Peter Lehner

Executive Director, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, NY

Peter Lehner is responsible for guiding NRDC’s policy positions and advocacy strategies, supervising NRDC’s litigation, and managing NRDC’s six offices. Before returning to NRDC, Peter served as chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office for eight years. He supervised all environmental litigation by the state, prosecuting a wide variety of polluters and developing innovative multi-state strategies targeting global warming, acid rain, and smog causing emissions from the country’s largest electric utility companies. Peter previously served at NRDC as a senior attorney in charge of the water program. Before that, he created and led the environmental prosecution unit for New York City. Peter holds an AB in philosophy from Harvard College and is a graduate of Columbia University Law School, where he continues to teach environmental law. He also has extensive experience in sustainable farming and green business.