Environmental groups collecting millions from federal agencies they sue, studies show

[BMT (RIP)]

Their lawyers are getting reimbursed at rates as high as $750 an hour, sources tell FoxNews.com.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/08/environmental-groups-paid-millions-by-federal-agencies-sue-studies-show/#ixzz1uJh4Nuht


BMT

[The Reaper]

We need a loser pays system and a good house cleaning at the EPA.

TR

[Buffalobob]

I worked in the environmental field for all of my life. The article is typical Fox jargon with no facts. It is all rhetoric.

Here is a good example of the blatant misrepresentation of the article:

“It is among the most wide-reaching statutes in the U.S. Code, and what it attempts to do is as complex in execution as it is simple in concept: to aid those who would otherwise be truly hurt by fighting the government when it acts without justification,” wrote Lowell Baier, author of the article and president of the Boone and Crockett Club, a Montana-based conservationist group.

The Boone and Crockett Club is a trophy hunting organization, not a conservationist group.

I was sued by the non profit environmental community and it went all the way to the Supreme Court. The case had large implications nationwide.

[booker]

If you dig into the GAO report, the cases that were awarded money (total amount was ~$17 million), the largest chunk were not at all related to the enforcement of environmental laws, they were related to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Civil Rights Act. The data directly refutes the claims of many of the "non profit" enviro nuts that they are trying to make sure the environment stays clean, etc.

For the Department of Interior, almost all the money ($21 million of the $27 million awarded) was related to the Endangered Species act, which is rife with issues, and is the playing ground for most of the granola heads to keep control of land and access issues. I'm willing to bet a majority of those were in the West.

A large amount of money was also tied up in Tucker Act claims to the tune of about $500K per claim.

I would like to see the total number of suits brought to trial and the number of awards, just to see if the government is getting it handed to them, or if they are winning the majority, which would result in no pay.

TR, I agree, EPA needs to be cleaned out. There are a few level headed, common sense people there I have worked with, but they tend to leave pretty quickly and go to work in private consulting.