Environmentalists, businesses reach compromise

Governmental inaction is prompting environmental groups and big business to cut unprecedented deals to promote energy exploration and other development in return for major conservation initiatives.

The agreements preserve large amounts of undeveloped land, impose stricter environmental practices than required by law and generate big investments in alternative energy. The deals also clear the way for oil drilling, new power plants and large residential developments.

Experts say the move to private agreements reflects a loss of faith in the government's ability to handle some of the USA's most pressing environmental disputes. "I started off believing in regulation, but government agencies compromise and change rules," San Francisco environmental lawyer Clem Shute says. "These private deals are a pragmatic way to accomplish good things."

BUSINESS DEAL: How a businessman and an environmental group found common ground

Steven Hayward, an environmental scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, says the agreements signal an era of "practical environmentalism." He says Congress has been in a stalemate for decades on major environmental legislation, especially on emerging issues such as land conservation, transportation and energy. That has forced businesses and environmental groups to reach out to each other, often after sparring a few rounds in court. Recent big deals:

• Land use. Tejon Ranch Co., owner of the largest tract of private property in California, signed a deal in June with five environmental groups to preserve 90% of the 422-square-mile property, located about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. The environmental groups agreed not to oppose the building of up to 26,000 homes on the remaining 10% of the company's land, a vast expanse of hills, valleys and canyons that is a home for the rare California condor.

•Energy exploration. Environmentalists agreed in April to support a Houston oil company's plan to expand drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., where an oil spill in 1969 helped launch the environmental movement. In exchange, the firm agreed to end all offshore drilling there in 2022 and donate 3,900 acres for parks.

•Green products. The Sierra Club agreed in January to put the group's logo on a new line of environmentally sensitive cleaning products, called Green Works, manufactured by Clorox. In exchange, the Sierra Club will get a share of the sales. Many deals have brought opposition from some environmentalists worried that too much was sacrificed. The local Sierra Club in Traverse City, Mich., disbanded to protest the Clorox deal.

The two sides in the disputes often agree on complex trade-offs to avoid or end litigation. "We were overjoyed by what we got," says Susan Brown of Concerned Citizens of Platte County, Mo., which challenged Kansas City Power and Light's plan to build two coal-fired power plants. The utility agreed to build only one plant, clean up two others and invest in wind power. The firm is building the $1 billion plant without facing lawsuits.