The Fight Is Never Over

At the Manhattan headquarters of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nation's largest environmental organizations, Frances Beinecke sits in a corner office with not much space to spare; frugally, the lights are switched off on a sunny afternoon, and the coffee served to visitors is barely lukewarm. Beinecke, 56, a Prius-driving graduate of Yale and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, has been with NRDC since 1973, the last seven years as executive director. In January she will take over the presidency of the organization from John Adams, who cofounded it in 1970 and helped build it into what is often cited as the most influential and effective environmental group in the nation, with about 650,000 members and 300 employees working on energy, pollution, land-use and resource-conservation issues. She spoke last week with NEWSWEEK's Jerry Adler:

ADLER: You're taking over at a critical time for the environmental movement, when people are suddenly waking up to the threats of global warming and the need for energy conservation. Were you surprised to hear President Bush call for people to cut back their driving?

BEINECKE: Well, better late than never. It's good to have the president recognize that we have an energy crisis, but the reality hasn't sunk in yet that we can't drill ourselves out of this challenge. It's not going to be oil and gas forever in this country.

What will it be?

We're putting a lot of our effort into promoting renewables. It's very encouraging that 19 states, I think, have adopted renewable portfolio standards, which require that a certain percentage of the state's power be generated by renewable sources, ranging from a few percent to 20 percent.

What do you include under the category of renewables?