<html> A new report based to a great extent on leaked documents reveals that on the issue of climate change the the U.S. environmental group the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is engaged in self-dealing activities with conflict of interest written all over them. EDF is a leading supporter of a Congressional bill the Credit for Voluntary Early Action bill (S. 547) which provides potentially lucrative credits for activities alleged to mitigate global warming.  Many other environmental organizations such as Ozone Action and the Sierra Club oppose the bill, citing "critical flaws” and “gaping loopholes" that favor large electric utilities and other big corporations making "dubious" efforts to slow climate change. It turns out that an EDF-created, -insured and closely -affiliated nonprofit -- the Environmental Resources Trust (ERT) -- plans to validate and manage the "early action" credits that would be created under the Chafee bill.  ERT's seven person board also includes three upper-level EDF staffers.  Result: ERT would profit from the controversial Chafee bill advocated by its parent organization, EDF.  Furthermore, ERT is chaired by big-business lobbyist C. Boyden Gray, the former chief counsel to President George Bush and a longtime opponent of global warming treaties and of environmentalists.  Gray also chairs Citizens for a Sound Economy, which has lobbied Congress to oppose the Kyoto Treaty — thus creating the deadlock that EDF is now trying to break through the Chafee bill.  Gray's record and his close ties to the corporate sector raise questions about ERT’s credibility as an independent accrediting agency for greenhouse credits created by the Chafee bill. The report also shows how leaked documents reveal other troubling aspects of the EDF/ERT agenda, including: plans to oversee emissions trading and to market credits for "carbon sequestration," i.e., planting trees or protecting forests  a nice sounding but questionably effective approach opposed by many environmentalists;  and the intent to profit from extending greenhouse reduction credit for nuclear power; The report reveals that EDF trustees have financial ties to corporations benefitting from the weak global warming policy of the Chafee bill, raising another area of conflict of interest.  For example, EDF trustee Frank Taplin owns millions of dollars of stock in his family's coal company, the North American Coal Company;  EDF's chairman is with Morgan Stanley which holds stock worth several hundred million dollars in the electric utilities that will benefit from the billion-dollar windfall for "dubious" emission reduction efforts, as well as billions of dollars in auto and oil company stocks. The report also notes that there is a troubling revolving door between EDF and U.S. administrations and that EDF is endorsed by the Global Climate Coalition, a leading opponent of global warming activists.  The report discusses how conflicts of interest may relate to controversial stances EDF has adopted in regard to utility deregulation (supporting billion dollar taxpayer bailouts of nuclear stranded costs of electric companies), clean air, and trade policy. Bernardo Issel of the NonProfit Accountability Project commented that "EDF's motto used to be 'Sue the bastards.'  The findings of this report suggest that if EDF were to follow the motto today, it might very well sue not only some of its own trustees, but itself as well.”  The NonProfit Accountability Project is an effort to explore issues of accountability and conflict of interest in the nonprofit sector.  The report is available on the web or can be requested. NonProfit Accountability Project (NPAP) P.O.Box 53238, Washington, DC 20009 <a href="http://www.erols.com/npap" eudora="autourl">http://www.erols.com/npap </a>npap@erols.com 202 - 333 - 1855 </html>