder; Former Assistant US Attorney (New York)
Adam Albright, Vice Chair; Board member, Redefining Progress; Board Chair, Population Communications International; Program Chair, Conservation International
Richard E. Ayres, Co-founder & Treasurer; Partner, Howrey & Simon; Former chairman, National Clean Air Coalition
Linda Geer, Health & Environment Program Director; Former staff scientist, Environmental Defense; Former technical director, Hazardous Waste Treatment Council
Alan Horn,Vice Chair; Chairman & Chief Operating Officer, Warner Brothers
Burks Lapham, Vice Chair; Chairman, Concern Inc.; Director, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Alan Metrick, Director of Communications; Former Partner, The PR Consulting Group (New York City); Former Exec VP, David M. Grant Inc.
Kathleen Scheg, Legislative Director
Frederick A. O. Schwartz, Jr., Chairman of the Board; Partner, Cravath Swaine & Moore; Former NYC corporation counsel (under Mayor Ed Koch)
Gregory Wetstone, Legislative Director; Former environmental chief counsel, US Congressional Health and Environment Subcommittee; Author, “Acid Rain in Europe and North America”
George Woodwell; Vice Chair; Founding Director, Woods Hole Research Center

Trustees

Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr.; Chair – Senior Counsel, Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Adrian W. DeWind; Chair Emeritus – Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
Adam Albright; Vice Chair – Private investor; Environmentalist
Patricia Bauman; Vice Chair – Co-Director, Bauman Foundation
Robert J. Fisher; Vice Chair – Board member, Sun Microsystems; Chair, GAP Inc.
Alan Horn; Vice Chair – President and COO, Warner Brothers
Daniel R. Tishman; Vice Chair – Chair and CEO, Tishman Construction Corp. of New York
Henry R. Breck; Treasurer – Chair, Ark Asset Management Co., Inc.
John H. Adams; Founding Director – Chair, Open Space Institute
Richard E. Ayres, Esq. – The Ayres Law Group
Joy Covey – President, Beagle Foundation
Laurie P. David – Producer; Activist
Leonardo DiCaprio – Actor; Environmentalist
John E. Echohawk – Executive Director, Native American Rights Fund
Bob Epstein – Co-Founder, Sybase, Inc., Colorado Microdisplay, and Britton-Lee
Michael C. Finnegan – Managing Director, J.P. Morgan Securities
Michel Gelobter, Ph.D. – Executive Director, Redefining Progress
Jill Tate Higgins – Private investor; General Partner, Lakeside Enterprises, L.P.
Charles E. Koob, Esq. – Partner, Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett
Philip B. Korsant – Member, Ziff Brothers Investments
Ruben Kraiem – Partner, Covington and Burling
Nicole Lederer – Co-Founder, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2)
Maya Lin – Artist; Designer
Shelly B. Malkin – Landscape painter; Conservationist
Josephine A. Merck – Artist
Peter A. Morton – Chair/founder, Hard Rock Hotel, Inc.
Daniel Pauly – Director, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia
Frederica Perera, Ph.D. – Professor, Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University
Robert Redford – Actor; Director; Conservationist
Cruz Reynoso – Professor of Law, University of California at Davis
Laurance Rockefeller – Conservationist
Jonathan F.P. Rose – President, Jonathan Rose Companies LLC, Affordable Housing Development Corporation
Thomas W. Roush, M.D. – Physician
Christine H. Russell, Ph.D. – Environmentalist; Foundation director
Wendy Kirby Schmidt – Designer, Allied Member of ASID
James Gustave Speth – Dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
James Taylor – Singer; Songwriter
Frederick A. Terry, Jr. – Senior Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell
Elizabeth R. Wiatt – Environmentalist; Co-founder, NRDC Action Forum
George M. Woodwell, Ph.D. – Director, Woods Hole Research Center

Honorary Trustees

Dean E. Abrahamson, M.D., Ph.D. – Professor Emeritus, Energy & Environmental Policy, University of Minnesota
Boris Bittker – Sterling Professor of Law Emeritus, Yale University
Robert O. Blake – Senior Fellow, World Resources Institute; U.S. Ambassador (retired)
Joan K. Davidson – Former Parks Commissioner, NY State; President Emeritus, The J.M. Kaplan Fund
Sylvia Earle, Ph.D. – President, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc.
James B. Frankel – Attorney; Conservationist
Francis W. Hatch – Chair, John Merck Fund
Hamilton F. Kean – Attorney; Conservationist
Burks B. Lapham – Chair, Concern, Inc.
Jonathan Z. Larsen – Journalist
Michael A. McIntosh, Sr. – President, The McIntosh Foundation
Franklin E. Parker – Advisor, The NJ Field Office of the Trust for Public Land (retired)
Nathaniel P. Reed – Businessman; Conservationist
John R. Robinson – Attorney
John Sheehan – United Steelworkers of America (retired)
David Sive – Partner, Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C. (retired)
Thomas B. Stoel – Stoel Rives (retired)
Thomas A. Troyer – Partner, Caplin & Drysdale
Kirby Walker – Independent film/video producer