A Priceless Look at Radical Environmental Lawsuits During the 1990's

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News from the Committee on Resources

For Immediate Release

June 4, 2003



A Priceless Look at Radical Environmental Lawsuits During the 1990's

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* Number of radical environmental lawsuits filed in which the taxpayer paid
attorneys' fees: 434

* Average taxpayer-funded award per case for radical environmental
lawyers' fees: $70,000

* Most obscene taxpayer-funded award for radical environmental
lawyers' fees: $3.5 million

* Filing frivolous lawsuits against the United States and getting rich off the
American taxpayer: SHAMELESS

Accountability and Integrity: For everything else, there's the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, Earth Justice, Greenpeace, etc...

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Attorneys for environmental groups are not shy about asking for money. They earn $150 to $350 an hour, and sometimes they get accused of trying to gouge the government. In 1993, three judges on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington were so appalled by one Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund lawyer's flagrant over-billing that they reduced her award to zero. [Sacramento Bee, April 24, 2001]


One lawsuit in Texas, involving an endangered salamander, netted lawyers for the Sierra Club and other plaintiffs more than $3.5 million in taxpayer funds.


"A flawed law always breeds disrespect for and manipulation of the law," Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) said. "And that is exactly what we have under the Endangered Species Act. The species are not being recovered, as the law intended, and taxpayers are being robbed by radical, politically-motivated interest groups. Congress has a responsibility to address and correct this outrage."


"Facts show that the Endangered Species Act has successfully recovered only one percent of all species on the list," Chairman Pombo continued. "These results are terrible, especially given the massive amount of hard-earned taxpayer money that is spent on ESA programs. We can do much better than this if we focus on science instead of politics and endangered species recovery instead of litigation."

[Dirty Harry]

Thanks for arming us with statistics and quotes Brad. Guys like you, Ed Stevens, Peter, Del, and John Stewart are all my heros. You do a thankless job and I know that sometimes you must want to just throw in the towel when you see fellow wheelers acting irresponsibly but let me just say that the work you do is not in vain. People are paying attention and it DOES make a difference, keep up the good work. The statistics are particularly useful.