A recent entry on the Central Minnesota Tea Party blog, Discuss your Property Rights in White Bear Lake, sets out the agenda for an invitation only meeting whose purpose is to
1. To discuss Property Rights legislation
2. To initiate grass roots organizing efforts for the 2014 electionThese will be discussed in the context of the mission statement developed by the Environmentalism Reform Alliance . . .
The contact person for the event (who will consider requests to attend) is Don Parmeter; the schedule for the strategy meeting from 10 a.m – 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 at the White Bear Country Inn in White Bear Lake can be found on the CMTP blog:
AGENDA
10 a.m. Discussion of Issues:1. Property Rights2. Energy and Climate Change3. Federal Clean Water Act & State Clean Water Legacy Act4. Transportation5. International Joint Commission & the Rainy/Lake of the Woods Watershed6. Outdoor Legacy Amendment11 a.m. Discussion of Property Rights Legislation12 a.m. – Lunch1 p.m. Discussion of impacts of environmentalism on agriculture, energy, forestry, mining, and outdoor recreation2 p.m. Discussion of establishing grassroots, self-sustaining membership organizations for the following:1. Property Rights2. Energy and Climate Change3. Transportation4. Rainy/Lake of the Woods Watershed3 p.m. Break3:30 p.m. Discussion of Action items and timelines
Who and what is putting this invite-only strategy for establishing "grassroots"
What is the Environmentalism Reform Alliance?
The Environmentalism Reform Alliance is a Minnesota non-profit corporation registered in June 2012; its registered agent is Charles Shreffler, an attorney with offices in Hopkins. The group does not have a website or Facebook page.
Shreffler is a member of the conservative Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, well established network of right-wing lawyers, politicians, pundits, and judges which is funded by "conservative foundations, such as the Earhart, Bradley, Simon, and Olin Foundations, as well as the Carthage, Koch, and Scaife Foundations," according to Right Wing Watch.
The group is "dedicated to reforming the current legal order" and "Many members of the Federalist Society advocate a rollback of civil rights measures, reproductive choice, labor and employment regulations, and environmental protections," RWW notes. Right Wing Watch is project of the People for the American Way "dedicated to monitoring and exposing the activities of the right-wing movement."
SourceWatch notes that "The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies received $4,163,142 from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund between 2010 and 2011."
In Minnesota, Shreffler has worked with the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is an "American conservative Christian nonprofit organization with the stated goal of "defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation." He was attorney for the plaintiffs in a case to repeal the Gomez decision that provides public funding for abortions for poor Minnesota women and local counsel in the lawsuit ALIV Club v. Independent School District #885, in which a pro-life student club granted club official status at St. Michael-Albertville High School after being denied status by the school.
The group's registered agent is something of a tip-off for the sort of "enviromentalist reform" the event's agenda suggests.
Who is Don Parmeter?
The conact and presumptive organizer for the event is Don Parmeter, who is a Senior Fellow at the Center of the American Experiment (CAE) According to a brief biography on the site:
Don Parmeter is co-chairman of the National Water & Conservation Alliance, established in 2009 to develop and promote local and regional alternatives to expansion of federal authority under the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act. He is the founder of the American Environmental Institute. Don will be writing for the Minnesota Free Market Institute about “reinventing environmentalism” and property rights.
According to the International Falls Journal:
Don Parmeter, of St. Paul and formerly of International Falls, and Kathy McDonald of Vancouver, Wash., formed the National Water & Conservation Alliance in 2009 to promote local and regional alternatives to proposed legislation that would expand federal authority under the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act).
The co-chairs of the organization say that the proposed legislation has enormous implications for water and land use all across the country, but especially for water-rich states such as Minnesota.
The group's website includes a page that crows about the Oberstar Defeat by Chip Cravaack, but the homepage is now http://www.freemarketaccess.com/, a page for Kathy McDonald and Associates, a firm which has provided "Political and Resource$ Access since 1997."
According to a filing at the Minnesota Secretary of State's page, the American Environmental Institute is an assumed name for Don Parmeter.
Don Parmeter served as a fellow for the Minnesota Free Market Institute before it merged with the Center of the American Experiment, according to the MFMI website:
Don Parmeter is co-chairman of the National Water & Conservation Alliance, established in 2009 to develop and promote local and regional alternatives to expansion of federal authority under the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act. He is the founder of the American Environmental Institute. Don will be writing for the Minnesota Free Market Institute about “reinventing environmentalism” and property rights.
In April 2011, Parmeter led at ‘Reinventing Environmentalism’ Campaign to Kick Off in St. Paul on April 9th, using much of the same framing as the event on February 22, although the Environmentalism Reform Alliance plays no part as it was not created until 2012.
One of the event's dinner speakers, Bill Glahn, ran unsuccessfully for the Minnesota House in 2012, but remains active as a radio host and blog; the other represents Rural Electric Association:
An afternoon workshop will be held at the Minnesota History Center, followed by an evening dinner meeting at the nearby Kelly Inn. Mark Glaess, manager of the Minnesota Rural Electric Association, and William Glahn, Gov. Pawlenty’s outdoing director of Energy Security will be the keynote speakers for the evening event.
Glahn, currently a Senior Fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, formerly served as Vice President and Controller of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency.
Later in 2011,Parmeter and Kim Crockett, then head of the Minnesota Free Market Institute, sent a letter to the EPA objecting to Draft Guidance on Identifying Waters Protected by the Clean Water Act, with the following co-signers:
Co-Signatories: we are building a coalition of concerned citizens and organizations to educate our fellow Minnesotans about this and related issues. We will be informing our elected representatives of our concerns.
SW Metro Tea Party Patriots
North Metro Tea Party Patriots
Mille Lacs Tea Party Patriots
Mary Anne Weninger, Member, Objectivist Society
Doug Widen, 38'er's Snowmobile Club
Ann Buck, Coalition for Sensible Siting
Kristi Rosenquist, President, Wind Journey Farm, Goodhue, MN
Don Evanson
Mike Hughes, District Director, Minnesota United Snowmobile Association; Region 2
Former Chairman, Parks and Recreation Commission, Itasca County, MN;
Former President, Itasca County Trails Task Force
Tom Spitznagel
Obviously, the engagement of Tea Party chapters by Parmeter and which ever well-healed, dark money funded stink tank he's associated with is nothing new.
According to SourceWatch, CAE is a member of the State Policy Network. A "Stink Tank" report issued by the Alliance for a Better Minnesota details CAE's activity attempts at influencing policy in areas ranging from anti-union right-to-work legislation to voter suppression.
Don Parmeter and the Wise Use/Land Rights Movement
Wise Use groups are often funded by timber, mining, and chemical companies. In return, they claim, loudly, that the well-documented hole in the ozone layer doesn't exist, that carcinogenic chemicals in the air and water don't harm anyone, and that trees won't grow properly unless forests are clear-cut, with government subsidies. Wise Use proponents were buffeted by Bush's defeat and by media exposure of the movement's founders' connections to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church network (tainted by charges of cultism and theocratic neo-fascism), but the movement has quickly rebounded. In every state of the US, relentless Wise Use disinformation campaigns about the purpose and meaning of environmental laws are building a grassroots constituency. To Wise Users, environmentalists are pagans, eco-nazis, and communists who must be fought with shouts and threats. . . . .
Named for its triangular shape, Northeastern Minnesota is the scene of the great majority of Anti-Conservation activity in the state, and in the entire Midwest. That area is home to such organizations as Conservationists With Common Sense, the Greater Northland Coalition and the Northern Counties Land Use Coordinating Board (NCLUCB). Conservationists with Common Sense are led by Tod Indehar. The group's primary focus is opening up Voyageurs/BWCAW to more motorized uses. They advocate greatly expanding motorized access to these areas, including access for snowmobiles, motor boats, motorized portages and float planes. . . .
The NCLUCB is both a manifestation of, and a driving force behind, the counties movement - Minnesota style. It is the brainchild of Don Parmeter, owner of Northern Resources Center in International Falls, a paid consultant to the member counties on the issues of land use restrictions and government trends. NCLUCB's current membership consists of representatives, many of them elected or appointed officials, of St. Louis, Lake, Cook, Lake of the Woods, Koochiching, Itasca, Clearwater, Marshal and Pennington Counties - the counties in the north central and north eastern part of Minnesota known as Arrowhead Country or the Mesabi iron range. Its organizational purpose is to help counties fight restrictive wetland protection legislation, state and federal forestry regulations and federal land management. The preferred tactic is to advocate not for repeal or modification of federal regulations, but for turning federal lands over to local authority on the theory that local decision makers will act to protect both local resources and local economic interests. This tactic is lifted directly from the so-called [Carlton] County ordinances which seek to criminalize the job duties of federal employees carrying out federal laws on federal lands. While this deference to local decision making sounds appealing and reasonable, as practiced in [Carlton] County it leads to armed confrontations between local citizens and federal employees attempting to enforce laws designed to protect habitats and species deemed worth saving for the benefit of all Americans. Although proclaiming a dislike for the Wise Use name, Parmeter is credited with bringing the National Federal Lands Conference, a collection of out-of-state Anti-Conservation activists, to Hibbing in 1993 to help train NCLUCB representatives on drafting and attempting to implement [Carlton] County ordinances. . , ,
Don Parmeter is the founder and president of the Northern Resources Center a firm that helps organize grassroots groups and provides professional services to state and local governments and non-profit organizations. He is building an effective coalition of suburban and rural legislators to promote property rights and more decentralized and cost-effective government. He is co-founder of the Northland Alliance, a coalition of organizations representing agriculture, forestry, mining, tourism, and recreation. He is in the process of establishing the Property Rights and Conservation Association, and the Center for Conservation and Rural Economic Development. He has just recently established a science-based environmental education center in International Falls, Minn. . . .
He was the principal leader of the property rights movement in Minnesota that led to reform of the state wetlands statute. He led the effort to eliminate a proposed international UNESCO Biosphere Reserve along the Minnesota-Canadian border, the first time such a proposal had been defeated in the U.S. He led the effort to prevent designation of several dozen rivers in Minnesota under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. He helped prevent federal wilderness designation for National Park lands in the state.
On behalf of the Northern Resources Alliance of Minnesota, a non-profit organization, he drafted and signed a symbolic agreement with leaders of the largest environmental organization in the former USSR. He was the principal grassroots organizer for three congressional field hearings held in Minnesota, which drew 500, 1,000, and 1,500 people. He co-founded the Northern Counties Land-use Coordinating Board, a joint powers board of elected officials that support local control and property rights. He drafted and successfully lobbied for pilot project legislation designed to decentralize public policy decision-making, hold federal and state agencies more accountable for what they do and don’t do, and allow grassroots groups and individuals to empower themselves.
The Northern Counties Land Use Coordinating Board is a formerly quasi governmental body that now persists and is being utilized as a forum for county officials to gather and make plans for use of natural resources in Northern Minnesota. The organization has it's [sic] roots in the "wise use" movement.
Though long, this post only touches on parts of the Parmeter record and playbook. Grassroots organizing? There's a word for that.
Photos: A Jim Brandenberg photo of the Boundary Waters (above); CAE senior fellow, former lobbyist and front group incubator Don Parmeter with a grandchild (below).
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