Emily Figdor

Federal Clean Air Advocate

202-546-9707 x307

Expertise

clean air, power plants, cars and trucks, global warming

Background

Emily Figdor directs U.S. PIRG's federal clean air program. In 2005, she was a leader in the successful campaign to stop the Bush administration's air pollution bill, which would have substantially weakened Clean Air Act protections, and in July 2006, Ms. Figdor was recognized as a top global warming lobbyist by The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper. Ms. Figdor has authored numerous reports on air quality, mercury contamination, power plant pollution, diesel pollution and global warming, including Reel Danger: Power Plant Mercury Pollution and the Fish We Eat, which analyzed EPA test data on fish caught from U.S. lakes and found that 55 percent of the fish samples contained unsafe levels of mercury for women of childbearing age. Ms. Figdor has appeared on ABC's World News Tonight and in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Associated Press, and Los Angeles Times. Prior to joining the PIRGs, she worked as a senior policy analyst at the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association and on state-level policy at the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a health advocacy group. Ms. Figdor received her Masters in Public Health from Columbia University in 2001 and her BA from Stanford University in 1996.