Leonard Leo’s dark money hubs have funneled over $2 million to climate denial groups working to gut the Endangered Species Act.
  • @Sanctus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10•5 months ago

    Ah, so we’re upping the ante to Extinction Cult now? This is over the top cartoon villainy. 'If God wanted those animals they wouldn’t be in-" shutthefuckup

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    2•5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Since its passing, the ESA has been credited for saving 99 percent of its listed wildlife including bald eagles, peregrine falcons, grizzly bears, humpback whales, and numerous other species crucial to the U.S. and global ecosystem.

    Tony Carrk, Executive Director of investigative Accountable.US, a progressive nonprofit research group, says that his team has observed Leo and his network attempt to “take over the courts, but also expand his reach in this far right, extreme conservative agenda that is intended to put more power in the hands of big corporations.”

    In 2022, Leo’s 85 Fund donated $150,000 to the Heritage Foundation — the conservative Washington think tank that is leading Project 2025, which is meant to function as Republicans’ policy road map if they win back the White House this year.

    The agenda says Congress should “take action to restore its original purpose and end its use to seize private property, prevent economic development, and interfere with the rights of states over their wildlife populations.”

    Leo’s 85 Fund also gave $200,000 in 2022 to the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a right-wing outfit that touts itself as “nonpartisan” while slamming ESA regulations seen as an impediment to fossil fuel companies.

    When discussing legislative opposition to the ESA, Robert Dewey, Defenders of Wildlife’s vice president of government relations, emphasizes how the law was grounded in science, not politics.

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