conservative leadership alliance
himmelstein?
DARK MONEY
intercept 719
find shillenberger connects]
TUESDAY, a dark-money effort linked primarily to the Ohio nuclear industry delivered an audacious payoff, as a newly elected state legislature overcame years of opposition to shower a $1.1 billion bailout on two state nuclear plants.
Several dark-money groups spent millions to replace key Republican state legislators in the spring of 2018, followed by a furious lobbying campaign to make sure those new lawmakers elected a new House speaker — one who was amenable to the subsidy. The nuclear industry in Ohio has been on the brink of failure for several years, but previous legislatures had objected to a bailout, reading the writing on the wall: Nuclear power is neither a cost-effective solution for power nor an effective response to climate change, despite hopes for its success.
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The dark-money effort deployed a variety of vehicles that went by names like theConservative Leadership Allianceand the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance. Murray Energy, a coal company, also gave heavilyto current state House Speaker Larry Householder and his allied candidates, and the bailout from Ohio also includes subsidies to prop up failing coal plants in the state.}:}:
In April 2018, two nuclear plants, both owned by the electric utility FirstEnergy, filed for bankruptcy and have been threatening to cease operations if not bailed out. They were under increasing pressure to compete with cheaper alternatives, ranging from natural gas to wind and solar. The bankruptcy filings give a glimpse into the company’s political spending: more than $30 million from 2018-2019 on lobbying and campaigns in Ohio and Pennsylvania (where the company also sought a bailout, so far unsuccessfully).
The payoff is extraordinary in degree — something like $30 million for campaigns in Ohio and Pennsylvania to win $1.1 billion in government subsidy. But it is similar in kind to other nuclear projects across the country. According to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit devoted to research and advocacy, five cash-strapped states across the country have foisted more than $15 billion in subsidies on failing nuclear power plants since 2016, the latest sign that nuclear is unable to stand in a competitive energy market against lower-cost renewables.
IN OHIO, the state House battle was fought in at least 18 competitive Republican primaries, all proxy battles between Reps. Ryan Smith, the incumbent House speaker, and Larry Householder. Householder was a co-sponsor of the nuclear bailout bill that stalled in the legislature in 2018, making him a key ally to the nuclear industry. Several dark-money vehicles backed the pro-Householder candidates, andwon 15 of the 18 races. Four pro-Householder candidates lost in the general election, but the primary wins put Householder in contention for the speakership.
The industry even targeted one Republican state representative who had rebuffed FirstEnergy’s advances before making a bid for Congress. “I didn’t budge when they came into my office to lobby me,” former state Rep. Christina Hagansaidof FirstEnergy. “I became the target of the company and the members of our leadership team who wanted to get it done but couldn’t because I wasn’t going to be supportive. I’m sure they just wanted to make an example of me in my race for higher office that if you don’t play well, this is what will happen to you.”
On top of the dark money, FirstEnergy’s political action committees directly contributed more than $150,000to the campaigns of Householder and candidates aligned with him, while giving none to Smith last cycle. Of the pro-Householder candidates who won their races, all but one supported the bailout.
Dark money also contributed to ads on Ohio television.Generation Now spent almost $2 million on ads in favor of the bailout, and perhaps much more. The Growth & Opportunity PAC, which got more than$1 million in donations from Generation Now, also blanketed the state House districts with television ads in favor of Republican candidates. Generation Now’s office is listed as the Columbus address of a longtime Householder adviser, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The new lawmakers entered office in January, and Householder, who, along with his son, flew to Donald Trump’s inauguration on a FirstEnergy-chartered plane, won with the backing of 26 Republican and 26 Democratic representatives, while Smith got the votes of 34 and 11, respectively. Householder was able to win the support of those Democrats with his opposition to right-to-work legislation, as unions pushed Democrats to back him in the speaker fight with Smith. :{
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On July 23, Smith and 14 other House Republicans voted against the bailout, but Householder was able to push it through 51-38, backed by nine Democrats. It was quickly signed by the state’s new governor, Republican Mike DeWine. (FirstEnergy also contributed to the campaign of DeWine, who then tapped a FirstEnergy lobbyistto be his liaison to the legislature.)That month, the legislature also began work on reviving the nuclear bill known as HB 6. At least seven witnesses who spoke to the legislature in support of the bill drew on testimony written by a FirstEnergy lobbying firm, according to a review of metadata by the Energy and Policy Institute, which has closely tracked the fight.
The Ohio legislation reads as if it was designed specifically to undermine the planet’s continued capacity to support a steady human population. Along with propping up the state’s two nuclear plants, it also provides subsidies for failing coal plants in the state, as well as one in Indiana. It cuts and eventually ends any subsidies for new wind or solar, while approving just $20 million annually for large-scale solar projects that have already been approved. It even ends programs aimed at encouraging Ohio residents to reduce power consumption, through upgrades to appliances or heating and cooling systems.
In April, Householder denied that the corporate PAC money had anything to do with the nuclear bill, and said that FirstEnergy should be applauded for its civic engagement.“For them to care about those people who are trying to serve the state of Ohio and make sure they’ve got good quality candidates moving forward I think is important for anybody,” he said.
When asked specifically about ads from the dark money–funded Growth & Opportunity PAC, Householder said, “I’ll tell you who’s paying for these ads: it’s working men and women from Ohio, who want to save their jobs and it’s Ohio corporations, headquartered in Ohio, that want to stay here. That’s who’s paying for it.” He did not respond to a request for comment from The Intercept.
THE ROLE OF the nuclear industry in the shuffling of speakers was not prominent in the news coverage of the politics, but it wasn’t entirely unknown. Gregory Jaczko, who served as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2009 to 2012, said that the industry’s role in the affair was visible to those paying close attention. “FirstEnergy has been trying, really, for years to get this subsidy, and the legislature kept denying it, and nobody really, even the previous governor [John Kasich] was not really supportive of it,” he said. “FirstEnergy put a lot of money into local races and essentially turned the legislature around. So they ran this thing through.”
On a policy level, the legislation is appalling, said Jaczko, who has become an outspoken critic of the industry, and recently published a book, “Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator.” Building new wind and solar capacity would not only be a better climate solution and produce more jobs, he said, it would be far cheaper for the state, and it’s the direction Ohio will have to go eventually anyway. Wind and solar “creates a brand new economy, which is going to be a future-looking economy rather than a dying economy,” said the former NRC chair. “Nuclear is dying. It’s dying in Ohio.”
Winning the speakership is quite the comeback for Householder, whose career appeared to be cut short in the mid-2000s by a federal investigation intokickbacks and a pay-to-play scandal. Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican, had referred the case to the FBI; it was resolved without charges.Householder won election back to the House in 2016, and during his first cycle, the incumbent speaker resigned amid his own FBI investigation. Smith took over on a temporary basis, leading to the battle between the two.The irony, he noted, is that Ohio had planned to be a testing ground for next-generation smaller nuclear power plants, which purported to solve some of the problems associated with nuclear energy, and won federal subsidies to try to build them.
“As soon as they got that money from the Department of Energy, they decided they weren’t going to pursue these reactors anymore,” Jaczko said. No new nuclear plants are planned for Ohio or anywhere else in the United States, and the closure of the two currently operating facilities is not a matter of if, but when. The billion-dollar subsidy only delays the transition to wind and solar, he said.
Ohio’s two senators, both of whose campaigns have taken money from FirstEnergy throughout their careers, were on different pages when asked about the billion-dollar bailout. Republican Sen. Rob Portman, whose campaigns have taken at least $615,000 from FirstEnergy PACs since his first run for Senate in 2009, said he didn’t know enough of the details of the decision and was swamped with other things this week.
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, though, was indignant.“You don’t bail out utility companies and raise prices for customers,” Brown said. The utility has contributed around $380,000 to Brown’s campaigns since 1997, when he was in the House of Representatives. “And you don’t undermine the efforts our state has made on alternative energy and other energy sources. So it’s just wrong.” Asked about reports of the involvement of dark-money groups in pushing the bailout, Brown said: “Of course there is.”
“I mean, these things happen because these monied interests control the state legislature. There’s no question about it.”
In a statement Brown’s office sent later in the day, the senator added that expending enormous resources to prop up outdated sources of power would only hurt Ohio going forward. “Of course we need to make sure our state has access to reliable power, but we shouldn’t do that by raising the utility bills of hardworking Ohioans,” Brown said. “We need solutions designed for Ohio workers and families, not Wall Street and fat-cat lobbyists. By eliminating the renewable standard, Ohio is going backward when almost every other state is looking to the good-paying jobs of the future. It’s short-sighted and it is going to result in significant lost opportunities in our state—our businesses will be less competitive, energy developers will avoid investing in Ohio, and there will be fewer jobs in this growing sector.”
The cost of the nuclear bailout for Ohio ratepayers is a bargain compared to the bill being given to residents in South Carolina. The cost of a failed program to build a nuclear power plant there topped $9 billion. Two of the companies involved — Dominion Energy and SCANA Corporation — entered into a buyout and settled a large portion of the bill, leaving ratepayers responsible for footing the remaining $2.3 billion, more than twice the Ohio figure. Not a single kilowatt of energy was produced in South Carolina by the project, which consisted largely of a hole in the ground.
The Ohio subsidies for coal and nuclear, which follow bailouts doled out by Illinois, New York, and New Jersey, underscore the futility of pursuing nuclear power.
Nuclear power once offered the tantalizing promise of endless cheap and clean energy, and to this day remains a hope in the minds of some climate activists. But in reality, nuclear hasn’t met the promise. It is far more expensive to produce nuclear power than wind or solar, and the world has not solved the intractable problem of nuclear waste, to say nothing of safety. To truly meet the scale of the climate crisis with nuclear power, Jaczko said, the world would need to start construction on roughly 1,000 plants this year. But because of the safety concerns, waste problem, and astronomical cost, there are just a handful being built. Ohio lawmakers, though, are hanging on to the bitter end — courtesy of Ohio’s residents.... Ohio homeowners and businesses are now stuck paying more to keep old, uneconomical power plants running, and money-saving energy efficiency programs will likely disappear.
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Oklahoma’s Biggest Dark-Money Players
By Trevor Brown | September 14, 2018
In Oklahoma’s primary and runoff elections, dark-money groups were active in the state’s legislative, statewide and congressional races. Among the big players in spending on Oklahoma races through August:
>Foundation for Economic Prosperity, which spent $438,872 supporting Cornett’s unsuccessful gubernatorial bid, in addition to running the ad attacking Edmonson after the runoff. Tax filings show its directors include Trey and Jeri Richardson, both of whom are listed on the management team of Oklahoma City’s Sagac Public Affairs, and Joel Riter, who has a background in Republican politics in Ohio.
>American Wind Action, a so-called social welfare, or 501(c)(4), nonprofit that spent about $200,000 on legislative races. The group is based out of Washington, D.C., and supports the wind industry.
>Catalyst Oklahoma, Inc., a 501(c)(4) group that spent about $168,750 on races for the Legislature, superintendent of public instruction and labor commissioner. Charles Sublett of Tulsa, a member of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs’ board of trustees, is listed as the president of the group. According to the group’s tax returns, its mission is to promote “pro-growth public polices” based on “free-market principles.”
>The Oklahoma Federation for Children Action Fund, a PAC affiliated with the American Federation For Children, a 501(c)(4) group that spent about $124,000 on state legislative races. The national school-choice group was once led by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
TheConservative Leadership Alliance, a 501(c)(4) groupthat spent $100,000 supporting Andy Coleman in his unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination in Oklahoma’s U.S. House District 1 race. The newly formed Virginia-based group has spent money on races around the country promoting the tax cuts signed by President Donald Trump in 2017 and opposing efforts to raise taxes. The group lists its treasurer as Marc Himmelstein, a former lobbyist with an Ohio-based electric company called First Energy.
>The Conservative Alliance Political Action Committee, which is funded solely by a 501(c)(4) called the Prosperity Alliance and spent $25,000 on state legislative races. The group’s treasurer is listed as Chris Marston, who runs Election CFO, a campaign finance compliance firm based out ofAlexandria, Virginia.
>The State Chamber of Oklahoma, a 501(c)(6) trade group that spent about $22,000 on state legislative races. The group represents businesses across the state.
>Energy Engaged, Inc., a 501(c)(4) group that spent $22,0000 on state legislative races. Its directors include Chad Warmington, president of the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association. IRS filings state Energy Engaged entered into a “shared services and cost agreement” with the association in 2016.
GGL 7 26
An Ohio legislator defied FirstEnergy lobbyists. Then a ' ...
Center for Public Integrity
https://publicintegrity.org › politics › an-ohio-legislator...
May 22, 2018 — The Conservative Leadership Alliance's treasurer is Marc Himmelstein, who has worked for years as a FirstEnergy lobbyist in Washington, D.C. ...Read more
Dark money group linked to FirstEnergy helped sink GOP ...
An Ohio legislator defied FirstEnergy lobbyists. Then a ‘dark money’ group helped sink her bid for Congress
by Sarah KleinerMay 22, 2018
Christina Hagan, left, at a campaign event in March. On the right, FirstEnergy Corp.'s transformer in Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pa. Facebook / FirstEnergy Corp.
Reading Time: 5 minutes
A “dark money” organization tied to a major electric company pumped significant cash into an Ohio congressional race in what a losing candidate describes as an act of retribution over a failed financial deal.
Christina Hagan, a state representative who was running in the Republican primary for Ohio’s 16th congressional district seat, said a group called the Conservative Leadership Alliance targeted her with a barrage of attack ads after she declined to support legislation Akron, Ohio-based electric company FirstEnergy had lobbied her to help pass.
The Conservative Leadership Alliance’s treasurer is Marc Himmelstein, who has worked for years as a FirstEnergy lobbyist in Washington, D.C. FirstEnergy has paid Himmelstein’s firm, National Environmental Strategies, $640,000 since 2010, according to congressional lobbying filings.
Hagan said she didn’t think the bill, which would have allowed FirstEnergy to collect an additional $300 million annually from customers to shore up its aging power plants, was fair to electric customers. House Bill 178 would have created “zero-emission credits” that would have raised customers’ monthly bills by about 5 percent.
“I didn’t budge when they came into my office to lobby me,” Hagan said of her meetings with FirstEnergy officials, which took place over a period of many months. “I became the target of the company and the members of our leadership team who wanted to get it done but couldn’t because I wasn’t going to be supportive. I’m sure they just wanted to make an example of me in my race for higher office that if you don’t play well, this is what will happen to you.”
Anthony Gonzalez, a former NFL player who is now running for the seat of representative for Ohio District 16 as a Republican. Anthony Gonzalez for Congress (via Facebook)
Hagan’s main opponent in the Ohio 16th district Republican primary was Anthony Gonzalez, a former Indianapolis Colts and Ohio State University wide receiver who won the race with 53 percent of the vote.
Hagan — an avowed supporter of President Donald Trump — placed second in the May 8 primary, with 41 percent.
Sarah Poggione, associate professor and chair of the department of political science at Ohio University, said establishment Republicans rallied behind Gonzalez, and they spent significant money to back him, because they saw Hagan as especially formidable.
“Both sides were seeing this as really competitive and the possibility that either one could potentially take it,” Poggione said.
Himmelstein did not return multiple messages left on his office phone, nor did he respond to emails to his address with National Environmental Strategies. No one responded to emails sent to a general Conservative Leadership Alliance address, either.
Todd Schneider, director of corporate communications for FirstEnergy, also did not respond to multiple emails and phone messages. When reached by phone, FirstEnergy communications staffer Tricia Ingraham said she would consult with Schneider about how to respond, then ceased further contact with a Center for Public Integrity reporter.
In an April hearing for House Bill 178 — which ultimately did not pass — FirstEnergy CEO Charles Jones told members of the House Public Utilities Committee that “Ohio cannot afford to continue heading down a path that could lead to less fuel-diverse and fewer homegrown energy resources, more energy imports, fewer jobs and less economic growth — not to mention more volatile electricity prices for our customers and your constituents,” according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
FirstEnergy describes itself as a “forward-thinking electric utility powered by a diverse team of employees committed to making customers’ lives brighter, the environment better and our communities stronger.”
But the company has come under fire in the past for the high levels of pollution its plants pump into the atmosphere. A 2016 Center for Public Integrity analysis of two federal data sets from 2014 found that four of FirstEnergy’s plants were on the top 100 list of U.S. “super polluters.”
The company’s nuclear and coal-fired power plants have been struggling to remain profitable in recent years because natural gas prices have been so low. Executives have asked the federal government for emergency funds to help keep some its plants operating.
The Conservative Leadership Alliance, an entity that states it’s a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” nonprofit, spent $113,000 in the Ohio 16th district race. Such groups do not have to disclose their donors, and Conservative Leadership Alliance has not revealed who funds it. (Politico reported last week that American Action Network, a politically active nonprofit tied to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., gave Conservative Leadership Alliance $200,000 sometime in 2016 or 2017.)
Half of that money — $56,500 — bolstered Gonzalez. The other half funded ads opposing Hagan, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The Conservative Leadership Alliance, or CLA Inc., has spent money in two other congressional races so far this election cycle, federal records indicate.
The group spent $220,800 supporting Tommy Pope and $319,500 opposing Ralph Norman in a Republican runoff for South Carolina’s 5th congressional district seat in May 2017. (Norman won both the primary and special general election by narrow margins.)
CLA Inc. also spent $97,770 opposing John Eichelberger and the same amount opposing Arthur Halvorson in Pennsylvania’s 13th congressional district Republican primary on May 15, calling them, in a press release, “typical repeat politicians who are desperate to be in the swamp.” CLA Inc. spent $35,000 to support John Joyce, who won the eight-way race for the Republican nomination.
CLA Inc. has additionally aired political issue ads that targeted Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and praised Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., while not overtly advocating for their re-election or defeat.
The true nature of CLA Inc., is murky. It does not appear to be a political action committee or super PAC, as it has not registered itself as such with the FEC.
Nor does it appear in the IRS’s publicly available registration databases, possibly because it has not requested tax-exempt status or because the IRS hasn’t updated its public-facing databases, tax experts say.
Cecilia Barreda, an IRS spokeswoman, said she was prohibited by law from disclosing information about a specific organization.
CLA Inc. states on its website that its “primary purpose is to put conservative policies into action” through reforms that “grow the economy, lower our national debt, fix a broken healthcare system and make our country safer and stronger through a bold national defense.”
Entities that operate as 501(c)(4) nonprofits and spend cash in political campaigns are called “dark money” groups because they do not have to disclose their donors.
The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission allowed certain kinds of nonprofit groups, including 501(c)(4) organizations, to spend unlimited amounts of money to independently promote or oppose political candidates — so long as they do not, in practice, spend 50 percent or more of their money on politics, per IRS rules.
Hagan said “dark money” shouldn’t “be able to hide” — a view many in the Republican party disagree with.
“People have the right to know who is putting mail in their mailbox and who is putting ads on their TVs,” Hagan said. “Context is everything.”
FirstEnergy is a politically active company that has spent $24.3 million overall on federal lobbying since 2010, according to congressional lobbying records.
Since Jan. 1, 2017, the company’s political action committee has spent $442,500 to support federal political campaign committees and other PACs. It supports both Republicans and Democrats, but in recent years has favored Republicans, according to data maintained by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The company’s PAC, which is a separate entity from the Conservative Leadership Alliance, has been supportive of Gonzalez this year, giving his campaign $5,000 for the primary race and $5,000 for the general election — the maximum contributions allowed by PACs to congressional candidate committees.
In all, Gonzalez has raised $1.1 million and spent $677,200 between Jan. 1, 2017 and April 18, the end of the latest filing period. Hagan pulled in $386,200 and spent $261,000 in the same time period.
Gonzalez did not return email messages or a phone message left with his campaign’s treasurer, Natalie Baur.
Gonzalez faces Democrat Susan Moran Palmer in the November general election.
Hagan said she will finish out the remainder of her term in the Ohio legislature, and then she will “gladly go to the private sector, but I will not disappear from the public policy sector. I want to be actively engaged.”
Jamie Smith Hopkins contributed to this report.
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