OPINION/COMMENTARY

NRDC: Biting the Taxpayers Who Feed Them Incredibly, taxpayer money is subsidizing these Efforts. Federal grants to green groups that engage in anti-Bush activism have increased substantially over the past four years, and NRDC has received a generous helping of federal funds. During the first three years of the Bush Administration, NRDC received more than $1.6 million from the Environmental Protection Agency alone— the most recent grant in September of 2003. Meanwhile, the group goes after the Administration, suing in court to hamper, halt or reverse Bush environmental policies. These lawsuits— many ruled frivolous by the courts— have imposed further costs on taxpayers. Ironically, they also have drained the resources and diverted the attention of the very agencies that are supposed to focus on environmental pro-tection. And on those relatively rare occasions when NRDC does win in court, the results are often harmful— to taxpayers, to our national security, and to the environment itself....