A well-funded, politically influential environmental group based in Fauquier County, Va., stands accused of colluding with government officials and real estate moguls to force a local farmer into selling a highly coveted parcel of land.
The Piedmont Environmental Council, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt group, and the husband-wife real estate team of Phillip and Patricia Thomas, who are members of the PEC, lobbied a zoning administrator and members of the elected county Board of Supervisors to issue zoning citations against the property, according to a lawsuit filed in the Fauquier County Circuit Court last September.
Matthew Vadum, a senior editor with the Capital Research Center, which studies funding of politically aligned non-profits, describes the PEC as a “well-funded activist group” that is well-positioned to wage legal battles. Indeed, between 2008 and 2012, the PEC pulled in almost $26 million, according to its most recent IRS Form 990.
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