Peter Lehner is the Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He 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, Mr. Lehner served as Chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau under New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Mr. Lehner 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. Mr. Lehner 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.

Mr. Lehner holds an A.B. 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.