Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy is the legal and scientific voice protecting and defending Minnesota’s environment. We work in the courts, the legislature and state agencies, using science and policy, to develop, communicate and implement environmental change. We are a statewide, nonprofit, environmental advocacy group.

MCEA focuses on five primary program areas:
• Public Health
• Transportation and Land Use
• Water Quality
• Wildlife and Natural Resources
• Clean Energy

MCEA uses legal action and legislative advocacy, as well as research, communications and collaborations to improve Minnesota’s environment.

Click here to meet our staff. Click here to meet our Board of Directors.

Become a member!
Your support is our strength. By supporting MCEA, you help us protect and defend Minnesota's environment. There are several ways to support MCEA:

• Join by mail—Send your name, address, phone number and email, along with your contribution (payable to MCEA) to us at:
26 E. Exchange St., Ste. 206
St. Paul, MN 55105

• Gifts of stock—Contact David Bach in our Development Department at (651) 223-5969 for details

• Employer matching gifts program—Ask your employer if they match charitable contributions, you can double your gift!

• Gift memberships—A great way to share your interest in preserving and protecting Minnesota's environment

• Memorials—Give a gift in someone's memory

Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Through Network for Good, your secure on-line donation supports our work protecting Minnesota's environment.

Support MCEA through the Minnesota Environmental Fund, a coalition of 20 environmental organizations offering workplace giving as an option to make our state a better place to live. Options include giving a designated amount through payroll deduction or a single gift.

MCEA History
MCEA was founded in 1974 as Project Environment Foundation (PEF). The individuals who founded PEF were instrumental in drafting much of the landmark environmental legislation of the 1970s, such as the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act and the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, PEF worked effectively to implement the laws through rulemaking and administrative proceedings as well as strategic litigation. For example, PEF orchestrated the adoption of both the nation’s most stringent acid rain rules and the state’s first mercury limits for waste combustors. PEF’s attorneys stopped logging in Minnesota's Boundary Waters and sport hunting of the timber wolf.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, PEF pioneered the concept of “environmental audits,” preparing detailed reports of the efficacy of Minnesota’s environmental regulatory programs. Perhaps the most notable of these was the Water Quality Audit, which exposed gaping holes in the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) enforcement of its point-source discharge program. The audit not only resulted in immediate compliance by 28 dischargers threatened with Clean Water Act lawsuits, but also resulted in lasting changes to the MPCA’s monitoring and enforcement programs.

In 1993, PEF changed its name to the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. The next year, the MCEA Board of Directors reaffirmed the need for a Minnesota-based group with a full range of professional skills, including policy analysis, legal advocacy, legislative advocacy, administrative advocacy and scientific knowledge. Through a series of strategic planning processes, MCEA has grown from six to 21 permanent staff and increased its budget from $389,000 to more than $1.87 million.

Staff includes eight attorneys, a policy analyst, a biologist, a public health scientist, a geographic information systems specialist, a lobbyist, two communications specialists and support staff. In addition, interns work with us throughout the year. Each of these people plays a key role in furthering MCEA’s mission. Our work is made possible by the generous support of more than 1,500 members, a variety of state and national foundations and workplace giving.