Skip
this site's navigation and go to its main content

Receive Updates From Heritage

Your Email
Address

Continue Signing Up

The Heritage Foundation
Leadership for
America

Our Vision

Building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and
civil society flourish.

About The Heritage Foundation

Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational
institution—a think tank—whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative
public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government,
individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
We believe the principles and ideas of the American Founding are worth
conserving and renewing. As policy entrepreneurs, we believe the most effective
solutions are consistent with those ideas and principles.

Popular Links from The Heritage Foundation

Heritage’s
Research

Leadership for
America

Follow The Heritage Foundation

The Foundry Blog

Heritage
on Facebook

Heritage on
Twitter

RSS &
Syndication

Featured Content from The Heritage Foundation

Host a Screening of Our
Missile Defense Documentary

Learn How New Health Care Policy
Will Affect
You

More Information
About The Heritage Foundation

The Foundry
The Foundry seeks to further conservative principles and policies
through daily commentary on current news and events.

Resize:

A

A

A

EPA Doles-Out Taxpayer Dollars to Environmentalist Activist
Groups

Posted May 19th, 2011 at
12:19pm in Energy and Environment with 5
comments Print This Post

In November 2009, a dozen
protesters triggered a traffic jam in an intersection of Chicago’s financial
sector by laying down in a circle in the middle of the road, locking their arms
together inside pieces of pipe. They were protesting the city’s climate
exchange, part of a scheme to regulate CO2 emissions through permits.
Ironically, it was a case of a left-leaning plan being attacked by the far
left.

After a few hours, the activists were arrested, including among their ranks
members of groups like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
(LVEJO). According to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website,
about six months later, the agency awarded LVEJO a $25,000 environmental justice
grant,
which was to be directed to “…work[ing] in coalition with their partners to
implement 3 areas of Climate Change Mitigation…” The first “area” is to
“…conduct a grassroots Clean Power Campaign in the Chicago Region to address
coal power plant emissions…”

If EPA’s grant was an attempt get LVEJO to change its tactics, it doesn’t
seem to have worked. After getting the grant, a half dozen activists from LVEJO
and other groups were arrested after climbing the fence to a coal-fired power
plant and unfurling a banner that read: “Close Chicago’s Toxic Coal
Plant.” Even amid America’s deficit crisis, the EPA has enough
walking-around money to fund green radicals harassing EPA-regulated businesses
in President Barack Obama’s hometown — coincidentally, the same President
who spoke
of bankrupting new coal-fired power plants.

Although the rest of the nation has had to tighten its belt, that has not
been the case for the EPA. The Obama
Administration’s first budget increased EPA funding to $10.3 billion, a
whopping 36% over the preceding fiscal year. While the President’s current
budget request is down from the all-time high, it is still more than 20% over
the FY 2008 budget.

As we search for means to cut Washington’s waste, grants like the one to
LVEJO should move to the front of the line, where it should have lots of
company. According to the Catalog
of Federal Domestic Assistance, there are 2,141 federal grant programs with
some 109
coming out of the EPA. By the EPA’s own grant database, over the last ten years,
the agency has bellied up to the bar and bought drinks for many of its friends
at the taxpayers’ expense. Within the past decade, the EPA
awarded or continues to have open more than 7,500 grants, totaling
$3,847,160,250 to non-profit groups alone.

While some EPA grant recipients like the American Lung Association may seem
more palatable than LVEJO, many have shown themselves to be reliable
reactionaries for the EPA. The American Lung Association recently came to the
agency’s defense, stating:

Polluters and some members of Congress want to interfere with EPA’s ability
to protect public health. Most Americans believe that the Clean Air Act needs
protecting. We are fighting hard to prevent anyone from weakening or
undermining the law or the protective standards the law provides. We are
fighting to ensure EPA has the legal authority and necessary funding to
continue to protect public health.”

Exactly what kind of nefarious plans by “[p]olluters and some members of
Congress” to damage public health is the American Lung Association seeking
to thwart?  One of their efforts
is targeted at defeating a bill
that seeks to stop the EPA from doing an end run around Congress and regulating
greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide – under the Clean Air Act. Money can’t buy
passion like that, but if it could, the 164
EPA grants to various American Lung Association groups totaling over
$20,000,000 within the past decade might help.

Other EPA grantees grab grants of tax dollars in one hand while collecting
attorney fees from the federal government with the other. Wild Earth Guardians,
for example, states in its annual report that it
received grants not only from the EPA, but also the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the U.S. Forest Service, which, along with state, county and city
grants, totaled well over a half million in 2009.

The Washington Post recently reported on a settlement
between Wild Earth Guardians and the federal Government “that could pave the way
for an avalanche” of endangered species. Under the settlement the US Fish and
Wildlife Service will take action on 251
species considered as “candidates” for addition to the Endangered Species
List — along with 9 subspecies of the same species of pocket gopher in the state
of Washington, 36 insects including 10 kinds of cave beetle, 18 clams and 23
snails is Digitaria pauciflora.

For the non-botanists, the common name of this species is Florida
Pineland crabgrass and yes, it belongs to the same
group of crab grasses (it is one of 68 such species) that suburbanites
constantly battle. The fear is that Florida Pineland crabgrass could be driven
to extinction if global warming causes the oceans to rise and swallow the tip of
southern Florida, this species’ habitat. While USFWS states this threat is
“currently low, but expected to be severe in the future,” one must ask, even if
the preposterous apocalyptic scenario played out, wouldn’t there be bigger
worries like, say, the fate of Miami?

The list goes on with environmental justice groups like North
Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN) and Detroiters Working for
Environmental Justice. The former seeks to “to accomplish [its] goals
through organizing, advocacy, research, and education based on principles of
economic equity and democracy for all people.” The latter’s worldview (along
with NCEJN’s), is outlined in “17 Principles of Environmental
Justice” that it adopted.

The preamble to that document states that, among other things, signatories
“do hereby re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our
Mother Earth…” and seek “to secure our political, economic, and cultural
liberation that has been denied for over 500 years of colonization and
oppression…”

The EPA even has a history of giving taxpayer money to the California Indian
Basketweavers Association, which doesn’t just dedicate itself “to
preserving, promoting, and perpetuating California Indian basketweaving cultural
traditions” but also champions “a healthy physical, social, spiritual, and
economic environment for basketweavers…”

Throwing money around like this goes far beyond waste. It is a brazen offense
to most taxpayers. If Congress doesn’t have the will to slash this kind of
stuff, what can it cut?

Co-Authored by Meera Yogesh, a member of The Heritage Foundation
Young Leaders Program.

Tags: EPA,
spending

Author: Robert Gordon

Leave a Comment ( 5)

Share
This

Share on Facebook

You can leave
a response, or trackback from your own site.

Related Posts

U.S.
Hits Debt Ceiling, but Default Is Completely Avoidable

Paul
Ryan’s Budget is Good for America

“Top
Gun” Turns 25, but the Military Technology Is Even Older

Morning
Bell: Myth-Busting the Debt Limit

Outside
the Beltway: The $3 Million Lifeguards of Newport Beach

5 Responses to “EPA Doles-Out Taxpayer Dollars to
Environmentalist Activist Groups”

Chris Skates, Paducah Kentucky on May 19th, 2011 at
1:14pm
said:

Mr. Gordon’s article is right on! The crux of the matter is that these
leftist environmental groups must be brought under control. Congress must
become accutely aware of some of these groups to determine their motives and
their ultimate goals. I suspect that they will find those goals counter to
what is best for the United States.

Chris Skates
Author of the novel, Going Green: For Some It Has Nothing
To Do With The Environment.

Ron Arnold, Bellevue, Washington on May 19th, 2011 at
1:46pm
said:

This is one of the best pieces of investigative reporting I’ve seen in
years. Rob Gordon not only reveals the gross mass stupidity of federal grants,
he also had the good grace to link to his sources, which will help future
researchers who might otherwise get lost trying to trace federal grants
piecemeal. Great work, and keep it up. And thanks, Rob, from an old
friend.
Ron Arnold
Executive Vice President
Center for the Defense of
Free Enterprise

OutdoorsmanUSA on May 19th, 2011 at
2:59pm
said:

Thank you for continuing to write about the ways that EPA is abusing, not
utilizing, conservation dollars. This is an appalling abuse and is a
waste/fraud/abuse red flag.

Jee on May 19th, 2011 at
5:26pm
said:

Please check out whetner Lung Association grants were laundered to pay for
ads in the last California election. The ALA had ads against the anti-cap and
trade proposition. The leader of the ALA appeared in the ads, and let me tell
you, she looked uncomfortable..

George Colgrove, VA on May 20th, 2011 at
5:50am
said:

The EPA is a political organization paid for by taxdollars against the
wishes and will of the people. It hurts business and stops growth. It is not
an enumerated duty spelled out in the constitution and every state has a
duplicative version of it.

We do not need this agency and we do not need these politcal hacks
redistributing our money – close it down.

Leave a Comment
Click here to cancel reply.

In order to leave a comment, you must supply information
for all of the required fields below (which are indicated by bold
text).

Name, Location (required)

Email (required, will not be
published)

Your Comment

Comments are subject to approval and moderation. We remind
everyone that The Heritage Foundation promotes a civil society where ideas and
debate flourish. Please be respectful of each other and the subjects of any
criticism. While we may not always agree on policy, we should all agree that
being appropriately informed is everyone's intention visiting this site.
Profanity, lewdness, personal attacks, and other forms of incivility will not be
tolerated. Please keep your thoughts brief and avoid ALL CAPS. While we respect
your first amendment rights, we are obligated to our readers to maintain these
standards. Thanks for joining the conversation.

Submit Comment

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS
2.0 feed.

Search The Foundry Blog

Search The Foundry

Search

Follow the Foundry

Follow Us on
Twitter

Find
Us on Facebook

Subscribe
to The Foundry's RSS
Feed

Subscribe
to our Email Updates

Follow
us on Flickr

Subscribe
to The Foundry on Kindle

Support
Heritage Donate Now

View Posts by Author
David S. Addington (4) Romina Boccia (1) Ericka Andersen
(8) Alex Adrianson (41) Robert Bluey (203) Lindsey Burke
(118) Mike Brownfield (167) Stuart Butler (8) James Carafano
(207) Conn Carroll (2488) Ariel Cohen (69) Rory Cooper
(265) Lisa Curtis (50) Helle Dale (74) Brian Darling
(86) Chuck Donovan (80) Curtis Dubay (59) Mackenzie Eaglen
(39) J.D. Foster, Ph.D. (116) Ed Feulner (33) Michael Franc
(9) James Gattuso (99) Mike Gonzalez (33) Edmund Haislmaier
(17) Marguerite Higgins (45) Dan Holler (39) Kim Holmes
(23) Ernest Istook (78) David C. John (29) Audrey Jones
(10) Tina Korbe (52) David Kreutzer (40) Nicolas Loris
(657) Jennifer Marshall (19) Ken McIntyre (52) Sally McNamara
(85) Jena McNeill (74) Ryan Messmore, D.Phil. (11) Bob Moffit
(47) Kathryn Nix (255) Israel Ortega (15) Nina Owcharenko
(18) James Phillips (124) Joe Postell (13) Jim Roberts
(28) Brett Schaefer (49) James Sherk (44) Derek Scissors, Ph.D.
(65) Brandon Stewart (109) Todd Thurman (225) Hans von Spakovsky
(111) Ray Walser (133) David Weinberger (28)

Top Posts

Most
Popular Most
Comments Most
Links

Sorry. No data so far.

Morning
Bell: The Truth Behind Oil Subsidies (87)

Morning
Bell: How about a National Obamacare Waiver? (67)

Morning
Bell: NLRB Comes to Big Labor’s Defense (62)

Morning
Bell: Myth-Busting the Debt Limit (61)

Morning
Bell: Teaching Obama a Lesson on Education (43)

EPA Doles-Out Taxpayer Dollars to
Environmentalist Activist Groups - tucsoncitizen.com

Doctors Need a Permanent Fix to the
Medicare Payment Mess - liesoftheleaders.com

Morning Bell: Standing Strong with
Israel - libertad.org

Morning Bell: NLRB Comes
to Big Labor's Defense - oneida.wisgop.info

Morning Bell: Standing Strong with
Israel - blog.jeffchidester.com

Leadership for America

First
Principles (342)

American
Leadership (1680)

Education (443)

Energy and
Environment (1429)

Enterprise
and Free Markets (1240)

Entitlements
(516)

Family and
Religion (274)

Health Care (1235)

Protect
America (1258)

Rule of Law (495)

Sign Up for Morning Bell Email

Delivering you the latest conservative policy perspectives on today’s
news.
View Online

Or Sign Up For the Email

First Name

Last Name

Email

Zip Code

Submit

Foundry Features

The
Morning Bell

Budget 2011

Foundry
Videos

Guest
Bloggers

Health
Care Reform

In Their Own
Words

Oil Spill

Oil Spill To
Do List

Outside the
Beltway

Side
Effects

Tales of the Red
Tape

The Cloakroom

Tweet of the
Week

Video of the
Week

View Heritage on
YouTube

Hot Topics

Morning Bell

Obama Health
Care Plan

Barack Obama

global warming

Obamacare

Russia

iran

cap and trade

taxes

Cap
and Trade Global Warming Bill

Health Care

china

Missile
Defense

free trade

medicare

© 2011, The Heritage Foundation
Conservative policy research since 1973

Sitemap

Donate

Press

Contact
Heritage

Directions to
Heritage

Search

Privacy Policy

Copyright
Information