Peter Lehner (born 1958) is an American lawyer and

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

. He leads a sustainable food and farming program at

Earthjustice Earthjustice (originally Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) is a nonprofit public interest organization based in the United States dedicated to litigating environmental issues. Headquartered in San Francisco, it has 14 regional offices across the Un ...

, developing strategies to reduce harmful effects of food production on climate, human health and the environment, and to promote a more ecologically sound agricultural system. He coauthored the book ''In Deep Water'', about the 2010

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considere ...

, with Bob Deans.

Education

Lehner received AB degrees in philosophy and mathematics from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

and is an honors graduate of

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

Career

Early in his career, Lehner created and led the environmental prosecution unit for New York City Law Department. His cases protecting the city's drinking water laid the foundation for the city's current watershed protection program. Subsequently, he joined NRDC as director of the water program from 1994 to 1999, where he brought attention to the problem of stormwater pollution. From 1999 to 2006, Lehner served as chief of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the

New York State Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...

's office. He supervised all environmental litigation by and against the state and developed multi-state strategies targeting

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different typ ...

from the nation's electric utilities. Law established in Supreme Court decisions in two of these cases, Massachusetts v. EPA and American Electric Power v. Connecticut, now underlies the Obama administration's

Clean Power Plan The Clean Power Plan was an Obama administration policy aimed at combating anthropogenic climate change (global warming) that was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2014. The final version of the plan was unveil ...

. Lehner also initiated watershed-wide enforcement programs and led cases addressing invasive species, wildlife protection, and public health. Lehner was the executive director of the

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...

and the NRDC Action Fund from 2007 to 2015. During his tenure, he managed environmental advocates in seven NRDC offices and led the Action Fund's political activities. He opened new offices for NRDC in Beijing and Chicago and launched a Center for Market Innovation. Among other new initiatives, Lehner shaped a clean food program addressing

food waste Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...

, antibiotics in meat, regional food, and

climate mitigation Climate change mitigation is action to limit climate change by reducing Greenhouse gas emissions, emissions of greenhouse gases or Carbon sink, removing those gases from the atmosphere. The recent rise in global average temperature is mostly caus ...

. Lehner blogs regularly on Huffington Post. He delivered a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

talk on food waste in 2013.

Awards and honors

Lehner has been honored with the Distinguished Public Service Award by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; the Earth Day Good Government Award by the City of New York; the Environmental Leadership Award by Hudson

Riverkeeper Riverkeeper is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water. It started out as the Hudson River Fisherman' ...

; the Region II Environmental Quality Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the Environmental Leadership award by Environmental Advocates; and the Public Interest Achievement Award from the Public Interest Law Foundation. In 2015, Lehner was presented with the Right Stuff Award from the Apollo Alliance Project of the Blue Green Alliance, for outstanding efforts to promote a sustainable environment and economy.

Personal life

Lehner is married to Fritz Beshar and has three daughters: Nadine, Eliza and Marina.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lehner, Peter 1958 births Living people Columbia Law School alumni American environmental lawyers Harvard College alumni Natural Resources Defense Council people

Education

Career

Awards and honors

Personal life

See also

References