hayden ludwig C R C

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see rule 23</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see greenwatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see influencewatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1/22 wow a new kind of suppression?!</font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">i smell horner</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><article class="c-person" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: -150px;"><div class="c-personbio" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 60px 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sea change /LCV hit:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>this is all rubber glue inversion /projection/ mirror crypto whataboutism?</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">he just takes the standard and true accusations against corrupt GOP and greedhead suicidal FF corps and tries to create or stretch "fact" to fit the counter-narrative.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC HIT TOUTED BY ZINKE:</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-1"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-1</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="singlethe-content the-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; padding-left: 10px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; text-align: center;" /><div style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-1/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">“Keep It in the Ground”</a> | <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-2/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Web of “Pop-Up” Groups</a></font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Anatomy of an Arabella Campaign</a> | <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-4/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Harried Until the End</a></font></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Summary: </span></strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">For years “dark money” activists ran a coordinated campaign to sabotage and undermine the Trump administration from the offices of Arabella Advisors in Washington, DC. The campaign culminated in the most <b>extreme environmentalist regime in American history under President Joseph Biden. </b>This report goes inside that campaign to destroy Trump’s Department of the Interior and promote the <b>Left’s war on affordable energy.</b></span></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">In 2019, the Capital Research Center’s <b>groundbreaking</b> report on Arabella Advisors exposed the <a href="http://darkmoneyatm.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">half-billion-dollar network</a> for the first time,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> dragging Arabella into the limelight as the posterchild of the Left’s “dark money.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">” Since then we’ve continued to uncover this now</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/arabella-advisors/#network-financial-overview" style="box-sizing: border-box;">$730 million <b>activist empire</b></a>, tracing its shadowy campaigns on everything from abortion on demand to packing the Supreme Court to its war on the Trump administration.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">This report on the Arabella network examines the<b> professional Left</b>’s years-long campaign to undermine President Donald Trump’s Department of the Interior, laying the groundwork for the Biden administration’s</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> crusade against oil and the most radical environmentalist policies in American history.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Keep It in the Ground”</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The U.S. Department of the Interior is primarily responsible for managing roughly <a href="https://www.doi.gov/blog/how-interior-increasing-access-public-lands#:_{:text=Across%20the%20more%20than%20450,advocate%20for%20America's%20great%20outdoors.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">450 million acres</a> of federal land and conservation of their natural resources, most critically the nation’s vast reserves of oil and natural gas. It manages hundreds of dams and reservoirs, regulates drilling on public lands, runs the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">National Park Service, and maintains public monuments, including dozens <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/icymi-trump-administration-defends-americas-monuments-and-memorials" style="box-sizing: border-box;">attacked</a> by radical Black Lives Matter activists in 2020.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The department also plays a role in foreign diplomacy and national security. Under President Trump that <a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/asiia-accomplishments-2017-to-2020_0.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">included</a><b> international wildlife trafficking bans,</b> encouraging trade of precious metals and rare earths, and promoting his Indo-Pacific security and economic strategy.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the department’s openness to expanding oil and gas production brought the sharpest attacks from the Left. Since the department is entirely under the president’s purview, halting all drilling on public land is far easier than attempting to halt private oil and gas production nationwide—the radical Left’s ultimate goal.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The natural place to start phasing out supply is on our public lands and oceans where a ban on new leasing will keep up to 450 billion tons of carbon pollution in the ground,” <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/center-for-biological-diversity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Center for Biological Diversity</a> director Kieran Suckling <a href="https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-introduces-major-new-legislation-to-stop-new-fossil-fuel-leases-on-federal-lands" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">said</a> in 2015. Bill McKibben, founder of the ultra-leftist <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/350-org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">350.org</a>, has also <a href="https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/new-bill-would-keep-fossil-fuel-reserves-on-public-lands-in-the-ground" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">stated</a> that “public lands are one of the easiest places for us to control the flow of carbon into the atmosphere.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unsurprisingly, that’s been the policy of Democratic presidents and their activist allies for years. President Barack Obama <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/president-obama-cancels-2016-and-2017-oil-lease-sales-in-the-chukchi-and-beaufort-seas#:_{:text=More%20Gifts-,President%20Obama%20cancels%202016%20and%202017%20oil%20lease,the%20Chukchi%20and%20Beaufort%20seas&text=The%20Obama%20Administration%20has%20cancelled,the%20future%20of%20this%20region.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">canceled lease sales</a> in the Artic and Atlantic offshore sites and banned the leasing of coal on federal lands. Phasing down “extraction of fossil fuels from our public lands” was in the Democratic Party’s <a href="https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2016_DNC_Platform.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">2016 platform</a>. That same year a 350.org activist asked Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton what she meant by “extraction on public lands is a done deal?” Clinton <a href="https://350action.org/clinton-calls-ban-on-future-extraction-on-public-lands-a-done-deal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">replied</a>, “That’s where [President Obama] is moving: No future extraction. I agree with that.” Her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, later <a href="https://richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/tim-kaine-says-he-now-opposes-offshore-drilling-citing-defense-department-concerns/article_8db256c8-ea45-5b4c-bbb1-c7cc54219259.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">assured</a> another 350.org activist that “I actually am now in that position.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But even “phasing down” is too conservative for today’s “keep it in the ground” Left. No less than 20 Democratic presidential hopefuls <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060860731" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">vowed</a> to ban drilling on public lands outright during their party’s 2020 primary. Ever the pawn of the radical Left, on January 27, 2021—exactly one week after his inauguration—President Biden <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/Biden-to-halt-new-oil-drilling-in-major-climate-15901950.php#:_{:text=President%20Biden%20is%20expected%20to,oil%20development%20on%20federal%20lands.&text=President%20Biden's%20directive%20on%20new,off%20the%20coast%20of%20Ventura.}" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">indefinitely suspended</a> development of new oil and gas wells on public lands, which the left-leaning <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">San Francisco Chronicle</span> cheered as “a first step to halting the granting of federal drilling leases permanently.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b>Why does this matter? Federal lands account for roughly <a href="https://www.globalenergyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/er-offlimits-16.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">24 percent</a> of America’s oil, natural gas, and coal production.</b> In 2019, total crude oil production reached an all-time high of <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R46537.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">4.471 billion barrels</a>, with a significant chunk of that growth coming from oil drilled on federal lands. Biden’s ban blocks future development of these key resources, removing them from the supply stream and hampering the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">energy independence the United States struggled to achieve in recent years. This means higher gasoline and household electricity prices,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> an estimated </span><a href="https://www.globalenergyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2019-07/er-offlimits-16.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">$11.3 billion</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> in lost federal royalties and rental fees, and the <b>destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs across the economy.</b></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With a single executive order, the Left could advance its crusade to “keep it in the ground” for years in the name of global warming. The stakes couldn’t be higher—all that stood in its way was the Trump administration.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-2/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, watch Arabella Advisors target the Interior Department with two “pop-up” groups.</font></span></p><div class="singletags" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tags:</strong> <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/350-org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">350.org</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/accountable-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Accountable.US</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/arabella-advisors/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Arabella Advisors</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/center-for-american-progress/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Center for American Progress</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/center-for-biological-diversity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">climate change</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/department-of-the-interior/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Department of the Interior</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/global-warming/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">global warming</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/hopewell-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Hopewell Fund</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/natural-gas/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">natural gas</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/new-vent/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">new vent</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/oil/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">oil</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/public-lands/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">public lands</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/sixteen-thirty-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Sixteen Thirty Fund</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/western-values-project/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Western Values Project</a>   <span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); text-align: center;">Hayden Ludwig</span></font></div></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="singleextended-author-infotext" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayden Ludwig is a Senior Investigative Researcher at Capital Research Center. He is also a columnist at the Washington Free Beacon and writes regularly for the American Conservative. Ludwig is…<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/person/hayden-ludwig/" class="inline-block-link" style="background-color: transparent; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;">+ MORE BY HAYDEN LUDWIG</a></font></div></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pt 2</font></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Web of “Pop-Up” Groups</font></strong></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Enter </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/arabella-advisors" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Arabella Advisors</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">consulting firm based in Washington, DC,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);"> that quietly runs arguably the most powerful activist and lobbying network in politics. Arabella manages four in-house nonprofits collectively called the “sisters,” each of which controls a small army of activists and a legion of “<b>pop-up” groups</b>. And each pop-up group is made to look like a slick, stand-alone website. T</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">hese pop-ups target virtually every issue in politics—control of the courts, abortion access, gun control, and voter registration and mobilization, even the Trump-Russia collusion hoax—</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">pushing left-wing policies in every corner. What makes Arabella so powerful is how these “pop-ups” deceive individuals into believing they represent genuine local grassroots interests, such as one pop-up in Alaska created to oppose creation of the <b>Pebble Mine</b> run from Arabella’s plush offices in DC.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Arabella’s network is extraordinarily well-funded. In 2019 alone, the four “sisters” reported total revenues exceeding </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/arabella-advisors/#network-financial-overview" style="box-sizing: border-box;">$730 million</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);"> and poured out $648 million. Between the network’s creation in 2006 and its Form 990 filing for 2019 (the latest available), Arabella’s empire has received more than </span><strong style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box;">$3 billion</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);"> and spent nearly </span><strong style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box;">$2.5 billion</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">. Most of that funding was directed to the network’s flagship 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/new-venture-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">New Venture Fund</a>, whose <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/new-venture-fund/#donors-to-new-venture-fund" style="box-sizing: border-box;">largest known donors</a> include the Gates, Ford, Hewlett, Packard, and<b> Buffett </b>Foundations.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Beginning in 2017, Arabella turned its guns on Trump’s Department of the Interior using a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> pop-up pair: <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/western-values-project/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Western Values Project</a> (WVP) and its “sister,” <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/western-values-project-action/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Western Values Project Action</a> (WVPA).</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to their websites, WVP and WVPA were <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191004111231/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/about-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">created</a> in 2013 in Helena, Montana, to expose corrupt corporate lobbyists preying on public lands in the West. In reality, WVP is run by the 501(c)(3) New Venture Fund while WVPA is run by the 501(c)(4) Sixteen Thirty Fund, Arabella’s in-house lobbying shop. Whatever staff the groups actually have would have been paid by one of Arabella’s nonprofits or possibly by Arabella Advisors itself; we’ll likely never know. But in its 2018 Form 990, New Venture Fund revealed that it is the “<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sixteen-thirty-fund/#key-staff" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">paymaster</a>” for <b>Sixteen Thirty Fund</b> (which reported zero employees on its own 2018 Form 990) and “pays the salary and immediately invoices Sixteen Thirty Fund, which reimburses the full amount.”</font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">It’s common for groups to use both kinds of nonprofit to maximize their ability to lobby through the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">501(c)(4) and raise non-lobbying funds through the 501(c)(3)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, since donors may deduct donations to the 501(c)(3) from their taxes. But Arabella takes that tactic to another level, using pop-up fronts for its nonprofits that can take advantage of the New Venture and Sixteen Thirty Fund’s respective tax advantages without disclosing their relationship to one another. Donations to WVP and WVPA in fact benefitted the Arabella-run nonprofits behind the projects, as an archived version of WVP’s website from October 2019 </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191012042050/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">reveals</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Until late 2019 the website for WVP and WVPA revealed a </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191004111231/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/about-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">handful of staffers</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, including Chris Saeger, ex-communications director for the Montana Democratic Party and former Service Employees International Union (</span><b style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">SEIU) </b><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">staffer; Jayson O’Neill, a Democratic staffer for Montana’s legislature and Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D); and Yetta Stein, a staffer for the left-wing political action committee </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/end-citizens-united-ecu/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">End Citizens United</a> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">and staffer for the 2018 reelection campaign Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). The archived website also showed a </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191004111231/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/about-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">small advisory board</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);"> consisting of:</span></font></p><ul fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kjersten Forseth, a former chief of state for Colorado State Senate Democrats, former director of the left-wing strategy group <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/progressnow-colorado/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">ProgressNow Colorado</a>, political director for the Colorado AFL-CIO, and chief political strategist for Rocky Mountain Voter Outreach, a Denver-based get-out-the-vote and ballot initiative firm.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kent Salazar, an environmental health manager for Albuquerque, New Mexico, former New Mexico State game commissioner for Gov. Bill Richardson (D), and a board member for the left-wing <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/national-wildlife-federation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">National Wildlife Federation</a>.</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pat Smith, a lawyer representing Indian tribes in Montana, member of the 2010 Montana Redistricting Commission, and appointee of Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.</font></li></ul><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">WVP’s advisory board also included </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/caroline-ciccone/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Caroline Ciccone</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, who in 2019 was executive director of the New Venture Fund pop-up and anti-Trump “oversight” group </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/restore-public-trust/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Restore Public Trust</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">. Ciccone is a former communications director for the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Obama appointee to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Democratic strategist. From 2014 to 2017 she led </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/americans-united-for-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Americans United for Change</a> (AUFC), a top left-wing strategy group whose national field director Scott Foval was recorded in late 2016 by <b>undercover journalists from Project Veritas </b>bragging that AUFC had paid mentally ill and homeless people to instigate violence at Trump campaign rallies.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);"> “We know that Trump’s people will [tend to] freak the f— out,” Foval said in the video. “It is not hard to get some of these assholes to ‘pop off.’” The scandal ultimately led back to Robert Creamer, co-founder of the powerful consulting firm </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/democracy-partners/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Democracy Partners</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);"> and a former general consultant to AUFC who directed parts of a vast network of advocacy groups all aligned in support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. This led to speculation that his firm helped Clinton’s campaign violate collusion laws. Foval described Creamer’s role in the scandal as the “kingpin” who is “diabolical, and I love him for it.” Within days of the video’s release Creamer resigned, and Foval was fired.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Also present was <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/kyle-herrig/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Kyle Herrig</a>, a New Venture Fund board member who sat on the advisory boards of at least five</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> New Venture Fund projects, including <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-oversight/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">American Oversight</a>,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);"> a judicial activist and litigation group; </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/allied-progress/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Allied Progress</a><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">, which attacked Trump cabinet officials; and the Ciccone-run Restore Public Trust.</span></font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In early 2020 it was announced that Western Values Project and these three Arabella “pop-ups” were being rolled into a new organization: <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/accountable-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Accountable.US</a>, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">itself</em> a former New Venture Fund project fully established as an independent nonprofit sometime later that year, headed by president Kyle Herrig and executive director Caroline Ciccone. (It appears that Western Values Project Action remains a project of Sixteen Thirty Fund, but that remains unclear as of writing.)</font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This reveals that Western Values Project, far from being a grassroots group, is enmeshed in a deeply networked, highly coordinated cabal of professional activists—and it always was.</font></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, break down the Arabella campaign against the Interior Department and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.</font></span></p><p fira="Fira" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></p></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pt 3 zinke ad cartoon overturned boat</font></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">anatomy of an </strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Arabella Campaign</strong></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From 2017 to 2018, <b>WVP ran an all-out attack against Trump administration Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, </b>publishing post after post <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181009144947/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">savaging</a> Zinke and his staff. WVP even published a massive website, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170919092100/https:/departmentofinfluence.org/person/david-bernhardt/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">DepartmentofInfluence.org</a>, which compiled boatloads of data on nearly every appointee to the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior. The group’s goal was clear: Drive Ryan Zinke out of office and undermine the department’s policies. They finally succeeded in December 2018, and Zinke resigned in early January 2019 amid ethics complaints alleging he had <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/415988-interior-secretary-ryan-zinke-steps-down" style="box-sizing: border-box;">misused public funds</a> during official travel and spent large sums on frivolous things.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CRC has counted nine Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/FOIA-Project.-Western-Values-Project-FOIA-2017-2019.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">cases</a> filed by WVP between April 2017 and Zinke’s resignation, all sporting WVP’s supposed address: a<b> UPS store in Whitefish,</b> Montana (704C 13th St. E., #568, Whitefish, MT 59937). As investigative reporter Dave Skinner <a href="https://flatheadbeacon.com/2017/09/06/more-big-bucks/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">points out</a>, “‘Suite 568’ is actually a $150-per-year private mail box, snugged next to a sales placard touting a ‘street address, not a P.O. box number.’”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In these complaints WVP <a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=4063478-DC-1-2017cv02001-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">describes</a> itself as “a not-for-profit public interest organization” and “a tax-exempt organization within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code,” never mentioning its status as a project of the New Venture Fund or its connection to Arabella Advisors. At least one FOIA request was co-filed with <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-oversight/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">American Oversight</a>, another former New Venture Fund pop-up run by Kyle Herrig that also used a UPS Store address in its filings (1030 15th St., NW, Suite B255, Washington, DC 20005) and describes itself as “a nonpartisan, non-profit section 501(c)(3) organization.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These FOIA complaints exclusively targeted the Department of the Interior. Highlights include:</font></span></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Requests for Zinke’s <a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=5005093-DC-1-2018cv02336-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">travel receipts</a>, “a daily schedule of the Secretary’s events, meetings and activities including locations and attendees”;</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seeking correspondence between department heads and members of various <a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=4117476-DC-1-2017cv02190-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">oil and gas interests</a>, such as the American Petroleum Institute, Colorado Oil and Gas Association, and Independent Petroleum Association of America;</font></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Demanding access to all records, emails, and expenditures pertaining to <a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=4081461-DC-1-2017cv02070-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Lolita Zinke</a>, Ryan Zinke’s wife;</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asserting that Zinke <a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=3985460-DC-1-2017cv01779-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box;">threatened</a> Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan for voting against the 2017 effort to repeal Obamacare; and</font></span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Multiple FOIA complaints <a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=3680511-DC-1-2017cv00757-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box;">complaining</a> that department had not complied with prior FOIA complaints.</font></span></li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On October 22, 2018, the Department of the Interior’s Office of Inspector General released its <a href="https://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/doi-inspector-general-report-on-secretary-zinkes-alleged-abuse-of-office/3245/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">investigative report</a> into Zinke’s alleged ethics abuses and recommended it to the Department of Justice. The office noted that it “initiated this investigation” in December 2017 “based on information we received while investigating [Zinke’s] use of noncommercial aircraft for U.S. Governmental travel.” <b>The source of that information isn’t named, but it isn’t a stretch to believe it originated with Western Values Project.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eight days later on October 30, WVP released its <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190125004826/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/western-values-project-statement-on-zinke-probe-referred-to-doj/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">statement</a> on the probe calling on Zinke to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190502052858/https:/westernvaluesproject.org/western-values-project-calls-for-secretary-zinkes-resignation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">resign</a>. It launched a website (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190202231315/http:/www.hasryanzinkebeenfiredyet.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">HasRyanZinkeBeenFiredYet.com</a>) demanding the same. On November 9, WVPA released <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/Western-Values-Project-Zinke-Attack-Ad-Press-Release-2019.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">a $30,000 attack ad</a> in seven Montana newspapers accusing Zinke’s “priorities” of being “<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/Western-Values-Project-Zinke-Attack-Ad-2019.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">upside down</a>” and calling for his resignation—presumably paid for by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which controls WVPA’s finances. One month later Zinke resigned.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">INSERT IMAGE: <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/Western-Values-Project-Zinke-Attack-Ad-2019.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/Western-Values-Project-Zinke-Attack-Ad-2019.pdf</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Green’s Campaign Rolls On</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Joining WVP and WVPA was the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/center-for-western-priorities/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Center for Western Priorities</a> (CWP), a front for the California mega-activist group <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/resources-legacy-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Resources Legacy Fund</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">—by my count the </span><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/environmentalists-spent-a-record-2-4-billion-pushing-global-warming-ideology/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">16th-largest environmentalist group in the country</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, spending over $42 million in 2018 alone. CWP painted Zinke as a feckless tool of the oil and gas industry, </span><a href="https://westernpriorities.org/2018/12/15/ryan-zinke-to-resign-as-interior-secretary-leaving-behind-a-legacy-of-corruption/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">accusing</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> him of “following President Trump’s marching orders to attack our public lands” and fomenting an “illegal attack on America’s national monuments.” When Zinke resigned in January 2019, CWP </span><a href="https://westernpriorities.org/2019/01/02/winners-and-losers-from-ryan-zinkes-tenure-at-the-interior-department/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">labeled</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> him “the most anti-conservation Interior Secretary of all time.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Almost immediately after Ryan Zinke resigned in December 2018, </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">CWP and WVP turned their guns on undermining Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, who became acting secretary on January 2, 2019, and was officially confirmed in April.</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bernhardt served in the George W. Bush administration’s Department of the Interior, leaving in 2009 as the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-115shrg26073/html/CHRG-115shrg26073.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">department’s solicitor</a>. After that he led the Denver firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s natural resources law practice, where his clients <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/us/politics/interior-secretary-zinke-staff-conservation-regulations.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">included</a> Halliburton Energy Services and the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and he lobbied for Cobalt International Energy and Samson Resources. Before his appointment to the Trump administration, Bernhardt was also <a href="https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/28/trump-appoints-valley-water-districts-lobbyist-to-interior-department-post/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">registered</a> as a lobbyist for the Westlands Water District in California’s San Joaquin Valley.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On December 17, CWP policy director Jesse Prentice-Dunn published a long hit piece calling </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Bernhardt a “<a href="https://medium.com/westwise/walking-conflict-of-interest-fffe8593feaa" style="box-sizing: border-box;">walking conflict of interest</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">” who would continue “Ryan Zinke’s culture of corruption</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">” and accusing the department of shilling for Big Oil. That same day WVP published the website </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181217174459/https:/www.davidbernhardt.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">DavidBernhardt.org</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, calling Bernhardt “the ultimate DC swamp creature” and an “ex-lobbyist who is too conflicted to be Interior Secretary,” while detailing a laundry list of ethics charges in an attempt to derail his confirmation to the post. </span><a href="https://westernpriorities.org/2019/03/26/memo-background-on-acting-interior-secretary-david-bernhardts-ties-to-the-oil-and-gas-industry-and-conflicts-of-interests/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Memos</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> about Bernhardt’s background and conflicts of interest and </span><a href="https://westernvaluesproject.org/bernhardts-interior-ignores-own-representations-to-court-over-public-records-deadline/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">more FOIA requests</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> followed from WVP and CWP, including one from </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/democracy-forward/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Democracy Forward</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, a leftist litigation group created by Clinton crony Marc Elias (of </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/perkins-coie/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Perkins Coie</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> fame) in 2017 to target the Trump administration.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">In February, the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/campaign-for-accountability/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Campaign for Accountability</a> (CFA), a <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/correction-funding-for-nonprofits-google-transparency-campaign/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">former “pop-up”</a> of the Arabella-run Hopewell Fund, <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/campaign-for-accountability-david-bernhardt-investigation-petition.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">petitioned</a> the Interior Department inspector general to investigate Bernhardt’s ties to Westlands Water District</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> as a conflict of interest and urged the Senate to </span><a href="https://campaignforaccountability.org/statement-on-the-appointment-of-david-bernhardt-as-the-acting-secretary-of-the-department-of-the-interior/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">reject</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> his confirmation. CFA, which specialized in targeting Trump political appointees, was founded by alumni of another left-wing litigation group, </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/citizens-for-responsibility-and-ethics-in-washington/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> (CREW), and has been represented by the ex-Arabella pop-up </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-oversight/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">American Oversight</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> in past lawsuits.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Center for American Progress joined in, <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2019/03/15/467373/david-bernhardt-president-trumps-conflicted-cabinet-nominee/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">labeling</a> Bernhardt “the most conflicted Trump Cabinet nominee.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> Greenpeace and the Center for Biological Diversity urged the department’s inspector general to </span><a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/interior-inspector-general-urged-to-investigate-david-bernhardt/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">investigate</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> those conflicts of interest, melodramatically declaring him “the most dangerous man in America for endangered species and public lands.” The Sierra Club demanded the Senate </span><a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2019/03/fossil-fuel-lobbyist-david-bernhardt-proves-he-can-t-be-trusted-interior" style="box-sizing: border-box;">reject</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> his confirmation, as did the </span><a href="https://www.npca.org/articles/2106-parks-group-rejects-nomination-of-david-bernhardt-for-interior-secretary" style="box-sizing: border-box;">National Parks Conservation Association</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> and the </span><a href="https://act.nrdc.org/letter/af-bernhardt-190315" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> (NRDC).</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March, WVPA launched a <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/western-values-project-action-2019-ad-buy-bernhardt.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">six-figure television ad buy</a> targeting Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich (NM) and moderate Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (CO) and Martha McSally (AZ) to oppose Bernhardt’s confirmation. The assault continued until the Senate confirmed Bernhardt in April 2019. From then on the group’s crusade against Trump’s Department of the Interior focused on thwarting its agenda.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/arabellas-long-war-part-4/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, the professional Left’s years-long campaign culminates in the Biden Administration’s rush toward radical “green” policies.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pt 4</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Harried Until the End</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WVP filed another five FOIA requests against the Department of the Interior between 2019 and 2020, almost certainly with the intent of discovering ammo for future ethics complaints. Among its requests were all <a href="http://foiaproject.org/dc_view/?id=6350796-DC-1-2019cv02527-complaint" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">communications</a> between the department and Bernhardt’s former clients from Brownstein Hyatt and the Westlands Water District as well as copies of “all text messages sent by Secretary David Benhardt from July 1, 2017,” through February 2020. The leftist website Outside Online even set up a “<a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2390596/david-bernhardt-scandal-tracker" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">David Bernhardt Scandal Tracker</a>” days after his confirmation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But much of the Left’s campaign shifted to halting Trump’s supposed war on public lands until he left office in January 2021. “Yes, Trump really is coming to take your public lands,” WVP <a href="https://westernvaluesproject.org/yes-trump-really-is-coming-to-take-your-public-lands/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">howled</a> in late 2019, claiming the administration was selling off federal land to oil interests bent on pillaging it. In reality, the Bureau of Land Management (which is part of the Interior Department) continued to<b> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">lease</span> l</b>ands to drilling companies in 5–10 year options, a decades-old practice. As a result, oil and gas production soared in 2019, particularly in New Mexico and Wyoming, which sit atop massive deposits.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The Department of the Interior disbursed a staggering <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/natural-gas/102819-us-drilling-on-federal-and-indian-lands-surges-in-2019" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">$11.69 billion</a> to the states in 2019 alone from energy production on federal and Indian-owned lands, a $2.76 billion increase over 2018. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gasoline prices <a href="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_nus_a.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box;">dropped</a> from a nationwide average of $2.813 in 2018 to $2.691 in 2019 to $2.258 in 2020. [NO MENTION OF EPIC PANDEMIC FAIL]</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> And the United States achieved </span><a href="https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/the-united-states-was-energy-independent-in-2019-for-the-first-time-since-1957/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">energy independence</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> in 2019, with energy production exceeding consumption for the</span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">first time</span> </b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">since 1957. In a single year, energy production increased by an impressive 5.7 percent, with so-called fossil fuels accounting for </span><a href="https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/the-united-states-was-energy-independent-in-2019-for-the-first-time-since-1957/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">80 percent</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> of all energy production and consumption that year.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">WVP harried Trump and his cabinet out of office, <a href="https://medium.com/westwise/inside-interior-secretary-david-bernhardts-wildly-destructive-track-record-e57f7ddb7298" style="box-sizing: border-box;">blasting</a> “Secretary David Bernhardt’s Wildly Destructive Track Record” </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in December 2020—which included such silliness as staging Trump’s May 2020 Fox News town hall inside the Lincoln Memorial, allowing national parks to be used as “centerpieces” for his reelection campaign, and holding “expensive military-infused Independence Day rallies on the National Mall” (the horror!).</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Targeting Trump’s energy and environmental policies were among Biden’s first moves in office. Biden cancelled a planned expansion to the Keystone oil pipeline (Keystone XL or “export limited”), pledged to protect 30 percent of U.S. land and water by 2030, and froze new leases for oil and gas development on federal land.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Biden’s nominee for the department, Rep. Debra Haaland (D-NM), was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/15/977558590/deb-haaland-confirmed-as-first-native-american-interior-secretary" style="box-sizing: border-box;">confirmed</a> in March 2021 on a nearly party line vote (four Republicans joined with every Democrat in the Senate). Haaland has been <a href="https://nondoc.com/2021/03/18/confirmation-of-interior-secretary-deb-haaland/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">criticized</a> by conservatives as a far-left extremist with a <a href="https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/debra-haaland" style="box-sizing: border-box;">perfect 2020 score and 98 percent lifetime score</a> from the <b>League of Conservation Voters,</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b> which ranks politicians for their fidelity to leftist environmental legislation</b>. (Incidentally, Haaland received a </span><a href="https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/evaluations/149368/deb-haaland" style="box-sizing: border-box;">100 percent score</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> from the pro-abortion groups Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America.) While Haaland told Congress during her confirmation process that </span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/23/970242295/interior-nominee-deb-haaland-faces-tough-questions-on-climate-goals" style="box-sizing: border-box;">fossil fuels</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> “will continue to play a major role in America for years to come,” she’s a global warming ideologue who </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/02/debra-haaland-2018-campaign-site-energy.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">trumpeted</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> “keep fossil fuels in the ground,” voting “against all new fossil fuel infrastructure,” and transitioning to “100% clean energy” in her 2018 reelection campaign.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In May, the Biden administration proposed <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/president-bidens-fiscal-year-2022-budget-makes-significant-investments-interior" style="box-sizing: border-box;">ramping up</a> the Interior Department’s 2022 budget by $2.5 billion (17 percent) to $17.6 billion in order to “address the climate crisis” and create “good-paying union jobs.” Biden wants to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 (it’s currently about 26 percent), a plan proposed by liberal groups in the states as “<a href="https://blogs.berkeley.edu/2021/01/25/heres-how-biden-can-help-conserve-30-percent-of-u-s-land-by-2030/#:_{:text=The%20plan%20is%20known%20as,carbon%20in%20plants%20and%20soil.}" style="box-sizing: border-box;">30 by 30</a>” largely as a measure to “slow climate change” by storing carbon dioxide in plants and soil. He also wants to spend $86 million on the “Civilian Climate Corps,” a reboot of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal–era Civilian Conservation Corps. He also wants to spend $300 million “plugging orphan oil and gas wells” and $249 million to boost renewable energy production on public lands.</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With pressure from the far Left and willing enablers embedded in the executive branch, the Biden administration will undoubtedly continue down the road toward ever more radical “green” policies—with Arabella’s support. Only one question remains: How much does Biden owe to Arabella’s long war against the Trump Department of the Interior?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">end</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></p></div></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">EPA is DR evil berman</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">20 gop</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://republicans-energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/3.10.22-Letter-to-LCV.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://republicans-energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/3.10.22-Letter-to-LCV.pdf</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wsj lessons in energy masochism</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">IEA stats</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hillary phony env gps</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1/17 DNI ~ frack propaganda</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RT cautions on env and public health effects of frack</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fiona hill --> dan eberhart 12 2019 forbes</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">drew johnson newsweek 1 29 2017</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">chain of cmd again</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">hayden ludwig creature of grn lagoon june 17 2021</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">askes about $ from chicom party of any affiliated</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">he looks like he was incubated in a safety deposit box</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">pt 1?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-2/">https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-2/</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); text-align: center;" /><div style="text-align: left;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Creatures of the Green Lagoon: San Francisco Mega-Foundations Bankrolling Eco-Activism (full series)</font></strong></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-1/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Paris Rises from the Dead</a> | <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-2/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Tom Steyer</a> | <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-3/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Sea Change Foundation</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-4/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;" /><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-4/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Energy Foundation</a> | <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-5/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">ClimateWorks Foundation</a></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Summary:</span></strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> San Francisco is awash in five things: Homeless people, discarded needles, garbage, human feces, and virtually unlimited cash for the environmental Left. This once great city by the bay is ground zero for a bundle of mega-donors, pass-through funders, and powerful activist groups trying to “green” America’s prosperity and energy independence into oblivion</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. In its place they envision the<b> stuff of nightmares: the end of the oil, gas, and coal industries; nationwide fracking bans; a return to the Paris Climate Agreement; </b>an unprecedented spike in household energy prices;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> a radical Green New Deal; and <b>“environmental justice</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b>” retribution to punish so-called climate polluters with fines and even prison sentences.</b></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“Do as I say, not as I do”</b> [elite hypocrit bs]may as well be the motto of the environmental Left. From their<b> [ivory? biz?] towers, eco-mandarins prognosticate a coming climate apocalypse and the freedoms </b>we must sacrifice to stave it off.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> Yet they almost never live with the consequences of their own policies. The same global warming gurus who tell Midwestern Americans the icecaps are melting and the seas are rising because Americans still drive cars live in the world’s toniest coastal cities and own<b> private yachts and jets.[not as many as putin or as bid, oligarch and FF ceos, joe manchin "houseboat?" NRA yacht for security?]]</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">No city is a greater testament to climate <b>hypocrisy</b> than San Francisco, home to some of the eco-Left’s biggest mega-donors: the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sea-change-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Sea Change Foundation</a>, the pass-through <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/energy-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Energy Foundation</a>, and Tom Steyer’s nonprofit network. Between them these giants have paid out over $2 <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">billion</span> in grants over the past two decades, almost all of it to left-wing groups lobbying for the disastrous Paris Climate Agreement, fracking bans, and a Green New Deal—the most <b>extreme</b> environmental policy agenda in American history. [vs NEPA et al signed by Nixon?]</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">This is the so-called New Energy Economy, paid for by billionaire hedge fund managers and ideologically motivated, tax-exempt foundations eager to remake America in their own image.</span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> Ironically, one of the billionaires, Steyer, earned much of his fortune trading in the oil and natural gas industry.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> If they get their way, expect a grim future of poverty and “environmental justice”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> prosecution in Soviet-style “People’s Courts.” [what is basis for this bs?]</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Will </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Paris</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> Rise from the Dead?</span></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">On November 4, 2020—the day after the presidential election—the United States formally withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord, an international climate change agreement entered into by President Barack Obama in 2015 and a major 2016 campaign promise of President Trump.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">While Obama officials negotiated the agreement as a foreign treaty, it never received a vote in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate—analysis strongly suggests that environmental groups even <a href="https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2020/11/04/ditch_parisand_save_america_582938.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">advised</a> the administration against describing Paris as a “treaty”—despite the Constitution’s clear requirement that foreign treaties must be ratified by the Senate. Nevertheless, proponents widely treated the agreement as legally binding (and so unassailable) because it f<b>orced enormous greenhouse gas emissions targets on the country.[NOT BINDING YOU FECK]</b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">By one <a href="https://www.heritage.org/impact/president-trump-cites-heritage-research-paris-climate-change-agreement" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">estimate</a> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><a href="https://www.heritage.org/impact/president-trump-cites-heritage-research-paris-climate-change-agreement">https://www.heritage.org/impact/president-trump-cites-heritage-research-paris-climate-change-agreement</a>   [note slIght of hAND]</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">based on a U.S. Energy Department model, the Paris Climate Agreement could have cost the average family of four over $20,000 in lost income, raised household energy prices by as much as 20 percent, and cost the economy $2.5 trillion by 2035. Yet the effects on the global temperature would be minuscule. If United States cut <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">all</em> of its carbon dioxide (CO<span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; bottom: -0.25em;">2</span>) emissions, it would result in an estimated decrease of less than <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/320522-paris-treaty-a-bad-deal-based-on-flawed-logichttps:/thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/320522-paris-treaty-a-bad-deal-based-on-flawed-logic" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">two-tenths of a degree</a> Celsius by the end of the century.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Trump’s withdrawal from the disastrous “treaty” [WHen was the last actual treaty signed?  last time congress declared war?  gop awash in dark FF $] was a landmark victory for</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> constitutional government </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">and the American economy</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">—</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">but under a Democratic administration that victory has been reversed, and the country has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/paris-climate-agreement/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">reentered</a> the Paris Climate Agreement after President Joe Biden signed an executive order to that effect, as he <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/biden-2020-energy-revolution-plan.-11.09.2020.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box;">promised</a> during presidential campaign to do on “Day One.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">That’s a <b>scalp [odd slippage of metaphor, rt is master of character/hits]</b>for activists in the eco-Left, the loudest supporters of the Paris “treaty,” none more so than Tom Steyer.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-2/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, meet Tom Steyer—billionaire, major Democratic Party donor, former Democratic presidential candidate, and <b>dedicated environmentalist with a wide streak of authoritarianism [says the trump [putin?] fan].</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">REF who will spk for the greed?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.heritage.org/impact/president-trump-cites-heritage-research-paris-climate-change-agreement">https://www.heritage.org/impact/president-trump-cites-heritage-research-paris-climate-change-agreement</a></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">MAY 15 NO NAME "HERITAGE IMPACT" data ctr BS]</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; line-height: 1.77778;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">PResident Donald Trump cited <a href="http://archive.org/details/CSPAN_20170430_060400_Pres.Trump_Harrisburg_speech_only/start/932.1/end/1010.1" target="blank" data-external="yes" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Heritage Foundation research</a> on the Paris climate change agreement during his speech in Harrisburg, Pa., that marked his 100th day in office.</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />“On top of that, it is estimated that for compliance with the agreement could ultimately shrink America’s GDP by $2.5 trillion over a 10 year period,” said Trump. <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The figure is drawn from <a href="http://www.heritage.org/environment/report/consequences-paris-protocol-devastating-economic-costs-essentially-zero" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">a report by Heritage experts Kevin Dayaratna, Nicolas Loris, and David Kreutzer</a>. They concluded that the Paris climate accord would inflict devastating economic costs for practical no environmental benefit.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; line-height: 1.77778;"><a href="http://www.heritage.org/environment/report/consequences-paris-protocol-devastating-economic-costs-essentially-zero" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://www.heritage.org/environment/report/consequences-paris-protocol-devastating-economic-costs-essentially-zero</a></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: inherit; padding-left: 2.5rem; border-left: 1px solid rgb(217, 227, 233); margin: 1.875rem 19.3438px 3.125rem 101.552px; line-height: 1.875rem; display: inline-block; clear: both; width: 589.979px; float: none;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; line-height: inherit; display: inline-block;">“Policies adapted from domestic regulations emphasized in the Paris agreement will affect a variety of aspects of the American economy. As a result of the plan, one can expect that by 2035, there will be:<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /> </p><ul style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.77778;"><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; list-style: outside disc;">An overall average shortfall of nearly 400,000 jobs;</li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; list-style: outside disc;">An average manufacturing shortfall of over 200,000 jobs;</li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; list-style: outside disc;">A total income loss of more than $20,000 for a family of four;</li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; list-style: outside disc;">An aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) loss of over $2.5 trillion; and</li><li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; list-style: outside disc;">Increases in household electricity expenditures between 13 percent and 20 percent.”</li></ul></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; line-height: 1.77778;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is not the first time the Trump White House has relied on Heritage research into climate change regulations. In March, Trump issued an executive order undoing an Obama-era policy requiring the EPA to consider the “social cost of carbon” when making regulations. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; line-height: 1.77778;">Trump’s order was inspired by <a href="http://dailysignal.com//2013/09/16/scrutinizing-the-social-cost-of-carbon-comment-to-the-energy-department/" target="blank" data-external="yes" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">a <b>2013 Heritage analysis</b></a><b> finding that the EPA’s models were fundamentally flawed.</b></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; line-height: 1.77778;"><b>
</b></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; line-height: 1.77778;"><a href="http://dailysignal.com//2013/09/16/scrutinizing-the-social-cost-of-carbon-comment-to-the-energy-department/" style="">http://<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">dailysignal.com</span>//2013/09/16/scrutinizing-the-social-cost-of-carbon-comment-to-the-energy-department/</a><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Rolling back the “social cost of carbon” policy and other climate regulations could boost the economy, <a href="http://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/commentary/rolling-back-climate-regulations-will-boost-us-economy" target="blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Loris wrote in March</a>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">----</span></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">pt 2</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Meet Tom Steyer, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Eco-Authoritarian [agenda 21?]</span></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">After Al Gore, </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/tom-steyer/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Thomas</a><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/tom-steyer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Fahr </a><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/tom-steyer/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Steyer</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> is one of the best-known ultra-wealthy <b>sages</b> [guru, hippie] of the environmentalist movement. Since diving headfirst into electoral politics—signaling his interest in running for California governor in 2019 then for president in 2020—<b>Steyer has made climate change his defining feature in a field characterized by a sprint to the political left [ie branding exercise]</b>. As a candidate he pledged to use</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion-n988541/ncrd1034801#blogHeader" style="box-sizing: border-box;">presidential authority</a> to impose energy efficiency standards [ok tho orig wording a bit odd?] and “give Congress 100 days to pass a Green New Deal.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion-n988541/ncrd1034801#blogHeader</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">His presidential bid failed bitterly, spending a whopping <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Tom_Steyer_presidential_campaign,2020" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">$344 million</a> (the third-highest spender in the primary, behind only Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg) to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/elections/results/primaries/democratic/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">lose every state</a> in the 2020 Democratic primary.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">But Steyer has been a major Democratic Party donor for years, gifting some <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=thomas+steyer&contributor_state=CA" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">$294 million</a> to Democratic candidates and political action committees (PACs) between 1987 and 2020, $255 million of it to his own in-house super PAC, NextGen Climate Action Committee. Steyer’s support made him the single biggest individual donor of the 2016 election, left-wing or right-wing, pouring out almost <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">four times</em> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">more </em>than high-profile donors <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/george-soros/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">George Soros</a> and <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/michael-bloomberg/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Michael Bloomberg</a> to advance climate change as an issue among voters. (Despite his gobs of spending, the environment came <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/07/07/4-top-voting-issues-in-2016-election/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">12th</a> [up from? CA AB 32?] on a list of top issues for voters in a 2016 Pew Research Center poll.)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Steyer earned his billions managing Farallon Capital Management, a $30 billion hedge fund that held a $220 million stake in the Canadian oil and gas firm Nexen when he resigned from leading the fund in December 2012.[1/150th? way less than 1%?]</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">That (convenient) divestment [logic? they had it when he left? oh he suggests asfter is cya?]]<b>fueled Steyer’s multi-million-dollar zeal for climate change activism.</b> Steyer belongs to the part of the eco-Left that eschews the wonkishness of traditional global warming theory advocates—small carbon dioxide reductions for small climate “gains”—for</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Manichean dualism, where climate activists are saints to be canonized, and climate “polluters” are monsters to be destroyed.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As CRC’s Ken Braun [lotta germanic names there?] </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">has <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/tom-steyer-the-crusader-part-1/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">observed</a>, </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">
</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/tom-steyer-the-crusader-part-1/">https://capitalresearch.org/article/tom-steyer-the-crusader-part-1/</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Steyer imbues his climate politics with pseudo-Christian rhetoric, calling his conversion to global warming activism (at the hands of 350.org founder Bill McKibben, no less) as his “personal version of a ‘Paul on the road to Damascus’ moment” and <b>referring to libertarian billionaire David Koch (who earned much of his wealth in the oil industry) as “just an evil—just a famously evil—person.” [ctr mirror soros steyer]</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Steyer shares the hard streak of authoritarianism that runs in the radical eco-Left, whose activists have called for jailing “climate change deniers” for their skepticism. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The goal here is not to win. The goal here is to destroy these people,” [RON ARNOLD] </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Steyer </span><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/291559-greens-get-billionaire-ally-money" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">told</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> </span><em style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">The Hill</em><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> in 2013. While many on the Left howl about the need for a “national dialogue” on climate change, <b>Steyer takes a page from Stalin’s handbook</b>. “We’ve got to stop talking about this,” he said of </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion-n988541/ncrd1034801#blogHeader" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">global warming</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> in a 2019 interview, “we have to turn the page to action and we should do it Day One by calling it a state of emergency.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">That opinion has moved to the mainstream environmental movement, with Joe Biden’s campaign website <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/biden-2020-energy-revolution-plan.-11.09.2020.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">declaring</a> that he will “make environmental justice a priority across all federal agencies” and “hold polluters accountable—<b><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">including jail time when merited</span> </b>[emphasis added].”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/biden-2020-energy-revolution-plan.-11.09.2020.pdf"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">https://www.<b>influencewatch</b>.org/app/uploads/2020/11/biden-2020-energy-revolution-plan.-11.09.2020.pdf</span></a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">(Recall that in 2008, then-NASA senior director James Hansen told Congress that fossil fuel company executives “should be <a href="https://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/06/james-hansen-try-fossil-fuel-ceos-for-high-crimes-against-humanity/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">tried for high crimes</a> against humanity and nature.”)</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Steyer Network: Bringing San Francisco to Your Front Door</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">At the center of the Steyer network of political organizations is the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">501(c)(4) <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/nextgen-climate-action/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">NextGen Climate Action</a>, its 501(c)(3) “sister”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/nextgen-climate-america/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">NextGen America</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, and the <b>super PAC</b> sibling </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/nextgen-climate-action-committee/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">NextGen Climate Action Committee</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. [so familiar w/ shuffle?]</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Between 2013 and 2018 the former two nonprofits poured nearly $65 million into leftist groups, notably the </span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">United Nations Foundation (a U.S. nonprofit which supports the UN’s programs, especially on the climate),</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Voter Participation Center, [horrors] Center for American Progress, 350.org, League of Conservation Voters, Environmental Defense Fund, and others.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">NextGen Climate Action supplied </span><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/tom-steyers-war-on-affordable-energy-and-america/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">$23 million</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> of the </span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">f</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ailed</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> $25 million campaign in 2018 to pass Prop. 127 in Arizona, which would have amended the state’s constitution to increase its reliance on “renewables” from 12 percent in 2020 to 50 percent in 2030. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">(Another $1.3 million came from the Washington, DC-based League of Conservation Voters, meaning less than $623,000 of the campaign’s finances came from other individuals or groups.) NextGen funded similar failed campaigns in Michigan and Nevada in 2018. <b>A rebooted version passed in Nevada in 2020.[ca soda tax, uber BS]</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The NextGen super PAC poured out nearly $282 million between 2013 and 2020, overwhelmingly to help Democrats and hurt Republicans. In the 2020 cycle, for instance, the super PAC <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/nextgen-climate-action-committee/#nextgen-pac-disbursements" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">shelled out</a> almost $3.5 million to support Joe Biden’s candidacy, $373,000 attacking Donald Trump, $304,000 aiding Democrat Cal Cunningham’s failed bid for the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">North Carolina Senate seat against Republican Thom Tillis, and $171,000 helping Democrat Mark Kelly flip Arizona’s Republican-held Senate seat blue.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Steyer’s Need to Impeach</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">In late 2017, Steyer launched the super PAC <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/need-to-impeach/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Need to Impeach</a>, run by some 50 former Obama administration staffers, with the <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2019/04/18/tom-steyers-itching-scratching-need-to-impeach/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">announcement</a> that “I will be dedicating <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/us/politics/tom-steyer-trump-2020.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">100 percent of my time</a>, effort, and resources to one cause: working for Mr. Trump’s impeachment and removal from office.” Steyer reportedly <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/07/trump-impeachment-tom-steyer-house-democrats-1157592" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">threatened</a> “to unload on Democrats if they [didn’t] impeach Trump.” That itching desire to impeach Trump earned him the dubious title “Mr. Impeachment” from <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">New York Magazine</span> in March 2019.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Leftists cheered the group’s success when President Trump was <b>impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019 for phoning the president of Ukraine [EXTORTION TO DIG UP DIRT ON POL OPPONENT; WITHHOLD ANTI-TANK WEAPONS]</b>, but in reality it was just another Democratic super PAC. In total, Steyer accounted for $27 million of the $31 million the group spent in the 2018 and 2020 election cycles savaging Republicans and aiding Democrats.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">More cynically, it also served as the launchpad for Steyer’s own presidential campaign in late 2019, which quickly bought the super PAC’s voter file and then gutted the its staff. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/20/20964803/tom-steyer-2020-need-impeach-trump-hearings-presidential-campaign" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">According</a> to left-wing Vox, Steyer presented Need to Impeach staffers with an unenviable choice: “Take a less-than-ideal severance and scramble to find another job, or work for his presidential campaign, where they would be well-rewarded, even though it wasn’t what they originally signed up for.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-3/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, learn about Nat Simons’s massive funding of environmentalist groups through the Sea Change Foundation.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">----</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">ref</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion</a>...</p><section class="mb7" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: var(--spacing-7); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="article-bodydate-source" style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: -0.04em; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 0.25rem;"><time class="relative z-1" datetime="2019-07-25T22:05:00.000Z" itemprop="datePublished" content="2019-07-25T22:05:00.000Z" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; z-index: 1;">March 28, 2019, <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">/ </span>Updated July 25, 2019</time></div><div class="article-inline-byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: var(--article-body--byline--font-weight); line-height: var(--article-body--byline--line-height); margin: var(--article-body--byline--margin);">By <span class="byline-name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">NBC News Political Unit</span></div></section><div class="article-bodycontent" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="endmark" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;">The latest political news and analysis from the campaign trail:</p><div id="blogHeader" class="Blog relative mt8" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: var(--spacing-8); position: relative;"><div class="blogscrollUpButtonContainer z-2" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; z-index: 1030; align-content: center; display: grid; height: 0px; position: sticky; top: 9.375rem;"><button type="button" class="newPostsButton z-999 db f4 founders-cond z-999 overflow-y-hidden blogbutton newPostsButton scrollingUp hidden" style="margin: 0px auto; 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float: none; margin-left: var(--spacing-0); margin-right: var(--spacing-0); margin-bottom: var(--spacing-8); width: 560px; scroll-margin-top: 350px;"><div class="live-blog-cardstripes" style="background-color: rgba(48, 97, 255, 0.5); box-sizing: border-box; height: 0.6875rem; margin: 0.0625rem 0px 0.5rem; -webkit-mask-image: url(" next="next" static="static" media="media" stripe-pattern.a2efb476.svg="stripe-pattern.a2efb476.svg" width="width" rem="rem"><h2 class="styles_cardTitleOnwNs" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1; clear: both;">Tom Steyer: I’ll declare a national emergency to tackle climate change</h2><div class="card-byline mb5 df" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; margin-bottom: var(--spacing-5);"><div class="byline-thumbnail byline-thumbnail--has-image mt1 mr2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: var(--spacing-2); margin-top: var(--spacing-1);"><picture style="box-sizing: border-box; border-radius: 50%; display: block; overflow: auto; height: 2.25rem; width: 2.25rem;"><source srcset="https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_focal-120x120,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2019_27/2923701/190612-benji_sarlin-byline_test30522.jpg 2x, https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_focal-60x60,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2019_27/2923701/190612-benji_sarlin-byline_test30522.jpg 1x" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img loading="lazy" src="https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_focal-60x60,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2019_27/2923701/190612-benji_sarlin-byline_test30522.jpg" alt="" height="48" width="48" pinger-seen="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; width: 2.25rem; border-radius: 50%; display: block; overflow: auto; height: 2.25rem;" /></source></picture></div><div class="df flex-column" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column;"><p class="f4 founders-cond mv0 gray-80" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: var(--spacing-0); margin-top: var(--spacing-0);"><span class="byline-name" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Benjy Sarlin</span></p><div class="timestamps founders-mono f2" style="box-sizing: border-box;">971d ago </div></div></div><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem;">WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer, the newest entry into the 2020 contest, released an environmental plan on Thursday that includes a<b> promise to declare a “national emergency” over climate change immediately upon taking office.</b></p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px;">“We’ve got to stop talking about this, we have to turn the page to action and we should do it Day One by calling it a state of emergency,” Steyer told NBC News in an interview.</p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px;">“That’s where we are. That’s where the people of America have got to go together.”  </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He is the first candidate to follow President Trump’s own invocation of emergency powers to finance a border wall with a direct pledge to take similar steps to confront climate change</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.  </span></p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px;">According to Steyer, he would “give Congress 100 days to pass a Green New Deal” before using executive authority <b>impose new energy efficiency standards on [?] and redirect federal funding to climate projects.</b> </p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px;"><b>Steyer’s broader proposal sets a goal of net-zero emissions associated with climate change by 2045.[like FF ceo do now?]</b></p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Planks of the plan include a $2 trillion investment in clean energy infrastructure, hiring 1 million workers into a new civil service program dedicated to combating climate change, and tripling funding for scientific research.</span></p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px;"><b>It also includes a $50 billion fund to help transition workers tied to the fossil fuel industry to new jobs,</b> which Steyer said would be distributed in consultation with affected communities.   “We want to make sure we explicitly take those workers’ interests into account,” he said.   </p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px 0px;">A leading Democratic donor, Steyer has invested millions in climate activism over the years through groups like NextGen America, which he founded. </p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px 0px;">
</p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px 0px;">----</p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px 0px;">ANOTHER REF</p><p class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5rem 0px 0px;">
</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As CRC’s Ken Braun [lotta germanic names there?] </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">has <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/tom-steyer-the-crusader-part-1/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">observed</a>, </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/tom-steyer-the-crusader-part-1/">https://capitalresearch.org/article/tom-steyer-the-crusader-part-1/</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">
</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">---</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">REF 3</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/291559-greens-get-billionaire-ally-money">https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/291559-greens-get-billionaire-ally-money</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">
</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">----</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">REF 4</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/biden-2020-energy-revolution-plan.-11.09.2020.pdf">https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/biden-2020-energy-revolution-plan.-11.09.2020.pdf</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">
</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">DOES SAY JAIL POLLUTERS ( presumably for criminal behavior that hurts or kills poor kids of color? after a fair trial with very high paid lawyers to defend them]</p></div></div></div></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nat Simons and the </strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sea Change Foundation</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">On the more moderate end of the San Francisco “green” lagoon is Nathaniel “Nat” Simons, a Bay Area billionaire who </span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">made his fortune brilliantly managing hedge funds.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Simons is the son of <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/james-simons/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">James Simons</a>, a billionaire hedge fund manager and legendary mathematician whose firm,<b> Renaissance</b> Technologies, is one of the most successful hedge funds in history.[odd no mention of mercers?]</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The Simons family members are all big donors to Democratic politicians and liberal causes. James Simons, an antiwar protester in the 1970s, has supported a slew of groups such as <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/planned-parenthood-votes/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Planned Parenthood Votes</a> and the Democrats’ <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/political-party/house-majority-pac/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">House Majority PAC</a>. James’ daughter, Liz, runs the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/heising-simons-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Heising-Simons Foundation</a> with her</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> husband, Mark, an investor who sits on the board of the<b> Environmental Defense Fund</b>, and his step-daughter, Audrey, runs the pro-LGBTQ <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/foundation-for-a-just-society/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Foundation for a Just Society</a>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">But Nat Simons has probably outdone them all with his <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sea-change-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sea Change Foundation</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, which gave $480 million to (mostly) environmentalist groups between 2006 and 2018. To be fair, Simons is far from a radical and to this writer’s knowledge has never endorsed the kind of eco-autocracy that Tom Steyer flirts with. But he has a virtually unlimited spigot of cash with which to fuel the environmental Left.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Simons and his wife, Laura Baxter-Simons, are part of a $4 billion pledge by mega-donors to “combat climate change” first </span><a href="https://www.climateworks.org/philanthropyannouncement/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">announced</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> at the 2018 Global Climate Action </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Summit in San Francisco</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b>. They’re also signatories to the Giving Pledge</b>, a commitment to give away the majority of their wealth started in 2010 by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Simons has noted that much of his foundation’s giving is motivated by a sense of “urgency of the issue and the momentum generated by the Paris Climate Acco</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">rd.” He <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/nathaniel-simons/#views-on-climate-change-and-environmentalism" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">clarified</a> his vision of major foundations leading the country’s shift from traditional energy sources to renewables alongside Al Gore and former President Bill Clinton in a 2009 National Clean Energy Project roundtable: “It’s not really a question of whether we move to a low-carbon economy. . . . The question is how quickly.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Like any eco-mandarin, Simons himself has been accused of <b>environmental <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/nathaniel-simons/#controversies-and-accusations-of-hypocrisy" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">hypocrisy</a>. In 2014, the </b><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b style="">Washington Free Beacon</b><i> </i></span>used marine traffic records to capture his commute via a 1,550-horsepower, 54-foot yacht called <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Elan </span>between his home in Berkeley and the San Francisco offices of the Meritage Group, his hedge fund firm. As the <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Beacon </span>opined,</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 14px 28px; margin: 0px 0px 28px; border-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;">Simons also did not respond to questions about his yacht, and how commuting to work on a boat with two 775 horsepower engines drawing from a 550 gallon gas tank squares with his environmentalist views.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Dark Money” from Bermuda . . . and Russia?</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The Sea Change Foundation came under scrutiny in 2014 by the Republican congressional staff of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which released a <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/10/chain-of-environmental-command-2014-report.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">report</a> titled <b>“The Chain of Environmental Command:</b> How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environment and Obama’s EPA.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The report details how “an elite group of left-wing millionaires and billionaires . . . directs and controls the far-left environmental movement, which in turn controls major policy decisions and lobbies on behalf of the U.S. <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/government-agency/u-s-environmental-protection-agency/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA),” identifying Sea Change as a “dominant organization in this movement” that <b style="">“relies on funding from a foreign company with undisclosed donors”</b> [DEBUNKED WHEN?] to funnel “tens of millions of dollars to other large but discreet foundations and prominent environmental activists who strive to control both policy and politics.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Klein Ltd., the “<b>foreign</b> company [BERMUDA?] with undisclosed donors” identified in the report that <b>allegedly </b>“exists on paper only,” was a Bermuda-based company noted as a donor to the Sea Change Foundation in its annual<b> IRS Form 990 financial filings. (Private foundations, unlike other types of nonprofits, are required to disclose the names of their donors.)</b> Between 2010 and 2011, Klein Ltd. donated $23 million to Sea Change, accounting for 49 percent of its total contributions in 2010 and 33 percent of its total contributions in 2011. (The remainder of its funds came from Nat and Laura Simons.)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">As the report put it:</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 14px 28px; margin: 0px 0px 28px; border-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">As a practical matter, an overseas company contributing tens of millions to organizations dedicated to abolishing the use of affordable fossil fuels is highly problematic. This is only compounded by the fact it is deliberately and completely lacking in transparency. However, it is likely this lack of transparency shields Klein Ltd. from any responsibility to the American businesses and families it hurts. . . .</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;">The role Sea Change plays as a member of the Billionaire’s Club is deeply troubling, especially in light of recent revelations that environmental activists, many of whom are clearly benefiting from this extreme “dark money,” do not have any moral qualms over where their money comes from—so long as it supports the far-left cause.</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In 2015, the right-leaning Environmental Policy Alliance</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> did its own examination of the committee report and alleged that Klein Ltd. and Sea Change acted as a conduit for funneling Russian government money to American environmental groups in order to undermine U.S. natural gas and oil production to Russia’s benefit:</span></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 14px 28px; margin: 0px 0px 28px; border-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;">According to its Articles of Incorporation, Klein was formed by two employees of Wakefield Quin (WQ), a Bermuda law firm. A Klein director and WQ senior counsel, along with another WQ senior counsel, have pasts that should be considered questionable at best. Both held directorship positions in a group, <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">owned by Russian minister of telecommunications and longtime Putin friend Leonid Reiman</strong>, which was the subject of a 2008 money laundering case. The group was ultimately convicted in British Virgin Islands court. WQ’s Russian involvement doesn’t stop there. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Marcuard Spectrum, a Moscow-based investment firm, operates a hedge fund in Bermuda based out of WQ’s office</strong>. Both of the aforementioned WQ lawyers are listed in leadership positions. Further, <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">one of the founders of Marcuard is also the chair of Russian-owned oil giant Rosneft. </strong>[emphasis added]</p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Sometime around 2018 Simons renamed Klein Ltd. “Sea Change International,” <b>reportedly</b> in response to the negative publicity the company had received. Today the group is listed on Sea Change’s website under that name. According to the latest reports Sea Change International continues to operate from Wakefield Quin’s Bermuda office. Sea Change Foundation has <b>apparently [REALLY TRYING TO AVOID BEING SUED?] </b>ceased taking donations from the shadowy organization.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">So who are these environmentalist groups that benefit from the Simons fortune?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The top recipients of Sea Change Foundation grants since 2006 are all leading eco-advocacy groups:</p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">The <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/lcv-education-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">League of Conservation Voters Education Fund</a> ($39 million), the 501(c)(3) arm of what the left-leaning Center for Public Integrity <a href="https://publicintegrity.org/politics/league-of-conservation-voters-becoming-dark-money-heavyweight/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">calls</a> a “’dark money’ heavyweight.”</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Partnership Project ($36 million), a coalition of major “green” groups.</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sierra-club-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Sierra Club Foundation</a> ($26 million), so<b> radical it recently cancelled its founder,</b> famed conservationist and national parks pioneer John Muir.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/natural-resources-defense-council-nrdc/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> ($21 million), which has</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> promoted unscientific public health scares since the 1980s.[ALAR?]</span></li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">But Sea Change’s largest beneficiary by far is the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/energy-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Energy Foundation</a>, which has received $125 million from the Simons fortune since 2006—and deserves its own story.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-4/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, note Energy Foundation’s transition to a massive pass-through funder for environmental advocacy.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">
</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Energy Foundation</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/energy-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Energy Foundation</a> is unique as a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">massive pass-through funder e</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">ndowed by liberal mega-donors to provide a new source of perpetual funding for the environmental Left. As its name suggests, the Energy Foundation started life as a bona fide[IE CAPITALISTIC PROFIT?]  foundation but in 2009–10 transitioned into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, perhaps due to the tax advantages of a public charity compared with a foundation and the prerogative to </span><em style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">not</em><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> report its donors (only the sum of their donations).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Energy Foundation began in 1991 as a $20 million collaborative of the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/pew-charitable-trusts/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Pew Charitable Trusts</a>, <b><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/rockefeller-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Rockefeller Foundation</a>, </b>and the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/john-d-and-catherine-t-macarthur-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. As early as 1989, these foundations conceived of the Energy Foundation as a way to <b>bundle grants to left-wing political groups able to influence energy regulatory policy under the guise of philanthropy,</b> </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/Energy-Foundation-Origins.-Scott-Kohler.-11.10.2020.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">according</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> to former MacArthur Foundation president Adele Simmons, who oversaw its creation and is a foundation </span><a href="https://pr.princeton.edu/news/99/q3/0917-mcarthur.htm" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">co-founder</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">According to a <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/Energy-Foundation-Origins.-Scott-Kohler.-11.10.2020.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">report</a> by Duke University’s Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society, the group had </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">three founding “strategic assumptions”:</span></p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 28px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">New technologies can grow the economy with far less pollution.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Policy shapes today’s energy markets, determining which technologies thrive or wither.</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Intelligent philanthropy can influence energy policy <b>with multi-billion-dollar payoffs</b>.[AS IN FEWER CITIES WIPED OUT BY HURRICANES?]</span></li></ol><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That last bit is key, since it establishes the Energy Foundation’s basic goal of effecting <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">policy change</em>—a curious goal for a tax-exempt foundation normally barred from lobbying or funding 501(c)(4) advocacy groups. (Notably, the Energy Foundation’s website <a href="https://www.ef.org/about-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">insists</a> that its “funds do not support legislative lobbying or electoral activities.”)[VS CRC? HERITAGE, NOT THE EPA?]</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">“There are many examples of this [policy] success,” notes the Duke report:</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 14px 28px; margin: 0px 0px 28px; border-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">In the mid-1990s, for instance, </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">the Foundation initiated six regional campaigns to</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> promote the use of renewable energy</span></strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. To date, sixteen states have adopted renewable portfolio standards <b>mandating</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> varying minimum levels of renewable energy use by power companies. </span><strong style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">In fifteen of these states, the standard can be traced directly to the Energy Foundation campaigns</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. Energy Foundation research, analysis, and education efforts contributed in the early ’90s to the adoption in California of tough new regulations for low-emissions vehicles.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> And in 2002, the California State Assembly passed AB 1493, the first bill to regulate, at the state level, air quality standards above and beyond the federal standards</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> [emphasis added].</span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As one would expect, the Energy Foundation is headed by a<b> professional environmental activist, </b>Jason Mark, who worked for over a decade at the <b>far-left</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b> <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/union-of-concerned-scientists-ucs/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Union of Concerned Scientists</a> (UCS)</b>, which lobbied for the Paris Climate Accord and its 1990s predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol. UCS pushes scientism, not science—CRC senior fellow Steven J. Allen has called it a “<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/whats-the-truth-behind-the-origins-of-the-union-of-concerned-scientists/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">science-themed political group</a>”—and emerged from the 1960s radicals who refused to do any classified research or work for the “imperialist” American government.[NAPALM? AGENT ORANGE?]</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Likewise, the Energy Foundation’s board of directors includes Obama administration alumni, former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D), a <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/nature-conservancy/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nature Conservancy</a> executive, and the president of the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/natural-resources-defense-council-nrdc/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b>The Energy Foundation’s Chinese arm is headquartered in Beijing,</b> obscuring its finances and activities–which are<b> reportedly </b>focused on expanding wind and solar energy production in the communist country. Its board, however, consists of at least one former Chinese government official.[NOTE NO NAMES/LINKS; AT THE SAME TIME DENIER/HACKS SAY CHINESE CHEAT BY BUILDING COAL PLANTS]</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Just Passing Through</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">As with the Sea Change Foundation, the 2014 Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works report identified the Energy Foundation as the “quintessential example of a pass-through” organization.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Between 2001 and 2018, the Energy Foundation paid out an impressive $1 billion in grants, much of it supplied by mega-foundations such as the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/william-and-flora-hewlett-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">William and Flora Hewlett Foundation</a> ($319 million), the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sea-change-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Sea Change Foundation</a> ($106 million), and the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/david-and-lucile-packard-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">David and Lucile Packard Foundation</a> ($84 million).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some of the grants benefiting the Energy Foundation are explicitly tagged for “advocacy,” such as a cool $15 million from the MacArthur Foundation in 2017 earmarked “in support of state-level advocacy for clean energy policies</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">” [VS SUPPORTING CANDIDATES?](Because the Energy Foundation is now a 501(c)(3) public charity, it can spend more on lobbying than it could as a foundation.)</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">In turn, the Energy Foundation<b> funnels six-figure grants to any number of leftist groups propagating the environmental movement’s war on cheap and abundant energy.</b> Between 2001 and 2018 the Energy Foundation passed money to notables such as:</p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Natural Resources Defense Council ($34 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Partnership Project ($22 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Sierra Club Foundation ($19 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">American Council for An Energy<b> Efficient </b>Economy ($15.7 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Center for Energy<b> Efficiency </b>and Renewable Technology ($10.8 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Union of Concerned Scientists ($10.6 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Environmental Law and Policy Center for the Midwest ($10 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Environment America and its state affiliates ($9.5 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Southern Alliance for Clean Energy ($9 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Environmental Defence ($8 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Western Resources Advocates ($7.1 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Clean Air Task Force ($7 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Earthjustice (formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) ($6.4 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Tides Center ($4.7 million) [AMAZING NO SOROS?]</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">National<b> Religious</b> Partnership for the Environment ($3 million)</li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The pattern here is <b style=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">policy</span>.</b> The <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-council-for-an-energy-efficient-economy/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy</a> (2018 revenues of $11.7 million)—also a Sea Change Foundation grant recipient—is a policy shop created in 1980 to lobby against U.S. dependence on foreign oil that’s since morphed into a global warming group</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/environmental-law-and-policy-center-of-the-midwest/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest</a> (2018 revenues of $7.5 million) is a nonprofit legal group that litigates for liberal policies,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> bragging on its website that it’s helped close over 110 coal plants in the Midwest, drive renewables mandates, and shut down highway construction and expansion (what the group calls “<a href="https://elpc.org/about/big-wins/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">boondoggles</a>”).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/environment-america/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Environment America</a> (2018 revenues of $18.3 million) is the center of a sprawling eco-advocacy and canvassing<b> operation vital to the Left’s get-out-the-vote</b> and <b>fundraising operations:</b> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/organization/public-interest-network/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Public Interest Network</a>. As my colleague Michael Watson and I <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/secrets-of-the-public-interest-pyramid-part-1/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">exposed</a> in 2018, this “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-liberal-sweatshop" style="box-sizing: border-box;">liberal sweatshop</a>” network—better known for its Public Interest Research Groups, o<b>r PIRG</b>s—dates back to the 1970s and farms out poorly paid, clipboard-carrying grunts to fundraise for nonprofit groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the Southern Poverty Law Center in exchange for a cut of the proceeds.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> [// CFACT CRYPTO]Environment America leads the “green” wing of this enormous<b> pyramid, </b>lobbying for environmental regulations and global warming bills (including the Democrats’ <b>failed 2008 cap-and-trade bill).</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But it’s the Energy Foundation’s<b> 501(c)(4) “sister</b>,” the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/green-tech-action-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Energy<b> Action</b> Fund</a> (formerly the Green Tech <b>Action</b> Fund), that deserves even greater scrutiny</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. Between 2008 and 2018 the foundation<b> passed $17.3 million to its advocacy arm,</b> which paid out over $46 million in grants over that same period.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Most of the other donors to the Energy Action Fund are unknown, but they include the “dark money”<b> <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sixteen-thirty-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sixteen Thirty Fund</a></b>, <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/climateworks-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Climateworks Foundation</a>, and <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/neo-philanthropy-action-fund/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">NEO Philanthropy Action Fund</a>—all top pass-throughs.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The Energy Action Fund’s own grants share a common policy thread. Its latest Form 990 notes part of its expenses went to providing <b>“strategic consultation on state campaigns to advance clean energy solutions</b>.” And its recipients (between 2008 and 2018) reflect the 501(c)(4) advocacy side of the Energy Foundation’s grant recipients, including :</p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">League of Conservation Voters ($17.5 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Partnership Project Action Fund ($5.2 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Advanced Energy Works ($2.6 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Sierra Club ($2.2 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">BlueGreen Alliance ($2.2 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Michigan Energy Michigan Jobs ($1.9 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">NRDC Action Fund ($685,000)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Environmental Defense Fund ($544,000)</li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/league-of-conservation-voters/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">League of Conservation Voters</a> (2018 revenues of $65 million) is one of the largest lobbying groups on the eco-Left, trying to halt offshore oil drilling in the Arctic, denouncing Republican leadership as “radical” for lifting the country’s 40-year oil export ban in 2016, and pushing for Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Under the Clean Power Plan[EXISTED IN 2008, DIDNT HE SAY CLEAN COAL?], electricity would “<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/happy-energy-independence-day/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">necessarily skyrocket</a>” by as much as 250 percent, according to the then-Illinois senator on the 2008 campaign trail.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">As its name suggests, BlueGreen Alliance (2018 revenues of $1.7 million) is a collaboration between </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Big Labor and Big Green</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, formed in 2006 by the </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/labor-union/united-steelworkers/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">United Steelworkers</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> and the </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sierra-club/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Sierra Club</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. While the coalition has diminished in recent years, it was a lobbying powerhouse during the Obama years, reportedly spending close to <b>$4 million[A LOT/ VS KOCHS JUST ON ANTI-UNION?] </b>on climate change bills and a “card check” bill that would have made it easier for unions to unionize workplaces.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-5/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">next installment</a>, look at ClimateWorks, perhaps the single largest funder of the environmental Left.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">pt 5</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-5/">https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-5/</a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><div class="singlethe-content the-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; padding-left: 10px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; text-align: center;" /><div style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); text-align: left;"><strong style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box">creatures of the Green Lagoon: San Francisco Mega-Foundations Bankrolling Eco-Activism (full series)</strong></div><div style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); text-align: left;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-1/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Paris Rises from the Dead</a> | <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-2/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Tom Steyer</a> | <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-3/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Sea Change Foundation</a></div><div style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-4/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;" /><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-4/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Energy Foundation</a> | <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/creatures-of-the-green-lagoon-part-5/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">ClimateWorks Foundation</a></div><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The ClimateWorks Foundation</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">Like the Energy Foundation, the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/climateworks-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">ClimateWorks Foundation</a> was conceived in 2006 as a joint<b> pass-through</b> [NEVER DEFINED OR PROBLEM W/ EXPLAINED? MIRROR?] project of multiple major grantmaking foundations: the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/william-and-flora-hewlett-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">William and Flora Hewlett Foundation</a>, <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/david-and-lucile-packard-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">David and Lucile Packard Foundation</a>, and the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/mcknight-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">McKnight Foundation</a>. Unlike the Energy Foundation, ClimateWorks was founded as a 501(c)(3) public charity and not a private foundation.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">They’re similarly sized organizations, too. Between 2006 and 2018, ClimateWorks reported total revenues exceeding $1.5 <span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b>billion</b></span> [NOTE NO CITES ON THESE #] and paid out grants of $1.05 billion, slightly larger than the Energy Foundation,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> making ClimateWorks perhaps the single largest funder solely dedicated to funding the environmental Left. Close to $1.3 billion of that $1.5 billion has been tracked back to a collection of huge left-wing foundations, notably:</span></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Hewlett Foundation ($667 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Packard Foundation ($481 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">McKnight Foundation ($38.6 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">MacArthur Foundation ($26.5 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Margaret A. <b>Cargill </b>Foundation (major environmental funder) ($13.3 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Oak Foundation USA (U.S. branch of the<b> Swiss-</b>based Oak Foundation) ($5.7 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Grantham Foundation</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> for Protection of the Environment (<b>British</b> investor Jeremy Grantham) ($5.5 million)</span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Gordon E. and Betty I. Moore Foundation (Intel founder) ($4.1 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Heising<b>-Simons</b> Foundation (Liz Simons and Mark Heising) ($3.3 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Barr Foundation (telecomm billionaire Amos Barr Hostetter, Jr.) ($3.2 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Good Ventures Foundation (<b>Facebook</b> co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and wife Cari Tuna) ($3 million)</li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">If Hewlett and Packard sound familiar, they should—the foundations are the philanthropic vehicles of the respective co-founders of Hewlett-Packard (HP Inc. since 2015). The Palo Alto–based PC and electronics manufacturer was founded in 1939 that paved the way for the later success of Silicon Valley. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">David Packard, who served as Richard Nixon’s defense secretary from 1969 to 1971</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">,[QUIT WHY? HAIG?]  died in 1996, and Bill Hewlett died in 2001. In the decades since their deaths, their respective foundations have become enormous funders of the activist Left.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">Besides the Hewlett-Packard-McKnight trifecta, ClimateWorks was conceived with input from the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/energy-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Energy Foundation</a>, <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/doris-duke-charitable-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Doris Duke Charitable Foundation</a>, <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/oak-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Oak Foundation</a>, and <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/joyce-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Joyce Foundation</a> (whose board once included then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)). The input was organized in a <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/Design-to-Win-Philanthropy-Report.-2007.-11.20.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">2007 report</a> titled “Design to Win: Philanthropy’s Role in the Fight Against Global Warming,” sponsored by the foundations.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">Highlights from the report for “<b>philanthropy” to reshape “the building blocks of the world economy” include: [ANTI COMMIE AGENDA 21?]</b></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Global, collective action</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> is critical for reducing the numerous drivers of climate change, but philanthropy must focus its efforts.”</span></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">“A cap on carbon output—and an <b>accompanying market </b>for emissions permits—will prompt a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">sea change that washes over the entire economy.” [CATALYZE? DISRUPTOR?]</span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">“Philanthropy must promote renewables and low-emission alternatives.”</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">“Emissions from existing coal plants should be reduced and<b> new investments in coal-fired generating stations should be discouraged by stressing efficiency and renewable alternatives, such as wind and solar.”</b></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“National and/or sector-specific carbon caps are absolutely essential for reining in top emitters, such as steel mills and cement plants.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">”</span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">“New efficiency and fuel standards will cause vehicles to go farther on less gas and emit less carbon.”</li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Politics in Disguise</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As with the Energy Foundation, this muddies the clear divide between <b style=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">policy </span>and <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">philanthropy</span></b>.[CHURCH & STATE?] </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">[[crc </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to Exxon's website, the oil company gave another $50,000 in 2007, for "public information and<b> policy research</b>." </span><sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Capital_Research_Center#cite_note-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a> got $ from bunch of family fads bradley scaife cullum shelby etc etc]]</sup></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Few Americans would conceive of “support[ing] development of sector-specific emissions caps within and among countries”—international cap-and-trade or carbon tax schemes—as a legitimate pursuit for <b>charitable foundations commanding billions of tax-exempt dollars</b>,[UNLESS KOCH OR 4 SIS MILITARY CONTRACTORS]  yet these groups’ self-image is that of </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">technocrats paternally obliged to rescue the world from its self-imposed, carbon-induced peril.[NOTE DENIAL ASSUMPTION]</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">ClimateWorks was the solution, a new organization set up to <b>bundle and funnel </b>foundation money to the necessary<b> think tanks, advocacy groups, and activists</b>. Hal Harvey, founder of the Energy Foundation and later Hewlett’s energy program director, became the new organization’s CEO in 2008.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ClimateWorks’ first big project, Project <b style="">Catalyst, </b>was to provide analysis and policy proposals for the<b style=""> United Nations </b>Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2009, the successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">(set to expire in 2012). Project Catalyst produced reports calling for a global agreement that would place </span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">“incentives and</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> mandates” on private enterprise</span> </b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">to create a low-carbon economy.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Simultaneously, George Polk, a ClimateWorks senior advisor and board member,<b> reportedly</b> advised</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> liberal billionaire <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/person/george-soros/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">George Soros</a> [DING!] to invest $1 billion</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> into climate-related private equity. According to </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">investigative journalist Peter Schweizer,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> in April 2009, Soros named Polk representative to the board of <b>Powerspan, a company in which Soros invested and that soon received $100 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.[CHECK SRC]</b></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Post-Copenhagen, ClimateWorks has granted tens of millions of dollars annually to the<b> European </b>Climate Foundation, effectively its European equivalent, which in turn reportedly funnels money to unknown radical “green” groups across the European Union. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ClimateWorks’ overseas grantmaking has earned it the ire of India,[MODI?] which in 2014 declared Greenpeace—a radical group and ClimateWorks grantee—a “threat to national economic security” for costing up to 3 percent of the country’s GDP in anti-mining, anti-drilling, anti-coal protests.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;">Notables from ClimateWorks’ own U.S.-based grantees between 2008 and 2018 include:</p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px; list-style-type: square; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Energy Foundation ($396 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><b>Bipartisan Policy Center </b>($43 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">International Council on Clean Transportation ($38 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Programs ($33 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Institute for Transportation and Development Policy ($33 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><b>Regulatory Assistance</b> Project ($30 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Institute for Industrial Productivity </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">($19 million)</span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Energy/Green Tech Action Fund ($14 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Alliance for Climate Protection ($10 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Rainforest Action Network/Foundation ($9.8 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">World Resources Institute ($8.7 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Clean Air Task Force ($6.8 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Natural Resources Defense Council ($5.9 million)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development ($4.3 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Environmental Investigation Agency </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">($3.5 million)</span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;">Environmental Defense Fund ($2.7 million)</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">New Venture Fund</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> ($2.7 million)</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Creatures from the Green Lagoon</strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The collection of ultra-wealthy foundations and pass-through funders in the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <b style="">Bay Area </b>might be the greatest example of American technocracy—rule by the “experts”—brought to you by plutocrats.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> It’s that<b> paternalism</b> which characterizes the environmental movement’s biggest donors, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">who see in climate change a threat too big to be trusted to <b>democracy,</b> let alone any one government. [TRUMP PUTIN [ORDER OF LENIN OR SOMESUCH TO EXXON CEO LEE RAYMOND TRUMP SOS] MODI BOLSONARO YOU FECKLESS FECK]</span></p><div class="singletags" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tags:</strong> <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">climate change</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/climateworks-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">ClimateWorks Foundation</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/david-packard/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">David Packard</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/energy-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Energy Foundation</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/global-warming/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">global warming</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/nat-simons/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Nat Simons</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/nextgen/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">nextgen</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/paris-climate-agreement/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Paris Climate Agreement</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/sea-change-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Sea Change Foundation</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/tom-steyer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Tom Steyer</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/william-and-flora-hewlett-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">William and Flora Hewlett Foundation</a></div></div><div class="singleextended-author-info" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 30px; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 0px;"><h4 class="singleextended-author-infotitle" style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219); text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Hayden Ludwig</h4><div class="singleextended-author-infotext" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);">Hayden Ludwig is a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Senior Investigative Researcher</span><span style="background-color: rgb(245, 237, 219);"> at Capital Research Center. He is also a columnist at the Washington Free Beacon. Ludwig is a native of Orange County, California, and…</span></div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">=</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">how is crc related to cfact aside from attack PIRGs?</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/exxonmobil-funder-of-clim_b_8684320">https://www.<b>huffpost</b>.com/entry/exxonmobil-funder-of-clim_b_8684320</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">no lnx</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">ExxonMobil, Funder of Climate Change Deniers</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">It's been an interesting time watching the ExxonMobil attempt to defend its track record on climate science, in the wake of revelations that it had bone fide climate scientists properly studying the issue since the 1970's.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">By </p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Cindy Baxter, Contributor</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Co-author of exxonsecrets.org</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Updated <b>December 1, 2016</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Stacks and burn-off from the Exxon Mobil refinery are seen at dusk in<b> St. Bernard Parish, La., </b>Friday, Feb. 13, 2015.]</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">It's been an interesting time watching the ExxonMobil attempt to defend its track record on climate science, in the wake of revelations that it had bone fide climate scientists properly studying the issue since the 1970's.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The #ExxonKnew investigations by Inside Climate News and the LA Times have had ExxonMobil's head of PR, Ken Cohen, furiously tweeting, writing letters, and appearing on news programmes to defend his company's honor.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">"Our company's work to help understand the role that man-made CO2 emissions play in climate fluctuations has continued unabated for four decades," he opined in the Wall St Journal.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">But that's the point. ExxonMobil did know about the science. So the question now is how can the company explain its role in funding, to the tune of $31m 1998-2014, the think tanks running climate denial campaigns specifically aimed at undermining the very science that Exxon's own scientists were studying?</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">A new review of the climate change papers published by ExxonMobil to somehow defend its position has shown that there was 100 percent consensus among its scientists that global warming is caused by human interference.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Exxon's denial appears to have begun in earnest with CEO Lee Raymond, back in the 90's. Raymond became CEO of Exxon in 1993, and CEO and Chairman of the newly-merged ExxonMobil in 1999.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">"A factual, common sense approach will also serve us well as we address the issue that perhaps poses the greatest long-term threat to our industry -- so-called global climate change," Raymond told the annual meeting of the America Petroleum Institute (API) in 1996.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">The same year, he told Exxon staff in the company magazine "Lamplight" that "scientific evidence remains inconclusive as to whether human activities affect global climate."</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 1998, Exxon lobbyist Randy Randol was present at a meeting organised by the<b> API</b>, along with a number of the think tanks Exxon funded, where they created a communications strategy to<b> undermine support for the Kyoto Protocol, by questioning the science</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b>.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">The leaked strategy's stated goal was "A majority of the American Public, including industry leadership, recognizes that signifcant uncertainties exist in climate science and therefore raises questions among those (e.g. U.S. Congress) who chart the future U.S. course on global climate change."</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Victory, it stated, would be achieved when Americans, industry and media understood the uncertainties on climate science, and those supporting the Kyoto Protocol "on the basis of extant science appear out of touch with reality."</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Leaks of the paper may have led to the campaign being quashed, but this was the strategy that ExxonMobil was to fund to the present day.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">The think tanks present at the meeting included a number of those funded by ExxonMobil Foundation, under the leadership of Ken Cohen, its chair since 1999.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">CFACT</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">), while it no longer receives ExxonMobil funding, is launching a film challenging the science of global warming in Paris on December 7, as part of its 20-year campaign undermining climate science.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Under Lee Raymond's chairmanship, before his retirement in 2005, ExxonMobil spent millions funding these denial campaigns, and on a number of ads in the New York Times opinion pages. In one, in 2000, entitled "Unsettled Science," ExxonMobil quoted science on temperatures in the Sargasso Sea to prove that global warming wasn't happening.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Raymond himself cited the study at the company's AGM that year. The scientist who authored it, wrote to ExxonMobil saying:</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">"I believe ExxonMobil has been misleading in its use of the Sargasso Sea data. There's really no way these results bear on the question of human induced climate warming... I think the sad thing is the a company with the resources of ExxonMobil is exploiting the data for political purposes."</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">Think tanks receiving grants from the ExxonMobil Foundation include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which was the leading think tank pushing climate denial, coordinating the "<b>Cooler Heads Coalition." At one point, ExxonMobil funded nearly all the groups listed in the coalition.</b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">In 2005, the CEI ran a TV ad proclaiming "C02 is Life." This was the last straw for the UK's Royal Society, which complained to ExxonMobil and led Cohen to declare, in 2007, that the company was no longer funding these organisations. The world's media heralded the move.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> But ExxonMobil quietly continued funding the think tanks, extensively. In 2009, it dropped a few more.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">While Ken Cohen might try to state that the organizations he funded could do what they wanted, it's important to note that in some years, the company specifically spelt out its funding as being for their work on climate change.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><b>Even today, ExxonMobil continues to be a member of -- and to fund -- the American Legislative Exchange Council which, at its annual meeting, has hosted a number of climate change-denying scientists to question the existence of global warming</b>. Research has revealed that that ExxonMobil donated at least $1.6 million to ALEC between 1998 and 2012. In 2014 it gave them more.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A study published in PNAS on November 23 looked at the effect of grants from ExxonMobil and the Koch brothers on the discourse around climate science. It showed that the climate denial echo chamber organizations they funded produced misinformation that effectively polluted mainstream media coverage of climate science and polarized the climate policy debate.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">The way ExxonMobil is reacting to the #ExxonKnew revelations is bizarre. In the full knowledge of the climate change science, provided to it by its own scientists, this company has spent years, and many millions, funding the myths created by the denier industry to obfuscate the science and slow change.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">To me, although I'm not a lawyer, knowing about the harm caused by your product, then spending millions on trying to create doubt about the facts of that harm, sounds very similar to what another industry did with its product.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">This post is part of a "Corporate Skullduggery" series produced by The Huffington Post, in conjunction with the U.N.'s 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris (Nov. 30-Dec. 11), aka the climate-change conference. The series will put a spotlight on businesses that have actively tried to mislead the public about the dangers of climate change or about their own contributions to rising temperatures. To view the entire series, visit here.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">
</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">NOT THE EPA FOUNDED BY DR EVIL BERMAN</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">daily signal</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Hayden Ludwig, a senior investigative researcher with the conservative think tank Capital Research Center</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">, </span></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/02/08/lawsuit-alleges-illegal-tactics-in-house-democrats-climate-probe-of-oil-companies/">https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/02/08/lawsuit-alleges-illegal-tactics-in-house-democrats-climate-probe-of-oil-companies/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx twt</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>House Democrats are using privately funded staff to investigate oil companies for spreading “disinformation” </b>on climate change, a possible violation of federal law and the chamber’s own rules, a lawsuit alleges. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A spokesperson for Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which is conducting the yearlong investigation, said the committee has followed all relevant laws and rules in consulting with others.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Co-Equal, the private nonprofit group named in the federal public information lawsuit, denies being part of a major hearing in the climate-related investigation of oil companies.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Co-Equal, founded by two of House Democrats’ former staffers who led the congressional tobacco hearings in the 1990s, is sponsored by</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Arabella</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Advisors, a liberal megadonor. The group also received $300,000 from an organization backed by another major donor on the left, billionaire financier George</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Soro</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">s. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Virginia talk radio host</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Rob Schilling, a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> former reporter who won awards from The Associated Press and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, filed the lawsuit seeking records from the House of Representatives. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Schilling is represented by a </b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">private [ODD CHOICE OF WORDING , NON-PARTISAN/ NON-PROFIT PLAYED OUT AS COVER?] </b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">watchdog group</b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> called Government Accountability & Oversight. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[OH HE'S DISTINGUISING IT FROM BAD BIG GOV'T GAO AND OVERSIGHT COMM]</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Democrats v. Big Oil</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The subject of Schilling’s lawsuit is the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s investigation alleging “disinformation” from oil companies misled the public about the dangers of climate change. The suit <b>alleges </b>that the Democrat-run committee violated the law in its zeal to go after oil companies.  </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., chairman </b>of the panel’s environment subcommittee, told The Hill in September that the committee enlisted the aid of “a lot of people” who planned the 1990s hearings into tobacco companies chaired by then-Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The first big public event from the probe was an Oct. 28 hearing by the full oversight panel questioning CEOs of six major oil companies. But, as Khanna said in a Reuters story published a day earlier: “This will be a yearlong investigation and the hearings mark the beginning of it.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The committee held another hearing Tuesday at which climate activists and scientists testified about whether oil companies are acting to address global warming, as well as their alleged disinformation effort.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Congress must properly use its subpoena power, Schilling said. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Congress has the power to issue subpoenas when it has a proper legislative purpose,” Schilling told The Daily Signal in an email. “This seems to be no more than scapegoating Congress’s failure to persuade the public about this agenda, after all this time and money. But members of Congress are getting ever more bold about confessing the true purpose here is not legitimate legislative inquiry.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lawsuit Alleges Violation of House Rules, Law</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawsuit, filed Jan. 24 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks “access to certain records pertaining to the use of outside private donations, funds, or in-kind goods or services to conduct and support the activities of, or pay the expenses of, a congressional office in violation of House rules.” </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawsuit seeks all emails and any Skype and other recordings regarding the House Oversight and Reform Committee and donor-provided consultants. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Congress exempted itself from the Freedom of Information Act, however, so the lawsuit refers to “common law” precedent for access to public records that preceded FOIA.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“During the Nixon administration, the courts repeatedly ruled that there was a common law right of access and that it was quite broad,” Schilling told The Daily Signal. “I hope that the courts haven’t forgotten the importance of the common law right since then.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The issue here is whether the public’s interest in these arrangements is outweighed by the interest in keeping these arrangements secret, and that does not seem to be a high bar,” the former journalist said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">His suit goes on to state that </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">House Rule XXIV</b> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and federal law, specifically 31 U.S. Code Section 1342, prohibit the use of outside private donations and in-kind goods or services.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Oversight and Reform Committee has followed all rules in its investigation, the spokesperson told The Daily Signal in an email.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Congressional offices routinely speak with outside experts,” the spokesperson wrote. “The committee has followed all applicable House rules in this critically important investigation into Big Oil’s disinformation campaign to deny climate change, and will continue to do so in the future.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The lawsuit notes that Democrat state attorneys general withdrew subpoenas to more than 100 think tanks, scientists, and others in a 2016 climate investigation after Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, challenged the subpoenas on First Amendment grounds.</span> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Co-Equal Ties to Arabella, Soros</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Co-Equal, a private nonprofit, has been helping to supplement congressional staff since at least 2019. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Schilling’s lawsuit identifies Co-Equal’s founders as similar to Khanna’s description of who is assisting in the probe of oil companies. That’s because two staffers who worked for Waxman during the tobacco hearings—counsel Phil Barnett and staff director Phil Schiliro—founded Co-Equal. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Schiliro held three White House positions during Barack Obama’s presidency. In his 25 years on Capitol Hill, Barnett also was staff director of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Khanna said in September that “a lot of people” who planned the 1990s Waxman hearings into the tobacco industry were assisting Democrats in the oil company investigation. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">However, Barnett said Co-Equal was not involved with the Oct. 28 hearing with oil company CEOs.  </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The Co-Equal website says: “Co-Equal is a project of the Hopewell Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity. Co-Equal Action is a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization.” </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Arabella Advisors, a Washington-based consulting firm, is the fiscal sponsor of the Hopewell Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and other nonprofits that bankroll liberal organizations.  </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Moreover, the Open Society Policy Center, a group financed by Soros, earmarked $300,000 for the Co-Equal Action Fund in a donation to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, according to the policy center’s fourth-quarter 2018 report. The report said the donation was specifically “to support work to enhance congressional effectiveness and oversight.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“It’s the kind of textbook Beltway insider scheme that Arabella deserves to be famous for: Funding from George Soros to shadowy nonprofits running a partisan campaign to push radical environmentalism on the country,<b>” Hayden Ludwig, a senior investigative researcher with the conservative think tank Capital Research Center</b>, told The Daily Signal.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Co-Equal met questions about the lawsuit from The Daily Signal by referring to a Jan. 31 letter from co-founder Barnett to Sally Dudley, an associate director at Arabella Advisors. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The allegations in the complaint regarding Co-Equal are false. The Government Accountability and Oversight group claims that Co-Equal—and by extension Arabella—were involved in an Oct. 28, 2021, climate hearing held by the House Oversight and Reform Committee,” wrote Barnett, a former staffer for Waxman on two separate House committees, including the Oversight panel during the tobacco hearings of the 1990s. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Barnett added in the letter:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I want to make sure you know Co-Equal had no involvement in that [climate] hearing and no Co-Equal resources were used in connection with the committee’s investigation. Apart from the false allegation about Co-Equal, the theory of the complaint rests on an erroneous interpretation of House Rule 24 that conflicts with the history of the rule and how it has been interpreted by the House Ethics Committee.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The organization did not respond to a follow-up email from The Daily Signal asking whether the separate political action entity, Co-Equal Action, was involved in the hearing or the investigation. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Schilling said Co-Equal was responding to an allegation he doesn’t make in the lawsuit. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“They’re distracting from the issue and answering a claim I haven’t made,” Schilling told The Daily Signal. “Whether or not certain individuals attended a hearing is a very different issue from whether they were involved in the hearing and planning the hearing. And whether Co-Equal resources were used in connection with the investigation or any particular hearing is something that the appropriate officials ought to look into, rather than accept on faith, especially under these very unusual circumstances.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Schilling’s lawsuit references a 2019 news report in The New York Times about Co-Equal forming to help Congress “reassert” itself by investigating the Trump administration. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Co-Equal’s website notes that the number of congressional staffers responsible for conducting oversight has declined since 1994. It says the organization can provide advice and “connect congressional offices with experts who level the information playing field.” </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Schilling’s lawsuit doesn’t directly allege that Co-Equal is part of the investigation, but says only: </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Plaintiff states on information and belief, including based upon Chairman Khanna’s admissions and other materials in the public domain, that among the outside parties brought in as consultants to execute this new quasi-judicial pursuit of private parties are individuals operating through and as part of an organization called Co-Equal.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawsuit also refers to a June 15, 2017, memo from Barnett and Schiliro on climate issues that doesn’t appear to be related to Co-Equal, the group they founded.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Want to keep up with the 24/7 news cycle? Want to</div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" /></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">sw 2 22</div><div style=""><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Funding">Funding</span></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;">The Capital Research Center is not required to disclose its funders but major foundation supporters can be found through its IRS filings. Here are some known contributors:</p><ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0.5em 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%225%22" height="%2213%22%3E" ccircle="Ccircle" cx="%222.5%22" cy="%229%22" r="%222.5%22" fill="%22%23222%22/%3E" c="C" e="E" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bradley_Impact_Fund" title="Bradley Impact Fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bradley Impact Fund</a>: $120K</b>  <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bradley_Impact_Fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%2212%22" height="%2212%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%2336c%22" d="%22M9.995" h5.982v10.5h1.5z="h5.982V10.5H1.5z" e="E" h11v5.39l9.427="H11v5.39L9.427" l-1.31-1.31l5.393="l-1.31-1.31L5.393" l-2.69-2.688="l-2.69-2.688" l4.2="L4.2" z="z" l.022="l.022" l8.2="L8.2" l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z="l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z" c="C" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data">$119,250</a> (2013-2018)</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Charles_Koch_Foundation" class="mw-redirect" title="Charles Koch Foundation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Charles</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Charles_Koch_Foundation" class="mw-redirect" title="Charles Koch Foundation" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;"> Koch Foundation</a>: </span><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Family_Foundations" style="background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%2212%22" height="%2212%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%2336c%22" d="%22M9.995" h5.982v10.5h1.5z="h5.982V10.5H1.5z" e="E" h11v5.39l9.427="H11v5.39L9.427" l-1.31-1.31l5.393="l-1.31-1.31L5.393" l-2.69-2.688="l-2.69-2.688" l4.2="L4.2" z="z" l.022="l.022" l8.2="L8.2" l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z="l2.882-2.88-1.85-1.852z" c="C" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data">$60,888</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (2011-2017)</span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Claude_R.Lambe_Charitable_Foundation" class="mw-redirect" title="Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation</a>: <b>$660,000</b> (1998-2008)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Donors_Capital_Fund" title="Donors Capital Fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Donors Capital Fund</a>: $332,500 (2002-2017)</b></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DonorsTrust" title="DonorsTrust" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">DonorsTrust</a>: $273,150</b> (2002-2018)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Edward_A.%26_Catherine_L.Lozick_Foundation" title="Edward A. & Catherine L. Lozick Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Edward A. & Catherine L. Lozick Foundation</a>: $2,500 (2014)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jaquelin_Hume_Foundation" title="Jaquelin Hume Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jaquelin Hume Foundation</a>: $175,000 (1999-2004)</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation" title="Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation</a>: $2,462,500 million</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (1998-2018)</span></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><b><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rodney_Fund" title="Rodney Fund" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rodney Fund</a>:</b> $86,000 (1999-2005)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sarah_Scaife_Foundation" title="Sarah Scaife Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sarah<b> Scaife </b>Foundation</a>: $1,830,000 (2012-2018)</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Searle_Freedom_Trust" title="Searle Freedom Trust" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><b>Searle </b>Freedom Trust</a>: $255,000 (2006-2018)</li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Shelby_Cullom_Davis_Foundation" title="Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Shelby Cullom Davis</a><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Shelby_Cullom_Davis_Foundation" title="Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;"> Foundation</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: $27,000 (2000-2006)</span></li></ul><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Corporate_sponsors">Corporate sponsors</span></h3><h4 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><span class="mw-headline" id="ExxonMobil">ExxonMobil</span></h4><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While CRC publications identify corporate funding of what they perceive as <b>liberal </b>non-profit groups, they do not disclose their own corporate sponsors. However, voluntary disclosures and documents revealed as a result of court actions provide a small window into how CRC interacts with corporations.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> In 2002, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ExxonMobil" class="mw-redirect" title="ExxonMobil" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">ExxonMobil</a> donated $25,000 to the CRC for the Green Watch project with another $25,000 in 2003</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, according to corporate giving reports no longer available on Exxon's website, but still available via ExxonSecrets.org. "Capital Research Center and Greenwatch has received $215,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998," and up to 2006, according to ExxonSecrets. </span><sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Capital_Research_Center#cite_note-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[40]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> According to Exxon's website, the oil company gave another $50,000 in 2007, for "public information and<b> policy research</b>." </span><sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Capital_Research_Center#cite_note-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;">...</p></div><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;">=</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Christopher Horner, </span>“Government for Rent,” <b>Competitive Enterprise Institute</b>, September 2018,</p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><a href="https://cei.org/sites/default/files/Christopher%20Horner%20-%20Government%20for%20Rent_0.pdf." style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://cei.org/sites/default/files/Christopher%20Horner%20-%20Government%20for%20Rent_0.pdf.</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"> 2 <a href="https://climatelitigationwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/FN-9-10-20-22-59-62-73-Plethora-ofactivist-and-funder-interest-in-govs-doing-this-copy.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://<b>climatelitigationwatch.org</b>/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/FN-9-10-20-22-59-62-73-Plethora-ofactivist-and-funder-interest-in-govs-doing-this-copy.pdf</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">. See also, Horner, “Government for Rent”. </p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">3 <a href="https://climatelitigationwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/FN-13-15-42-43-45-46-USCA-slidesand-initial-budget-with-pass-throughs-copy.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://climatelitigationwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/FN-13-15-42-43-45-46-USCA-slidesand-initial-budget-with-pass-throughs-copy.pdf</a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;">. See also, Horner, “Government for Rent”.</p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"></p><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">CLIMATE LAWSUITS</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><b>Democracy Dies in Dark-Moneyness: Soros Funding Behind Off-Books Congressional “Staff” to Investigate Political Opponents of Climate Agenda</b></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">21 hours ago Charles Rotter 68 Comments</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">  It represents a test of principle for the Republican congressional minority, “Dark Money” scold Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, and any elected congressional Democrats who would like to demonstrate their rhetoric…</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header magazinenp-parts-item" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.3;">democracy Dies in Dark-Moneyness: Soros Funding Behind Off-Books Congressional “Staff” to Investigate Political Opponents of Climate Agenda</h1><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1.3;"> <div class="by-author vcard author" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; position: relative; margin-bottom: 3px;"><a href="https://wattsupwiththat.com/author/jeeztheadmin/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; opacity: 0.8;"><span class="mnp-icon fa fa-user-circle" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: inline-block; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-rendering: auto; line-height: 1; padding-right: 5px;">Charles Rotter</span></a></div> <div class="comments" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; position: relative; margin-bottom: 3px;"><a href="https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/01/25/democracy-dies-in-dark-moneyness-soros-funding-behind-off-books-congressional-staff-to-investigate-political-opponents-of-climate-agenda/#comments" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; opacity: 0.8;">68 Comments</a></div></h1></header><div class="entry-content magazinenp-parts-item" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://govoversight.org/democracy-dies-in-dark-moneyness-soros-funding-behind-off-books-congressional-staff-to-investigate-political-opponents-of-climate-agenda/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">From Government Accountability & Oversight</a></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://govoversight.org/author/webeditor2/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">WEBEDITOR</a> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Following up on <a href="https://govoversight.org/records-lawsuit-filed-against-house-leadership-re-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">this</a> story, and<b> related <a href="https://govoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Complaint-to-House-Inspector-General.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">complaints</a> <a href="https://govoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Complaint-to-Office-of-Congressional-Ethics.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">filed</a> with congressional ethics watchdog offices</b>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/new-ethics-complaint-soros-funded-arabella-front-helped-democrats-break-congressional-ethics-rules/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">courtesy of <b>Capital Research Center’s</b> intrepid Hayden Ludwig</a> we now see that the money behind privately financed congressional investigative staff is coming from none other than George Soros’s Open Society ventures.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Specifically, it appears that $300,000 <a href="https://www.opensocietypolicycenter.org/pdfs/ospc-summary_of_lobbying_activities-2018-q4.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">went</a> from <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Soros’ c4 (Open Society Policy Institute) to 1630 Fund for Co-Equal Action</span>, with the grant tag, “to support work to enhance congressional effectiveness and oversight”.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Another $282,2000 went to the Hill-support operation courtesy of “eBay founder <b>Pierre Omidyar’s <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/democracy-fund-voice/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Democracy Fund Voice</a> in 2019</b> to ‘provide information and advice that helps members of Congress advance policies and conduct effective oversight.’”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">As we now know, thanks to those two ethics complaints and yesterday’s common public right of access lawsuit for records filed against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, et al., that means providing off-books congressional investigators to augment professional staff, <b><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">improperly</span> </b>for any Member or office which partakes, to pursue private party, political opponents.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Which is a donor-dangle to Members to violate not only House Rules but federal law, should they bite. Which House Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Ro Khanna has confessed to doing. As all laid out in those complaints. One recipient of which, the <b>House Inspector General, <a href="https://govoversight.org/house-inspector-general-suggests-complainants-make-complaint-someone-elses-problem/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">immediately waved off</a> as not being his job. </b>Even though it seems to fall pretty cleanly within his remit of investigating management of House resources.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Democracy dies in dark-moneyness, etc. Note that this money came via Arabella’s c4 umbrella group — a hard core political entity, not some arguably nonpartisan c3 “charity” or public education institution.  For a slew of quotes and critiques of the 1630 Fund c4 by WaPo, Politico et al. see CRC’s compilation <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sixteen-thirty-fund/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">here</a>.  <b>So, we now know that partisan financing of prosecutorial or quasi-judicial activities goes beyond just Soros prosecutors,</b> above-board and legal, or<b> Michael Bloomberg’s scheme planting privately hired activist prosecutors to pursue his agenda through state attorneys general offices </b>which falls into a much grayer area. It extends to off-books congressional staff, who represent a facial violation (by Members who partake) of House Rules and federal law.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">This operation — <b>hiding in plain sight </b>courtesy of a <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">New York Times</span> rollout piece so clumsily incurious that it never considered the propriety or even legality of what it nonetheless confesses is revolutionary, a “unique approach” now being tried in apparent response to the election of Donald Trump as President — is a pulse-check for the institution of journalism. <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">But, even though it’s people we like, pushing idea we agree with?</span>  It represents a test of principle for the Republican congressional minority, <b>“Dark Money” scold Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse,</b> and any elected congressional Democrats who would like to demonstrate their rhetoric about good governance is remotely sincere.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">---</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">ref1</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/new-ethics-complaint-soros-funded-arabella-front-helped-democrats-break-congressional-ethics-rules/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https:/<b>/capitalresearch.</b>org/article/new-ethics-complaint-soros-funded-arabella-front-helped-democrats-break-congressional-ethics-rules/</a></p><div class="singlethe-content the-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; padding-left: 10px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">big news is developing on the Arabella front.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Last week, the <b>watchdog group</b> <a href="https://govoversight.org/complaints-filed-with-congressional-watchdogs-over-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Government Accountability & Oversight</a> filed ethics complaints alleging that House Democrats broke a prohibition on <a href="https://govoversight.org/complaints-filed-with-congressional-watchdogs-over-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">private financing of official congressional business</a>, and an Arabella-run “pop-up” group is at the heart of the still-unfolding story.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box;"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">House Rule 24 </b><a href="https://govoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ASFILED-Schilling-v-Speaker-et-al.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">prohibits</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> <b>“outside private donations, funds, or in-kind goods or services” to cover the expenses of a congressional office in order to prevent private interests from gaining untoward influence over public affairs.</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">According to the complaints, however, the Arabella-run group Co-Equal provided</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> in-kind donations </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">to the </span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">House Committee on Oversight and Reform</b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> in the form of donor-provided “consultants” and “progressive” litigators to help House Democrats with a year-long investigation into private parties whose political speech has “frustrated” the Left’s climate action agenda.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">In other words, if the complaints are true, a nonprofit helped House Democrats break ethics rules to go after so-called climate deniers standing in the way of a Green New Deal<b> revolution.</b> Not good optics for the supposedly politically neutral <b>Arabella Advisors.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Scheming in the Dark</strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Arabella Advisors is a for-profit consultancy based in Washington, DC. The company commands a set of four in-house nonprofits that collectively brought in <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/arabella-advisors/#network-financial-overview" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">$1.7<b> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">billion</span></b></a> in 2020 alone—and $4.7 billion since 2006—from left-leaning foundations and donors.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Arabella’s nonprofits run hundreds of “pop-up” groups that are little more than websites masquerading as standalone, grassroots nonprofits. Sometimes they operate in twos: Co-Equal is fiscally sponsored by the 5<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">01(c)(3) <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/hopewell-fund/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Hopewell Fund</a>, while its <b>lobbying arm, </b>Co-Equal Action, is run by Arabella’s 501(c)(4) <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sixteen-thirty-fund/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Sixteen Thirty Fund</a>.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Enter George Soros</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. A 2018 document reveals the leftist billionaire granted </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2022/01/open-society-policy-institute-2018-grants.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">$300,000</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> to Co-Equal Action via Sixteen Thirty Fund to</span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> “support work to enhance congressional effectiveness and oversight” </b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">from his 501(c)(4) </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/open-society-policy-center/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Open Society Policy Center</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">—almost certainly referring to Co-Equal’s campaign to illegally fund House Democrats’ climate witch hunt.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Add another <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2022/01/democracy-fund-voice-2019-grant-to-co-equal-action.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">$282,000</a> from eBay founder <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Pierre Omidyar’</span>s <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/democracy-fund-voice/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Democracy Fund Voice</a> in 2019 to “provide information and advice that helps members of Congress advance policies and conduct effective oversight.”</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tried and True?</strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This isn’t the first time liberal donors have tried to “help” Congress pursue their climate opponents. <b>In 2019, Michael Bloomberg funded an effort to embed privately funded lawyers into the offices of state attorneys general (AGs) in nine states and the District of Columbia via the Bloomberg-funded State Energy Environmental Impact Center.</b></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Bloomberg’s campaign effectively bypassing legislative budgets with “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">private mercenaries” engaged in “law enforcement for rent,” according to <a href="https://cei.org/experts/christopher-c-horner/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">Chris Horner</a>, a Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow</span>.<b> In Virginia, Republican lawmakers </b><b><a href="https://apnews.com/article/38938e39f23c6b8f3a900b221797143e" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">blocked the effort</a> from reaching the Democratic AG in 2019.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Prosecuting Wrongthink</strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This time around Arabella’s goal appears to be to help the U.S. Justice Department prosecute climate “crimes,” <a href="https://govoversight.org/complaints-filed-with-congressional-watchdogs-over-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">according</a> to the complaints.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">As part of his “<a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/biden-2020-energy-revolution-plan.-11.09.2020.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">clean energy revolution</a>,” <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Joe Biden promised on the campaign trail to “pursue [polluters] to the fullest extent permitted by law and . . . seek additional legislation to hold corporate executives personally responsible—including jail time when merited.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Jailing dissenters is now “<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/in-joe-bidens-america-jailing-climate-skeptics-is-environmental-justice/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">environmental justice</a>,” to use lefty lingo.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Perhaps its Arabella’s liberal donors who should be most wary—the company isn’t so transparent nor trustworthy as it claims. Far from the boutique philanthropy advisors that doesn’t “engage in any kind of legislative activity,” the Arabella network is DC politics incarnate, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/11/arabella-advisors-money-democrats/620553/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">according</a> to outgoing CEO Sampriti Ganguli.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 28px; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">This is a developing story with more to follow.</span></p><div class="singletags" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tags:</strong> <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/arabella-advisors/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Arabella Advisors</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/co-equal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Co-Equal</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/democracy-fund-voice/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Democracy Fund Voice</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/democratic-party/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Democratic Party</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/environmental-justice/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">environmental justice</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/george-soros/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">George Soros</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/green-new-deal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Green New Deal</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/hopewell-fund/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Hopewell Fund</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/open-society-policy-center/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Open Society Policy Center</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/pierre-omidyar/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Pierre Omidyar</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/sixteen-thirty-fund/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Sixteen Thirty Fund</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/skeptics/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">skeptics</a></div><div class="singletags" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</span></div><div class="singletags" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Hayden Ludwig is a Senior Investigative Researcher at Capital Research Center. He is also a columnist at the </span><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box">Washington Free Beacon</span><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">. Ludwig is a native of Orange County, California, and holds a Master’s of Public Policy from George Mason University.  </span><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" text-transform="text-transform" uppercase="uppercase">AUTHORED CONTENT</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><ul class="related-posts" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px;"><li style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><article class="c-tease " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 40px;"><div class="c-teaseoverline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/category/deception-and-misdirection/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">DECEPTION & MISDIRECTION</font></a></div><h3 class="c-teasetitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on January 24, 2022 by Hayden Ludwig</font></div></article></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><article class="c-tease " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 40px;"><div class="c-teaseoverline" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/category/green-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">GREEN WATCH</font></a></div><h3 class="c-teasetitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 15px;"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/forced-electrification-part-4/" class="c-teasetitle-link" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="">Forced Electrification: “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Net-Zero Carbon”</span></font></a></h3><div class="c-teaseunderline" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Article on January 24, 2022 by Hayden Ludwig</font></div></article></li></ul><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h4 class="c-personjob-title text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senior Investigative Researcher</font></h4></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><a class="inline-block-link" href="https://capitalresearch.org/person/hayden-ludwig//content" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase; display: inline-block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">+ SEE ALL CONTENT BY HAYDEN LUDWIG</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref2</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[no ital]</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://govoversight.org/records-lawsuit-filed-against-house-leadership-re-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://govoversight.org/records-lawsuit-filed-against-house-leadership-re-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff/</a></font></p><h1 class="post-title entry-title" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; overflow-wrap: normal; letter-spacing: -0.025em;"><a href="https://govoversight.org/records-lawsuit-filed-against-house-leadership-re-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Records Lawsuit Filed Against House Leadership Re: Use of Donor-Provided Consultants as Congressional Investigative Staff</font></a></h1><p class="post-meta entry-meta" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.6em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="post-author" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.05em;"><span class="author vcard" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="url fn n" href="https://govoversight.org/author/webeditor2/" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">WEBEDITOR</a></span></span> <span class="post-category" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://govoversight.org/category/in-the-news/" rel="tag" class="term-in-the-news" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">In The News</a><span class="separator" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, </span><a href="https://govoversight.org/category/private-funding-of-government/" rel="tag" class="term-private-funding-of-government" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">Private Funding of Government</a></span> <span class="post-comment" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://govoversight.org/records-lawsuit-filed-against-house-leadership-re-use-of-donor-provided-consultants-as-congressional-investigative-staff/#respond" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">0</a></span></font></p><div class="entry-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Today, award-winning independent journalist Rob Schilling</b> filed a <a href="https://govoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ASFILED-Schilling-v-Speaker-et-al-1.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">lawsuit</a> against Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Clerk and Chief Administrator of the House of Representatives to exercise the public’s common law right of access to records. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Specifically, Schilling’s suit seeks certain described emails, and any Skype and similar recordings and logs, pertaining to the use by two committee chairs of <b>donor-provided consultants </b>as professional staff to perform official business.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This follows the revelation that Congress also had joined in a practice, initiated by Democratic <a href="https://cei.org/blog/government-for-rent-exposing-climate-politics-in-governors-offices/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">governors</a> and <a href="https://cei.org/studies/law-enforcement-for-rent/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">attorneys general</a> with the assistance of major donors after the election of Donald Trump as President, of using privately funded staff to perform official business to advance the <b>“climate” agenda.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Public records <a href="https://climatelitigationwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FN-1-Dan-Carol-Before-you-gasp-copy.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">show</a> budgets for <a href="ttps://climatelitigationwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/FN-13-15-42-43-45-46-USCA-slides-and-initial-budget-with-pass-throughs-copy.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">tens of millions</a> of dollars of in-kind gifts to governors in the form of non-employee climate “staff” and media consultants, and that progressive state attorneys general took in donor-hired and -provided prosecutors.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, it appears that the <b>House Committee on Oversight & Reform </b>is using donor-provided consultants as staff to guide what Environment Subcommittee Chairman Ro Khanna told activists to expect will be a <b>“<a href="https://www.facebook.com/PoliticalRevolution/videos/398395635078831" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">year-long</a>” investigation of private parties, </b>already <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/21/house-panel-broadens-probe-into-climate-disinformation-by-big-oil/?utm_source=Daily%20on%20Energy%20012122_01/21/2022&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WEX_Daily%20on%20Energy&rid=24768794&env=db4665f345665fde06a16543e17994e4637d11093879c8a1c80db9250f8b851b" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">expanded</a>, for political speech that <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Rep. Khanna</span> believes has frustrated attempts to legislate the agenda.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Scapegoating congressional failures</b> [allusion to round 1?] is not a constitutionally permissible use of Congress’s investigative powers — with or without the financial assistance of activist donors. While the constitutionality of this “year-long” investigation is not yet at hand,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Schilling was one of two parties filing <a href="https://govoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Complaint-to-House-Inspector-General.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">two</a> <a href="https://govoversight.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Complaint-to-Office-of-Congressional-Ethics.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">complaints</a> </span>with congressional ethics watchdogs over this work, the <a href="https://www.house.gov/the-house-explained/officers-and-organizations/inspector-general" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">Inspector General of the House</a> and the <a href="https://oce.house.gov/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">Office of Congressional Ethics</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the complaints noted, the gray area exploited by some governors and AGs is not present here: <b>House <a href="https://ethics.house.gov/official-allowances/unofficial-office-accounts" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">Rules</a> and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/1342" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">federal law</a> prohibit private financing of the performance of official House business, in-kind or otherwise.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This new congressional investigation began with oil company executives in October but, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-climate-police-escalate-1461968775" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">past</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-climate-police-crack-up-1467933366" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">behavior</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/572612-democrats-call-for-oil-company-executives-to-testify-on" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">recent hints</a>, seems likely to extend soon to others the “climate” industry views as having impeded its desires.</span> <b>A previous AGs’ campaign noted in today’s suit led to subpoenas to over 100 think tanks, scientists, and others also in the name of pursuing energy companies for purported climate-related sins.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">This blew up on the AGs when the targets challenged the obvious violation of private individuals’ <b>First Amendment</b> rights, thanks to the   <a href="https://cei.org/publication/first-amendment-fight-ceis-climate-change-subpoena/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">subpoena battle</a> fought by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The AG leading that charge retreated. However, many of the same AG offices involved in that scheme then <b>brought on attorneys privately hired and placed in their offices by a group created by billionaire climate activist Michael Bloomberg, </b>which offices then resumed the investigations. It has thus become clear that none of these <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">abuses of power, in the name of enormous payouts and massive new governmental authority, were ever truly abandoned.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If anything, they have expanded. The complaint also notes the prospect that the Committee objective is to engineer criminal referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice, in aid of <b>a Biden-Harris campaign <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/3/despite-denials-count-on-biden-harris-to-direct-ag/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">promise</a> to engage DoJ on behalf of the climate industry in its lawsuits against private industry</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Indeed, the Oversight Chairmen <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/lawmakers-study-big-tobacco-perjury-before-big-oil-showdown-2/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">told</a> activists they were eyeing perjury charges against witnesses…a week before any testimony was taken or any questions posed.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Further, however, prompting Schilling’s requests was Committee leadership also <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/572612-democrats-call-for-oil-company-executives-to-testify-on?rl=1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">letting slip</a> that it had brought in consultants to help guide the campaign, describing them in a way strongly indicating — thanks both to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/us/politics/congress-oversight-muscle.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times</span></a> and the group <a href="https://www.co-equal.org/need" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">itself</a> — use of a group <a href="https://www.co-equal.org/team" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">funded</a> by <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Arabella Advisors, the <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/16/caitlin-sutherland-arabella-advisors-form-990s/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">“mothership”</a> behind a Democratic “Dark money juggernaut.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The suit notes that this expansion of donor-provided climate “staff” comes after previous revelations of a<b> $50 million per year budget request for off-books climate staff for progressive governors by 2020. </b>Then came Bloomberg’s millions to staff up AGs to, e.g., push climate prosecutions that — with ever-changing rationales but a constant demand for hundreds of billions of dollars to be politically distributed — appear to be little more than shakedowns</span>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now the spawn of both disgraces prowls the halls of Congress, and in this case there is no room to excuse the behavior which<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><i> </i>on its face violates <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/1342" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">31 U.S. Code § 1342</a>, </span><a href="https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/117-House-Rules-Clerk.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">House Rules</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> and ethics requirements/prohibitions <b>(House Rule XXIV</b> and </span><a href="https://ethics.house.gov/outside-employment-income/laws-rules-and-standards-conduct" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">official</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> House </span><a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CPRT-117HPRT43153/pdf/CPRT-117HPRT43153.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">interpretations</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> thereof)</span>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fortunately, the <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">NYT</span> launched the outside consultants’ effort, <b>hiding it in plain sight</b> with a promotional <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/us/politics/congress-oversight-muscle.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">piece</a> that, tellingly, made no inquiry into what skeptical voices — let alone House Rules or federal law — say about what the <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Times<i> </i></span>nonetheless admits (if with understatement) is a “unique approach”. That same article, and the consultants’ website admissions, now tie the hands of the Members of Congress who brought in outside parties on the basis, indeed the <b><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">confession</span>,</b> that the House did not grant them the level of professional staff the “climate” movement feels it should have to use the power of government to pursue political opponents.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those opponents have apparently frustrated the “climate” movement beyond the point of caring about rules, a matter which House Inspector General has already declined to examine, about which the Congressional Office on Ethics which has a complaint, and the House Committee on Administration. <b>The latter’s Ranking Minority Member Rodney Davis has already <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017e-2121-dee4-a5ff-ef39df580000" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">stirred</a> to action out of his own frustration with what he views as coverup by the House leadership.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For now, Schilling’s common law right of access suit seeks to exercise the public’s right to know about this<b> metastasizing</b> of<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> off-books private staffing</span> to Congress, again (as was the case with the AGs) for adjudicative/quasi-judicial matters against private, political opponents.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Plaintiff Robert Schilling hosts The Schilling Show radio program broadcast on Newsradio 1070 and 98.9 FM WINA in Central Virginia,</b> and the founder and editor of a news, analysis, and commentary web site, SchillingShow.com, whose reporting and <b>investigative journalism has been awarded multiple times by the Associated Press </b>and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, including two “Superior Awards for Best Investigative Reporting” from the Associated Press.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">GAO Board Member Matthew D. Hardin filed suit for Schilling, following requests for the records made in November and December 2021, which all of the named defendants ign</span>ored.</font></span></p></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">WHY DO THEY NEED A PATSY FRONT?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">bs</font></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After The Sneaks disbanded in 1984, I kept my hand in music through participation in a number of great bands: Blue Frontier, The Prime Movers, <a href="http://keithchagall.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Chagall</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdGeF3Fc2Fk" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">The Johnsons</a>. (There was even a brief re-formation of The Sneaks in the early 90s.) In 1989 I became involved in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJxqWzFU9WM" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">music ministry</a> through my church, and in 2003, I released my first solo CD entitled, <a href="http://cdbaby.com/cd/robschilling" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Sing a Psalm</a>. My latest music is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRw0F-TdcqE" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">here</a>.</font></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1996, my wife and I concluded that for a variety of reasons, California would no longer be our home. After conducting two subsequent nationwide searches, in 1998 we pulled up stakes and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia. (No, Californians, you don’t fall off the earth once you pass Las Vegas.)</font></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.allhookedup.com/sneaks/pages/Rob_Schilling.html#javascript" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><img src="http://www.allhookedup.com/sneaks/icons/Cville-full-cover_sm.jpg" width="150" height="100" class="photoRight" style="border: thin solid rgb(102, 102, 102); float: right; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 10px;" /></a>In 2002, after experiencing what I perceived to be a broken and corrupt city government, totally unknown and against all odds, I decided to run for a seat on Charlottesville’s City Council. In an historic upset, <a href="http://www.allhookedup.com/gop/schilling/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">I was elected</a> and served a single four-year term, consistently speaking out against the local political "machine" and shaking up the status quo in the process.</font></p><p class="bodytext" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Upon conclusion of my local government experience, I was invited to host a radio talk program for Newsradio 98.9 FM and AM 1070 WINA. <a href="http://www.schillingshow.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">The Schilling Show</a> airs daily from 12 to 2 PM across central Virginia. I'm also the proprietor of <a href="http://www.blog.schillinghsow.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">The Schilling Show Blog</a>.</font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">desmog crc</font></div><div><h2 id="h-stance-on-climate-change" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stance on Climate Change</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">February 11, 2020</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CRC</span>‘s investigative researcher Hayden Ludwig <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200311212645/https://capitalresearch.org/article/you-cant-compromise-with-green-socialists/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">wrote at <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CRC</span>‘s “<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">GreenWatch”</span></a>: <a href="https://www.desmog.com/capital-research-center/#s36" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">[36]</a></font></span></p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; position: relative; margin-top: 10px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; padding: 0px 35px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The lust for power is at the heart of environmentalism. Fearmongering is simply the quickest way to convince Americans to surrender their freedom—hence, the ever-looming ‘climate crisis’ that’s been hanging over our heads since the 1970s.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; padding: 0px 35px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Undoubtedly, the Earth’s climate is always changing, and there’s much more we have yet to learn about it. People who are pro-science and understand the scientific method won’t rest on fake claims about a ’97 percent consensus’ or falsely state that the ‘science is settled.’ Truth—not unanimous agreement—is the object of science.”</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">April 21, 2015</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steven J. Allen <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151018234220/http://capitalresearch.org/2015/04/global-warming-25-years-of-this-nonsense/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">wrote at the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CRC</span> blog</a>:</font></p><blockquote class="wp-block-quote" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; position: relative; margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; padding: 0px 35px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Years from now, when Global Warming theory is on the ashheap of history with supposed science like white supremacy, Piltdown Man, canals on Mars, Keynesianism, and N-rays, taxpayers will probably still be stuck paying for insane subsidies and mandates for ancient technologies repackaged as waves of the future—wind, solar, biofuels, dippy birds, whatever—and the I-Love-Science-When-It-Supports-My-Prejudices ‘Progressives’ will probably still be pushing policies like the Obama War on Coal, although, by then, they may have moved on to, say, a War on Fire conducted by the administration of President Chelsea Clinton or perhaps President Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky-Kennedy, who will get elected on an ‘anti-dynasty’ platform.”<a href="https://www.desmog.com/capital-research-center/#s6" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">[6]</a></font></p></blockquote></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="letter-spacing: 2px; text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NOVEMBER 25, 2020</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="letter-spacing: 2px; text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="letter-spacing: 2px; text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LONG AFTER PARDISE a BURNED KILLING --- PPL</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="letter-spacing: 2px; text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style=""><h1 class="singlemain-title" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Joe Biden’s America, Jailing Climate Skeptics Is “Environmental Justice”</font></h1><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://capitalresearch.org/person/hayden-ludwig/">https://capitalresearch.org/person/hayden-ludwig/</a></font></p><div class="singlethe-content the-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; padding-left: 10px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">not long ago, few Americans would have considered imprisoning their fellow citizens for holding different opinions. Such thinking would be expected in Stalin’s Soviet Union, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, or Hitler’s Germany and viewed as totally at odds with the rights and liberties of their constitutional republic. But now it has gone mainstream in the Democratic Party under the buzzword “accountability,” properly translated as “retribution”—punishment for a morally wrong or criminal act.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Welcome to the age of “<b>environmental justice,” when cultural Marxism</b>—with its demands for total conformity in the pursuit of perfectly equal outcomes for all—weaponizes the environmental movement and the powers of government to destroy the life of anyone who dares criticize the climate activists’ agenda.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Left’s Authoritarian Heart</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At its core is the fusion of the Left’s long war to atomize Americans into distinct, controllable tribes with the sweeping regulatory authority</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> that environmentalists have sought for decades. Brought together, this call for “environmental justice” is an unlimited mandate for the Left to transform the country’s economy, civil society, and institutions to permanently control every part of American life.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you think that’s an exaggeration, consider what we’ve learned over the last few months of the 2020 election cycle.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign website hosts a lengthy fact sheet detailing his “clean energy revolution” (</span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/11/biden-2020-energy-revolution-plan.-11.09.2020.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">archived here</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">), which promises to “make environmental justice a priority across all federal agencies” and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">“hold polluters accountable”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">:</span></font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 14px 28px; margin: 0px 0px 28px; border-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">On Day 1,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Biden will require public companies to disclose climate-related financial risks [TRANSPARENT TO SHAREHOLDERS TO MAKE RATIONAL DECISION YOU LIBTARD.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> . . . In his first year, he’ll work to enact legislation </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">requiring polluters to bear the full cost of their climate pollution</strong>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> But that’s not all: Biden will direct his EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and Justice Department to</span><strong style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"> pursue these cases to the fullest extent permitted by law</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> and . . . seek additional legislation to</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">hold corporate executive personally responsible—including jail time </strong>when merited </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">[emphasis added].</span></font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the first presidential debate in September, Biden <a href="https://www.axios.com/biden-democratic-party-trump-a8a71bfc-945d-4e27-9241-cc2accc1cf6a.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">reminded</a> the country that “I am the Democratic Party right now,” and Americans ought to take him at his word.<b> Eco-authoritarianism</b> is now the position of that party in Biden’s America.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Tyranny, If They Can Keep It</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Normalizing the punishment of individuals with “wrong” opinions [NOTE SLIPPAGE: PENALIZE CEO WHO KNOWINGLY POISONS PPL/KIDS/POC]</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">is the ultimate goal of the <b>radical</b> environmental movement, which coined “environmental justice.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2008, then-NASA senior director James Hansen told Congress that fossil fuel company “CEOs should be tried for <a href="https://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/06/james-hansen-try-fossil-fuel-ceos-for-high-crimes-against-humanity/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">high crimes</a> against humanity and nature</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">.” After Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017, a number of <b>outraged leftist groups—wrongly convinced that global warming is exacerbating natural disasters—</b>opined that “climate change deniers” ought to be imprisoned. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Put officials who reject science in jail,” <a href="https://twitter.com/climatebrad/status/905857124697350144" style="box-sizing: border-box;">tweeted</a> Brad Johnson of the super PAC <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/climate-hawks-vote/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Climate Hawks Vote</a>.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But jailing the opposition for wrongthink is a perennial wish on the Left.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Socialist Sen. Bernie</b> Sanders (D-VT) announced on national television during a 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate his intent to “prosecute the fossil fuel executives who <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/bernie-sanders-fossil-fuel-executives-debate" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">knowingly destroyed</a> the planet” and are “<b>probably criminally liable because they have lied and lied and lied.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Climate change denial should be a crime,” <a href="https://theoutline.com/post/2202/climate-change-denial-should-be-a-crime?zd=1&zi=trdrgnqo" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">writes</a> the Outline, so that “profiteers and ideologues” can’t be allowed “to place the public in danger without consequence.” The libertarian-turned-leftist <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/niskanen-center/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Niskanen Center</a> has argued that “oil companies should be <a href="https://www.niskanencenter.org/oil-companies-should-be-held-accountable-for-climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">held accountable</a> for climate change” through lawsuits. And according to <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Reason</em>, at least one German solar energy publication has demanded politicians declare a climate emergency in order to prosecute climate “<a href="https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/01/07/german-greens-use-climate-emergency-declarations-to-jail-deniers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">saboteurs</a>.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">The Guardian’s</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> environment editor </span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">dismisses</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">  GUK all so-called deniers as fitting in one of four categories: “the shill, the grifter, the egomaniac and the ideological fool.” Supposedly neutral Wikipedia hosts a </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_denial" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">lengthy page</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> on the “pseudoscience” of “global warming denial” created to “give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none.” Bill Nye the so-called Science Guy has intimated his support for trying climate skeptics as </span><a href="https://reason.com/2016/04/15/bill-nye-science-guy-open-to-jail-time-f/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">war criminals</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">. </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/for-profit/nation/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Nation</em></a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);"> has </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/climate-denialism-is-literally-killing-us/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">brayed</a> that “climate denialism is literally killing us.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Science</em> magazine, a supposedly serious outlet published by the serious scientists at the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-association-for-the-advancement-of-science/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)</a>, is a leading proponent of science-activism and population control policies. It recently published an article <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/trump-put-climate-denier-charge-key-us-report" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">written</a> about President Donald Trump’s sinister efforts to “keep researchers who reject climate science in place” in a Biden administration.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">The website for the 2016 global warming “propagandumentary” film </span><em style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;">Before the Flood </em><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">(starring </span><b style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">self-styled climate guru Leonardo de Caprio</b><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">) features an FBI’s Most Wanted–style list of the “</span><a href="https://www.beforetheflood.com/explore/the-deniers/top-10-climate-deniers/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">Top 10 Climate Deniers</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">” authored by the director of </span><a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/organization/desmogblog/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">DeSmogBlog</a><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">, a far-left Canadian blog </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">reportedly funded by the Canadian arm of the <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/tides-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tides Foundation</a>.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Disturbingly, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) Office of Planning and Research—a government agency—hosts an <a href="https://opr.ca.gov/facts/the-deniers.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">entire webpage</a> identifying “the Deniers,” a “small but vocal group [that] has aggressively spread misinformation about [climate] science,” and the conservative foundations funding their nefarious efforts. (Not a peep on the much larger foundations busily funding th<b>e Climageddon</b> crowd’s own activism.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2016, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch publicly considered <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2016/03/10/attorney-general-lynch-looking-into-prosecuting-climate-change-deniers/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">prosecuting</a> members of the oil and gas industry who have constructed a “climate denial apparatus.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">UNESCO, a <b>United Nations</b> education and science group, has published at least one article by a British professor of political theory condemning oil use as “<a href="https://en.unesco.org/courier/2019-3/climate-crimes-must-be-brought-justice" style="box-sizing: border-box;">postericide</a>” (an invented word for the murder of future generations</span><span style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243);">) and bemoaning the right of nations to withdraw from international global warming agreements. And who’s to blame for this mess? She writes:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 14px 28px; margin: 0px 0px 28px; border-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The epicentre of this activity is in the United States. A set of Conservative think-tanks has deliberately deceived the public and policymakers about the realities of climate change. . .</b> .</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">. . . The time has come to prosecute them for postericide.</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Green Is the New Red</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is the language of violent revolution and Soviet-style “<a href="https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-green-road-to-serfdom/" style="box-sizing: border-box;">comrades’ courts</a>,” where justice goes to die.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> But don’t take my word for it—Marxist-Leninists have been arguing as much for years. The International Committee of the Fourth International, a communist group, has argued that global warming requires the advent of a single, <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/12/etnb-d22.html" style="box-sizing: border-box;">global communist state</a> able to control the worldwide means of production and flow of resources.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The editor of Ireland’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Marxist Review</em> has called socialism “the only <a href="https://climateandcapitalism.com/2019/10/01/why-socialism-is-the-only-realistic-solution-to-climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">realistic solution</a> to climate change,” praising Swedish eco-firebrand Greta Thunberg for mocking capitalist “fairy tales of eternal growth</b>.” Australia’s Freedom Socialist Party wrote last year that “global warming demands fundamental change, not market ‘solutions’”—adding that “there is something <a href="https://socialism.com/fso-article/global-warming-demands-fundamental-change-not-market-solutions/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">deliciously communistic</a> about a power plant on every roof WHY ISN'T THAT JOHN WAYNE RUGGED INDIV? SELLING EXCESS], contributing to the common energy pool!”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the United States, the Socialist Workers Party has hailed the Green New Deal—which would effectively ban air travel and non-electric cars, guarantee federal jobs to everyone, and attempt the impossible by mandating that 100 percent of the country’s energy come from renewables—as a “<a href="https://socialistworker.org/2018/12/12/winning-the-green-new-deal-we-need" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">tremendous opportunity</a> to organize around the most comprehensive and radical climate reform proposal put forward to date on a national level—not just in the U.S., but possibly anywhere.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s a good reason for why: Equality of outcome and unprecedented power to regulate Americans’ daily lives promised by environmentalism are the two pillars of socialism in the United States.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They don’t support just a socialist transformation of the economy, but a complete rewriting of the relationship between individuals and the government as understood by <b>Western civilization</b> for centuries. In the 21st century, <b>tyrants wear green.</b></font></p><div class="singletags" style="background-color: rgb(253, 250, 243); box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Tags:</strong> <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/eco-marxism/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">eco-marxism</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/environmentalism/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">environmentalism</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/green-new-deal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Green New Deal</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/joe-biden/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Joe Biden</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/loretta-lynch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">Loretta Lynch</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/marxism/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">marxism</a>, <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/tag/unesco/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">UNESCO</a></font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">incubator?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bailed on intern 2 mos to crc</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">LinkedIn</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hayden R. Ludwig</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Capital Research Center</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Washington, District of Columbia, United States500+ connections</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Capital Research Center</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">George Mason University - Schar School of Policy and Government</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Personal Website</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Activity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Viewing a 1960 snapshot of foundations supporting what later became AEI ...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Viewing a 1960 snapshot of foundations supporting what later became AEI ...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Liked by Hayden R. Ludwig</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Thoughtful piece from Hayden R. Ludwig explaining </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">why donor-advised funds are important instruments of free speech</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> [</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">unless it's arabella</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">] and how they make giving more…</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Thoughtful piece from Hayden R. Ludwig explaining why donor-advised funds are important instruments of free speech and how they make giving more…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Liked by Hayden R. Ludwig</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Experience</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Capital Research Center Graphic</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Senior Investigative Researcher</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Capital Research Center</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Apr 2017 - Present</b> 4 years 10 months</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Investigative journalist specializing in the funding of environmental activists, "dark money" lobbyists, left-leaning foundations, NeverTrump nonprofits, pro-abortion groups, court-packing groups, and nonprofits undermining election integrity laws.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Author of multiple reports, including:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">-"Rise of the Eco-Right"</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">-"Going Postal: How the Left Will Use Vote by Mail to Federalize Elections"</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">-"Big Money in Dark Shadows: Inside Arabella Advisors'…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">-"Margaret Sanger: The Woman Who United the Left"</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">-"Philanthropy for 'Citizens of the World'"</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">-<b>"The Left's War on Coal"</b></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">-"Creation Care: Redefining Pro-Life"</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">-Groundbreaking research into how the<b> Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) </b>warped the 2020 election with private funding of public elections offices.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" /><span style="" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">My research has been featured in </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, OANN, RealClearPolitics, RealClearEnergy, Breitbart, National Review, The Giving Review, and numerous local publications, podcasts, and talk radio shows.</span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">Regular contributor to The American Conservative and the Washington Free Beacon.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" fira="Fira" sans="Sans" ubuntu="Ubuntu" oxygen="Oxygen" cantarell="Cantarell" droid="Droid" apple="Apple" color="Color" emoji="Emoji" symbol="Symbol" lucida="Lucida" grande="Grande" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>U.S. House of Representatives Graphic</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Legislative Intern</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">U.S. House of Representatives</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Mar 2017 - Apr 2017 2 months</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Washington, D.C.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Meridian Pacific </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Assistant Account Executive</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Meridian Pacific</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jan 2015 - Nov 2016 1 year 11 months</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sacramento, CA</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Education</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">George Mason University - Schar School of Policy and GovernmentGeorge Mason University - Schar School of Policy and Government Graphic</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">George Mason University - Schar School of Policy and Government</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Master's degreePublic Policy</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2018 - 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sonoma State UniversitySonoma State University Graphic</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sonoma State University</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bachelor’s DegreePolitical Science, Cum Laude</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Volunteer Experience</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">California Republican Party Graphic</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Delegate</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">California Republican Party</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Feb 2015 - Feb 20172 years 1 month</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Recommendations received</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Click here to view Aaron Hanke’s profile</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Aaron Hanke norse strategies</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Hayden’s reliability and ability to efficiently balance challenging projects made him a pleasure to work with. I directly supervised Hayden for most of his time with Meridian, and he was always willing to learn and grow in his role with the company. With every client and task, Hayden proved consistently professional and diligent. Whatever the challenge, I could trust him to independently seek out solutions, while remaining receptive to constructive criticism. I have no doubt Hayden would be an asset to any team.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">George Soros</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DECEPTION & MISDIRECTION</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Soros in Romania:</b> Part 7</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Soros in Romania (Full Series) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on FEBRUARY 21, 2018</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">George Soros and His Incredible Growing Disinformation Foundation</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When leftist billionaire George Soros moves money, it’s bound to make waves. His latest move—d<b>epositing a gargantuan $18 billion to his Open Society Foundations (OSF)</b>—has left many wondering…</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">HAYDEN LUDWIG</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> on OCTOBER 17, 2017</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DECEPTION & MISDIRECTION</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Price of Fleeing Middle America</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>New studies show that the gaps dividing Republicans and Democrats grew substantially under Barack Obama,</b> and have only continued to expand under Donald Trump. But which side is fomenting…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by HAYDEN LUDWIG on OCTOBER 16, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LABOR WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The NFL Players Association Funds the Far-Left</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), an AFL-CIO affiliate, has joined George Soros and a number of other ultra-wealthy, left-wing donors—including Planned Parenthood and the Kellogg…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on OCTOBER 9, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Soros Dynasty: Like Father, Like Son</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Alexander Soros, son of billionaire donor George Soros, has so far maintained a low profile in the nonprofit world. But now he appears to be following in his father’s…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on SEPTEMBER 28, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ORGANIZATION TRENDS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">George Soros Names New President of Open Society Foundations</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Billionaire investor and prominent left-wing funder George Soros named Patrick Gaspard, a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and White House aide, as acting president of the Open Society…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by CHACE PAULSON on SEPTEMBER 18, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UNCATEGORIZED</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Matthew Vadum Featured in The Daily Caller</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CRC Senior Vice President Matthew Vadum was cited in a piece by Richard Pollack in the Daily Caller. Left-wing billionaire George Soros claims to be a liberal fighting for…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by CRC STAFF on AUGUST 29, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">George Soros Undermines Ukrainian Sovereignty</b></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The latest assault on the independence of Ukraine, a state long held in servitude to its Russian neighbor, comes from a pair of nonprofit organizations funded by George Soros.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">by HAYDEN LUDWIG </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">on AUGUST 25,<b> 2017</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Hungary Launches PR Campaign Against Soros</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Hungarian government has launched a massive public relations campaign against billionaire George Soros’ stance on immigration. The campaign is the latest attempt by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on JULY 13, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>George Soros, John McCain, and Immigration</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Senator John McCain’s Institute for International Leadership, formed from the remains of his failed 2008 presidential campaign, has accepted large donations from individuals and institutions infamously known for: Supporting the Clinton…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on JULY 10, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1 2 3 4 … 15 Next </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">p2</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FEATURED ITEMS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">U.S. State Department Goes to Bat for George Soros and the EU</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The recent rebuke issued by President Trump’s State Department shows that the influence of George Soros extends even into the highest ranks of the Republican Party. Despite Trump’s…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by JACOB GRANDSTAFF on JUNE 21, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>True Believers: George Soros and the Religious Left’s War on President Trump</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Summary: “Resist!” is the battle cry of many Hillary Clinton supporters stung by their candidate’s unanticipated loss to Donald Trump. Elements of the religious left that draw funding from George…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by NEIL MAGHAMI on JUNE 7, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GREEN WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The People’s Masquerade Parade</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Over the weekend, the Left returned to Washington, D.C. to protest—on a temperate April day–the <b>crisis of global warming. How little these doomsayers have changed since the last People’s Climate…</b></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">HAYDEN LUDWIG</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> on MAY 4, 2017</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DANGEROUS DOCUMENTARIES</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An Interview with Trevor Loudon</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On January 19, exactly one day before the U.S. Presidential Inauguration, the Capital Research Center under our new film brand, Dangerous Documentaries, released our film America Under Siege: Civil…</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by JOSEPH (JAKE) KLEIN on FEBRUARY 24, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Soros and MasterCard join forces to profit from immigration</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Left-wing financier George Soros is planning to profit from the illegal immigration crises in the United States and the European Union that he was instrumental in creating. Soros traffics in…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by MATTHEW <b>VADUM</b> on JANUARY 25, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DECEPTION & MISDIRECTION</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">OUR SCOOP ON FOX NEWS: Trump Inauguration disrupters admit to planning ‘dance party’ on Mike Pence’s lawn</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Th<b>e radical political operatives aspiring to disrupt Donald Trump’s inauguration next week are planning to throw a “dance party</b>” on the lawn of Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s temporary home in…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by MATTHEW VADUM on JANUARY 13, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2016 CONVENTIONS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>David Brock group demands IRS hit Trump Foundation</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Brocktopus</span> strikes again. A high-profile watchdog group controlled by Hillary Clinton ally David Brock is demanding the IRS investigate Donald Trump’s personal foundation for allegedly aiding his presidential campaign.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by MATTHEW VADUM on AUGUST 8, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Seizing the Supreme Court</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read the PDF version here Summary:<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> The Ford Foundation, which long ago abandoned the conservatism of its benefactor, is trying to help the Left seize control of the U.S. Supreme…</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">by FRED LUCAS on JULY 1, 2016</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Rise and Rise of America’s Suicide Lobby</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Rise and Rise of </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">America’s Suicide Lobby George Soros</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and other funders use money, media, laws, and language to encourage fewer humans</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> By Neil Maghami, Foundation Watch, March 2016…</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by NEIL MAGHAMI on MARCH 29, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FOUNDATION WATCH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lifting the Veil on the <b>‘Islamophobia’ Hoax</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lifting the Veil on the ‘Islamophobia’ Hoax By Matthew Vadum, Foundation Watch, December 2015 (PDF here) Summary:  The purpose of this paper is not to indict Islam.  It is…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by MATTHEW VADUM on NOVEMBER 30, 2015</div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/capital-research-center" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.desmogblog.com/capital-research-center</font></a></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div>