empowerment alliance tea

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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">open secrets</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">e<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">nvironmental and energy policy is poised to be a hotly contested issue in the leadup to the 2020 election.</span></font></div><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One new group that stands to play a key part in that conversation is <b>Energy 45 Fund,</b> a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization founded by outgoing senior Trump administration adviser Mandy Gunasekara “to promote the Trump energy agenda” following her resignation from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).</font></span></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">The source of money fueling the group may remain a mystery. Gunasekara told the Center for Responsive Politics that the group’s funders will be allowed to</span><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> remain anonymous.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">“I will respect their preferences,” </span><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">Gunasekara said.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moreover, the “dark money” group’s website was purchased weeks before Gunasekara left the Trump administration, while she was seemingly still on EPA payroll.</font></span></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">In a </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5734247-Gunasekara-Resignation-Letter.html" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">resignation letter</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> to the White House dated and effective Feb. 7  — the same day House and Senate Democrats floated their “</span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/green-new-deal-sponsor-gets-from-environmental-and-fossil-fuel-interests/" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">Green New Deal</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">”  — Gunasekara formally resigned from her position as principal deputy assistant administrator at the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation then announced plans to launch the group.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">Incorporation </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5733907-Energy-45-Incorporation-Documents.html" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">records</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> confirm that the group was incorporated as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization the day after Gunasekara’s resignation with the stated purpose being “to inform the public about the environmental and economic gains made under the Trump Administration” by “educating policy makers and the general public regarding legislation and other matters of importance to the people and economy of the United States.”</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5734414-Energy-45-Domain-Registration-Records.html" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">Domain registration records</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> reviewed by CRP reveal that the group’s website was quietly registered to </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=81170" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">Surya Gunasekara</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">  — Mandy Gunasekara’s lobbyist husband, who showed up in lobbying disclosures with the EPA as one of the agencies lobbied shortly after his wife joined the agency  — on Jan. 20, weeks before his wife’s resignation.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mandy Gunasekara told CRP that her husband has no official role in the organization and that his name is listed due to their use of a shared GoDaddy account.</font></span></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">Surya Gunasekara joined </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000032308" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">Capitol Hill Consulting Group</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> in November 2017 and began lobbying for an energy company called Ameresco during the final quarter of the year.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">During the </span><a href="https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=E9989BDD-397A-4C68-886C-619CFCDE18D2&filingTypeID=51" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">first quarter of 2018</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> and the </span><a href="https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=3E6CAAAF-D620-44A3-BF0C-1161B7FB54A8&filingTypeID=78" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">final quarter of 2017</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">, he and two other lobbyists at the firm are listed as lobbying the EPA. Issues listed on the firm’s Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings include “Energy Savings Performance Contracting; FY19 Appropriations for federal energy programs; Renewable Fuels.”</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">An </span><a href="https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=712D3F39-3EC7-48C5-81CF-EEBE1EB5097B&filingTypeID=60" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">initial Q2 lobbying disclosure for 2018</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> also lists the EPA but an </span><a href="https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=24F9487D-5BB3-4839-8027-143F5D9D43D4&filingTypeID=64" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">amended Q2 filing for 2018</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> does not mention the agency.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">Mandy Gunasekara has been the </span><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">Trump administration’s top air and climate adviser at the EPA for the past two years but has </span><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">her own history in the </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=80662" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">revolving door</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">, working as Senior Director Legislative Affairs at the </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000027797&year=2018" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">National Association of Chemical Distributors</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> before she was hired by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2015.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">Under then-Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.), she became the committee’s Clean Aire Act and Climate Change counsel. Gunasekara is perhaps best known in D.C. circles for her </span><a href="https://www.bna.com/senate-aide-named-n57982085074/" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out 0s, border 150ms ease-in-out 0s, color 150ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; max-height: 1e+06px;">connection</a><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"> to Inhofe’s highly publicized snowball stunt on the floor of the Senate.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">“Continued environmental progress will be borne out of innovation, not oppressive regulations, government take-overs or green new deals,” a page touting “America First Environmentalism” on the website reads, in an apparent jab at House Democrats’ Green New Deal spearheaded by </span>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and <span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">released the same day Mandy Gunasekara resigned from the EPA.</span></font></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On another page titled “Exposing Liberal Energy Fantasies”, the Energy 45 website continues pushing back on the Democrats’ new environmental proposals. “Led by self-avowed socialists, the Democrats have made a leftward lurch so dramatic that it would make Stalin blush. Their policies to combat climate change are nothing but a proxy for draconian government control that prohibits car ownership, kills domestic energy production, and harms low-income communities the most,” the website reads.</font></span></p><p style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">Building on her resignation letter’s condemnation that the Paris Climate Accord is one of “many bad deals,” t</span><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">he group’s website touts Gunasekara as the “chief architect” of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the agreement who </span><span style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px;">“worked to repeal the disastrous Clean Power Plan” and create “opportunities for beautiful clean American coal.”</span></font></p><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">lnx</font></div><div><p dir="ltr" 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"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f941a7e-7fff-5fd3-ee39-b55562e372c5" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Amid the crescendo of calls for climate action and rising rage directed at the fossil fuel industry, petroleum producers and their allies are engaging in an aggressive promotional push focused on natural gas. The same month that the </span><a href="https://www.desmog.com/american-petroleum-institute" 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;">American Petroleum Institute</a> (<span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">API</span>) started <a href="https://www.desmog.com/2019/10/16/fact-checking-american-petroleum-institute-gas-ads" 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;">running ads</a> emphasizing gas’s role in reducing carbon emissions, a new dark money group has launched under the patriotic guise of promoting “America’s energy independence” by promoting, you guessed it, natural gas. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p dir="ltr" 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"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f941a7e-7fff-5fd3-ee39-b55562e372c5" style="box-sizing: border-box;">That group, called </span><a href="https://www.desmog.com/empowerment-alliance" 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;">The Empowerment Alliance</a> (<span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">TEA</span>), is a registered 501(c)4 that does not disclose its donors (and is not required to under law). <a href="https://empoweringamerica.org/" 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;">TEA</a> launched on September 30 with a <a href="https://empoweringamerica.org/2019/09/27/new-advocacy-group-offers-smart-approach-to-energy-consumption-and-environmental-conservation-the-empowerment-alliance-launches-to-secure-americas-energy-independence-through-natural-gas/" 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;">news release</a> filled with natural gas industry talking points and attacks on the Green New Deal. The organization describes natural gas as “essential to our shared prosperity” in terms of jobs, national security, energy costs, and even air quality, while the Green New Deal is labeled as “radical and unachievable” and a “risky tax scheme.” </font></p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f941a7e-7fff-5fd3-ee39-b55562e372c5" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This anonymously funded organization, from its leaders to its messaging, is part of a broader chorus of misleading talking points that goes beyond the “natural gas and oil” industry (as the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">API</span> ads say) to conservative media pundits and top strategists and officials within the Trump administration and the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">GOP</span>. </font></span></p><h3 dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; line-height: 1.2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f941a7e-7fff-5fd3-ee39-b55562e372c5" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Key Players and Plans</font></span></h3><p dir="ltr" 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"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f941a7e-7fff-5fd3-ee39-b55562e372c5" style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Empowerment Alliance is known to be run by two top figures and </span><a href="https://therealnews.com/columns/gop-gas-industry-lobbyists-empowerment-alliance-oppose-green-new-deal" 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;">lobbyists for the Republican Party</a>. </font></p><p dir="ltr" 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"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f941a7e-7fff-5fd3-ee39-b55562e372c5" style="box-sizing: border-box;">James Nathanson, the executive director, is a longtime Republican operative and apparent dark money extraordinaire. Nathanson’s business consulting firm in Dayton, Ohio, James S. Nathanson <span class="amp" style="box-sizing: border-box;">&</span> Associates, has funded various conservative candidates and Republican Party groups and SuperPACs. But while these donations are transparent, Nathanson has also headed a group called Freedom Vote, Inc. — another 501(c)(4) dark money organization. Freedom Vote (<span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">FV</span>) has been accused of </span><a href="https://www.cleveland.com/open/2018/06/ohio_dark-money_group_broke_ca.html" 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;">failing to report more than $1.1 million spent on political attack ads</a> during the 2016 <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">U.S.</span> Senate race in Ohio. </font></p><p dir="ltr" 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"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8f941a7e-7fff-5fd3-ee39-b55562e372c5" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (<span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">CREW</span>) </span><a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-filing/crew-calls-irs-fec-to-investigate-freedom-vote/" 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;">filed official complaints</a> against Freedom Vote to the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">IRS</span> and Federal Election Commission (<span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">FEC</span>), and even <a href="https://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/freedom-vote/" 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;">filed a lawsuit in June</a> seeking to compel the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">FEC</span> to take enforcement action against the organization. Nathanson was also a central subject to a <a href="https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/current/57567.pdf" 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;">2004 complaint to the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">FEC</span></a> for violating campaign finance law in Ohio election campaigns. ...</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2019/10/22/empowerment-alliance-dark-money-natural-gas-industry/">https://www.desmog.com/2019/10/22/empowerment-alliance-dark-money-natural-gas-industry/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx many. vids</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The Empowerment Alliance’ and Other New Dark Money Groups Sound a Lot Like the Natural Gas Industry</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By Dana Drugmandon Oct 22, 2019 </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Amid the crescendo of calls for climate action and rising rage directed at the fossil fuel industry, petroleum producers and their allies are engaging in an aggressive promotional push focused on natural gas. The same month that the American Petroleum Institute (API) started running ads emphasizing gas’s role in reducing carbon emissions, a new dark money group has launched under the patriotic guise of promoting “America’s energy independence” by promoting, you guessed it, natural gas. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>That group, called The Empowerment Alliance (TEA), is a registered 501(c)4 that does not disclose its donor</b>s (and is not required to under law). TEA launched on September 30 with a news release filled with natural gas industry talking points and a<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ttacks on the Green New Deal. The organization describes natural gas as “essential to our shared prosperity” in terms of jobs, national security, energy costs, and even air quality, while the Green New Deal is labeled as “radical and unachievable” and a “risky tax scheme.”</span> </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This anonymously funded organization, from its leaders to its messaging, is part of a broader chorus of misleading talking points that goes beyond the “natural gas and oil” industry (as the API ads say) to conservative media pundits and top strategists and officials within the Trump administration and the GOP. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Key Players and Plans</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Empowerment Alliance is known to be run by two top figures and lobbyists for the Republican Party. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">James Nathanson, the executive director, is a longtime <b>Republican operative and apparent dark money extraordinaire</b>. Nathanson’s business consulting firm in Dayton, Ohio, James S. Nathanson & Associates, has funded various conservative candidates and Republican Party groups and SuperPACs. But while these donations are transparent, Nathanson has also headed a group called Freedom Vote, Inc. — another 501(c)(4) dark money organization. Freedom Vote (FV) has been accused of failing to report more than $1.1 million spent on political attack ads during the 2016 U.S. Senate race in Ohio. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed official complaints against Freedom Vote to the IRS and Federal Election Commission (FEC), and even filed a lawsuit in June seeking to compel the FEC to take enforcement action against the organization. Nathanson was also a central subject to a 2004 complaint to the FEC for violating campaign finance law in Ohio election campaigns. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Terry Holt, partner at the PR firm HDMK</b>, is TEA’s communications director and spokesman. He was senior communications strategist for the George W. Bush presidential campaigns and has worked for former House Speaker John Boehner. According to his HDMK profile, he has “<b>provided long-term communications and media strategy for several chief executives at leading trade associations and corporations.” Notably, HDMK was hired in 2010 to do communications and PR for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a coal industry lobby group. </b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>HDMK boasts on its website about its work to build localized support for expanding big energy infrastructure: “</b>To reset the conversation about the construction of energy infrastructure at the national level, HDMK built a grassroots coalition of workers, small and medium sized businesses, civic leaders, unions, and other local supporters. By activating local supporters and giving them a voice at the national level, we created favorable news coverage during the heated debate about the expansion of America’s energy infrastructure.” </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Empowerment Alliance appears poised to undertake this same<b> industry-funded “grassroots” strategy.</b> Holt told Politico the group plans to “run ads, engage in grassroots work and reach out to the media and <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"><b>may set up a lobbying operation down the road.”</b> The group’s anonymous donors are hoping it will be a “significant factor” in the 2020 election. </span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The group also revealed that it intends to “mount an aggressive fundraising campaign in the coming months with plans to announce a formal leadership structure and new initiatives before the end of the year.” TEA has started running paid ads on Facebook spending a total of more than $8,000 so far. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Anonymous Donors?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A parade in Everett, Washington, in 2017 features an anti-dark money sign]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>TEA says it intends to “engage the American people in an open and honest dialogue” and decries the “billionaire mega donors” and “deep pockets” supporting policies to curb fossil fuel production. Yet </b>the organization is notably opaque about its own funding sources and donors. TEA explicitly states its “policy is to not disclose its donors to the general public.” It also clarifies that there are no limits on donation amounts “by an individual, corporation, union, or trade association.” In other words, unlimited dark money is welcome. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Holt explained to Politico that the group’s donors are kept secret to protect them from opposition and protesters. And as E&E News reported, Holt also claimed donors feared safety risks from <b>anti-fossil fuel activists, or as he called them — “eco-terrorists</b></span><b>”:</b> “Because of<b> violence and trespassing and other criminal behavior,</b> the Empowerment Alliance is going to protect its donors from that kind of risk,” he said. “We are offering donors this protection out of the concern that we would have should they come forward and the scrutiny of some of these eco-terrorists.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Oil and gas industry veteran David Blackmon (who was involved in creating petroleum advocacy groups Energy In Depth and the American Natural Gas Alliance) praised TEA for “filling a void” left by the industry itself, but questioned why the industry wasn’t promoting and advocating for itself.</span> </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“However, it remains a wonder why the companies whose bottom lines depend on increasing the use of natural gas in this economy aren’t mounting a well-funded national effort of their own,” said Blackmon. Blackmon noted TEA’s lack of transparency invites skepticism and negative perceptions: “But the desire to hold its list of contributors confidential also opens TEA up to being labeled a ‘dark money’ operation in media reports, with all the attendant negative news coverage and public perceptions that inevitably come along with that designation.” </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Gaslighting and the Green New Deal</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>One of the primary objectives of the Empowerment Alliance is attacking the comprehensive climate policy framework known as the Green New Deal. TEA seems to be pushing natural gas as some kind of Green New Deal alternative, its answer to energy security, economic growth, and climate change concerns.</b> </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This narrative contradicts the scientific reality of the climate crisis — which the United Nations says requires “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Bill McKibben recently wrote in the New Yorker, “Many of [the gas defenders] will say that, thanks to natural gas, our ‘emissions’ have declined. But that will be the<b> most literal gaslighting</b> imaginable, a lie of real gravity.” </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Chevron's LinkedIn ad promotes a common industry talking point about natural gas and reducing U.S. carbon emissions.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A Chevron ad on LinkedIn promotes a common industry talking point about natural gas and reducing U.S. carbon emissions.]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The fracking boom has led to an explosion in natural gas production over the past decade, contributing to the decline of coal power — as well as a decline in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions — as gas power plants have popped up. While burning natural gas releases fewer pollutants than burning coal, natural gas is comprised almost entirely of the potent greenhouse gas methane, and leaks in gas systems and industry venting and flaring are common.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> After accounting for these leaks, researchers at Cornell University have warned that fracked gas may be even worse for the climate than coal.</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>In contrast to TEA and industry messaging, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions actually rose last year by 3.4 percent, which included a nearly 2 percent increase in power-sector emissions.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to a 2019 report spearheaded by Oil Change International, continued oil and gas exploitation from <b>new reserves </b>could result in new carbon pollution equivalent to building nearly 1,000 coal-fired power plants.  </span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Echoes of Industry</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Nevertheless, conservative media and officials and associates of the Trump administration repeat these kinds of myths early and often. While some right-wing attacks on serious climate plans are clearly hyperbolic, like the false claim that Green New Deal proponents want to ban hamburgers or air travel, others are more cautiously veiled in concerns around economic impacts. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For example, the <b>acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, William Perry Pendley, </b>recently told a room full of environmental journalists that resource extraction is deeply tied to the region’s economy and jobs, calling it a “life or death issue” for communities. While oil and gas does have a heavy economic presence in the region, that framing downplays the ways fracking has also devastated local communities with documented negative health and safety impacts</span>. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[gorgeos BS navajo ideo: farlyle begay ex rep, gowan ex spr, lots of cowboy hats, peterson spox]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">And Dina Gilio-Whitaker, an Indigenous studies scholar and member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, countered Pendley, pointing to the massive social impact of “man camps” in booming oil and gas fields, which have led to the exploitation and abuse of women. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Pendley also said that a “keep it in the ground” policy for fossil fuels would be “absolutely insane.” But that is in fact a prescription from scientists and experts analyzing the impact of fossil fuel exploitation on the carbon budget, with the goal of avoiding catastrophic climate disruption. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Mandy Gunasekara attacking the Green New Deal on Fox News</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Former Trump EPA official and current pro-Trump dark money group founder, Mandy Gunasekara attacked the Green New Deal resolution on Fox News. Credit: Fox News via Mandy Gunasekara on Facebook</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Speaking at the same conference, former Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official and founder of the pro-Trump 501(c)(4) Energy 45 Fund, Mandy Gunasekara also defended oil and gas, echoing the industry message about natural gas reducing emissions</span>. Gunasekara, who was the aide that handed a snowball to Sen. James Inhofe during his infamous climate science denial speech on the Senate floor, claimed that climate proposals like the Green New Deal or carbon pricing are “premised on making energy more expensive.” This prompted fellow panelist Heather McTeer Toney of Moms Clean Air Force (and a regional EPA administrator under Obama) to push back. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>“That is not true,” Toney said. “It’s information like that that gets put into the sphere of voters all over this country, and they believe rhetori</b>c.” She explained that higher energy costs are the result of energy companies passing along their costs to consumers.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> “It’s that little piece you leave out about what’s really going on and does not connect all the dots,</span>” Toney said. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The key, she added, is figuring out a way to not pass these costs on to ratepayers, “so that people are not paying for it and our children are not paying for it, and we <b>stop lying to the American public.”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Like TEA, Gunasekara’s Energy 45 group does not disclose its donors, but the talking points coming from these dark money groups sound like a perfect echo of the oil and gas industry itself. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://therealnews.com/gop-gas-industry-lobbyists-empowerment-alliance-oppose-green-new-deal">https://therealnews.com/gop-gas-industry-lobbyists-empowerment-alliance-oppose-green-new-deal</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx graf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is a new group in support of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and in opposition to the Green New Deal—and it’s run by figures with long-held institutional ties to the Republican Party and fossil fuel industry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Called The Empowerment Alliance, it joins a few other campaigns funded by the fossil fuel industry lobbying against Green New Deal. Registered as a 501(c)(4) political action committee (PAC) and incorporated in Delaware on August 23, The Empowerment Alliance has not revealed its funders, but its Executive Director James Nathanson and its spokesman Terry Holt have ties to the upper echelon of the national Republican Party.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The American people deserve to know the consequences of radical and unachievable polices [sic] like the Green New Deal, and The Empowerment Alliance is going to advance that dialogue through the media with research and voter engagement,” said Nathanson in a press release announcing the group on September 27. “We don’t see energy independence, American strength, and higher-paying jobs as partisan issues. These are fundamental American values that can benefit everyone if we make a commitment to embrace natural gas as essential to our shared future prosperity.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nathanson is a veteran of Republican Party politics who formerly served as the political director of the Republican National Committee and the Ohio director for the 1988 George H.W. Bush campaign. He now runs his own firm called James S. Nathanson & Associates.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On its website, The Empowerment Alliance touts gas as a cleaner, greener fossil fuel.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Natural gas is the cleanest of fossil fuels and can be used in many ways to help reduce the emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere,” reads the site. “Burning natural gas in the place of other fossil fuels emits fewer harmful pollutants, and an increased reliance on natural gas can potentially reduce the emission of many of these most harmful pollutants.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But natural gas production is a major emitter of methane, a greenhouse gas more 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide during its first 20 years in the atmosphere, and 28 times more potent over a 100 year period.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to an article about The Empowerment Alliance published by Politico, the group’s spokesman is Terry Holt, a lobbyist and former press secretary for  Rep. John Boehner, who works for the firm HDMK. Holt has previously served as a spokesman for the coal industry public relations group Americans for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), and also worked as the spokesman for the George W. Bush 2004 re-election campaign. From 2000-2004, Holt served as a senior advisor for the Republican National Committee, according to his LinkedIn profile.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Image Credit: LinkedIn</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Founded in 2007, HDMK’s clients have included natural gas and electricity companies such as Entergy, Central Electric Power Cooperative and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association</b>, according to federal lobbying disclosure forms reviewed by The Real News Network. </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, 102);">Holt’s reelection work for the Bush Administration, it could be argued, ultimately led to the modern fracking boom itself. In 2005, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which exempts the oil and gas industry from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Alliance has chosen not to disclose its funders, Holt said, out of fear of potential “eco-terrorists.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Because of violence and trespassing and other criminal behavior, the Empowerment Alliance is going to protect its donors from that kind of risk,” he told the publication EnergyWire. “We are offering donors this protection out of the concern that we would have should they come forward and the scrutiny of some of these eco-terrorists.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Holt also told The Real News that it would not be revealing its funding. The group’s lack of funding transparency has come under criticism even from the industry itself.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Interestingly, TEA has organized itself under the provisions of non-profit laws that allow it to keep the identities of its monetary supporters confidential,” wrote David Blackmon, an industry public relations hand who created the pro-fracking public relations group Energy In Depth and the now-defunct lobbying organization America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) while working at the natural gas company El Paso Corporation, in the publication Forbes. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“But the desire to hold its list of contributors confidential also opens TEA up to being labeled a ‘dark money’ operation in media reports, with all the attendant negative news coverage and public perceptions that inevitably come along with that designation,” Blackmon continued.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One climate advocate, too, sees the formation of the group as a sign of fear of the growing movement in support of a Green New Deal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This shows how afraid oil and gas billionaires are of our movement,” said Stephen O’Hanlon, Communications Director for the Sunrise Movement, the group at the center over the push for the Green New Deal. “This is everything that’s wrong with our political system. Billionaires who feel threatened by change pour their money into TV ads and deceptive reporting to turn the public away from common sense ideas that would improve the lives of 99% of people.”</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></div>