In the late 1960s, growing awareness of environmental issues spurred the creation of scores of new environmental organizations. In the subsequent decade, these groups took part in writing or rewriting nearly all of the United States’ environmental statutes. The leading advocacy organizations took different approaches to environmental advocacy: Earth Action organized students on college campuses; the Sierra Club led conservation lobbying efforts in Washington, DC; and local groups formed coalitions of citizens to clean up their towns and neighborhoods (Hays, 1987). Some local groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund, grew beyond their particular issue to become active on wide-ranging national environmental issues.

One particularly influential advocacy organization was the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an organization consisting mainly of attorneys and dedicated primarily toward the enforcement of environmental law through court and administrative law proceedings. Of all the groups that emerged out of the environmental fervor of the late 1960s, none surpassed the NRDC in scope, effectiveness, or importance in establishing guidelines for environmental protection. Soon after being founded in 1970, the NRDC established itself as the leading environmental litigation organization in the country and its lawsuits both clarified and expanded the regulatory scope of federal authority. In short, the NRDC provides a window into one of the central questions of this volume: how does a group’s political environment, coupled with the material and normative motives of advocacy organization entrepreneurs, influence the supply of advocacy?