OPINION -
Thank you Senator Inhofe.
Finally, someone has had enough courage to buck the
political players and order an investigation into the
liberal bureaucratic grant funding to environmental
groups and their political activities.
U.S. Senator James Inhofe
(R-Oklahoma) chairs the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee. A September 2004 report prepared
by EPW Majority Staff Grants Oversight Team uncovered
some very revealing information regarding the recipients
of discretionary grants awarded by the Environmental
Protection Agency. It appears it pays to be a “pal” of
the EPA.
While Mr. Joe America is being
the good environmentalist out picking up cans and
recycling papers and milk cartons, the big environmental
organizations are using his tax dollars and donations to
play partisan politics and pay themselves big salaries.
These groups are not about the
environment. It is important that good stewards of the
earth understand this. The EPW report produces evidence
it is about groups who take your tax dollars to weaken
the foundation of our nation and promote their agenda to
take control of the land and water.
While the environmental group's
right hand is taking money from the government, their
left hand is spending big dollars to defeat and
discredit the administration and any politician who will
not play their games.
Two reports of interest are now
out from the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee. “Political Activity of Environmental Groups
and their Supporting Foundations,” and “Grants
Management at the Environmental Protection Agency.“
The Political Activity report
begins with the connections between the League of
Conservation Voters and other well-known environmental
groups and their financial links to the Heinz family
foundations. No wonder these groups supported the Kerry
campaign so fiercely while discrediting the Bush
administration. “Groups such as the LCV, the Natural
Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Defense
represent themselves as organizations concerned about
the protection of the environment,” according to the
report.
Quoting from a former Federal
Election Commission official in an article from the
Washington Post stating, “In the wake of the ban on
party-raised soft money, evidence is mounting that money
is slithering through on other routes as organizations
maintain various accounts, tripping over each other,
shifting money between 501(c)-3’s, (c)-4’s, and
527’s….It’s big money, and the pendulum has swung too
far in their direction.”
The League of Conservation
Voters board of directors is comprised of various
representatives from a number of environmental groups
including:
Natural Resources Defense
Council
Environmental Defense
Sierra Club
Earthjustice Legal Defense
Fund
The Wilderness Society
Trust for Public Lands
Defenders of Wildlife
U.S. Public Interest Research
Group
National Wildlife Federation
Environmental Working Group.
The League of
Conservation Voters target legislators they call their
“Dirty Dozen.”
These are legislators who have
not danced to their tune. In past election years, there
have been 11 or 12 Republicans targeted as their “Dirty
Dozen.” Democrats are rare on their list with an
occasional single candidate named. According to the
report, LCV takes credit for getting Republican Senators
Abraham of Michigan and Slade Gorton of Washington
defeated in 2000 with their costly, vigorous campaigns
against them.
Environmental foundations in
the report who are politically active are the Pew
Charitable Trusts, Turner and Heinz Foundations. It gets
very complicated in the “games they play” in following
the money trail.
Forget the Social Security
crisis, government bureaus like the Environmental
Protection Agency are passing out billions in grant
money to the environmentalists like it is popcorn.
The EPA awards over half of its
annual budget, totaling over $4 billion in grants
annually. While the non-discretionary grants go to
state, local and tribal governments, the discretionary
goes to other groups. The Government Accounting Office
(GAO) testified to:
No link between funded
projects and EPA mission
No assessment of probability
of success
No determination of
reasonableness of the costs of the grant
No measurable environmental
outcomes
No deliverables in grant work
plans.
Grantees were:
Natural Resources Defense
Council
Children’s Environmental
Health Network
Environmental Defense, Inc.
The Tides Center
Consumer Federation of America
World Wildlife Fund
Friends of the Earth
World Resources Institute
National Wildlife Federation
STAPPA-ALAPCO
Repeatedly, the report says
there was little if any competition for these
discretionary grants and no assessment of success. In
other words, these groups had huge grants just plopped
in their laps and didn’t even have to show evidence of
what they did with them.
Also in the report was a review
of the Sacramento Bee’s 2001 series of articles on the
operations of the national environmental groups.
“Today’s groups prosper while the land does not.
Competition for money and members is keen. Litigation is
blood sport. Crisis, real or not, is a commodity. And
slogans and sound bites masquerade as scientific fact.”
The Washington Post published a
series of articles in 2003 on activities of The Nature
Conservancy. TNC is a regular EPA discretionary grant
recipient. The Post series criticized TNC with it’s $3
billion assets, “for its wide-ranging business interests
including drilling operations, product marketing
activities ranging from beef to neckties to a breakfast
cereal to toilet cleaners, and million-dollar land deals
to organization board members and supporters that has
gained The Nature Conservancy a U.S. Senate Finance
Committee Investigation and subsequent audit by the
IRS.”
While 501(c)(3) churches and
charities are afraid to say the word “politics,”
environmental groups are blatantly using big dollars to
lobby and participate in political campaigns. Not only
are they tax exempt but they are getting big dollars
from the government as grants. How ironic can this get?
The EPA is not the only bureau
handing out grants. We need more investigations into the
grant activity and accountability of these other
government agencies.
Thanks again Senator Inhofe for
your bravery in exposing the untouchables.
© 2005 IllinoisLeader.com --
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What are your thoughts
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and include your name and town.
Joyce
Morrison
Joyce Morrison lives in southern Illinois. She
is a chapter leader for Concerned Women for
America and she and her husband, Gary, represent
the local Citizens for Private Property Rights.
Joyce is Secretary to the Board of Directors of
Rural Restoration/ADOPT Mission, a national farm
ministry located in Sikeston.
She has become a
nationally-recognized advocate for property
rights. |
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