Rick Berman Strikes Again With Environmental Policy Alliance

He’s been called an “arch-enemy of do-gooders” by 60 Minutes. Thanks to his orchestration of massive corporate PR campaigns using “deceptive corporate front groups” to discredit public interest efforts, he’s earned the nickname “Dr. Evil.”

And now, thanks to our outsized effectiveness in relation to our relatively small budget, he’s targeting us.

We’re honored to be called one of the “Big Green Radicals” by notorious corporate lobbyist Rick Berman through his apparent latest astroturf operation, the Environmental Policy Alliance, a “project of the Center for Organizational Research Education”. Ever heard of it? We hadn’t either. After doing a bit of digging, we found out that the Center for Organizational Research Education was recently known as the Center for Consumer Freedom led by the head of Berman & Co.—Rick Berman.

If you’ve never heard of Rick Berman, he earned his reputation in Washington, D.C. for spreading attacks on advocates through the Center for Consumer Freedom, which was funded initially through a sizable grant from Phillip-Morris. Other funders of Center for Consumer Freedom have included Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons Foods and various fast food restaurants. Sites like BermanExposed.org and Sourcewatch have helped reveal several other industry-funded front groups led by Berman.

It appears he’s now doing the same sort of work to discredit advocates for environmental protections. Who exactly is behind the effort? We don’t know but we’re pretty sure we’ll hear from them again.

If you’re interested in standing with us Big Green Radicals—if you support our mission to keep corporations accountable and to force government to do its job to regulate the industries that profit from our essential resources—then you can make a donation to Food & Water Watch today. After all, as Mr. Berman’s new organization implies, we’re getting the job done.