Now a part of every baseball team, the NRDC described by a lawyer in 2005

Scheduled to throw out the first pitch in Fenway Park this year was lawyer and founder of the NRDC John Adams along with an EPA guy. According to MLB, all teams must submit aspects of their business to this environmental group (NRDC) for their approval. From an impressed lawyer (J. Daniel Hull) in 2005 about the NRDC:

• "Aggressive Lawyering

"Another thing I have in common with the NRDC is the legal profession. Among other things, the NRDC is a boutique law firm of lawyers who practice only environmental law....

• In fact, in its 35 year history, the NRDC has surpassed all other political action, citizens', and trade groups in "pro-environment" victories and accomplishments -- many of them through litigation....

And speaking of resources, NRDC's Board of Trustees (as of 2005) is definitely interesting. Along with the usual captains of industry, power lawyers, and academics you usually see on the board of a major charity are names of the Hollywood elite: Laurie David (Seinfeld creator Larry David's wife);

• Elizabeth Wiatt (wife of William Morris Agency chief James Wiatt);

• Warner Brothers President Alan Horn;

• Peter Morton (of Morton's restaurants and founder of Hard Rock Cafes.); and three entertainers who have been serious NRDC supporters for years: singer

• James Taylor and actors

• Leonardo DiCaprio and

• Robert Redford."...

(On the NRDC's southern California office).

• (Attorney J. Daniel Hull): "It's housed in "The Robert Redford Building," which is billed as the "greenest building in America." I don't know any artful way to say this, so I'll just blurt it out: The Robert Redford Building in Santa Monica is the coolest and best thought-out building I've ever seen or been in and...the building is a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Pier. (Twice weekly, NRDC offers tours, and a virtual tour is available at www.nrdc.org; click "Cities and Green Living").

For starters, the building is beautiful and quietly elegant. The exterior of the building has an understated classical design to survive changes in building styles over the next few decades. The siding is a wood substitute made of cement and sawdust that, unlike wood, won't shrink or expand, requiring far less maintenance over the years. The interior has tastefully decorated offices, conference rooms, and even a working rooftop terrace in light browns, pastels, and off-white colors. Wood for flooring and furniture is processed without toxic chemicals....

• ...the L.A. office even commands a page or two on the environment in each issue of Los Angeles Confidential, an expensive, hyper-slick quarterly "vanity" magazine where you're way more likely to find photos of Warren Beatty or Darryl Hannah at L.A. parties and reports about who's and what's hot in Hollywood than you are to see reports on endangered shrimp species, a "Heal the Bay" update, or conservation tips to save the planet.

Does the NRDC Use Hollywood to Get Its Point Across?

• It sure does, and the city gladly obliges. One reason may have less to do with money than publicity. While it's true that the Redford building is a very short drive in your Mercedes or Bentley from some of the wealthiest suburbs in the world, the NRDC knows that if Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a Seinfeld regular and NRDC mainstay, announces a press conference on an upcoming educational or fundraising event for clean water or fuel efficiency issues, two good things often come of it:

the kind of media attention that only stars or

• politicians can bring, and,

• okay, the money."...

(Mr. Hull's article concludes with positive causes the group has worked on).

• From Water and Wastewater News, "Has the NRDC Gone Hollywood?" by J. Daniel Hull, Attorney, 11/1/2005

Which is all fine, except people who attend baseball games didn't need a new layer of bureaucrats to advise them not to use separate packets of mustard and ketchup. (The Phillies have stepped up in that effort).

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