Posted on 10/18/2009 4:46:46 PM PDT by girlangler
Taxes fund environmental suits - Environmental law firms reap billions in fees to fund lawsuits
October 15, 2009
The federal government has paid out billions of dollars to environmental groups for attorney fees and costs, according to data assembled by a Cheyenne, Wyoming, lawyer.
Karen Budd-Falen of Budd-Falen Law Offices [main@buddfalen.com or 307-632-5105] said the government between 2003 and 2007 paid more than $4.7 billion in taxpayer money to environmental law firms -- and that's just in the lawsuits she tracked.
The actual figure, she said, is far greater.
"I think we only found that the iceberg exists," she said. "I don't think we have any idea how much money is being spent. But I think it's huge."
In some cases, Budd-Falen said, intervening ranchers and farmers are paying for the defense of their farm and ranch practices and -- through their taxes -- paying for the opposing lawyers' attorney fees.
"That money is not going into programs to protect people, wildlife, plants and animals," Budd-Falen said, "but to fund more lawsuits."
Budd-Falen, whose firm regularly represents farms and ranches, for years was aware that nonprofit, tax-exempt environmental law firms were generating sizable revenue from attorney fees paid by the federal government. In June, she submitted a formal request asking the Department of Justice for information on just how much was being spent.
"They said they don't track that information," she said.
After the response, Budd-Falen sat down with a paralegal and started what she said was a time-consuming process of uncovering and compiling the data.
"The numbers were just shocking," she said.
"Somewhere this has to stop, and the government has to be held accountable for the money it's spending," she said.
Budd-Falen documented that between 2000 and 2009, three tax-exempt, non-profit environmental groups -- Western Watersheds Project, Forest Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity -- filed more than 700 cases against the federal government.
"Ranchers and other citizens are being forced to expend millions of their own money to intervene or participate in these lawsuits to protect their way of life when they have no chance of the same attorney-fee recovery if they prevail," Budd-Falen said.
Budd-Falen found in one 15-month-long case that Earthjustice Legal Foundation and the Western Environmental Law Center filed for $479,242 in attorneys' fees.
Brian Smith, a spokesman for Earthjustice, said the foundation counts on those fees in part because it represents groups free of charge. He said the foundation bases its fees on the going rates for attorneys.
Also, he said, if the government was doing its job, the foundation wouldn't be so active.
"If the government had been enforcing the laws during the Bush administration," he said, "there would be no jobs for nonprofit environmental lawyers.
"The environmental movement would love to retire and know that everything is safe, but that is not happening," he said.
Smith said he is confident President Barack Obama's administration will reduce the need for environmental lawsuits.
"The (Environmental Protection Agency) has been very active in the new administration," he said. "That has been encouraging to see how they are stepping in and enforcing the laws."
Budd-Falen, however, said she doubts the steady stream of lawsuits will stop, or even slow.
"Why would you stop filing litigation when you can get that kind of money?" she asked.
"They are not filing these suits to try and protect the environment," she said. "They are filing these suits to make money."
Environmental groups, she said, are eligible for government funds under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which provides for the award of attorney fees to "prevailing parties" in cases against the government.
In order to prevail, under the act, all a group has to do is show a government body changed some policy or program as a result of the suit.
The firms also are accessing government funds through the Judgment Fund, Budd-Falen said,. The fund is a line-item appropriation in the federal budget used for paying claims against the government.
Much of the funds to pay the attorney fees, she said, are being pulled from the budgets of cash-strapped regional offices of natural resource agencies.
"Those budget items ought to be used for range improvement projects, trails or campgrounds, whatever the agency is supposed to be doing," she said.
Budd-Falen in her research also documented salaries paid to top environmental executives. On top of that list was the $446,072 salary paid the president of the Environmental Defense Fund. Second was the $439,327 salary paid the president of the World Wildlife Fund.
Budd-Falen said it is important to bring to light the cost of environmental litigation in the hope Congress might scale it back.
Also, she said, it is important for the public to realize just how much taxpayer money is being spent on these cases.
"We are going to get back to this again and track some more of these dollars," she said, "because I think we ought to know (how much we're spending on this). And if Congress or the Justice Department won't do it, I think somebody has to."
Copyright 2009, Capital Press.
http://www.capitalpress.info/content/ml-enviro-lawsuits-101609
The MSM will NEVER cover this issue.
Ping.
I know I am missing some freepers with an interest in this one. Also, hope I am posting in the right forum.
It appears that Health Care isnt the only thing that needs Tort reform.
it disgust me, these lawyers who make so much money leeching off society
Thanks girlangler.
It's hard to believe that there are viable multimillion dollar lawsuits out there that no law firm will take, but that appears to be the case.
Thank goodness we have the Federal Government to step in.
John Edwards never imagined this scam, but he or his ilk will catch on.
You're fine........I want to post this on a local political site but the first comment posted will be "Bush's fault......"
I guess my argument would be that this type of expenditure from the feds would fall under the radar of the office of the president.
Am I right in this assessment?
This is the main objective of the Democrats left. Make sure no matter what we do they receive money to combat us!
You are likely right about it falling under the radar. However, I want to find out when the “justice funds” were set up, and for what purpose. Who sponsored the legislation to create funds to pay for litigation?
I can see several column ideas in this one.
ping
Thanks for posting this, Girl.
I’ve seen people post that tax dollars are funding lawsuits by enviros in the past but never saw where anyone had researched it like this and nailed it down. This is pathetic and something has to be done to change this. Am book marking your thread.
rocksblues, "insight+" should be your name!
Thanks.
Now we have another link for those ar peta nuts.
Is Rush still a HSU member ? He needs several copies of this.
I don’t buy it that the government doesn’t know how much they have paid out to these law firms. Years ago the IRS required EVERYONE paying ANY amount to ANY lawyer to issue a Form 1099 and send it to the IRS. This is because lawyers (being mostly democrats) don’t pay their taxes. Even when they file tax returns they are fraudulent.
At the very least, with the tax bracket most lawyers are in, the government should get almost half of that money back.
“If the government had been enforcing the laws during the Bush administration,” he said, “there would be no jobs for nonprofit environmental lawyers.”
Love this quote.
These three organizations were filing lawsuits against resource managers LONG before Bush became president.
I agree, somewhere there has to be an accounting of how many tax dollars have been spent paying off these “environmental” organizations. Remember, every election (congress and presidential) these tax free non-profit orgs endorse their candidates. They ALL endorsed Obama, and Clinton, and every democratic in every race since the 1970s.
I was involved with caring for my sick Mom when the news about Rush came out, so didn’t follow it closely.
However, I was amazed he would endorse, or give money to, the HSUS. I thought he’d be a little smarter than that.
Nothing was more infuriating to read than this faux pas on the part of one of the leeches, the parasites.
It never occured to him that the money fairy (the American taxpayer), might have some thoughts on that charecterization.
This link is interesting. Appears Earthjustice specializes in filing lawsuits against govt. organizations, and has close ties to the U.N.
http://www.eaglespeak.us/2007/05/lawfare-lawsuits-against-national.html
http://epw.senate.gov/repwhitepapers/Political.pdf
POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS AND
THEIR SUPPORTING FOUNDATIONS
REPORT TO THE CHAIRMAN
SENATOR JAMES M. INHOFE
U.S. SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE
MAJORITY STAFF
SEPTEMBER 2004
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