We are funding people who hate us and bite the hand that feeds them. Ugh!
Seeing Green
Environmental groups have always had a chip on their shoulder regarding President Bush. But as this report shows, they have all done pretty well under his leadership. First the rhetoric:
Says film icon Robert Redford, a board member of the Natural Resources Defense Council: “They seem to almost enjoy dismantling the environment.”
An official at Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund exclaims, “The Bush administration is engaged in an unprecedented campaign to undermine environmental and conservation protections across the board.”
Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, now affiliated with the Audubon Society, goes so far as to say, “I cannot remember, I cannot recite to you a single positive new policy or program sponsored by the current administration.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has joined the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) to mount anti-Bush efforts in key battleground states. In New Mexico, for instance, LCV is recruiting volunteers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, while the Sierra Club has added two full-time campaign staffers, and NRDC has aired at least two radio spots.
And now the reality:
Audits by the White House Office of Management and Budget reveal that federal grants to disclosing environmental groups totaled $71,989,835 in 1998. By 2004, federal assistance climbed to $143,266,852, a net gain of $71,061,883.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) saw its federal awards increase from $6,717,676 in 1999 to $37,356,704 in 2004. Grants came from EPA, USAID and the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Defense. NFWF received this exorbitant hike in public money despite seeing private donations jump from $3,875,000 in 1999 to $4,837,291 in 2002.
The scandal-ridden Nature Conservancy received $19,304,282 from federal agencies in 1999. The figure increased to $ 38,683,971 in 2004. Nature Conservancy grant writers could congratulate themselves on wheedling funding from the EPA, USAID, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior and the department of Transportation.
The radical Tides Center saw its federal awards increase from $675,663 in 1999 to $2,163,898 in 2003. The departments of Health and Human Services, Interior, Energy, Labor, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and the National Endowment for the Arts provided taxpayer funds to this group, which sponsors social and political activists.
The Conservation Fund saw its federal awards increase from $2,173,442 in 1999 to $3,115,897 in 2003. Giving agencies: Interior, Agriculture, EPA, and Housing and Urban Development.
Grants to Conservation International rose slightly from $4,530,197 in 1999 to $4,574,645 in 2003. Funding came from Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, the State Department, USAID, and NASA.
But grants to Ducks Unlimited shot up from $15,829,964 in 1999 to $38,072,628 in 2004. Waterfowl should thank the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior and EPA.
The National Audubon Society saw its federal awards increase from $654,500 in 1999 to $1,630,841 in 2004, courtesy of grants from Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, HUD, and EPA.
Federal funding from USAID, EPA, Agriculture, Interior, State, NASA, and the National Science Foundation went to support programs of the World Resources Institute. This group aggressively presses for the adoption of costly regulatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions -- which the Bush Administration is fighting -- to combat the scientifically unproven global warming threat. WRI tries to foment public hysteria on the issue by claiming that governments must act now or “the world will be locked in to temperatures that would cause irreparable harm.” But WRI ignores the fact that NASA satellites detect very minor warming in the Earth’s atmosphere. Grant amounts rose from $3,170,692 in 1999 to $3,410,835 in 2003.
So as you can see, the lobbyists are after the green and nothing more. Which leads one to believe that they should all be endorsing the president this fall with the windfall of cash being sent their way. If anyone should be upset about the current situation, it should be the American taxpayer.
perryonpolitics.com |
