Stilson Robert Crc

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doge antifa bs?

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CRC Research Director Michael Watson on Newsmax discussing Reid Hoffman and Disinformation, 11/3/21

Capital Research Center

63.3K subscribers

729 views Nov 9, 2021

SPECIAL ELECTION SAME TACTICS USED AS BY RISSIA?! SOROS

CLAIMED TO USE THE SAME TECH AS RUSS 2016 CUTOUTS

0:00

folks as the mainstream media still recovers from last night our next guest says the battle in left-wing media is no longer about right versus left but about

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8 seconds

apparent truth versus fiction joining us now is michael watson the research director at the capitol research center who wrote the op-ed one-time

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disinformation donors backed left-wing propaganda targeting disinformation michael thanks for being with us so tell us about these anti-disinformation

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efforts and what are they really about right so uh and thanks for having me on the

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what i was writing about is a thing called good information it was announced in axios uh i believe earlier last week

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uh and it's a project backed by big liberal donors uh among them george

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soros and reid hoffman who is the uh who is the co-founder of linkedin

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and he's a he's a billionaire donor who's given a lot of money to uh liberal media and liberal political

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uh efforts uh including one in 2017 that you that claimed to use the same

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tactics that russian cutouts allegedly used in the 2016 elections against uh then candidate donald trump

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1 minute, 22 seconds

uh against a republican candidate in uh alabama's special election michael watson thank you so much for

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55 views Jun 9, 2026 Who Funds That?

Without energy, we have nothing: The economy relies on it; our entertainments rely on it; our schools rely on it; our comfort and lives rely on it. But the energy on which we all rely has enemies, and our colleague Ken Braun has traced them in his new report Enemies of Energy. Ken joins us today to discuss his report. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploa... http://dailywire.com/news/whats-behin...

12 seconds

Hello, I'm Michael Watson joined by Sarah Lee and this is Capital Research Cent's Who Funds That podcast. Without energy, we have nothing. The economy

0:20

20 seconds

relies on it. Our entertainments rely on it. Our schools rely on it. Our comfort and indeed our very lives rely on it.

0:26

26 seconds

But the energy on which we all rely [clears throat] has enemies. and our colleague Ken Braun has traced them in his new report, Enemies of Energy. Ken joins us today to discuss that report.

0:36

36 seconds

Ken, welcome back.

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37 seconds

Hi, thanks to be glad to be here. Thank you.

0:41

41 seconds

So, uh what's your report about enemies of energy? Well, it uh profiles the 15 largest, most influential um what call

0:49

49 seconds

themselves climate en nos, but I um make a case here we should call them anti-energy NOS's because they oppose

0:58

58 seconds

not just oil and gas and coal, but also nuclear power, which emits no emissions whatsoever. And if you put those

1:06

1 minute, 6 seconds

together, that's 88% nearly 90% of all the electric or not just electricity, all the energy period that we use in

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1 minute, 13 seconds

this country. Um, and has been that way for decades despite all of the obsession with uh wind turbines and solar panels.

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1 minute, 22 seconds

Um, I also profile the 15 um, and I should say this group takes in about $9.3 million per day from their donors,

1:32

1 minute, 32 seconds

some of which are the taxpayers. Um, I also profile the 15 largest known donors to these NOS's. Uh, some famous ones

1:40

1 minute, 40 seconds

like, you know, Michael Bloomberg and and Sergey Brin, the uh, Google co-founder, but some that, you know, we've talked about here before that aren't as prominent, but are also very

1:49

1 minute, 49 seconds

big donors like Fred Taylor and Fred Standback. Um, the report begins with the myths and misconceptions that this movement uses to promote their

1:58

1 minute, 58 seconds

opposition to energy. Things like, you know, sea levels are going to flood Florida. Let's let's let's move uh into those myths and misconceptions because

2:06

2 minutes, 6 seconds

if what they would say is we are trying to stop the literal end of the world and you big oil shells are

2:15

2 minutes, 15 seconds

trying to stop us stopping the literal end of the world for the your Scrooge McDuck ponds of money.

2:22

2 minutes, 22 seconds

Right? So let's just get with uh the the most one of the most famous myths is that we've got a climate emergency and there's lots of components to that. Sea

2:31

2 minutes, 31 seconds

level rises is one of the more prominent ones. Al Gore's movie back in the day uh told us we were going to have 30 or 20

2:38

2 minutes, 38 seconds

feet of sea level rise if we didn't um stop stop burning hydrocarbons. Um the

2:45

2 minutes, 45 seconds

World Wildlife Fund said something similar. Um lots of groups have claimed this. The truth, as we put out in the

2:52

2 minutes, 52 seconds

myths and misconceptions, is that sea level rises since 1993 have gone up about 4 in total in 30 years. They're rising.

3:00

3 minutes

You have you have a graphic of a pair of spectacles with some pennies stacked in front of it that rep that represents is that what's what the annual rise a few centimeters.

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3 minutes, 8 seconds

The annual rise is less than half a centimeter a year which is about the thickness of three pennies. So what we

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3 minutes, 14 seconds

have here is is not you know not a not a flood that's coming but really kind of a puddle. Uh one that can easily be

3:22

3 minutes, 22 seconds

mitigated against even if that continues. It'll take like 1,400 years for us to get 20 years of sea level rise

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3 minutes, 29 seconds

at that rate. And you know, 1400 the 35th century is about 300 years beyond what the writers of Star Trek have even

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3 minutes, 37 seconds

imagined at this point, right? The the the that's not a crisis.

3:41

3 minutes, 41 seconds

The assuming we don't cut off all our energy fantastically advanced civilization of a thousand

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3 minutes, 48 seconds

years from now, we'll probably be able to do something about what we've done.

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3 minutes, 53 seconds

Yeah. And I point out in the report also in that same section that uh you know the Netherlands has been underwater literally you know well below sea level

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4 minutes, 2 seconds

by multiple meters for hundreds of years and they've figured out how to uh mitigate that. So I think uh less than

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4 minutes, 9 seconds

half a centimeter a year um we can find a way around that. Sarah.

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4 minutes, 16 seconds

Yeah. Hey Ken, thanks for joining us. Uh so my question is this. [clears throat] You mentioned Al Gore and his, you know,

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4 minutes, 25 seconds

his his film. We also know that, you know, Al Gore. Was was Al Gore one of the ones, you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong. Was he one of the ones? Did

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4 minutes, 33 seconds

he ever talk about global cooling or was that pre Al Gore? That was pre-al, right? Where the big was global cooling,

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4 minutes, 41 seconds

right? He was probably in high school or so. But, uh, his his climate reality project is one of the 15, um, anti-energy NOS's in the report.

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4 minutes, 50 seconds

Okay. And I bring up the cooling of course because as we all know and most people now know anybody who's paid attention that you know they they switch

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4 minutes, 57 seconds

the disaster the potential disaster to be when it doesn't pan out right. And so

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5 minutes, 4 seconds

that leads me to this question, which is it looks to me, and you're the expert, so you're gonna have to, you know,

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5 minutes, 10 seconds

confirm or deny, um, that the worry over [clears throat] a giant catastrophe to

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5 minutes, 17 seconds

come has mitigated somewhat since Al Gore was really rocking and rolling, like in the 90s, things like that. But the money coming in to prevent it is up.

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5 minutes, 30 seconds

Am I right about that?

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5 minutes, 32 seconds

Yeah, it's been going up and and in uh some of the NOS's in the report that are a little lesser known have actually become very prominent. The Rocky

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5 minutes, 40 seconds

Mountain Institute dozen years ago was a 10 millionish annual revenue operation.

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5 minutes, 45 seconds

They're not Let our listeners know. Let our listeners know why they might have that name might ring a bell, but they may not know exactly what they're about.

5:54

5 minutes, 54 seconds

Right. So, uh, they're now up to about 160 million a year in annual revenue according to their last report, which puts them in league with the Sierra Club. Um, some of the really big ones.

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6 minutes, 3 seconds

Uh, what they Let me let me interrupt you. Ken has a really good oped on this right now in the Daily Wire on Rocky Mountain Institute. So, do please do check that out. We'll put it in the show notes.

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6 minutes, 12 seconds

We'll we'll include that in the show notes.

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6 minutes, 14 seconds

Yeah. So, they're uh so they're um I forgot where I was going with that, but uh the uh what what the what the Rocky Mountain Institute became infamous for,

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6 minutes, 23 seconds

right? Uh what they what they um and they got some money from the Biden administration, I believe, one of the one of the ones that got it. Um they became famous during the Biden

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6 minutes, 31 seconds

administration for promoting the uh idea that 600 childhood asthma cases 600,000

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6 minutes, 38 seconds

sorry childhood asthma cases were linked directly to natural gas stoves in um in

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6 minutes, 45 seconds

residential homes which I mean anyone who knows any uh amateur chefs out there knows that natural gas is the thing that rich people like to put in their homes

6:54

6 minutes, 54 seconds

so they can have fancy stoves to cook on. uh absolutely nonsense report, but the Rocky Mountain Institute uh got all

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7 minutes, 1 second

the way through to the administration um and they were ser you know they were making some noises like they were going to try and uh push that you know

7:09

7 minutes, 9 seconds

well and that was and that was through these stoves out of people's houses. Yeah.

7:13

7 minutes, 13 seconds

Can I say because there was better gas stoves are better to cook on. They really are. You get better meals from gas stoves because you can control it.

7:22

7 minutes, 22 seconds

But go ahead. Sorry. And because and because sorry and because there was always a labor angle, of course, the Biden administration official who was

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7 minutes, 30 seconds

responsible for the trial balloon that they were going to ban gas stoves at the Consumer Product Safety Commission was

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7 minutes, 37 seconds

Richard Trumpa Jr., son of the late head of the AFL CIO. Proceed.

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7 minutes, 43 seconds

Yes. So, uh, yeah. So they were pushing to get rid of the gas stoves and um uh yeah got got all the way through to the

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7 minutes, 51 seconds

CPSC consumer product CPSC um to uh to promote the idea um and and you know

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7 minutes, 58 seconds

that's just one of one of the more interesting parts of this is natural gas um

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8 minutes, 6 seconds

permeates the report in several places and one of the more important things was that natural gas has reduced our carbon

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8 minutes, 13 seconds

carbon dioxide emissions in electricity generation because it's displaced coal as the primary uh electricity source.

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8 minutes, 22 seconds

It's I think 60% now is natural gas or close to it. Um so the irony here is that if you're going to ban gas stoves and make everyone use electric stoves

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8 minutes, 31 seconds

instead, you're not really getting rid of the gas. It's just getting burned somewhere else in order to produce the electric and much lessly. Yeah.

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8 minutes, 40 seconds

And and 30% of the electricity is still coming from coal. So Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean natural gas and coal

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8 minutes, 46 seconds

together are well over half and and the nuclear power that the Rocky Mountain Institute also has worked against for years is another piece of it. So, yeah.

8:55

8 minutes, 55 seconds

Yeah. Go into go into go into nuclear because that's always to me been the tell that you're actually a watermelon versus you actually care about the

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9 minutes, 3 seconds

environment. Watermelon for those who don't know, green on the outside, communist red on the inside. And why they're I want the arguments too for why

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9 minutes, 11 seconds

they're against nuclear because I think that people have this idea that it's dangerous.

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9 minutes, 17 seconds

Yeah. It's the safest thing we It's the safe it's by far the safest most reliable

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9 minutes, 24 seconds

or the the most reliable and safe energy source that we have. Um it's as safe as the wind turbines and the solar panels.

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9 minutes, 31 seconds

Except unlike those, it works 92% of the time. Nothing kill the eagles. Nothing is more reliable than an American nuclear reactor. It t takes up far less space.

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9 minutes, 42 seconds

It emits no emissions at all. Carbon dioxide or otherwise except for water vapor, steam, which is what you see coming out of the cooling towers. Takes

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9 minutes, 50 seconds

up very little space. It should be and should have been all the way back to the beginning of of the what we used to call

9:57

9 minutes, 57 seconds

a conservation movement. should have been the thing that they once they decided that carbon dioxide was going to be their cause. They should have been

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10 minutes, 4 seconds

promoting the building of nuclear power plants. And if they had done that and we had say two three times more of them now instead of this movement opposing that

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10 minutes, 13 seconds

thing, we'd have a lot we'd all have a lot less to argue about because we'd have a reliable electricity and lower carbon emissions. France

10:21

10 minutes, 21 seconds

but is the arguing the point I mean that's the thing is is that really what they're after is fewer things to argue

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10 minutes, 27 seconds

about. Well, so going back to the Rocky Mountain Institute, their founder, a a kind of uh anti-energy gadfly going back

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10 minutes, 37 seconds

50 years named Amory Loveven. Amry Loveven said in an interview back in the late 70s before he founded Rocky Mountain Institute that he feared the

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10 minutes, 46 seconds

day that we may come up with a reliable, safe, clean,

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10 minutes, 53 seconds

lowcost energy source because Amory was afraid of what we might do with it, which would be more economic growth and

11:00

11 minutes

making the world a richer place where we could do things. Um, one of the main points of this report, which is put in there in the introduction and in the

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ending, um, is that a rich nation can afford to protect bald eagles and raptors and and creatures and wolves and

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11 minutes, 18 seconds

landscapes and all these things that we love to look at. A poor nation can't.

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11 minutes, 22 seconds

And the trick to get you from a rich or a poor nation to a rich nation that we are is access to that abundant energy

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11 minutes, 30 seconds

that this it's not a coincidence that the that the industrial revolution kicks off in Great Britain which before they used it all up was the Saudi Arabia of coal.

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11 minutes, 40 seconds

Mhm.

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Yeah. And that well we're the Saudi Arabia of coal now but [laughter] where that is another thing that that I point out in the report. I don't dwell

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11 minutes, 50 seconds

on it, but we have more than we have more of this wealth creating miracle at this point than anyone. We are the

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11 minutes, 57 seconds

world's number one exporter of natural gas. We have coal reserves that'll last for three centuries at the current rate

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12 minutes, 5 seconds

of usage. We obviously have ramped up our our petroleum production as well. I mean, we're we're sitting on wealth that

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12 minutes, 13 seconds

for us and the rest of the world and with the data centers and the AI that's coming up, this advantage is immense.

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12 minutes, 19 seconds

And it's just I mean, since since I since I just got back since I just got back from the gas station, you know, gas where I live is roughly four, you know, $4ish dollars a

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12 minutes, 28 seconds

gallon. That's what the straight of Hormuz closed. Mhm. Yeah.

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12 minutes, 33 seconds

50 years ago, we'd be alternate, we'd be on alternate license plate dates.

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12 minutes, 39 seconds

You'd see lines. I remember being a kid during Jimmy Carter's era and you'd see gas stations.

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12 minutes, 45 seconds

A lot of the This isn't part of the report, but a lot of the energy guys have been look I've been reading for, you know, years now are kind of stunned.

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12 minutes, 52 seconds

They they all are admitting, wow, when this war kicked off, I was assuming we were going to hit $150 a barrel uh oil.

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13 minutes

That never happened. We didn't even come close. We got a little over a hundred and it's settling back and bouncing around right now. And uh and another

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13 minutes, 7 seconds

thing, whenever you have a a supply interruption like this, it inspires the industry to drill more and pull down more. So, I mean, this is not investment

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13 minutes, 16 seconds

advice, but if we if we have uh sub$3 gasoline in most of the country this time next year, I would not be shocked.

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13 minutes, 26 seconds

So, you brought up another thing that there there's a lot of rumblings beginning from the environmental left, uh, data centers.

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13 minutes, 34 seconds

Um, and it just sounds a lot to me like what you're talking about is, you [clears throat] know, the engines that

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13 minutes, 41 seconds

that power capitalism [laughter] moving into this new future. Um, and that's really what they're against. I

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13 minutes, 48 seconds

mean, you mentioned Armory and how that would bother him because Amory. Yeah.

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13 minutes, 52 seconds

Amory. Oh, well, Armory, maybe that was a slip of the tongue. Um, so yeah. So, is that what you're talking about? Is that what you're suggesting that this is

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14 minutes, 1 second

actually just an ideological push and the the facade is this environmental concern?

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14 minutes, 8 seconds

So, my 10 myths uh could have easily been 15. Number 10 was plastic pollution and how the United States and all of the

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14 minutes, 17 seconds

rich western nations that can afford the ways to throw away plastic do so in engineered landfills. It doesn't land in

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14 minutes, 25 seconds

the ocean. These groups have been over the the reason I put that in there is because a lot of these groups over the

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14 minutes, 32 seconds

last few years have as their support on the anti-energy front has begun to collapse, they've begun attacking

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14 minutes, 40 seconds

plastic, which is made from petroleum and and gas. So, that is kind of a proxy for doing what they've been doing all

14:48

14 minutes, 48 seconds

along, which is trying to stop economic growth. Um, and if you can shut down all plastic production, you you damage

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14 minutes, 56 seconds

petroleum production as well and obviously hurt us by reducing the amount of plastic we use. And I think what I

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15 minutes, 4 seconds

didn't really go into the data centers too much, but I think when we do a revised version of this report, the story will be that yes, they've moved

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15 minutes, 11 seconds

this movement less about attacking energy on a frontal assault, but more indirectly by going after data centers

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15 minutes, 19 seconds

and the energy those need and plastic and all of those things. Um, and another item I didn't put in the report because

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15 minutes, 26 seconds

I don't want to encourage them. Uh we saw a group called a terrorist group, let's just call them what they are, the volcano group that attacked a a power

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15 minutes, 34 seconds

plant in Germany uh back in January. Um it's the second time they've done it, doesn't get a lot of play over here. But

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15 minutes, 41 seconds

I would not be I I terribly surprised if as their influence begins to wayne, even

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15 minutes, 48 seconds

if their money doesn't, some of the more radical ends of this um movement um begin going into more of those direct

15:56

15 minutes, 56 seconds

action things and trying to, you know, impede power centers. Of the 15 groups I talked about, the only one that's shown

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16 minutes, 3 seconds

any inclination to get that feisty so far is Greenpeace. I didn't put Extinction Rebellion in there. um or the volcano group. But uh I would watch them

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16 minutes, 12 seconds

carefully because uh the more this movement starts to decline, the more some of its craziest members are going to get uh I I fear more

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16 minutes, 21 seconds

assuming assuming they don't slide off into other ends of the omni cause like Sunrise Movement was the sort of

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16 minutes, 29 seconds

bleeding edge wing of the environmentalists but not quite ready to do violence environmentalists. Mhm.

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16 minutes, 36 seconds

And now they're just a pro Palestinian group and a pro- open borders group and Palestinian.

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16 minutes, 44 seconds

Yeah. Just uh you know they're they're for all the everything in everything leftism rather than being strictly uh

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16 minutes, 52 seconds

you know even for the left wing of the environmental environmentalist movement.

16:56

16 minutes, 56 seconds

Uh I wanted to move on. You mentioned a couple names uh Bloomberg, Brin uh Taylor and Stanback. Who's funding all this? And why?

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17 minutes, 7 seconds

Well, those guys are doing it with their their own coin. Uh they're all of them billionaires, some of them Bloomberg, you know, way up there in the

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17 minutes, 15 seconds

billionaire list. Um they are also some of the other lower down in the 15 known

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17 minutes, 22 seconds

funders. Um I I listed some of the pass through groups that have been that are under the influence of some of these

17:30

17 minutes, 30 seconds

large billionaires. They give their money to like the climate imperative foundation. Climate imperative then spreads it out to you know the the the 15 that I put um the NOS's themselves.

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17 minutes, 42 seconds

Um and some in some like John Door another anti-energy billionaire is has been the the um the chair of the climate

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17 minutes, 50 seconds

imperative foundation since it was founded in 2020. Door is a big investor in the clean what he calls the clean

17:56

17 minutes, 56 seconds

tech revolution. Um and he like a lot of these groups is a big cheerleader for China's supposed reduction in carbon

18:05

18 minutes, 5 seconds

emissions and their carbon fighting heroics. And in fact China as I repeatedly point out in the report it this is a myth and please look on China in detail.

18:16

18 minutes, 16 seconds

Yeah. So China um we got we have I forgot what the we're like 27% of the

world's GDP. China is 20 or um like 18 19 something like high te high teens if I'm remembering

right we're way ahead of them as far as GDP we are the biggest economic engine in the history of earth we emit a tiny

like a third of what China's carbon emissions do um and in fact our carbon emissions are right back to where they

were in the aggregate back in 1988 as a per capita measure we're emitting less per person than we were before Pearl

Harbor was attacked. Um, so we're doing really well. China is not. China is the world's largest carbon emitter there by

many times us and everyone else, I think the next five countries combined don't equal China's annual CO2 output.

19:08

19 minutes, 8 seconds

And the reason and the reason, frankly, is because for all the propaganda about their green tech and their solar panels, they're just burning a lot of coal,

19:17

19 minutes, 17 seconds

right? Um, they are the world's biggest coal emitter. They have added they they they've they have added as much coal CO2

19:26

19 minutes, 26 seconds

emissions in the last three years as we have reduced with that natural gas um over coal switch that I mentioned

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19 minutes, 34 seconds

earlier. Um and they're going to build a 100 new coal plants just this year that they announced it and we've I think we've got 200 total in this country.

19:42

19 minutes, 42 seconds

They've got six times what we do and they're going to add a hundred more. There's no way they're slowing down.

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19 minutes, 48 seconds

They're going to be they're the world's biggest carbon emitter. they're going to keep becoming that or uh growing that.

And yet, every time they put a solar panel up, uh they get a happy news release from people like John Door and

20:01

20 minutes, 1 second

and uh the Rocky Mountain Institute because uh I I don't I don't understand really why

20:09

20 minutes, 9 seconds

the PR what the PR value is in making China look good when they're they will attack us for exactly the things, you

20:16

20 minutes, 16 seconds

know, the the American energy sector will get assaulted. brutally every time they want to just put up a natural gas plant and yet China's building a 100

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20 minutes, 25 seconds

coal plants and getting happy news releases from uh the enemies of energy here in the United States.

20:31

20 minutes, 31 seconds

Well, usually when things like that are going on where there's a hypocrisy happening these guys like door maybe not

20:39

20 minutes, 39 seconds

necessarily dinging the US but like you said giving balloons and like congratulations for every solar panel in China. It's about money. That's usually

20:47

20 minutes, 47 seconds

what that is. Now, I don't know if that's funding. I don't know if that's investment. I don't know what kind of

20:54

20 minutes, 54 seconds

arrangement it it's related to, but it's usually about money. If it's if you can't find the answer, that's usually what it's about. That's been my

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21 minutes, 2 seconds

experience. Would you agree with that, or do you think there's something else going on?

21:05

21 minutes, 5 seconds

I think China likes the public relations benefit of it. Um, but as noted, they

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21 minutes, 13 seconds

are a voracious user of all of the hydrocarbon fuels. These things, as we noted about the war, are traded

21:21

21 minutes, 21 seconds

internationally and the price goes up if you impede the access to these fuels.

21:27

21 minutes, 27 seconds

And so, China trying to stop our energy from getting out of the ground would only harm them um more than really

21:36

21 minutes, 36 seconds

anyone. So, I don't think they're trying to um keep the energy down. I do buy the idea. I mean, Russia would be more a

21:43

21 minutes, 43 seconds

more likely suspect for helping, you know, because we're a direct competitor to their oil and gas industry. China doesn't really have one um to speak of

21:52

21 minutes, 52 seconds

to compare to what we have. Um and they don't export energy to any great degree that way. Um so, I would bet on the

22:00

22 minutes

Russians. One thing I would say, China is likely and there's been some evidence some some rumblings about the idea that they are um encouraging the resistance

22:09

22 minutes, 9 seconds

to data centers which makes complete sense. They don't they want to stunt our lead in AI development and and enhance

22:16

22 minutes, 16 seconds

their own. So uh there could be a confluence coming up as a result of that.

22:27

22 minutes, 27 seconds

So sort of in in closing, if you could give our listeners sort of one or two or

22:36

22 minutes, 36 seconds

maybe three biggest takeaways that they should take from this report that might be things they might not already know, what would you what would you tell them?

22:43

22 minutes, 43 seconds

So um one of the all one of the stars of the show in this thing is the Sierra Club. And I pick I pick on them the most

22:50

22 minutes, 50 seconds

because the Sierra Club once was a real conservation group and not an anti-energy group. They voted the Diablo

22:58

22 minutes, 58 seconds

Cannon Nuclear Power Station in California was built with the support of the Sierra Club back in the 1960s. Their

23:05

23 minutes, 5 seconds

board voted 1966, I think it was 6 to1 or 9:1 to build the thing. Um and and

23:12

23 minutes, 12 seconds

their president at the time was an nuclear radiation specialist who said, you know, we need energy and this is a way to get it. And I mean, they were a

23:19

23 minutes, 19 seconds

pro-energy group. Shortly afterwards is when they went off the rails, became one of the most strident anti-uclear groups.

23:28

23 minutes, 28 seconds

Um back when the Sierra Club was doing that, they were about protecting the creatures and features that we want to

23:36

23 minutes, 36 seconds

protect here in this country, the things that we value.

23:40

23 minutes, 40 seconds

And we need that conservation movement back. We may still fight over which endangered species is really endangered and what the tradeoff should be for for

23:49

23 minutes, 49 seconds

this versus the habitat of that and whatnot. But if we're not fighting over access to basic energy, which makes us

23:56

23 minutes, 56 seconds

rich enough to protect all the things that they cared about, that's a better America. And um the point of this

24:03

24 minutes, 3 seconds

report, if it has any singular uh objective, it's to expose that these aren't conservationists anymore. They

24:11

24 minutes, 11 seconds

put up wind turbines that inhale voracious amounts of real estate, what we used to call the environment, which

24:18

24 minutes, 18 seconds

is not necessary. And uh if we can get back to a world where we have a pro-energy conservation movement, um

24:27

24 minutes, 27 seconds

that'll be better for the the environmental stuff that they claim to want to protect and for uh the prosperity of the nation.

24:36

24 minutes, 36 seconds

All right. Well, thanks again to our colleague Ken Braun for joining us. We will include a link to his report on enemies of energy in today's show notes.

24:42

24 minutes, 42 seconds

That's our show for this week. We encourage our listeners to subscribe on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, or Spotify. And if you have subscribed, thank you and please leave us a fivestar rating. [music] Those ratings really

---

Ken Braun is the former managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, the Center's daily online news site and quarterly newsletter on state and local public policy. He also is the former director of MichiganTransparency.org and "Show Michigan the Money," the Mackinac Center's projects on government transparency. For the five years prior to his joining the Center in 2006, Braun was a chief of staff for a Michigan state representative. His primary policy tasks in that post involved tax and budget matters, but he worked extensively on a variety of other topics, including municipal water systems, telecommunications and ballot access for minor political parties. Braun also assisted in writing Op-Eds that were published in Michigan’s largest newspapers.

Prior to his work in the Legislature, Braun served as a campaign manager for a Michigan state legislator. He also worked in his family’s retail lighting business in Farmington Hills, Mich. Braun graduated in 1990 with a degree in international relations from Michigan State University’s James Madison College.

---

[### Enemies of Energy: The Myths, the Movement, and ...

Capital Research Center

https://capitalresearch.org › article › enemies-of-energy](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy/)

May 27, 2026 — Enemies of Energy is a lively research report profiling what are currently the fifteen most influential opponents of nearly 90 percent of ...Read more

[### Enemies of Energy: Saving the Earth

Google

https://open.substack.com › pub › capitalresearch1 › en...](https://open.substack.com/pub/capitalresearch1/p/enemies-of-energy-saving-the-earth)

Jun 1, 2026 — A lively report profiling what are currently the fifteen most influential opponents of nearly 90 percent of the fuels that built modern America ...Read more

[### “Who Funds That?” Episode 8: Enemies of Energy

Capital Research Center

https://capitalresearch.org › article › who-funds-that-epi...](https://capitalresearch.org/article/who-funds-that-episode-8-enemies-of-energy/)

Jun 9, 2026 — But the energy on which we all rely has enemies, and our colleague Ken Braun has traced them in his new report Enemies of Energy. Ken joins ...Read more

[### Written testimony submitted to the ...

House.gov

https://docs.house.gov › meetings › HHRG-119-II...](https://docs.house.gov/meetings/II/II15/20260520/119317/HHRG-119-II15-Wstate-BraunK-20260520.pdf)

PDF

Jun 6, 2026 — 6. Page 2. Maybe the avowed enemies of American energy should not receive any help from the ... 5 Braun, Ken. “Anti-nuclear advocates raking ...Read more

GOSAR CHAIR

Written testimony submitted to the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Rep. Paul Gosar, Chair

THe Profit Engine Driving Environmental Nonprofits” Ken Braun Managing editor, Capital Research Center Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. CRC is the “follow the money” nonprofit. Today’s subject is right in our area of operations. Some of the nonprofits I’m about to discuss have an honorable history of preserving the features and creatures Americans love. Examples include creation of the planet’s greatest national parks and rescuing the bald eagle from extinction. We need that conservation movement back. In 1966 the board of the Sierra Club voted 9-1 to support construction of California’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power station. 1 This was a no brainer. Nuclear power provides an unrivaled combination of energy safety, reliability, and abundance. It produces no greenhouse gas emissions and it’s easy on the Earth in other ways. The Department of Energy reports that a “typical” nuclear reactor needs a just a bit more than one square mile to operate, while getting the same energy from wind fills up 360 square miles of what we should call “the environment.” 2 But now the Sierra Club is “unequivocally opposed” to nuclear and falsely claims it is “uniquely dangerous.” They are joined by hundreds of American NGOs with a known history of opposing the continued use of nuclear power, oil, natural gas and coal—88 percent of our energy consumption. In place of this, most if not all of them support unreliable, weather dependent, landscape-clogging wind turbines and solar panels. 3 4 This anti-energy movement collectively rakes in an average of $9.3 million per day. 5 Most of that anti-energy loot comes from deluded philanthropists or the bureaucrats spending the fortunes they left behind. But not all. In their most recent publicly available annual IRS filings, the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Resources Institute, GRID Alternatives, and the Rocky Mountain Institute reported receiving a combined total of $31.7

[### Enemies of Energy: Saving the Earth

RealClearEnergy

https://www.realclearenergy.org › 2026/06/05 › enemies...](https://www.realclearenergy.org/2026/06/05/enemies_of_energy_saving_the_earth_1186823.html)

Jun 5, 2026 — Enemies of Energy: Saving the Earth. Ken Braun Capital Research Center June 5, 2026. submit to reddit. Enemies of Energy: Saving the Earth. AP.Read more

Missing: report ‎CRC

[### Capital Research Center

X · capitalresearch

2 likes · 1 week ago](https://x.com/capitalresearch/status/2064383049677029447)

On this episode of Who Funds That?, Ken Braun joins Michael Watson and Sarah Lee to discuss his new Enemies of Energy report, the nonprofit ...Read more

Missing: CRC ‎| Show results with: CRC

[### Enemies of Energy: The climate emergency

Google

https://open.substack.com › pub › capitalresearch1 › en...](https://open.substack.com/pub/capitalresearch1/p/enemies-of-energy-the-climate-emergency)

8 days ago — The page for the full report is here: Enemies of Energy. ***. Sea levels have been rising, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have been increasing, and ...Read more

[### Ken Braun

Capital Research Center

https://capitalresearch.org › person › ken-braun](https://capitalresearch.org/person/ken-braun/)

Enemies of Energy: The climate emergency. Article on June 11, 2026 by Ken Braun. CRC in the News · CRC News: SPLC coverage. Article on June 9, 2026 by Ken Braun.Read more

[### Who Funds That? EP8: Enemies of Energy

Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com › podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-funds-that-ep8-enemies-of-energy/id1322689122?i=1000771838556&l=vi)

·Translate this page

Jun 9, 2026 — But the energy on which we all rely has enemies, and our colleague Ken Braun has traced them in his new report Enemies of Energy. Ken joins ...Read more

Missing: CRC ‎| Show results with: CRC

[### Enemies of Energy: an executive summary

Capital Research Center

https://capitalresearch.org › article › enemies-of-energy...]

https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/)

May 18, 2026 — Enemies of Energy: an executive summary. Protection of the natural world never needed to become the enemy of reliable energy abundance—and need ...Read more

grf]

Some of the contents have already appeared in the most recent issue of Capital Research magazine

Everything that created and sustains modern industrial civilization depends on reliable access to abundant and inexpensive energy, nearly all of which comes from either hydrocarbons (coal, oil, and natural gas) or nuclear reactors. These four fuels account for 85 percent of the planet’s energy consumption and 88 percent of American energy consumption.[[i]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn1)

This report profiles the largest and most influential American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that oppose the use of these fuels, and their largest known funding sources. These NGOs promote instead an industrial civilization run on so-called “renewables” or “clean energy,” marketing euphemisms that in practice mean replacing the reliable fuels with weather dependent and intermittent wind turbines and solar panels.

Though the policy players in this movement present themselves as environmentalists, we should refer to them instead as anti-energy NGOs.

If their world ever exists, then our world will not. Those without access to reliable hydrocarbon and nuclear fuels toil in primitive circumstances. Half of sub-Saharan Africans live without enough electricity to power basic lighting, a radio, or charge a cell phone for more than four hours per day. [^[ii]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn2)

Energy poverty is the real crisis.

There are at least two-hundred NGOs that oppose American energy abundance. For the sake of brevity, this report profiles only the fifteen largest and most influential. The most recently reported combined annual revenue of just these fifteen exceeds $2 billion, which means they collectively rake in an average of $5.4 million per day.

Myths and misconceptions

The first section of this report examines ten of the most important myths and misconceptions that have made the anti-energy movement possible.

One myth is the belief that sea level increases have triggered a climate “crisis” or “emergency.” Many enemies of energy, such as the World Wildlife Fund and Al Gore, darkly claim that seas could rise 20 feet and inundate most of Florida. But this report shows that NASA has identified less than 4 total inches of sea level increase since 1993, or three millimetersper year. At that rate of increase, it will take nearly 1,400 years for seas to rise another 20 feet. [^[iii]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn3) [^[iv]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn4)

That’s not a crisis.

Another misconception is that preserving the actual environment is the goal of the anti-energy movement. An April 2021 study in Bloomberg Greencalculated that solar energy needs 140 times the land area to produce the same kilowatts as a natural gas plant, 47 times more than an emissions-free nuclear plant, and nearly 18 times more than a coal-fired power station. The comparisons were even worse for wind.[^[v]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn5)

The old advice about the wisdom of investing in land is relevant: “they aren’t making any more of it.” A so-called “environmental” movement that wants to needlessly fill up the environment with far more machines than necessary has truly lost the plot.

And then there is China.

Even as they try to shut down access to reliable American energy, groups such as the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) celebrate supposed accomplishments against CO₂ ~emissions in China. A January 2021 RMI news release praised the authoritarian regime of Chinese President Xi Jinping for providing “responsible global leadership” toward achieving “carbon neutrality before 2060.” [^[vi]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn6)

Xi rarely deserves praise. This was no exception.

China has cranked up its coal burning by 231 percent since 1995, and by 2024 was burning nearly 12 times as much coal as the United States. (And relative to 1995, American coal use has declined by more than half). By 2024 China accounted for 31.8 percent of the planet’s industrial CO~2 emissions—by far the world leader—and is planning to build 100 new coal-fired power plants in 2026 alone. [^[vii]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn7) [^[viii]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn8) [^[ix]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn9)

Despite being the planet’s undisputed economic superpower, the United States produces a comparatively small share of CO₂ ~emissions relative to our massive economy; a little less than 13 percent of the total. American CO₂ ~emissions in 2024 were identical to the USA carbon dioxide emissions from 1988. [^[x]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn10) [^[xi]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn11)

Examples of other myths and misconceptions addressed in this report include concerns about the safety of nuclear power, the alleged benefits of electric vehicles, world energy prices and the truth about plastic pollution. For example, despite producing 25 percent of the world’s economic output, the United States is responsible for a tiny 0.25 percent of ocean plastic waste. [^[xii]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn12)

The anti-energy movement

The main sections of this report profile the most influential anti-energy NGOs and their major known donors.

Some of the NGOs are becoming richer and more powerful. The Rocky Mountain Institute was founded in 1982 and as recently as 2012 was a little-known nonprofit with total revenue of just $10 million. But by 2024 RMI reported total revenue of $164.7 million and was one of America’s richest anti-energy nonprofits. [^[xiii]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn13)

Others have encountered serious recent challenges. Greenpeace is facing a legal judgement that could bankrupt it, and the Sierra Club has endured staff turmoil, leadership controversies and serious funding shortfalls.

But the main feature of all these profiles is an examination of the misinformation and hypocrisies that make up the agenda and messaging of the enemies of energy.

As demonstrated in the first section of the report, nuclear power is America’s safest and largest source of emissions free electricity. It is also our most reliable source of electricity and one that has a functionally limitless potential for expansion. Anyone concerned about limiting carbon dioxide emissions should be a strong supporter of more nuclear power.

This report notes that The Nature Conservancy is the rare example of a very big, yet pro-nuclear, environmental nonprofit. But all fifteen anti-energy NGOs profiled in this report have either explicitly opposed the deployment of nuclear reactors or implicitly done so by amplifying exaggerated fears about safety and waste disposal.

In place of nuclear as an emissions-free electricity source, the anti-energy groups are strong promoters of weather dependent wind and solar energy. Because of the land-gobbling nature of these intermittent options, these self-identified “environmentalists” are promoting needless overuse of the environment. But as shown in many of the profiles that follow, none of them acknowledge this irony. Many have loaded up their websites with photos of wind turbines and solar panels filling up and blocking the view of otherwise pristine mountains and other landscapes.

These hypocrisies and controversies are also common to the fifteen largest known donors to the anti-energy movement.

Some of these donors are the world’s wealthiest people. As profiled in the pages that follow, a lot of these billionaires own mega-yachts that annually consume more hydrocarbon fuel than hundreds of middle-class people.

Some of these billionaires, like the anti-energy recipients of their grants, also amplify the lie that China is a leader in the fight against carbon emissions. And at least one, in line with the bad old days of China’s “one child” policy, uses his grants to promote reducing the size of the human population.

A better way

The Sierra Club is more than a century old and is now “unequivocally opposed to nuclear energy” and the hydrocarbon fuels. But in 1966 the Sierra Club’s board voted 9-1 to support construction of California’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power station. [^[xiv]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn14) [^[xv]](https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-the-executive-summary/#_edn15)

Back in those days, today’s enemies of energy were more commonly and justifiably known as “conservationists” because their objective was to preserve the creatures and natural features that please humans. The founding of our oldest national parks and the saving of the bald eagle from extinction are just two of the conservation movement’s objectively great historical accomplishments.

If this report has a singular purpose, then it is to demonstrate that protection of the natural world never needed to become the enemy of reliable energy abundance—and need not remain so.

---

Ken Braun

GGL

Ken Braun is the Managing Editor and Director of Content for the Capital Research Center, a conservative free-market think tank based in Washington, D.C. He previously spent six years working as a Chief of Staff in the Michigan Legislature. [1, 2, 3]

Here are the key details of his background and career:

Capital Research Center (CRC): He edits Capital Research magazine and conducts investigative research. He also writes for their InfluenceWatch.org project and frequently contributes to congressional testimony regarding environmental nonprofits. [1, 2, 3]

Michigan Legislature: For six years prior to joining CRC, Braun served as a Chief of Staff for a state representative, focusing on tax policy, municipal water systems, telecommunications, and ballot access. [1, 2]

Mackinac Center: He previously worked as the managing editor for Michigan Capitol Confidential and directed government transparency projects for the Mackinac Center. [1, 2]

Education: He is an alumnus of Michigan State University's James Madison College. [1]

Managing Editor and Director of Content

As managing editor and director of content of CRC, Ken Braun edits Capital Research magazine. He also conducts investigative research and drafts profiles for InfluenceWatch.org.

He previously worked for several free market policy organizations, spent six years as a chief of staff in the Michigan Legislature, and also wrote political columns for MLive Media Group, a consortium including the Grand Rapids Press and seven other mid-sized Michigan newspapers. He is an alumni of Michigan State University.

Authored Content

Green Watch

Enemies of Energy: Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)

Article on June 18, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Enemies of Energy: Fracking and natural gas

Article on June 16, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Enemies of Energy: The climate emergency

Article on June 11, 2026 by Ken Braun

CRC in the News

CRC News: SPLC coverage

Article on June 9, 2026 by Ken Braun

Podcast

“Who Funds That?” Episode 8: Enemies of Energy

Article on June 9, 2026 by Sarah Lee, Ken Braun, Michael Watson

CRC in the News

CRC News: Daily Wire investigation of suspicious Ohio NGO began at the Capital Research Center

Article on June 8, 2026 by Ken Braun

CRC in the News

CRC News: A month in the busy life of InfluenceWatch

Article on June 5, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Enemies of Energy: “Uniquely dangerous” nuclear power

Article on June 3, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Enemies of Energy: Saving the Earth

Article on June 1, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Enemies of Energy: American CO2 emissions

Article on May 28, 2026 by Ken Braun

Featured Items, Green Watch

Enemies of Energy: The Myths, the Movement, and the Money

Article on May 27, 2026 by Ken Braun

Testimony

CRC Congressional testimony: The Profit Engine Driving Environmental Nonprofits

Article on May 20, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Enemies of Energy:Plastic pollution

Article on May 19, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Enemies of Energy: an executive summary

Article on May 18, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Yosemite’s conservationists: an Earth Day message

Article on April 22, 2026 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch, Radical Left

Ramparts: The magazine with “a bomb in every issue.”

Article on April 16, 2026 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch, Radical Left

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the birth of the New Left

Article on March 24, 2026 by Ken Braun

Civil Disruption vs Civil Society, InfluenceWatch, Radical Left

Peace bombers? Meet the Weather Underground

Article on March 23, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

NRDC adopts nuclear power sanity and exits list of nuclear energy enemies

Article on March 16, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch, InfluenceWatch

UPDATE: Appalachian Voices is still an anti-nuclear group

Article on March 13, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch, InfluenceWatch

The opposition to emissions-free nuclear power

Article on March 5, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Al Gore’s 30-plus years of climate errors

Article on March 2, 2026 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

Jesse Jackson (1941-2026)

Article on February 17, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s war on plastic and prosperity

Article on February 6, 2026 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

Anniversary: Two years since climate vandals attacked Mona Lisa

Article on January 28, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Anti-nuclear advocates raking in $9.3 million per day

Article on January 8, 2026 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

The Kentucky Resource Council is part of the anti-nuclear, anti-energy movement

Article on January 2, 2026 by Ken Braun

Deception & Misdirection

Indivisible tried to become the left’s TEA Party, but became a farce instead

Article on December 23, 2025 by Ken Braun

Deception & Misdirection

Inspired by the TEA Party, Indivisible has become the Weak Tea Party

Article on December 10, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

The fight over national park fees exposed the Sierra Club as fake conservationists

Article on December 1, 2025 by Ken Braun

Foundation Watch

Cash for crazymaking: a tour through recent MacArthur Foundation grantees

Article on November 24, 2025 by Ken Braun

Compassion & Culture

The shutdown doesn’t happen if patients are in charge of their health spending

Article on November 14, 2025 by Ken Braun

Deception & Misdirection

The League of (stridently left wing) Women Voters

Article on November 13, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Bill Gates fallout: can the anti-energy left cut off billionaires?

Article on November 12, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Sierra Club opposes climate-friendly energy pipeline

Article on November 6, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

No Kings? More like “no electricity”

Article on November 4, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

How homeless advocacy became the plaything of reckless radicals

Article on October 29, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

The founding of the Black Panthers was 59 years ago today

Article on October 15, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

From Jesse to Bernie to Zohran: the lineage of successful socialists

Article on October 14, 2025 by Ken Braun

Special Report

INFILTRATED: THE IDEOLOGICAL CAPTURE OF HOMELESSNESS ADVOCACY

Article on October 10, 2025 by Ryan Mauro, Ken Braun, Robert Stilson

Organization Trends

Comey’s “wicked” Russiagate misdeeds have been proven beyond doubt

Article on October 9, 2025 by Ken Braun

Philanthropy

A birthday for the auto assembly line—and leftist philanthropy

Article on October 7, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Fred Taylor’s world war against energy

Article on September 30, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch, InfluenceWatch

Ninety years after the Hoover Dam

Article on September 30, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch, InfluenceWatch

Environmentalism is nearing retirement age

Article on September 26, 2025 by Ken Braun

Labor Watch

Two years after the UAW strike

Article on September 25, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

The Rocky Mountain Institute’s climate & DEI colonialism in Africa

Article on September 24, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

The Environmental Defense Fund wants to shut off the lights in California

Article on September 23, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

On this Day: Truman announces Stalin has the bomb

Article on September 23, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch, InfluenceWatch

Thirty years of the Unabomber and his influence

Article on September 19, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch, InfluenceWatch

On its anniversary, is Greenpeace sailing on its final voyage?

Article on September 15, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

No birthday cake for Margaret Sanger

Article on September 12, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

Fifty years after the final Weatherman bombing

Article on September 5, 2025 by Ken Braun

Philanthropy

The Ford Foundation spends $20 million-per-month on lefty advocacy

Article on September 2, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

The 19th Amendment and the Lincoln Project

Article on August 25, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

Ruby Ridge, Waco and other bad days for the FBI

Article on August 21, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

The New York Times v. history: Five years after the 1619 Project

Article on August 18, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

Animal Farm turns 80: Remember the Communist Party USA?

Article on August 15, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

RIP IRA: The Inflation Reduction Act’s final anniversary

Article on August 14, 2025 by Ken Braun

InfluenceWatch

Fidel Castro’s 99th birthday and those who celebrate

Article on August 13, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

Happy birthday, Joe Rogan, and rest in peace, regime media

Article on August 11, 2025 by Ken Braun

Alternatives in Philanthropy

Opportunities for journalism on the Right: The enemies of the regime media

Article on August 10, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

America’s top ten anti-energy NGOs

Article on August 2, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

California AG Rob Bonta’s Foreign Money Scandal

Article on July 30, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

UPDATE: Combined Annual Revenue of Nuclear Energy Opponents Is $3.3 Billion

Article on July 28, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Annual Revenue of Nuclear Energy Enemies Tops $2.8 Billion—but That May Be as Good as It Gets for Them

Article on July 17, 2025 by Ken Braun

Foundation Watch

What the Ford Foundation Could Be Doing with Henry Ford’s Fortune

Article on July 2, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Great Realignment: Going the Way of the Whigs

Article on June 5, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Renewable Energy . . . or Maybe Not

Article on May 30, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Clean-Burning Natural Gas

Article on May 27, 2025 by Ken Braun

Podcast

InfluenceWatch Podcast #365: Bulwark Backstory

Article on May 27, 2025 by Sarah Lee, Ken Braun, Michael Watson

Organization Trends

Never Trump Media Pundits: David Frum

Article on May 22, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

Never Trump Media Pundits: Robert Kagan

Article on May 22, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

Never Trump Media Pundits: Jennifer Rubin

Article on May 22, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

Never Trump Media Pundits: David French

Article on May 22, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

The Rising Seas

Article on May 22, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Nuclear Energy: Rich Climate NGOs Have Nuked Clean Power

Article on May 15, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Bulwark: Birth of The Bulwark

Article on May 14, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Bulwark: From Nonprofit to Profits

Article on May 14, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Bulwark: Making a Business of Trump Derangement

Article on May 14, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Bulwark: Take Away Trump

Article on May 14, 2025 by Ken Braun

Podcast

InfluenceWatch Podcast #363: InfluenceWatch for Education

Article on May 13, 2025 by Kali Fontanilla, Ken Braun, Michael Watson

Organization Trends

NGOs Are Often BGOs—Basically Governmental Organizations

Article on May 12, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The DDT Network: A Rich Never Trump Machine Built to Last

Article on May 7, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Lincoln Project Sells Revenge Rather Than Results: What You Get for Your Money

Article on May 6, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Lincoln Project Sells Revenge Rather Than Results: Unburdened

Article on May 6, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Lincoln Project Sells Revenge Rather Than Results: Who Are These People?

Article on May 6, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Lincoln Project Sells Revenge Rather Than Results: Unforced Errors

Article on May 6, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

The Lincoln Project Sells Revenge Rather Than Results: Will Never Trump Survive Trump?

Article on May 6, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Bloomberg Philanthropies Tracks “Petrochemical Incidents”: Beyond Petrochemicals

Article on April 29, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Bloomberg Philanthropies Tracks “Petrochemical Incidents”: Basic Physics

Article on April 29, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Bloomberg Philanthropies Tracks “Petrochemical Incidents”: Accidents Jan.–June 2024

Article on April 29, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Bloomberg Philanthropies Tracks “Petrochemical Incidents”: Accidents July–Dec. 2024

Article on April 29, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Save the Earthlings from Earth Day

Article on April 22, 2025 by Ken Braun

Government Accountability, Green Watch

Biden Administration Approved $485 Million for Anti-Nuclear Nonprofits

Article on April 10, 2025 by Ken Braun

Green Watch

Bailing Out Greenpeace: Lefty Donors Who Could Pay Up for Dakota Access Damages

Article on April 8, 2025 by Ken Braun

Government Accountability, Organization Trends

Dozens of Lawsuits Against the Trump Administration: General Challenges to DOGE

Article on February 27, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

Dozens of Lawsuits Against the Trump Administration: Does Bureaucracy Equal Democracy?

Article on February 27, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

Dozens of Lawsuits Against the Trump Administration: Don’t Quit…but Don’t Do Your Job Either!

Article on February 27, 2025 by Ken Braun

Organization Trends

Dozens of Lawsuits Against the Trump Administration: Say “Bye, Bye” to DEI

Article on February 27, 2025 by Ken Braun

+ See All Content byKen Braun

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---

Partisan Charities Failed To Win In 2024

705,092 views

1 year ago

You can’t help noticing how different the 2020 and 2024 elections look.

After the 2020 election, Democrats insisted that over $400 million in Zuck Bucks had no significant effect on voter turnout. Biden, they suggested, earned a record-breaking 81 million votes through sheer charisma.

But why didn’t it work the second time, in 2024?

The answer: Because the supposedly nonpartisan charities that helped the Democrats win in 2020 couldn’t duplicate their achievements in 2024.

The Left’s get-out-the-vote machine enjoyed tremendous success in 2020 as it registered millions of swing-state voters to defeat Trump while attracting more donors than ever before.

But in 2024, sagging polls made the Left’s get-out-the-vote machine desperate. The Left dug deep in its bag of tricks, looking for ways to win.

Those tricks included obnoxious ads, intimidating letters, mail-in ballot request forms bearing Michelle Obama’s face, misleading text messages, and remember-to-vote postcards designed to look like lottery tickets.

Most of the obnoxious ads came from “charities” legally required to be nonpartisan and not favor one political party. But law or no law, groups like Voter Participation Center, Everybody Votes Campaign, and State Voices were tapped to help Democrats win by “organizing” the so-called “New American Majority,” a made-up cocktail of all demographic groups that used to favor Democrats. In 2020, dozens of groups used this model to get out the vote, and it worked.

After 2020, everything began to collapse. Scrutiny from journalists, Republican legislators, think-tank leaders, and law enforcement put the Left’s machine on notice.

Worse, the target voters began to move rightward. In November 2023, George Soros canceled a $67 million pledge that his charitable foundation had made to Latino get-out-the-vote groups. Almost certainly the money dried up because Democrats were seeing “Latinos peel away from the party” even before the 2024 election, as one left-leaning reporter put it.

The partisanship of the allegedly “charitable” groups which for years had been getting out the Democratic vote was even more obvious after a memo from Democratic strategist Aaron Strauss “sparked a furious debate,” as the Washington Post reported. The memo advised Democratic megadonors to abandon “nonpartisan” voter registration. Why? Because most unregistered voters are no longer Democrats.

No wonder the 2024 election didn’t look like 2020. The Left’s get-out-the-vote machine using supposedly nonpartisan charities simply failed in 2024.

But that doesn’t mean the Left didn’t try in 2024, and it doesn’t mean they didn’t succeed in 2020. It just means their shady get-out-the-vote strategy of abusing the charitable sector had a limited shelf life.

Learn more at www.capitalresearch.org

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