While I applaud a group like the Center for Biological Diversity for not sucking up to the Democratic Party, and for playing hardball as needed, some of its tactics do fuel pushes for tort reform, and give environmentalism a black eye.
Losing a $600K suit for defaming a rancher by claiming photos of a dirt parking lot were allegedly his denuded grazing allotment? And, the legal fees CBD gets undercutting Interior Department's funds for endangered species protection?
Amos Eno runs the hugely successful Yarmouth, Maine-based Resources First Foundation, an outfit that, among other things, assists ranchers who want to restore native ecosystems. Earlier, he worked at Interior's Endangered Species Office, crafting amendments to strengthen the law, then went on to direct the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Eno figures the feds could "recover and delist three dozen species" with the resources they spend responding to the Center for Biological Diversity's litigation.
"The amount of money CBD makes suing is just obscene," he told me. "They're one of the reasons the Endangered Species Act has become so dysfunctional. They deserve the designation of eco-criminals."
A senior Obama official had this to say: "CBD has probably sued Interior more than all other groups combined. They've divested that agency of any control over Endangered Species Act priorities and caused a huge drain on resources. In April, for instance, CBD petitioned to list 404 species, knowing full well that biologists can't make the required findings in 90 days."
Hmm. I might have to rethink clicking on all those CBD email action alerts.
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