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Alliance Resource Partners

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primary on pruitt pension plan

see joe craft mega donor

SEE HORNER 3 NOT GAO

musk trump pac 10 24

RAGA

PRUITT

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NYT

NO LNX

She Inspired Laws to Hold the Fossil Fuel Industry Accountable. Now She’s a Target.

A conservative group is suing for emails of a law professor who helped create legislation to force oil, gas and coal companies to pay for climate damage.

By Coral Davenport

March 27, 2025

Fresh out of law school in 2022, Rachel Rothschild wrote a memo laying out the legal justification for a new strategy to fight climate change: States could force oil and gas companies to pay for the damage caused by extreme floods and wildfires that are made worse by the use of their products.

Ms. Rothschild’s work was foundational. It provided the basis for the nation’s first “climate superfund” laws, which were passed in New York and Vermont last year and could be adopted by as many as six more states as soon as this year. If implemented, they could cost oil companies billions of dollars.

Her work made Ms. Rothschild a target. She is one of a number of lawyers, law professors and judges who have been the focus of a campaign to discredit them led by a conservative group with ties to the fossil fuel industry and the Trump administration.

Shortly after the passage of the Vermont law last June, the group sued the University of Michigan, where Ms. Rothschild now teaches, after the university refused its request for Ms. Rothschild’s emails related to “climate superfunds.” As a public institution, the university is subject to the state’s public records law. The group, called Government Accountability and Oversight, has also sought to have Ms. Rothschild undergo a deposition.

The university, which has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, maintains Ms. Rothschild’s communications are not subject to public records requests because they were written on her private email account. Still, the university told Ms. Rothschild that she must comply with the request for a deposition.

Experts said the actions against Ms. Rothschild seemed designed to discourage her or others from similar work.

“Legal actions and public records requests may be used in a manner that can intimidate or silence scholars, and when that happens, it threatens not only the targeted individuals but also the progress of knowledge and informed debate,” Kyle Logue, the interim dean of the University of Michigan Law School, said in a statement.

The actions regarding Ms. Rothschild appear to be part of a campaign by the fossil fuel industry to quash new legal tools for holding companies accountable for climate pollution. As President Trump moves to end federal efforts to fight climate change, the new state-level “polluter-pays” laws and lawsuits are seen as the next frontier in the battle over global warming.

Image

Protesters unfurl a banner sign outside an office building that shows the Statue of Liberty partially submerged in rising waters. The sign says, "Gov. Hochul: Sign or Sink! Make Polluters Pay!"

Climate activists held a rally outside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office in Manhattan to deliver thousands of petitions asking her to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act last year.Credit...Erik McGregor/Sipa USA, via Reuters Connect

Executives from nearly two dozen oil and gas companies raised their concerns about the climate superfund laws at a meeting last week with President Trump at the White House. They want the Justice Department to file briefs in support of their litigation against the state laws, said two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting.

The campaign is being waged by a group that has largely been funded by the foundation created by Joseph Craft III, chief executive of the nation’s third largest coal company and an ally of and campaign donor to President Trump.

Ms. Rothschild’s initial memo — now making its way through statehouses — laid out the case for states to use the model of the 1980 Superfund law, which requires polluters to pay to clean abandoned toxic waste sites, and apply it to the climate damage caused by emissions from the burning of oil, gas and coal. Lawmakers in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Connecticut are now considering climate superfund legislation.

In addition, more than 30 lawsuits have been filed by states and municipalities aimed at forcing oil and gas companies to pay for repairs or adaptations linked to damage from climate change. Many of those cases, some of which could end up before the Supreme Court, argue that the companies knew for years about the dangers of climate change linked to their products but concealed that information.

The approach is similar to those of past lawsuits that led to landmark settlements with the tobacco industry and opioid manufacturers.

The fossil fuel industry counters that climate change is a global problem and that individual state laws are an unconstitutional attempt to assert control over the nation’s energy system.

“These extraordinary, unprecedented laws impose massive retroactive penalties going back decades for lawful, out-of-state conduct that was regulated by Congress,” said Daryl Joseffer, executive vice president and chief counsel for the litigation arm of the United States Chamber of Commerce, which has sued both New York and Vermont to overturn the climate superfund laws.

Twenty-two other states, led by their Republican attorneys general, are challenging the New York law in federal court.

Ryan Meyers, senior vice president and general counsel at the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group that is also fighting to overturn the climate superfund laws in New York and Vermont, said they were part of “a coordinated campaign against an industry that is vital to everyday life and serves as the engine of America’s economy.”

A key player in the campaign to stop the effort to hold fossil fuel companies financially accountable for damages is Christopher Horner, a lawyer and conservative activist who served on the transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency during Mr. Trump’s first term.

For years, Mr. Horner has used public records laws to unearth emails of climate scientists and disseminate them in ways that aim to undermine their work.

“Chris Horner is the nation’s most prolific user of FOIA and its state equivalents to go after anyone fighting climate change who works for a public entity,” said Michael Gerrard, an expert in climate law at Columbia University.

In 2011, the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science complained that Mr. Horner was making “unreasonable, excessive Freedom of Information Act requests for personal information and voluminous data that are then used to harass and intimidate scientists.”

When President Barack Obama tried to pass a climate law, allies of Mr. Horner worked to spread the emails of climate scientists, gathered by Mr. Horner, to Republicans in Congress.

In a 2017 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Horner said that had helped kill the bill.

Now, Mr. Horner and his allies are focused on the architects behind the “polluter pays” laws.

Mr. Horner did not respond to several requests for comment.

From 2018 to 2021, Mr. Horner served as a board member for Government Accountability and Oversight, the group that filed suit against Ms. Rothschild. As recently as January, Mr. Horner wrote an article for The Washington Reporter, a conservative media website, in which he said he represented the Government Accountability and Oversight group in federal and state open records matters.

According to public records, a major donor to the group is a nonprofit foundation formed by Mr. Craft, the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners, the country’s third largest coal company. The Joseph Craft III Foundation contributed $300,000 a year to the Government Accountability and Oversight group from 2020 to 2023, for a total of $1.2 million, according to its public tax filings. That appears to make it a major funder of the group’s activities: During those years, G.A.O.’s total annual revenue averaged $576,172.

Mr. Craft and his wife, Kelly, who served as ambassador to the United Nations in the first Trump administration, have given nearly $3 million to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaigns, the Republican Party and a Republican super PAC.

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Joseph Craft III, dressed in a dark sports jacket, white shirt, dark pants and sunglasses, walks on a brick sidewalk next to Kelly Craft, who is wearing a white blouse, a black and white polka-dot skirt and pointy shoes.

Joseph Craft III with his wife, Kelly, in Washington in 2018.Credit...Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Craft foundation and Alliance Resource Partners did not respond to requests for comment.

Matthew Hardin, who serves on the board of Government Accountability and Oversight, wrote in a statement, “Like all nonprofits, G.A.O. relies on contributions from donors to fulfill its independent, charitable mission of seeking transparency in public institutions and educating the public.”

The group’s interest in Ms. Rothschild appears focused on her communications with Lee Wasserman, the director of the Rockefeller Family Fund, a philanthropy that has supported efforts to sue oil companies over what it calls climate deception.

It was Mr. Wasserman who first wondered if lawmakers could combine the old Superfund law with new penalties for climate polluters.

Mr. Wasserman brought the idea to the Institute for Policy Integrity, a nonprofit research organization that is housed in New York University’s law school, where Ms. Rothschild was then working as a fellow. She researched whether the idea could stand up legally. The Rockefeller Family Fund donated $50,000 to the Institute for Policy Integrity to fund her research, which led New York and Vermont lawmakers to propose legislation.

When it comes to climate and environmental matters, states often rely on academics for legal advice because many private law firms represent fossil fuel companies, which can create a conflict of interest.

After writing her memo, Ms. Rothschild joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, where she continued to work on climate superfund legislation in her free time, briefing lawmakers and testifying before legislative committees.

“I’m proud of the fact that I do a lot of pro bono work in areas where I have particular expertise, and I was glad I could help states like Vermont and New York draft these laws,” she said in a statement.

Ms. Rothschild’s pro bono work was “critical” to passage of the law in New York, said Justin Flagg, director of environmental policy for Liz Krueger, a Democratic New York state senator who sponsored the legislation. “This was something that had not yet been tested in court,” he added. “So we really hung our hat on her analysis.”

Environmental law professors at other public universities have been targets of similar campaigns. During the Biden administration, Mr. Horner used the state public records law to obtain the emails of Ann Carlson, who teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ms. Carlson, who had consulted on climate damage lawsuits, was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to run a federal agency that writes rules aimed at reducing climate-warming tailpipe pollution — a position requiring Senate confirmation.

Government Accountability and Oversight gave Ms. Carlson’s emails to Fox News, which published stories about her on its website including one titled, “Biden nominee coordinated dark money climate nuisance lawsuits involving Leonardo DiCaprio.”

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Ann Carlson, who has shoulder-length wavy brown hair and large glasses, looks into the distance.

Professor Ann Carlson at the University of California, Los Angeles.Credit...Joyce Kim for The New York Times

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, used the emails to fight Ms. Carlson’s confirmation, at one point calling her an “ethically challenged, environmental zealot.” He introduced an amendment on the Senate floor to strip the salary from her position.

While the amendment failed, she ultimately withdrew her nomination, although she did end up serving in the role in an acting capacity.

“It was ruthless, relentless and baseless,” Ms. Carlson said of the experience of having her emails used against her. “This is a tactic designed to dissuade people from working on important climate policies.”

The campaign has extended to at least one judge. In 2023, Mark Recktenwald, the chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, wrote a unanimous decision that the local government in Honolulu could move forward with a climate liability lawsuit against major oil companies.

Justice Recktenwald gave a remote presentation to the Environmental Law Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that runs seminars on environmental litigation.

Conservative media outlets including as The Daily Caller and Fox News ran stories noting that a member of the institute’s board had worked at a law firm that defended the climate law in the Honolulu case. The stories did not mention that oil executives also serve on the institute’s board. Justice Recktenwald had also asked both parties in the Honolulu lawsuit for any concerns about his plans to speak at the seminar, and neither side had objected.

But in virtually every story, a group called Energy Policy Advocates, which has named Mr. Horner as its lawyer, charged that Justice Recktenwald’s participation showed improper bias.

Justice Recktenwald declined to comment. The effort to devalue the legal scholars involved in the climate cases reflects the potential impact of the new laws and litigation, experts said.

“These new state laws and this avalanche of lawsuits are threatening the survival of these fossil fuel companies,” said Patrick Parenteau, an emeritus professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Karen Zraick contributed reporting.

Coral Davenport covers energy and environment policy, with a focus on climate change, for The Times.

A version of this article appears in print on March 29, 2025, Section A, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Her Work Inspired Climate Superfund Laws. Now She’s a Target..

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heated pod 11 24

Elon Musk, the erstwhile “climate hero” who built his name and fortune on clean technology, has an unexpected partner in his bid to re-elect Donald Trump: Big Coal.

Joe Craft, the billionaire CEO of coal mining company Alliance Resource Partners, is one of the top donors to Elon Musk’s America PAC, according to campaign finance disclosures reviewed by HEATED. Craft made a one-time donation of $1 million to Musk’s PAC in June, marking the coal magnate’s single-largest campaign contribution to date.

Craft, who has deep ties to the Republican Party and Trump, is America PAC’s only fossil fuel funder. All other large donations have come from people with ties to Musk and the tech industry, including SpaceX board director Antonio Gracias, PayPal former executive Ken Howery, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.

America PAC has made headlines this election season due to its $75 million contribution from Musk; its highly sexist advertising; and its potentially illegal million-dollar giveaways. But its previously unreported fellowship with Craft is also "hugely significant,” said Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager at the watchdog and clean energy advocate the Energy and Policy Institute (EPI).

“It’s just surprising to me that a super PAC led by Elon Musk of all people would be taking money from a coal baron who is so anti-climate science and anti-clean tech, given that Musk has built his wealth and prestige in American industry by investing in clean tech and electric vehicles,” Anderson said.

But Musk has more in common with the coal executive than one might think.

HEATED’s original climate journalism is funded entirely by readers. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Coal-powered clean tech

At first glance, Craft and Musk would appear to be on opposite ends of the energy spectrum. One has made billions by selling the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel; the other has put coal plants out of business by selling solar panels and electric vehicles. Craft funds climate deniers, while Musk has called climate change “the biggest threat that humanity faces this century.”

But both men share an ambitious vision to eliminate environmental regulations, which are cutting into their companies’ respective bottom lines. Musk currently faces at least 20 federal investigations, including a review of SpaceX’s environmental impact, according to an analysis byThe New York Times. Environmental regulations, as well as competition from cheaper gas, have likewise battered the coal industry.

The coal industry also stands to benefit from the rise of electric vehicles—so long as the energy that powers those vehicles continues to come from coal. In a recent earnings call, Craft noted that his company was doing better than expected due to heightened electricity demand fueled by EVs. “Data center growth driven by artificial intelligence and industrial load led by electric vehicles and battery manufacturing are driving significant growth in anticipated electricity demand over the next several years,” he said.

This perhaps explains Musk’s recent departure from climate advocacy. After years of professing deep concern about the climate crisis, Musk this year declared that he doesn’t think the risk of global warming is “as high as a lot of people say,” and that he doesn’t think people should “vilify the oil and gas industry.”

America PAC has subtly followed suit, with one of its Facebook ads warning voters that “crazy liberals” would take away their gas-fueled trucks and meat, a common Republican rallying cry to kill support for climate regulation. It’s a surprising choice for the clean tech mogul, who only two years ago posted on his platform X that drilling for more oil and gas “Obviously…would negatively affect Tesla.”

But Musk’s potential return for supporting Trump is far too good to pass up. If re-elected, Trump has promised that Musk will lead a new “government efficiency commission” overseeing the same regulatory agencies scrutinizing his business practices.

And Craft, a longtime Trump supporter, stands to get a great return on his investment, |

Joe Craft, CEO of Alliance Resource Partners, walks with wife Kelly Craft in 2018. Source: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

The coal billionaire running the GOP’s fundraising

During his first presidency, Trump vowed to end “the war on beautiful, clean coal” and pledged to “put miners back to work.” But he didn’t fulfill those promises. Despite weakening limits on coal plant emissions and requirements for storing toxic coal ash, coal continued its steady decline during Trump’s first term. Seventy-five coal power plants closed and 13,000 coal workers lost their jobs.

It is perhaps because of this that the coal industry has donated far less in 2024 than to previous Trump campaigns, reaching a new low of $7.9 million this election compared to $18.7 million in 2016.

But while other coal executives have stepped back from campaign financing, Joe Craft has bet nearly $3 million on Trump’s campaigns over the past decade. That investment has paid off personally and professionally—Trump appointed Craft’s wife, Kelly Craft, as ambassador to Canada in 2017, and the United Nations in 2019.

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During Trump’s first administration, Craft’s deep pockets and connections also bought access to the Environmental Protection Agency and Trump himself. Internal documents obtained by the EPI show that Craft and other coal and utility executives petitioned Trump to launch a failed attempt to bail out the coal industry in 2018, along with nuclear power plants. The move was so wildly unpopular that even the American Petroleum Institute, a fossil fuel lobbying group notorious for funding climate denial, called the idea “unprecedented and misguided.”

Craft maintained a close relationship with Trump’s first EPA chief Scott Pruitt, meeting him seven times during his first 14 months, and wooing him with gifts like courtside seats at the University of Kentucky’s basketball games.

Text messages from Michael Dowling, a lobbyist for utility FirstEnergy, in 2018 show that Craft was part of the effort to persuade Trump to save the coal industry. Source: Energy and Policy Institute

In addition to claiming falsely that American coal doesn’t drive climate change, Craft has made significant donations to climate denial groups. Through his personal foundation, Craft gave more $900,000 to the Texas Public Policy Institute from 2020 to 2022, according to tax records. He also gave $750,000 over the same period to Government Accountability and Oversight—a group that fights back against climate litigation and includes a lawyer who harasses climate scientists.

And while ambassador to Canada, Kelly Craft faced public backlash after saying she wasn’t sure she believed in climate change because “there are scientists on both sides that are accurate.” Her email signature included "sent from my coal powered iPad."

The Crafts have continued to be influential during Trump’s 2024 campaign. Joe and Kelly Craft were also appointed to lead the Republican National Committee’s campaign finance arm, despite the fact that Craft’s contribution is small in comparison to other fossil fuel executives. The Crafts also hosted a Trump fundraiser at their home in Kentucky in May, a dinner that cost $25,000 per couple.

Craft is hoping that coal will stage a comeback as the enormous energy demands of AI and data centers exceeds the amount of electricity currently on the grid. Already, coal power plants that were scheduled to go offline have remained online as states try to meet their energy demands.

On a recent earnings call, Craft chafed at the grid’s growing reliance on renewable power sources like wind and solar.

“This unexpected new demand is set to ramp up,” he said, “even as the nation's power portfolio continues to be hamstrung by politically motivated regulatory-driven forced premature closures of coal fired and other fossil fuel generating sources.”

The billionaire thinks Trump will be the quiet comeback coal needs. “Our coal miners love Donald Trump. They still love Donald Trump because they know Donald Trump cared about them,” Craft said on a podcast in February.

Trump has also promised to end federal support for wind power, which he’s falsely claimed are “killing all our eagles and our birds" and “driving whales crazy.” In the first presidential debate, Trump called clean energy the “green new scam.” And two of Trump’s most likely picks to lead the EPA include Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, and Mandy Gunasekara, an author of Project 2025 who claims that coal is “inherently more reliable and resilient” than renewable energy.

“They’re basically attempting to defend the energy sources that make their funders the most money from competition from renewables,” said Anderson.

Electric vehicles are part of the demand on the grid, making Musk an inadvertent ally in some ways to the coal industry. But Tesla’s business plan depends on making coal power obsolete. Last year, Musk helped accelerate Australia’s grid transition from coal power to clean power using Tesla batteries, and is working on doing the same in Hawaii. In 2023, Musk also put out a three-part Tesla “Master Plan” to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy, which started with a chapter on how to “eliminate fossil fuels”.

“It just reiterates, why is he siding politically with these people who would probably like to dismantle his entire industry given the chance?” said Anderson. “It’s not super surprising that Joe Craft is giving money to Trump again, but rather surprising that the money is arriving from America PAC.”

Further reading:

Already, Mr. Musk has discussed how he would use the new position to help his own companies. He has questioned a rule that required SpaceX to obtain a permit for discharging large amounts of potentially polluted water from its launchpad in Texas. He also said that limiting this kind of oversight could help SpaceX reach Mars sooner — “so long as it is not smothered by bureaucracy,” he wrote on X, his social-media platform. “The Department of Government Efficiency is the only path to extending life beyond Earth.”

Despite fading from the national stage, the stakes remain high for the coal sector. The outcome of the election could affect the pace of federal approvals for coal mine expansions and have an impact on a proposal to stop leasing federal property in the Powder River Basin, the nation's most productive coal region.

But the climate credentials of the world’s richest person have become clouded by his embrace of rightwing politicians, some of whom dismiss global heating, as well as by his management of X, formerly known as Twitter, during which many climate scientists have fled the platform amid a proliferation of misinformation about the climate crisis.

Mr. Pruitt’s attendance at the game … followed a year of regulatory victories for Mr. Craft, who maintains close ties to Mr. Pruitt even as he has lobbied the E.P.A. on issues important to his company, Alliance Resource Partners. And unlike other executives with whom Mr. Pruitt is known to have close ties — like the oilman Harold Hamm or the coal mogul Robert E. Murray — Mr. Craft has stayed relatively under the radar.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/climate/pruitt-coal-consulting.html

no lnx

wASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency who championed deregulation of the fossil fuel industry, is in discussions to work as a consultant to the Kentucky coal mining tycoon Joseph W. Craft III.

Mr. Pruitt has remained largely out of the public eye since parting ways with the Trump administration in July under a cloud of ethics investigations into matters including his ties to fossil fuel industry executives with business before the agency.

Mr. Craft, the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners and a major Republican donor, enjoyed a close relationship with the E.P.A. during Mr. Pruitt’s tenure. Mr. Craft met with Mr. Pruitt at least seven times in Mr. Pruitt’s first 14 months at the agency and in December provided him with courtside seats at a University of Kentucky basketball game, a school where Mr. Craft is a prominent supporter.

The former E.P.A. chief laid out his plans to develop a new consulting firm in one-on-one discussions with several executives during a Kentucky Coal Association meeting last week, according to industry officials familiar with Mr. Pruitt’s appearance and activities there. An executive with Mr. Craft’s company, Alliance Resources,confirmed the discussions in a statement Wednesday.

“Any discussions that occurred between Mr. Craft and Mr. Pruitt are preliminary, and do not involve him becoming an employee of Alliance Resource Partners,” said Heath Lovell, vice president for public affairs at Alliance, in the statement. “Obviously, any discussions would not involve lobbying the federal government.”

Under an ethics pledge imposed by President Trump, Mr. Pruitt would be barred from directly lobbying the E.P.A. for five years in any new role, but he would not be restricted from working as a private consultant advising the company on E.P.A. related matters or working on the state level to influence regulatory policy.

One of the two executives familiar with Mr. Pruitt’s plans said that he would not be lobbying the federal government and would “not do anything inconsistent with his legal and ethical requirements.”

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cult corrup window --> smash and grab?

https://www.ecowatch.com/scott-pruitt-epa-industry-2575035190.html

see below

New Reports Highlight Industry Influence on EPA Head Pruitt

New evidence emerged Friday and Saturday revealing how U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt's close relationships with industry leaders and lobbyists might impact his environmental decisions.

On Friday, the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen disclosed evidence that its former chairman J. Steven Hart, whose wife rented a Washington, DC condo to Pruitt, did in fact lobby the EPA on behalf of three clients during Pruitt's tenure despite his denials, The Hill reported.  Then, on Saturday, The New York Times broke the news that Pruitt had attended a University of Kentucky basketball game in December in special, front-and-center seats belonging to coal billionaire Joseph W. Craft III, whose close relationship with Pruitt had not been previously examined.

Hart, who stepped down from Williams & Jensen in April, told E&E news in March that he did not lobby the EPA in 2017 or 2018. But lobbying disclosures released hours after his departure revealed he did contact the EPA to lobby for Smithfield Foods during that period.

In Friday's disclosures to the Senate, the firm revealed further that Hart did more for Smithfield Foods that previously believed and also contacted the EPA on behalf of Coca-Cola and the Financial Oversight and Management Control Board of Puerto Rico.

The new information turned up after Williams & Jensen hired Jan Baran atWiley Rein to review Hart's schedule and communications, as well as the firm's disclosure filings, from 2017 and the first three months of 2018, to make sure the firm was accurately disclosing Hart's activity.

Hart and others lobbied the EPA for Coca-Cola on "environmental issues impacting the beverage industry; clean water supply and water conservation," according to the updated disclosures.

The EPA told The Hill that the inclusion of Coca-Cola was an error.

"This meeting involving Coca-Cola and their clean water steward did not occur," EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said in a statement. "The request was submitted and it went unfilled."

The disclosures said that lobbying by Hart and others for Coca-Cola to the EPA and other government agencies and Capital Hill also included "general market access issues in foreign countries; Commerce 232 investigations, including re: aluminum" and "[e]nvironmental issues impacting the beverage industry, including hydroflourocarbon replacement; commodity pricing legislation."

In 2017, Hart also lobbied the EPA for more potable water for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, on behalf of the Financial Oversight and Management Control Board of Puerto Rico.

Even if he wasn't an official lobbyist, coal executive Craft's close ties to Pruitt suggest fossil-fuel industry influence on key deregulatory moves such as October's repeal of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan,which Pruitt announced in Craft's hometown of Hazard, Kentucky with Craft in the audience. Craft also served on the board of an industry group that urged the EPA to postpone enforcement of a rule preventing coal plants from dumping toxic metals into rivers, a request Pruitt honored in September, The New York Times reported.

The New York Times further uncovered the fact that Pruitt had met with Craft at least seven times during the first 14 months of his tenure at the EPA, more than he met with any environmental advocate. The two are close enough to be on texting basis, and their relationship has deep roots: Craft was a major donor to Pruitt's state government campaigns in Oklahoma.

Heath Lovell, vice president for public affairs at Craft's company Alliance Resource Partners, told The New York Times that Pruitt paid "market value" for the basketball tickets.

The game was not included on Pruitt's official calendar, but was videotaped and mentioned in university communications requested by The New York Times through public records requests. According to those communications, Kentucky state police provided additional security for Pruitt during the trip, backing up his own detail.

he last time the Democratic and Republican parties had to stage the quadrennial spectacles that serve as their presidential nominating conventions, they got a big assist from the taxpayers: The Federal Election Commission cut checks to each of the two parties for $18.2 million to pay for construction and other basic services required for the 2012 events.

Coming from the same pot of money that also provided public grants for presidential candidates — the $3 per person voluntary income tax checkoff — the convention funding part of the system effectively outlived the rest of it. Candidates began rejecting the public funding system in the 2000 election because there was too little money and too many strings. It has so withered by now that only one White House candidate (former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat) opted to participate this cycle. Still, the parties continued to accept their convention grants, supplementing them with cash raised by the host cities for the occasions and other sources of support.

That changed just before Christmas 2014, when Congress — to almost everyone’s surprise — privatized the conventions by wiping out the grants, which would have come to about $19 million each in this cycle. Instead, each party is now allowed to set up a special convention account and collect donations of up to three times the usual limit for gifts to a national party — meaning as much as $100,200 in 2015 and another $100,200 in 2016. PACs can contribute up to $45,000 per year.

As is often the case when it comes to fundraising, Republicans have been more successful at bringing home money for their convention. Through March, the Republican National Committee raised $11.8 million through 318 of these “bonus” contributions. About half the money has come in gifts of $100,200 each. But eight individuals have maxed out already for both years of the current cycle, giving a total of $200,400 per person; that’s $1.6 million to finance national party activities this July, or more than 13 percent of the total raised through March 30 for the GOP convention.

Look for these folks in the best sky box seats in Cleveland.

Who are they? Not exactly new players in the realm of money-in-politics — the majority already have shelled out millions in the 2016 cycle alone to the party, its candidates and super PACs supporting them, and have been strong backers of the GOP for years:

For its part, the Democratic National Committee has reported raising only $3.5 million in these special donations. It lists 165 contributions to the convention account, with only seven coming in at $100,000 or more. Thus far, only Henry and Marsha Laufer have given the maximum in both 2015 and 2016.

Laufer is on the board of Renaissance Technologies, a N.Y. hedge fund; previously he was the firm’s research director. The couple has contributed more than $2.5 million to Democratic organizations thus far in the 2016 cycle. James Simons, Renaissance’s founder, is one of three others who have given $100,000 or more to the Democratic convention effort; the others are David Trone, the co-founder of Total Wine & More who was a Maryland congressional candidate until losing in the primary this week, and longtime Democratic donor Fred Eychaner, a Chicago publisher and radio station owner. So far, at least, Renaissance Technologies would seem to have qualified for naming rights to the Democratic convention this summer in Philadelphia.

The new convention accounts represent just one more example of the dramatic increase in concentration of federal campaign funding among a very small group of donors. In 2012, the grants to the two parties represented ‘contributions’ from more than twelve million U.S. taxpayers who voluntarily participated in the funding program. This year so far, fewer than 500 people have accounted for the direct party funding of these efforts, and while much more will be received before the gavels fall in Cleveland and Philadelphia, the concentration of funding is unlikely to change significantly.

Separately, the host cities are raising funds to pay for convention expenses. Donations to these accounts are unlimited and there are no restrictions on sources so corporations, unions and other institutions will be important donors. These funds will not be publicly disclosed until months after the convention is concluded, but the *Washington Post* has reportedthat the DNC has commitments totaling more than $40 million and the RNC has pledges of $56 million thus far for these groups.

We’re hearing these days about donor fatigue, and it’s no wonder. This handful of people, who wouldn’t even make up a majority of delegates to either of the conventions we’re preparing for, are financing much of the outside spending that has become so important in this presidential race, increasingly along with the normal activities of the two parties and now the basic costs for the conventions.

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Categories: Campaign finance Political Parties Politicians & Elections Presidential Election

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Tags: alejandra foster, Bob Biersack, charles joyce, Club for Growth Action, david trone, democratic convention, diane hendricks, Elizabeth uihlein, Fred Eychaner, henry laufer, James Simons, Jeb Bush, joseph craft, keep the promise, Marco Rubio, Marsha Laufer, Our Principles PAC, paul foster, Renaissance Technologies, republican convention, Richard Uihlein, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, thomas russell, unintimidated pac, WArren Stephens}:}:

==

Jeb Bush was the highest profile speaker at a secretive three-day retreat in Bristol, Virginia, hosted by the CEOs of six coal companies, according to materials for the invitation-only event obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and shared with the *Guardian*.

The event, dubbed the "Coal & Investment Leadership Forum," which ran from Sunday through Tuesday, took place at an exclusive private golf course and resort called the "Olde Farm," owned by the founder of United Coal Company, Jim McGlothlin. The private country club is known for its annual golf tournament in which players take sides in the Civil War for the South or the Union and which is described by McGlothlin as "our most cherished tradition."

In addition to United Coal, the forum was hosted by the CEOs of five other coal companies: Alliance Resource Partners, Alpha Natural Resources, Consol Energy, Drummond Company, and Arch Coal.

Bush was the only candidate expected to run for the 2016 presidential election to speak at the event.

The materials didn't say what Bush  was to speak about, but in a room of coal industry executives and potential major Bush campaign funders, climate change and proposed cuts in carbon emissions likely dominated the conversation.

The purpose of the event was outlined in a letter from the coal hosts to invitees: "Our industry needs to keep a loud voice with top representatives of our government."

Having long bemoaned of a "war on coal," facing massive losses in share value, and the likely closure of many coal plants under the Clean Power Plan, the coal industry must be looking to Jeb Bush as a potential ally.

"It would be our hope that he would touch upon his general energy policies," McGlothlin told *the Guardian's* Suzanne Goldenberg.

Bush has long been considered a climate change denier.

In 2009 he told Esquire: "I'm a skeptic. I'm not a scientist. I think the science has been politicized."

Speaking at a May 2015 fundraising event in New Hampshire, Bush said that it would be "arrogant" to say that the science on climate change is settled.

Despite Bush's claims, which appear to pander to the same dirty energy hisfamily made a fortune in, there is overwhelming scientific consensus that the climate is changing because of human activities.

==

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alliance_Resource_Partners

Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. (ARLP) operates five mining companies in western Kentucky,along with mines in Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia and Maryland. The company describes itself as "the fifth-largest coal producer in the eastern United States."[1]

On its website ARLP states its "customer base includes major utilities and industrial users ... More than 80 percent of ARLP's sales tonnage is dedicated to electric utilities that have long-term contractual relationships with the company."[1]

At 2008 year end, ARLP states that it had approximately 2,955 full-time employees, $1.0 billion in assets and $1.2 billion in total revenues.[1]

Contents [hide]

Alliance and coal

Mining Operations

The company has coal mining operations in five states -- Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and West Virginia - as well as a rail-to-barge loading terminal located in Indiana.[2]

map

Proposed mines

In September 2011 it was announced that privately held White Oak Resources LLC will develop and operate the Mine No. 1 project - White Oak Mine - in Hamilton County, Ill. Alliance will support the mine with $140 million to acquire and fund development of 200 million tons in coal reserves, up to $110 million for surface rights, and another $150 million to $275 million for a preferred equity investment.

Construction of Mine No. 1 was already under way. Once in operation, White Oak estimates the longwall mine could produce up to 6.5 million tons annually. [3]

Alliance also committed up to $110 million to buy coal-handling facilities, and it will give White Oak up to $100 million in backstop financing for mining equipment. Alliance said the deal will add to earnings and distributable cash flow once production begins, around 2014.[4]

Dotiki Mine Roof Collapse

On April 28, 2010, a roof collapsed at the company's Dotiki Mine in Hopkins County, Kentucky, killing two miners. KY Gov. Steve Beshear said rescue crews had to pull back after reaching the site of the collapse when the roof became unstable. United Mine Workers officials say two other miners escaped. The missing miners were operating what's known as a continuous miner, a machine that digs coal for transport to the surface.[5]

Records show inspectors from the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety and Licensing have issued 31 orders to close sections of the mine or to shut down equipment because of safety violations since January 2009. Those records also show an additional 44 citations for safety violations that didn't result in closure orders.[5]

According to the Herald-Leader, the Dotiki operator was "cited 216 times so far in 2010, according to MSHA's Web site. In 2009, the company was cited 649 times, more than the 458 citations issued last year against the West Virginia mine that blew up April 5 killing 29. On April 13, MSHA cited the operator for not notifying it quickly of an accident and for not preserving an accident site." And:

"Joe Craft, the president of Dotiki owner Alliance, organized a group of donors last year to pay for a new $7 million 'Wildcat Coal Lodge' to house the University of Kentucky men's basketball players on campus. Alliance also was tied to a controversy last year over the firing of the state's director of the state Division of Mine Permits. Ron Mills said he refused to issue about a half-dozen mine permits requested over the past year, chiefly by the politically connected Alliance Resource Partners, because they did not comply with federal and state mining law. Mills' denials were overruled."[6]

The mine was at least partially idled in 2004 when a supply tractor caught fire and spread flames to the coal, timbers, and other equipment. 70 miners were trapped underground but were safely evacuated, and the mine returned to full production in about a month. In 1995, a worker died outside the mine when the bulldozer he was operating fell into a cavity in a coal stock pile. He was buried in coal and suffocated.[5]

Opposition and lawsuits

Community passes anti-mining ordinance

On April 9, 2008, Alliance Resource Partners LP and units of Allegheny Energy Inc. filed a lawsuit against Donegal Township in Washington County, Pa., saying a new township ordinance endangered both its Tunnel Ridge Mine and Penn Ridge Mine longwall mining projects. The companies said that the township, in violation of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, passed an ordinance in December 2007 that seeks to ban mining in the township: "The Anti-Mining Ordinance has a substantial impact on interstate commerce because it has the effect of curbing the supply of coal, which is an important natural resource, at a time when demand for coal is growing substantially," said the plaintiffs. The lawsuit also said the ordinance violates the contracts and equal protection clauses, due process rights and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and is an illegal taking without adequate compensation against the companies.[7]

The anti-mining ordinance is called "An Ordinance to Protect the Health, Safety, and General Welfare of the Citizens and Natural Environment of Donegal Township By Banning Corporations from Engaging in Mining Within the Township; By Banning Corporate Ownership of Land and Mineral Estates Used for Mining Within the Township; By Banning Persons From Using Corporations to Engage in Mining; By Banning the Exercise of Certain Powers By Mining Corporations; By Recognizing the Rights of Ecosystems and Natural Communities; and By Providing for Enforcement of Those Rights." The lawsuit also disputes a companion anti-corporation ordinance enacted by the township. Alliance had obtained the reserves for the mines from Allegheny Energy and Allegheny Energy's Allegheny Pittsburgh Coal Co. unit in early 2000.[7]

Lawsuit over polluted water

In May 2011, local TV station WKYT reported flaming drinking water well at the home of Calvin and Denise Howard in eastern Kentucky's Pike County, who reported that the water burned their skin when they bathed. They also said that Excel Mining, operator of nearby coal mine MC Mining owned by Alliance, had offered to install a water filtration system only if the residents signed a liability waiver. The Howards refused, and in August 2011, filed a lawsuit (pdf) over the contamination.

According to the lawsuit, in January 2011 the Howards began hearing explosions beneath their home, and their well water turned gray and took on an offensive odor. In May 2011, the well exploded into flames, destroying the well house, and has burned continuously ever since. The Kentucky Department of Mining Reclamation has investigated the burning well and confirmed that it "is creating an environmental and public safety hazard." The company began providing bottled water to the Howards, but other impacted families said they did not get any assistance. The Howards have been advised to evacuate their trailer home but say they can't afford to do so. The lawsuit seeks compensation for their replacement housing and their water.

Residents also report mysterious health problems they feared could be connected to the poisoned water, including a teenage girl's hair falling out and a boy vomiting blood, and are hoping to connect their water pipes to a clean municipal water source - but price is a concern. Pike County officials have said it could cost as much as $150,000 to connect them to their existing water lines, and would take at least three months.

Excel Mining parent company Alliance was involved in a 2009 controversy over the firing of the director of Kentucky's Division of Mine Permits. Ron Mills' termination came after he refused to issue about a half-dozen mine permits -- most requested by Alliance -- because they failed to comply with federal and state laws. Mills' denials were ultimately overruled by higher state officials.[8]

Lawsuit alleging discrimination

In a 2011 lawsuit, federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) accused Alliance Resource Partners' River View Coal of discriminating against black applicants while hiring miners for a new mine from 2008-2010, suing on behalf of Shawn King and a "class of black applicants." At issue is how River View conducted hiring at a mine in Waverly, a non-union mine about 25 minutes west of Henderson, Ky., between Aug. 1, 2008 and 2010. The mine started operations in 2009. The underground mine employs 437 people. EEOC was hesitant to say how many people were covered by the lawsuit, saying that figure was still being determined, but that 13 people filed complaints with the agency after being rejected for jobs between 2008 to 2010, when River View began interviewing for miners. The company didn't give any of the applicants a specific reason for being turned down, and several were not interviewed for open positions.

River View produced 5.9 million tons of high-sulfur coal in 2010, with 128.5 million tons listed in reserve at the end of that same year.[9]

Personnel and campaign donations

Alliance Coal Employees Among Biggest Campaign Donors

It was reported in July 2011 that Alliance Coal employees were among the biggest campaign donors in Kentucky's state primary election. Ten employees of Alliance, along with their spouses, donated a total of $60 thousand to three candidates. The candidates were Democrat Allison Lundergan Grimes for Secretary of State, Republican Todd P'Pool for Attorney General, and Republican David Williams for Governor.

A spokesman for Alliance says it's up to employees whether to be politically active, and he didn't find the contributions unusual.[10]

CEO and Koch

Joseph Craft is president, CEO, and chairman of Alliance Resource Partners. His family is reportedly worth $1.9 billion.[11]

In June 2011, Craft attended a closed strategy session of the billionaire Koch brothers, where Charles Koch said: "We have Saddam Hussein, this is the mother of all wars" in what appeared to be a reference to President Obama and the 2012 elections. Charles Koch then suggested that those in attendance could donate millions or billions of dollars toward the war.[11]

Contact Details

ARLP Headquarters

Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.

1717 South Boulder Ave., Suite 400

Tulsa, OK 74119

(918) 295-7600

Website: http://www.arlp.com

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Alliance Resource Partners, "About ARLP", Alliance Resource Partners website, accessed June 2009.
  2. ↑ Alliance Resource Partners, "Operations", Alliance Resource Partners website, accessed June 2009.
  3. ↑ "Alliance to spend $525M on coal mining" Tulsa World, Sep. 23, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Alliance to invest up to $525M in coal project" AP, Sep. 22, 2011.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ig5LJgqRLxQqyXPWGKvfaFjqL_swD9FCS7O00" Google, April 29, 2010.
  6. ↑ "1 missing, 1 dead in Kentucky mine with link to UK donor" Lexington Herald-Leader, April 29, 2010.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Berry Cassell, "Alliance, Allegheny sue Pennsylvania township over anti-coal ordinance" SNL, June 5, 2008.
  8. ↑ Sue Sturgis, "Flaming drinking-water well in Kentucky illuminates Big Coal's abuses" Institute for Southern Studies, August 19, 2011.
  9. ↑ Brett Barrouquere, "EEOC: Mining company wouldn't hire black miners" Bloomberg, Sep. 27, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Alliance Coal Employees Among Biggest Campaign Donors" WBKO.com, July 11, 2011.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Exclusive Audio: Inside the Koch Brothers' Secret Seminar" Mother Jones, Sep. 6, 2011.

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