Congress Questions US Environmental Group’s Ties To The Chinese Government

A House committee is asking the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the U.S.’s most prominent environmental groups, about its ties to the China’s communist government. Top Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources sent a letter to the NRDC asking the group to clarify its two-decade relationship with the Chinese government and question whether the group should register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Lawmakers cited recent reports on China’s “vast influence machine” — through funding colleges, think tanks, advocacy groups and others — which it uses to shape its global image, including on environmental issues. >click to read< Find related material in the post comment section regarding the New England Marine Monument, 11:32

One Response to Congress Questions US Environmental Group’s Ties To The Chinese Government

  1. - Moderator says:

    Before the November elections, top Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee sent a letter to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) asking about its 20 year relationship with the Chinese government and asking whether the NRDC should register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, due to China’s use of advocacy groups to influence US environmental policy. https://dailycaller.com/2018/06/05/congress-environmental-groups-ties-to-china/. “The Committee is concerned about the NRDC’s role in aiding China’s perception management efforts with respect to pollution control and its international standing on environmental issues in ways that may be detrimental to the United States,” GOP Reps. Rob Bishop of Utah and Bruce Westerman of Arkansas wrote in their letter to the NRDC….Bishop and Westerman noted that while the NRDC often praises China, the group “takes an adversarial approach to its advocacy practices in the United States,” including bragging about dozens of lawsuits filed against the Trump administration.” The letter can be found here: https://republicans-naturalresources.house.gov//uploadedfiles/bishop-westerman_to_nrdc_06.05.18.pdf.
    These issues call into question the true intents behind the New England Marine Monument, among other initiatives. China is the biggest importer of fish into the U.S. NRDC was one of the biggest supporters, advocates, and political machines behind the New England Marine Monument designation, and has been fighting against any attempts to open the area. https://www.nrdc.org/save-our-marine-monuments. (“NRDC has been instrumental in the protection of America’s marine treasures, and we continue to fight for our oceans and the life they sustain. Our lawyers recently secured permission to intervene in a lawsuit to defend the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts”.)
    NRDC President Rhea Suh was assistant secretary for policy, management and budget for the US Department of the Interior (which oversees the Marine Monuments) from 2009-2015, under President Obama. https://www.nrdc.org/experts/rhea-suh . Upon her departure from the Interior Department, Suh Shortly after this, the Marine Monuments initiative began.
    NRDC is one of the most anti-fishing and hard lined “environmental” groups that engages with fisheries management. Just prior to the Monument designation, NRDC pushed to essentially close the U.S. illex squid fishery and other fisheries taking place on the edge of the continental shelf through the Mid Atlantic Council’s Deep Sea Coral Amendment, and were the lead environmental group at the Mid Atlantic Council’s “stakeholder workshop” which developed the final Coral Zones. NRDC even takes a prominent place on the Wikipedia page regarding the Coral Zones: “According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental advocacy group, it is the “largest area in the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico protected from a range of destructive fishing gear.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_R._Lautenberg_Deep-Sea_Coral_Protection_Area. Many fisheries participants felt that because NRDC was not successful in their bid to eliminate Mid Atlantic fisheries, it helped orchestrate the New England Marine Monument, rather than go through the New England Fishery Management Council’s Deep Sea Coral Amendment process, taking place during that time.
    While further action by Congress has not taken place on this issue, it begs the question how an environmental organization that actively attempts to close U.S. fishing grounds and fisheries through “environmental advocacy” can have close ties with the country responsible for the largest portion of the US seafood trade deficit.

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