Gibson Pushes Lacey Amendment

Several environmental groups have come forward in opposition of a bill backed by Gibson Guitars that would amend the federal Lacey Act, which bans the importation of endangered plants and wildlife.

In a letter obtained by the Tennessean, groups including the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation and Greenpeace recently explained the bill would “hurt American businesses and severely undermine U.S. leadership in global forest conservation and curbing illegal logging.”

Gibson’s headquarters in Nashville have been raided by federal officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection twice: once in 2009 and again in August for possible violations of the Lacey Act.

Since that time, the guitar company has hired a lobbying firm, the Tennessean reported, and is supporting the bill introduced by state representatives Jim Cooper and Marsha Blackburn that would provide protections for people who unknowingly possess illegally imported wood.

Specifically, Cooper and Blackburn’s measure would lower penalties for first-time offenders and allow manufacturers to keep illegally obtained products that they unknowingly possess, the paper said.

Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz wrote in an opinion piece on the Huffington Post that the company does not wish to kill off the Lacey Act altogether.

“Rather than repealing the Lacey Act, we should make it stronger so that limited government enforcement dollars can be devoted to fighting illegal logging and poaching, not bureaucratic fights over international tariff codes,” he said.

“In the coming months, I will be working with Members of Congress and the Administration to do just that. We should create a compliance system so that businesses can know – before they buy wood and other plant products – whether or not they are complying with the Lacey Act.”