awed alliance wise energy dec
===
a### nti-Renewable-Energy Activists and Operatives
John Droz
Realtor John Droz resides in North Carolina and maintains a summer cottage in upstate New York. Based on undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics and some work earlier in his career for General Electric, Droz has presented himself as a scientific expert on a wide range of issues.
He’s emerged as an influential source of conspiracy theories and disinformation about everything from climate science and wind and solar power to Covid-19 and the 2020 elections.208(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QEZy450AR-6-iTNUOlslT8HzmnFAik8pMFt2QhpSY7k/edit#bookmark=id.ozwnc9q5gxxy)
Droz is a member of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Oil and Gas Commission. In 2018, he self-published a paper that was supportive of offshore drilling for oil and methane gas off North Carolina’s coast.
“Offshore wind energy is a much worse choice than is offshore natural gas,” Droz wrote in the paper.
He’s also a member of the CO2 Coalition, formerly known as the George Marshall Institute, a climate denial group that has received money from the Koch network and oil and gas producer EOG Resources.
Droz co-founded the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) with Ohio anti-wind activist Tom Stacy more than a decade ago. AWED and Droz have provided model local laws, strategies, and information utilized by anti-renewables activists all over the country.
A “Potpourri” section of AWED’s website wiseenergy.org lists individuals “who contributed constructive ideas for this website,” including:
- Rob Aliasso, an outspoken opponent of wind power in upstate New York who served as co-chairman of the Coalition for the Preservation of the Golden Crescent, and spent more than three decades as an executive at Stebbins Manufacturing and Engineering, which saw its coal scrubber business decline amidst the transition to cleaner forms of energy
- Charles Battig, a climate denier associated with the Heartland Institute and CO2 Coalition
- Steve Goreham, a paid speaker and climate denier whose clients have included numerous fossil fuel industry groups
- Jonathan Lesser, a fellow for the Manhattan Institute and Texas Public Policy Foundation and economic consultant whose clients have included gas utilities, pipeline companies, and Bill Koch’s Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound
- George Taylor, a fellow for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute
Since 2009, AWED has published a monthly newsletter that’s frequently cross-posted on the Institute for Energy Research’s blog MasterResource.org, where Droz is listed as a principal contributor.
In 2011, Droz announced in the newsletter that he’d joined the American Tradition Institute as a fellow. He would later describe the position as unpaid.
“ATI has some great aspirations, and getting rid of unscientific options like wind energy is high on their list,” Droz wrote.
He pointed to ATI’s 2011 lawsuit against Colorado’s renewable energy standard as an example, and asked readers to donate money to support ATI.
ATI named coal producer Alpha Natural Resources as a member in a declaration by executive director Tom Tanton filed in the Colorado lawsuit in March of 2012. Tanton said ATI’s membership also included unnamed “electric power generating and transmission companies that generate energy from coal, natural gas and oil-fired and combustion turbine generation facilities.”
One month earlier, in February of 2012, Droz participated in a coordinating meeting between anti-wind activists and representatives of ATI and other national groups backed by the fossil fuel money. He also helped draft an anti-wind public relations strategy in advance of the meeting.
Droz was back in D.C. that December with Taylor and investor Larry Gerdes meeting with representatives of the American Legislative Exchange Council and Competitive Enterprise Institute and staff for multiple members of the U.S. House and Senate, according to an AWED report-back document EPI later found on one of Droz’s anti-wind websites.
“We gave each legislator a copy of the Rasmussen Renewable Energy report(2.0),” that document said.
Kimball Rasmussen is president and CEO of the Utah-based Deseret Power, a coal burning and mining electric cooperative. In 2010, Rasmussen credited Droz and Taylor with providing “thoughtful input” on the 2.0 edition of his report, “A Rational Look at Renewable Energy,” which disparaged renewables while promoting methane gas as an alternative for reducing CO2 emissions.
AWED’s D.C. trip report-back document from 2012 also illustrates how Droz quickly got to work implementing parts of the national anti-wind PR strategy, which included plans to distribute copies of the Rasmussen report and coordinate with well-funded national groups like ALEC and the Heritage Foundation. Droz later continued to coordinate his anti-wind efforts with Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.
“Everyone involved with AWED (including me) is an unpaid volunteer, who is committed to Science-based energy policies,” Droz told EPI 2017.
Lisa Linowes
Lisa Linowes founded the Industrial Wind Action Group in 2006 and has since emerged as one of the nation’s top anti-renewables activists. Her website, WindAction.org, describes her group as the “#1 Trusted Information Resource on Large-scale Renewables.”
WindAction is incorporated as a “Domestic Profit Corporation” in New Hampshire, where Linowes resides, though the group’s incorporation information states it was “organized exclusively for charitable, educational & scientific purposes.”
WindAction’s website claims the group is “not funded in any way” by the fossil fuel industry or “affiliated with large political activists groups.”
Linowes is the co-founder of the Save Right Whales Coalition that’s fighting offshore wind development along the east coast. In 2021, she joined the Caesar Rodney Institute’s American Coalition for Ocean Protection.
In addition, Linowes serves on the board of directors of Environmental Progress, a California-based group known for criticizing wind and solar power and advocating for nuclear energy and fossil fuels. Michael Shellenberger, the group’s president, is involved in the Save Right Whales Coalition with Linowes.
Linowes is also the co-chairman of the Wildlife, Energy & Community Coalition, which opposes “harmful industrial-scale renewables.”
Linowes has long coordinated her efforts with think tanks funded by the fossil fuel industry. The Institute for Energy Research has promoted Linowes’ writings and efforts on its blog MasterResource.org since 2010, and in 2018 she joined IER’s newly formed advisory council.
In 2017, the name of IER’s former director of communications was listed as the “author” in the document properties of an open letter opposing the federal production tax credit for wind power that Linowes claimed she wrote alone.
She’s also served as a senior policy fellow for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where she authored a two-part anti-wind report in 2018.
Kevon Martis
Kevon Martis is a longtime anti-renewables activist in Michigan who has organized and led multiple groups opposing renewable energy projects. Martis has served as a leader of Our Home, Our Voice (OHOV) since its inception in 2023, when the self-described 501(c)(4) organization opposed the passage of legislation aimed at streamlining renewable energy siting in Michigan. OHOV reported over $145,000 in revenue on its annual tax report for 2023, but was not required to disclose its donors.
Martis is now the spokesperson for a Citizens for Local Choice ballot initiative that’s fighting to repeal Michigan’s new siting law. Matt Brewer, an attorney for a group that’s opposing the ballot initiative, told Planet Detroit earlier this year that OHOV’s contributions to Citizens for Local Choice may have violated campaign finance laws by hiding the source of some early donations to the ballot committee. Brewer then filed a campaign finance complaint against OHOV.
Citizens for Local Choice did publicly report a $10,000 contribution from longtime Ariel Corporation executive Tom Rastin of Ohio.
Martis joined the Energy and Environment Legal Institute as a Senior Policy Fellow in 2016, about a month after the Wall Street Journal reported that Arch Coal had to disclose its funding of the anti-renewables and anti-climate science group in its bankruptcy filings. In 2012, Martis participated in a coordinating meeting in D.C. between anti-wind activists from multiple states and representatives of the American Tradition Institute and other front groups backed by the fossil fuel industry.
Martis has also led the Interstate Informed Citizens Coalition (IICC) since 2011.
“Martis’s co-founder at the IICC, Joshua Nolan, represented Martin County Coal Corporation in a lawsuit that same year,” as Distilled first reported.
The Institute for Energy Research has promoted Martis’s writings and efforts on its blog MasterResource since 2012.
“I have not and do not receive any support from any energy interest of any kind,” Martis said in a 2020MasterResource blog post by IER’s Robert Bradley. “This includes fossil fuel utilities or the Koch family, etc.”
Martis also described his fellowship position at E&E Legal as unfunded and said “I take no direction from them on any matter.”
Martis’s anti-renewables efforts have extended far beyond his own backyard in Michigan.
“And I have testified on wind energy land use issues across the Midwest, including OH, IL, MI and Kentucky as well as in Nebraska and North Dakota,” Martis said during his 2016 testimony to the Ohio Power Siting Board on wind siting rules.
“I have also been invited to testify before members of Congress in Washington DC,” Martis also said, in reference to a 2013 event hosted by IER.
Martis also appeared at anti-wind meetings in Ohio with Samuel Randazzo, the former attorney and lobbyist who was secretly paid millions of dollars by the coal-burning utility FirstEnergy between 2010 and 2019.
Tom Stacy
Tom Stacy has served as a director for the National Wind Watch (NWW), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Massachusetts that serves as a clearinghouse for anti-wind information, since 2009.
NWW is frequently asked if it is “backed by the coal or nuclear industry.”
“NWW is not backed by, affiliated with, or funded in any way by these or any other industry, political organization, or ‘think tank,’” according to a FAQpage found on the group’s website wind-watch.org.
The FAQ page also states that members of the organization’s board of directors “are unpaid volunteers with no affiliations to fossil fuel or nuclear energy industries or any similar outside interests.”
Stacy began to fight wind power as the leader of Save Western Ohio from 2008 to 2010, and he also co-founded the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions with John Droz.
For many years, Stacy could be found speaking at events and hearings alongside other prominent wind power opponents like Lisa Linowes, Kevon Martis, and Samuel Randazzo.
By 2014, Stacy became a paid consultant for groups like the Institute for Energy Research and the coal industry group America’s Power. He’s co-authored multiple reports that mislead on the costs of renewable energy with George Taylor, a consultant and fellow for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute.
In 2022, Stacy co-authored a report by the Center of the American Experiment, a State Policy Network group in Minnesota, that opposed Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’s 100% clean energy plan. The Center received $250,000 that year from the Koch group Americans for Prosperity.
Tom Tanton
Tom Tanton has been the president of the consulting firm T2 & Associates since 2003, and during that time he has churned out reports for groups like the American Petroleum Institute and American Legislative Exchange Council.
Tanton was a vice president at the Institute for Energy Research from 2003 to 2007, where he was part of the fight to kill the Cape Wind offshore wind project. He’s been affiliated with the American Tradition Institute and Energy and Environment Legal Institute for over a decade.
Tanton’s LinkedIn account lists “friend” of Save Western Ohio as his professional experience for 2009. Save Western Ohio was the anti-wind group led by Tom Stacy before Stacy became a paid consultant who co-authored reports for IER and the coal industry.
A slew of influential anti-renewables activists who emerged during the 2000s have cited Tanton as an early influence on their views on wind power.
A page from the website We Oppose Wind Farms last updated in 2009 includes a picture of Tanton posing with “statewide wind warriors” from New York. More recently, the anti-wind group Save Ontario Shores used public intervenor funds to pay Tanton to be an expert witness against the Lighthouse Wind project in upstate New York, which was never built.
“Much of my tutorial about wind energy and grid operations came from Tom Tanton’s knowledgeable bonhomie,” birder and anti-wind activist Jon Boone wrote in a 2006 paper. “His patient mentoring, enkindled through long phone conversations and voluminous exchanges of emails, made this work possible.”
Boone created the website stopillwind.com and produced and directed “Life Under a Windplant,” a documentary often cited by anti-wind activists. Some of Boone’s writings from more than a decade ago can still be found on IER’s blog MasterResource.org.
Tanton topped a 2008 list where anti-winder John Droz dubbed “the better writers regarding the industrial wind power business.”
That same year, Boone credited Tanton, Droz, Lisa Linowes, and others with reviewing a draft of his article “Why Wind Won’t Work.”
In 2010, anti-winder Ken Hawkins credited Tanton, Boone, Droz, and Stacy, as well as IER’s CEO Robert Bradley, with reviewing a draft of his paper on renewable energy grid integration.
===
http://www.energyandpolicy.org/george-david-banks-trump-wind-power/
George David Banks, a top advisor to President Trump on climate change, once worked as the “D.C. liaison” for the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED), a coalition of “individuals, organizations, communities, and businesses” founded by the anti-wind activist and climate skeptic John Droz, Jr.
Droz received national attention in 2012 for his role in drafting a :{“National PR Campaign Proposal”:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: to “… constructively influence state and national wind energy policies.” The “confidential” draft plan called for “joining forces” with a number of powerful special interest groups backed by the Koch brothers. It was soon followed by :{a February 2012 meeting:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:between local wind power opponents, including Droz, and representatives of some of these same Koch-backed groups.
Droz is equally well known for :{his role in fooling state lawmakers:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: in North Carolina into a passing a :{controversial moratorium:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: on the use of sea level rise protections in coastal planning. Droz often :{describes himself:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: as an “independent physicist” and he does hold degrees in physics that he earned back in the 1960s and 1970s. However, :{according to Droz’s own resume:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:, his professional career since 1979 has been in real estate, where he has made enough money to pursue other interests like bashing wind power on the side. Droz is :{not an expert on climate change:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:, and he has, in fact, embraced unscientific conspiracy theories.
“One insightful observer commented that the whole AGW hypothesis was never about climate anyway — but rather it is ultimately about control (of population, lifestyle, energy use, etc.),” Droz’s :{official position on global warming:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: concluded (AGW is short for anthropogenic, or human-caused, global warming).
As AWED’s director of D.C. operations in 2012 and 2013, :{Banks worked as part of what the Washington Post dubbed an “unusual coalition”:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: that pressured Congress to allow a key federal tax credit for wind power to expire. The coalition included the utility Exelon and Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks, as well as :{a number of local anti-wind groups:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:.
[img]
The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions and Freedomworks used social media and false narratives to manufacture opposition to the wind Production Tax Credit.
Around the same time he was working for AWED, Banks was also a :{policy advisor to Heartland Institute:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:, which was working with the American Legislative Exchange Council and other Koch-backed groups to use “model legislation” to :{repeal another key driver of wind power growth:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:: state renewable portfolio standards (RPS). Droz was already working with ALEC and other groups with ties to the Koch brothers to attack :{North Carolina’s RPS:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:, and in 2013 he :{worked to recruit wind power opponents:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: in other states to the campaign.
Who paid George David Banks to work for the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions?
A :{brief bio:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: of Banks put out by the White House press office when he was appointed by President Trump to serve as a special assistant for international energy and environment made no mention of AWED or the Heartland Institute, nor does his :{LinkedIn profile:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:.
What Banks does reveal on his LinkedIn profile is that at the same time he was working for AWED in 2012 and 2013, he was also the managing director of Battle Group, LLC, a:
“Strategic consultancy that works to bridge and integrate state and local advocacy efforts with free market lobbying campaigns at the national level, focusing on energy and environment issues.”
A consultancy is, by definition, a company that gets paid to provide professional advice or services, yet AWED and its founder John Droz – a :{self-described:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: “independent physicist and energy expert” – have long sought to portray their anti-wind efforts as powered by volunteers and free of financial ties to the fossil fuel and utility industries.
“All of our efforts (including this website) are from donated time and effort on the part of committed citizens,” AWED said on its :{PTCFacts.info:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: website, set up to oppose :{the 2012 extension of the wind production tax credit:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:. “We have received zero funding from any source for our efforts to promote better energy policies.”
“Everyone involved with AWED (including me) is an unpaid volunteer, who is committed to Science-based energy policies,” John Droz, the founder of AWED, told the Energy and Policy Institute via email in 2017.
“So the short answer is that Dave was paid nothing for any efforts he contributed to promoting Science,” Droz said. (Banks often goes by his middle name, David or Dave)
However, asked if other “individual, organizations, or companies may have been paying Banks for his work on wind energy issues while he was a ‘volunteer’ for AWED,” Droz pleaded ignorance.
“I have no knowledge of any other groups that Dave was connected with during the period of time he volunteered for AWED,” said Droz.
Banks :{started the Battle Group:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: and worked as :{AWED’s director of D.C. operations:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: after a 2011-2012 stint on the staff of Republican Senator James Inhofe, where he :{sparked controversy:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: with :{a leaked memo:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: that used the words “our partners” to describe the oil industry.
Just after Banks left Inhofe’s staff, :{Politico Pro:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: ($) asked Banks about his ties with the lobbyist C. Boyden Gray, FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. Here is how Banks responded:
“I was kind of on the circuit with some of these guys, but there’s obviously a limit of what you can do in the Senate,” he said, noting a desire to do media appearances and speeches. “I’d like to do more of that if possible.”
In 2009-2011, Banks had worked as a partner for Boyden Gray & Associates, where according to his :{LinkedIn profile:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: he was a registered lobbyist for Constellation Energy, which :{merged with Exelon in 2012:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:. While Banks was working with AWED in 2012, C. Boyden Gray was :{lobbying against the wind PTC:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: for Exelon, which :{along with Gray:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: publicly :{campaigned for the PTC’s immediate expiration:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:. Gray also served at the time on :{the board of directors for Freedomworks:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:, which partnered with Banks and AWED to manufacture public opposition to the wind PTC.
[img]
George David Banks tweeted links to Freedomworks’ attacks on the wind production tax credit.
Exelonalso for several years :{funded the Koch-backed American Energy Alliance’s:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: attacks on the wind PTC. This group was another member of the “unusual coalition” that Banks and AWED :{campaigned alongside:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: in 2012 and 2013.
Exelon did not respond to a request for comment on whether it made any payments to Banks or the Battle Group during the time period in question.
Droz’s 2012 proposal for a national PR campaign by local anti-wind activists had called for “joining forces” with a number of national Koch-backed groups. Sure enough, it was Christine Harbin of the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity that organized :{a 2012 letter:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: signed by a number of local anti-wind groups and national organizations backed by the Koch brothers, according to :{a document:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: found on the website of one of the signers, Auglaize Neighbors United. Among the signers were AWED, Freedomworks, and the American Energy Alliance.
“We are working with several other national organizations who are also against the PTC,” according to an update found in that same document from the Auglaize Neighbors United website. “Our DC liaison, Dave Banks, has been actively working with these groups, who have been meeting once a week to discuss strategy, etc.”
AWED’s relationships with Banks and other D.C. insiders opened some powerful doors in Washington. Banks joined Droz and other AWED supporters for a meeting with staff for then House Speaker John Boehner, according to a “:{AWED December 2012 DC PTC Trip Report:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:” that Droz posted online.
Asked about these relationships in 2017, Droz again feigned ignorance.
“Of course I am familiar with Americans for Prosperity, Freedomworks, and Exelon,” Droz told the Energy and Policy Institute. “None of those people (to my knowledge) paid anyone to assist in this issue.”
Bank’s public work as AWED’s director of D.C. operations appears to have ended sometime in 2013, around the same time he :{joined the Center for Strategic & International Studies:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: (CSIS). At CSIS, Banks :{again fought against the wind PTC:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: alongside :{C. Boyden Gray and Exelon:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:. Banks continued to :{target the wind PTC:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: in 2015, while executive vice president for the American Council for Capital Formation, where he later :{defended Donald Trump’s tweet:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: that claimed climate change was a hoax manufactured by the Chinese.
George David Banks faces questions about his past lobbying in 2017
Banks has faced scrutiny as :{one of many former lobbyists:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: appointed by Trump to work on the same issues they lobbied on within the past two years, despite a campaign pledge to “drain the swamp.” Banks was registered as having lobbied for the American Council on Capital Formation (ACCF) on “Tax, Environment, and Regulatory Issues” in :{2015:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: and :{2016:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:. Banks and ACCF now :{claim:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: he was “mistakenly” registered as a lobbyist, and that the work Banks did for ACCF did not actually qualify as lobbying.
As mentioned earlier, in 2009-2011, Banks was also a partner in Boyden, Gray & Associates, where his :{LinkedIn profile:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: discloses he was a “Registered lobbyist for Constellation, FirstEnergy and Nuclear Energy Institute.” Lobbying reports for Banks from this time can be in the U.S. House and Senate lobbying disclosure databases.
Banks worked on “lobbying campaigns” for :{AWED:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: and :{the Battle Group:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:, according to statements about his work found online. However, searches of the House and Senate lobbying disclosure databases found no reports for lobbying done by “George David Banks” between 2012 and 2014, which covers the time period he worked for AWED and ran the Battle Group.
What Banks’ anti-wind allies want from Trump
“FYI I have some connections to the Trump transition team, and (as you can tell from news stories), things are moving along quite quickly,” Droz :{wrote to supporters:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: shortly after the 2016 election.
Droz’s post-election message also included a revealing “:{list:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: of some major issues that need addressing” by the Trump administration. The list included a call to “Terminate special renewable subsidies (e.g. PTC and ITC).” Droz and AWED also :{joined a letter:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: that called on Trump to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, which was signed by many of the special interest groups they worked with on previous attacks on the wind PTC.
The American Energy Alliance, with which Banks worked closely during his time at AWED, backed Trump’s presidential campaign and has played an :{outsized role:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: in defining the new Trump administration. The Institute for Energy Research, the American Energy Alliance’s research arm, continues to :{promote Droz’s anti-wind work:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: on its blog, MasterResources.org
Still, ending the wind PTC before it’s current expiration date of 2020 :{appears to be a non-priority:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: for most Republican lawmakers in Washington, and it’s worth a reminder that :{Trump actually backed the PTC:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: while on the campaign trail.
But Droz and AWED have found some success working with Republicans and Koch-backed groups at the state level since 2012. In 2017, Droz :{provided support:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: to Republican state lawmakers in North Carolina who tried to halt an Amazon wind farm :{based on the pretense:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: that it posed a risk to a Navy radar installation –:{ a claim the Navy denied:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:. One of those same lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown, later :{tacked a moratorium on new wind farms:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:onto a major solar bill that was signed into law – :{a move that pleased Droz:(style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;font-style:inherit;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:. During a recent podcast interview with H. Sterling Burnett of the Heartland Institute, Droz said he also supported a successful effort by state lawmakers in Texas to pass legislation that makes new wind farms located near military bases ineligible for property tax exemptions.
The local communities and states that Droz and AWED target next will do well to remember whose interests these wind power opponents have aligned with, and it’s not the interests of the majority Americans who want to see more, not less, support for wind power.
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