The EPW report titled The Chain of Command: How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA
The EPW report titled The Chain of Command: How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA meticulously details how the “Billionaires’ Club” funds nearly all of the major environmental non-government organizations (NGO), many media outlets, and supposed grassroots activists. The Billionaire Report continues by describing the cozy relationship many environmental groups have with the executive branch and the revolving door that makes this possible.
The most striking aspect of the Billionaire Report is the sheer amount of money that is in play. In 2011 alone, ten foundations donated upwards of half a billion dollars to environmental causes. Many of these foundations, whose assets are valued in the billions, meet and coordinate under the framework provided by the Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA). Described as the “funding epicenter of the environmental movement,” EGA members doled out $1.13 billion to environmental causes in 2011. EGA’s membership is not public but its clout is self-evident given the amount of money its members direct to recognizable environmental NGOs.
Often times, EGA members will elect to indirectly fund organizations that are the face of the environmental movement. For example, instead of directly cutting a check to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) or the Sierra Club, the Hewlett Foundation or the Packard Foundation will contribute to the Energy Foundation. The Billionaire Report describes the Energy Foundation as “a pass through charity utilized by the most powerful EGA members to create the appearance of a more diversified base of support, to shield them from accountability, and to leverage limited resources by hiring dedicated energy/environment staff to handle strategic giving.”
The Energy Foundation’s funding paths are depicted in the Billionaire Report chart below.
Not all of this money is being used to write white papers about how
wind is going to power our country or how the EPA should implement this
or that regulation. In fact, millions of dollars from the Energy
Foundation find their way into political spending. The Billionaire
Report illuminates this process by showing how the Green Tech Action Fund is financed:
Between 2010 and 2012, both foundations
[Hewlett Foundation and Packard Foundation] donated hundreds of millions
of dollars to ClimateWorks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) foundation.
ClimateWorks then gave nearly $170 million to the Energy Foundation.
Hewlett and Packard gave directly to the Energy Foundation. The Energy
Foundation then gave $5,676,000 to Green Tech,
and ClimateWorks gave it $1,520,000. The Energy Foundation was
incredibly brief, broad and vague in describing the purpose of its 2011
and 2012 grants of $1 million, respectively, to Green Tech. The 2011
description states: “To support clean energy policies,” while in 2012
the purpose is listed as: “To advance clean technology markets, especially energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.”
Green Tech, in turn, donated heavily to at
least three 501(c)(4) far-left environmental activist organizations
during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.
This process is illustrated here:
In addition to playing in national politics through the Energy
Foundation, New York and California based foundations use a handful of
other charities to prop-up local activist groups. The Billionaire Report
looks at the efforts in New York and Colorado to prohibit and hamstring
hydraulic fracturing:
A pseudo-grassroots effort to attack
hydraulic fracturing has germinated from massive amounts of funding by
three foundations: Schmidt Family Foundation, Tides Foundation and Park
Foundation…In typical secretive billionaire donor fashion, the
foundations’ funding was funneled through fiscal sponsors. Funding
through these intermediary organizations, such as the Sustainable
Markets Foundation (SMF) and Food & Water Watch, create distance
between the wealthy foundations and alleged community-based outfits….
One scheme, led by the New York-based Park
Foundation and California-based Schmidt Family Foundation, provides
numerous grants to the New York-based SMF, which serves as the fiscal
sponsor for multiple New York groups engaged in this effort, including
Water Defense, Frack Action and Artists Against Fracking. During 2011,
SMF gave $147,750 to Water Defense. The following year, SMF funneled a
$150,000 grant “to support Water Defense” from Schmidt. Notably, Water
Defense was founded in 2010 by actor Mark Ruffalo, who has an estimated
net worth of $20 million and was listed on Time Magazines’ 2011 “People
Who Mattered” for his anti-fracking efforts. In 2011, SMF gave Frack
Action $324,198, with $150,000 stemming from Schmidt grants to SMF.
Ironically, one of the Schmidt grants specified that $100,000 go “to
support Frack Action’s grassroots campaign fighting for a ban on
horizontal hydraulic fracturing” (emphasis added).
However, the mere funding from the
California-based Schmidt demonstrates Frack Action’s campaign is
anything but grassroots. In 2012, SMF received $185,000 for Frack Action
through grants from Park and Schmidt. While the amount of money
funneled to Yoko Ono’s Artists Against Fracking cannot be identified, as
SMF’s 2012 IRS Form-990 is unavailable, Artists Against Fracking’s
now-removed website directs donations to SMF.
This process is illustrated here:
While even passive political observers are aware of environmentalists’ political activities – who could forget American Lung Association’s coughing baby?
– few people fully appreciate how interconnected the environmental
movement is with the current White House and its regulatory agencies.
For evidence of the environmental movement’s influence, look no further
than the EPA’s recent GHG regulation for existing plants. This
regulation, hailed by its supporters as the crowning achievement of the
Obama Administration, drew heavily from a Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC) model regulation. The New York Times wrote that the EPA
used NRDC’s regulation as its “blueprint.” NRDC’s clout within Democrat circles is well known and inspired the 2009 Greenwire article “NRDC Mafia Finding Homes on Hill, in EPA .”
But NRDC is by no means
the only activist group with alumni in key executive branch positions.
The Billionaire’s Report calls attention to Deputy Administrator for the
EPA Bob Perciasepe was the former Chief Operating Officer of the
National Audubon Society. The EPA’s Region 9 Administrator used to work
for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund as well as the NRDC. Acting
Administrator/Deputy Administrator for the Office of Water Nancy Stoner
was Co-Director and Senior Attorney for NRDC’s Water Program. EPA’s
Region 2 Administrator was previously the Executive Director of the
Environmental Advocates of New York.
While former hedge fund
billionaire Tom Steyer may be grabbing headlines over his pledge to
spend $100 million dollars this election cycle, it is clear that the
modern environmental movement is already well funded and organized.
Totaling more than 90 pages and containing over 400 citations, the
Billionaire Report will begin an important conversation about who really
funds the environmental left and what they really represent.
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