Moderate green group takes a glove off

The Environmental Defense Fund, a group known for playing an inside game that seeks compromise with industry groups, signaled Tuesday it’s taking the gloves off after the collapse of climate-change legislation.

Well, one glove anyway.

EDF President Fred Krupp laid out the group’s new posture in a Huffington Post column that calls the Senate’s failure to pass sweeping climate and energy legislation a “serious setback for America, and for the world.”

He said EDF — which has earned criticism from some enviro groups for accommodating industry too much — will keep working with companies, but will be more willing to fight them, too.

Krupp’s column criticizes industry groups that are fighting Environmental Protection Agency climate rules in the courts and on Capitol Hill.

The group’s “historic interest in cooperation over confrontation will be recalibrated,” he writes.

Here are a few paragraphs from Krupp’s piece:

“Our view is that we must be much more aggressive in pursuing pollution reductions under existing law, through America's never-ending ability to innovate, and through partnerships with companies that can transform the marketplace. There are many companies making real change, and we intend to work with them.”

“However, we have well-financed enemies in this fight, and it is time to sharpen the nation's focus on the businesses that obstruct vital progress.”

“For EDF, that means our historic interest in cooperation over confrontation will be recalibrated. We will always negotiate where possible, and we will continue to look for collaborative opportunities and flexible solutions. That is who we are, and we will continue to pursue those goals.”

It continues:

“But there are companies that continue to choose short-term profits over public health, and who feel they are better off opposing progress. These companies have friends in the Congress, and they believe they will have more political leverage against the Environmental Protection Agency as the balance of power shifts in Washington next year.”

The column outlines some strategies for fighting companies that are fighting emissions curbs and adds:

“It doesn't have to be this way, and we would rather spend our time working on smart policy and win-win solutions. But we have no choice. We cannot allow the efforts of a few powerful companies to block necessary progress for the rest of us.”

But the piece also notes it's "worth remembering that no major environmental law has ever passed without substantial bipartisan support." And Krupp has some advice for the green movement too.

"In short, while being more aggressive and vigorously fighting to achieve critical emissions reductions, we — the environmental community — must be more open. Our response to this political problem must be to engage more widely and listen more carefully, not dismiss or belittle those with whom we disagree," he writes.