OPINION/COMMENTARY

GREENPEACE ACCUSED OF MONEY LAUNDERING DONATIONS

A non-profit watchdog group today filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against Greenpeace, accusing the organization of illegally soliciting and transferring millions of dollars in tax-deductible contributions.
In a report titled "Green Peace, Dirty Money: Tax Violations in the World of Non-Profits," Public Interest Watch (PIW) accused Greenpeace - one of the world's most recognizable and visible non-profits - of knowingly and systematically violating United States tax laws.
"At the heart of the matter is the way in which Greenpeace's complex corporate structure masks its misuse of tax-exempt contributions," claimed Mike Hardiman, Executive Director of PIW.
"The IRS very clearly differentiates between taxable and tax-exempt contributions, and the ways in which they can be used," Hardiman said. "Greenpeace has devised a system for diverting tax-exempt funds into non-exempt organizations within its empire and using the money for improper and illegal purposes. It is plainly a case of money laundering."
The report details how during a three year span, one Greenpeace entity diverted over $24 million in tax-exempt contributions. Such contributions are supposed to be used for charitable, educational or scientific programs, but instead financed advocacy campaigns...

Senator Refutes Global Warming Hypothesis: Part 1 in a Series

The Science of Climate Change
Senate Floor Statement by
U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)
Chairman, Committee on Environment and Public Works
...But in fact the issue is far from settled, and indeed is seriously disputed. I would submit, furthermore, that not only is there a debate, but the debate is shifting away from those who subscribe to global warming alarmism. After studying the issue over the last several years, I believe that the balance of the evidence offers strong proof that natural variability is the overwhelming factor influencing climate...

Energy Realism Overtaking Energy Alarmism

In the 1970s and 1980s, energy policy debates in the U.S. were mostly over the regulation of oil and natural gas prices and allocation. Energy shortages and price spikes led many to adopt an “energy-is-bad, energy conservation is good” position.
In the early 1990s, the energy policy debate shifted to energy “sustainability.” Depletion, pollution, reliability (security), and anthropogenic (man-made) climate change are the four sustainability issues. The last, climate change, is by far the most important of the four for the future of carbon-based energies.
Where does the energy sustainability debate stand as of mid-2003? The intellectual momentum has shifted to the optimists who see environmental progress as the norm and who believe that the market’s improvement process will effectively solve new problems along the way.
What has changed to mute energy alarmism? Six trends have been especially important...

Sound Policy for the Energy Bill

In the aftermath of the worst power outage in the nation's history, Congress is rushing to get a comprehensive energy bill to the President's desk for his signature. To assure consumers that another massive blackout will never happen again, Members may feel compelled to pass an energy bill--any bill--just to demonstrate their concern...
The EIA predicts that total energy consumption will outpace domestic energy production through 2025. It is clear that now, more than ever, Congress must adopt policies that correct this imbalance. To do so, Congress must enhance the nation's domestic resources, and remove regulatory barriers to responsible production, upgrade the antiquated electric grid, and let the marketplace--not political interference--determine fuel winners and losers...

Gluttonous Lawyers Suing Over Fat

In Seattle, there is a popular restaurant called the 5 Spot. Its signature dish is a huge, calorie-laden dessert called The Bulge. Access to it, however, is restricted to those patrons willing to sign a waiver agreeing not to sue the restaurant for making them fat. Although obviously a marketing gimmick, the underlying issue is no joke. Greedy lawyers (pardon the redundancy) have been working steadily on a campaign to make restaurants and food manufacturers legally liable for the spread of obesity. Sadly, they are making progress...

'Lay Values'?

The European Commission is introducing new precautionary procedures for all chemicals produced in volumes greater than one ton per year. The new regulations are known as REACH, which stands for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals. They propose a schedule lasting until 2012 to complete tests on all existing, unregistered substances...
But a focus on narrowly political or economic motives misses the broader cultural trend that drives these matters and that will make the debate over chemicals more, rather than less, central in the coming years. That trend is the growing aversion to risk that is now manifest across society as a whole...

Environmental Litigation Threatens Endangered Species

You know environmental lawsuits have spun out of control when barge activity on the Missouri River must come to a halt to preserve habitat for the nesting piping plover.
A federal district court decision ordering the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce water levels from the Missouri River dams so piping plovers, least terns and pallid sturgeons can breed on sandbars threatens to decimate the river's shipping industry, endanger water quality and reduce water supplies and power for communities in downstream states...
Sadly, nonsensical litigation such as this is not rare. Rather, it is an epidemic that not only compromises human needs but, ironically, compromises the protection of endangered species...

Thanks to Robert Bidinotto at ecoNOT.com for the link to the above story.

The hypocritical environmentalism of celebrities

Supporting and funding alternative means of energy in an effort to eliminate America's dependency on foreign oil and reduce pollution has long been one of the stated causes of progressive politicians, activists and celebrities. But it seems that many of them, so skilled at furthering the case for unconventional energy resources, are unprepared to utilize them in their own backyards...
Is the administration more forward thinking when it comes to energy than a cadre of celebrities tucked away in the exclusive environs of Cape Cod, Massachusetts? Former newsman Walter Cronkite, a part-time resident of Martha's Vineyard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known inhabitant, are leading a campaign to shut down a proposed $700 million wind farm in the Nantucket Sound that would provide electricity to thousands of homes in the area, contending that the giant turbines would ruin the landscape of one of the nation's most cherished areas...