NOVEMBER 2020

EDITED BY
JON RODEBACK

MAPPING SOROS’S
“PHILANTHROPY”
AT HOME AND ABROAD
 CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................................................ 3
MEET THE ECO-RIGHT................................................................................................................................. 4
CITIZENS’ CLIMATE LOBBY........................................................................................................................12
CLIMATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL AND AMERICANS FOR CARBON DIVIDENDS........................................ 17
THE NISKANEN CENTER............................................................................................................................26
CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE ENERGY SOLUTIONS.................................................................................. 33
REPUBLICEN.............................................................................................................................................. 38
AMERICAN CONSERVATION COALITION...................................................................................................42
THE CLEARPATH NETWORK...................................................................................................................... 48
YOUNG CONSERVATIVES FOR CARBON DIVIDENDS AND
YOUNG CONSERVATIVES FOR ENERGY REFORM......................................................................................52
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY.................................................................................................................... 54
OTHER ECO-RIGHT GROUPS......................................................................................................................58
APPENDIX..................................................................................................................................................61

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
If old sayings are anything to go by, then a driven science and alarmism are conservative values,
conservative is as a conservative does. One hopes however they’re presented.
that that is particularly true of political groups
responsible for shaping public policy—but what We are not the “gatekeepers of conservativism.”
about groups that are funded by liberal donors to Individuals are always free to identify themselves
push their left-wing agenda? with whatever set of beliefs they wish. But as leading
experts on the professional environmental movement,
This is the plight of the “eco-Right,” our name for we’re all too familiar with the Left’s practiced use
the few dozen lobbying, litigation, and activist of deception and misdirection to camouflage its
nonprofits that identify themselves as free market agenda to the casual glance. We understand that
or broadly right-of-center and yet are attempting environmentalism—not conservationism—is and
to rebrand environmentalism and global always will be a creature of the Left, a political cudgel
warming ideology as conservative values. In the for reshaping America in its own image and aborting
process, they are threatening to undermine both freedom wherever it is found. Since 1984 we have
affordable energy in America and the future of the been “following the money” from wealthy special
conservative movement. interests to wherever it leads, liberal or otherwise. Few
organizations have a deeper understanding of how
The Capital Research Center broke the news on the thoroughly funders such as the Energy Foundation
liberal mega-donors secretly bankrolling leading or the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation have
members of the eco-Right as well as the carbon taxes saturated activist groups with multi-million-dollar
and other burdensome regulations they propose. grants, whether they call themselves “progressive,”
In this report, we’ve compiled years of research conservative, or moderate.
and reporting to reveal the funders, leadership,
and lobbying of the eco-Right, exposing a web Finally, although we are skeptical of human-induced
of overlapping boards and shared donors—all in catastrophic climate change, our focus is on the
service to a destructive and misleading agenda. eco-Right’s funders and policies, not its motives. We
provide basic arguments against carbon taxes to help
Our aim is to equip the reader with the basic tools readers better understand the battlefield. This report
to understand these groups and their goals so that leaves persuading individuals of the issue of global
no one is fooled into believing that consensus- warming to others.

“Eco-Right” is our name for the few dozen lobbying, litigation, and activist nonprofits that identify themselves as
free market or broadly right-of-center and yet are attempting to rebrand environmentalism and global warming
ideology as conservative values.

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 MEET THE ECO-RIGHT
Are conservative groups that push the Left’s policies who stood up to the wrongheaded, dangerous
with the Left’s funding really conservative? “consensus” among the experts of their day, defying
the majority’s belief that the Earth (not the Sun) is
Meet the eco-Right: so-called conservatives the center of the solar system. Those experts were
who support the Left’s position on catastrophic dead wrong.
manmade global warming, often with huge grants
from liberal mega-donors. They aren’t the Left— Environmentalism will always be about politics. A
eco-Right groups proclaim the principles of free degree in biochemistry is not necessary to see that
markets, limited government, and individual the Left’s demonization of carbon dioxide (CO2) as
liberty—but they also promote a destructive agenda a “pollutant”—a naturally occurring gas essential to
of consensus-driven science, statist policies, and life on Earth—has nothing to do with protecting
cronyism that has much more in common with the the environment. These extremists aim to destroy
radicals at the Sierra knowledge while
Club and Greenpeace pretending to be its
than conservatism. caretakers.

It is also important to So why does this

distinguish between The Left’s global warming crisis is just its matter? Many liberty-
conservationism and
environmentalism.
latest bid to reshape America in a single loving conservatives
and libertarians have
Conservationism blow, destroying everything non-leftists been duped by the
is about preserving
clean air and water
hold dear in the process. Left’s lies. They aren’t
radicals, nor do they
and exercising support extreme
wise stewardship of natural resources—things policies like the Green New Deal, but they’ve been
championed by conservatives for generations. It fooled into thinking they can compromise with
couldn’t be more different from environmentalism, leftists in order to save the planet from catastrophic
an ideology that demonizes human life as a threat to climate change.
the Earth.
But there’s no compromising with the increasingly
Environmentalism is and always has been a creation radical Left because it is driven by an irresistible lust
of the Left, which is why its loudest supporters for power, not principles that conservatives would
sound so much like socialists and other far-left support. Eco-activists’ chants of “keep oil in the
militants. Its goal is increasing the government’s ground” reveal a superstitious contempt for human
power and extending its control to every part of life and prosperity, not a serious interest in good
life—from the way we travel to the electricity that public policy.
powers our homes and the food we eat to how we
think about our relationship to each other and the There’s no better way to rob Americans of their
government as citizens. Nothing could be further constitutional rights than by scaring them into
from the pillars of individual liberty, free markets, surrendering those freedoms. Hence, the constantly
and limited government cherished by conservatives. shifting terms: from “global warming” to “climate
change” to “climate crisis” to “climate emergency”
That extends to science, too. Consensus isn’t the to “climate weirding.”
goal of science; science seeks to explain the world
around us through rigorous observation and What should be clear to the eco-Right is that
experimentation. We still celebrate the courage of conservatives can never offer a deal short of
Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus, scientists unconditional surrender that would please the Left.

4 JULY 2021
 The Left’s global warming crisis is just its latest bid Since the failure of cap-and-trade, a number of
to reshape America in a single blow, destroying congressional Democrats and Republicans have
everything non-leftists hold dear in the process. introduced carbon tax bills of their own: Sens.
Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
This paper seeks to inform about the organizations, in 2013, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in 2014,
lobbyists, and political activists that make up the Sen. Sanders in 2015, Rep. John Delaney (D-MD)
eco-Right, tracing their objectives and funding— in 2017, Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and Brian
funding that often leads back to major liberal Fitzpatrick (R-PA) in 2018, Rep. Earl Blumenauer
donors such as George Soros and the Hewlett (D-OR) in 2018, and Reps. Francis Rooney (R-FL)
Foundation—to answer our original question: Is the and Fitzpatrick in 2019.3
eco-Right really conservative?
A “Conservative” Carbon Tax? The Baker-Shultz
plan might be called the father of all conservative
carbon tax schemes.
THE MYTH OF A CONSERVATIVE CARBON TAX In a February 2017 op-ed in the Wall Street
Journal, former Reagan administration officials
Of all policies supported by the eco-Right, James Baker and George P. Shultz—both venerable
perhaps none is so often touted as “pro–free Republicans—called on President Donald Trump
market” as a carbon tax. “Green” conservatives and the Republican-held Congress to enact a
generally treat these taxes as a less harmful $40 per ton, “revenue-neutral” carbon tax and
alternative to more radical policies, like a cap- dividend. Such a plan, they wrote, “could spur
and-trade scheme or the Green New Deal’s larger reductions in greenhouse gas emissions than
100 percent renewable energy mandates. While all of President Obama’s climate policies” while
not every eco-Right groups supports a carbon strengthening the economy, buttressing national
tax—some vigorously oppose them as un- security, and “shrinking the size of government” by
conservative—it’s easily the most far-reaching and eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency’s
extreme policy proposed by the eco-Right. (EPA) authority to regulate carbon emissions.4
By “Obama’s climate policies” the pair meant the
In 2009, riding a massive wave of support that Clean Power Plan, a “green” Great Leap Forward
catapulted Barack Obama into the White House that hinged on annihilating the coal industry and
and Democrats into a comfortable majority adopting 2015 Paris Climate Accords—policies
in Congress, liberals proposed a stunning that Trump and Pence vowed to end on the
environmentalist agenda. At the top of the campaign trail.
agenda was cap-and-trade legislation (H.R.
2454), popularly called the Waxman-Markey But a carbon tax would be at least as destructive as
bill. If enacted, the bill would have set strict, Obama’s climate agenda. As climate expert Rupert
ever-shrinking national limits on total carbon Darwall noted in National Review, “the Baker-
dioxide emissions and established markets for Shultz carbon tax proposal is really about saving the
companies to buy and sell emissions permits.1 The Paris climate treaty.”5
cap-and-trade system, by President Obama’s own
admission, would have caused electricity rates to To add credibility to their plan, Shultz and Baker
“necessarily skyrocket.”2 hailed “conservative thinkers Martin Feldstein,
Henry [Hank] Paulson Jr., Gregory Mankiw, Ted
The Waxman-Markey bill passed the House of Halstead, Tom Stephenson and Rob Walton,” co-
Representatives but failed in the Senate. In its authors of a report entitled “The Conservative Case
wake, public debate over global warming has largely for Carbon Dividends.”6 The report was published
shifted to a supposedly less onerous policy: taxing by the Climate Leadership Council (CLC), an
emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse advocacy group based in Washington, DC, that
gas (GHG) emissions. debuted alongside the report in February 2017. The

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 report itself attempts to appeal to the “populism” since many such proposals involve shifting the
of Trump supporters. Instead, it reads like a veiled country away from gas taxes on consumers toward
attack on Trump supporters who “threaten the taxes on producers in industry and agriculture.
current policy consensus [which favors] liberalized Carbon tax groups further promise to pay back that
trade and investment.”7 added expense in electricity bills and other cost-of-
living hikes in the form of “carbon dividends”—
Since then, more right-leaning environmental checks paid to Americans by the government from
organizations have emerged to support carbon the carbon tax revenues.
taxes of varying rates, while others question the
policy’s effectiveness and political viability. One Regardless of how it’s framed, taxing
thing remains certain: There is no agreement on Americans in order to pay them off is like
what a “conservative” carbon tax looks like among robbing Peter to pay Peter. If liberals proposed
mainstream conservative groups and the eco-Right. such a policy, conservatives would denounce it
as wealth redistribution.
It’s worth adding that left-wing Union of
Concerned Scientists and the World Resources
Institute supported the Baker-Shultz plan,
hailing it as a “good starting point” for “cut[ting]
emissions in line with the goals of the Paris
agreement.”8 (Left-wing support for supposedly Renewables won’t “save” the planet.
center-right policies is a common theme among
the eco-Right organizations.)
Carbon taxes are far from cheap. In 2013, liberal
But how does a carbon tax work? Has any Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sanders presented
country ever adopted a carbon tax, and what a carbon tax plan that would have cost the U.S.
were the consequences? economy an estimated 400,000 jobs in just three
years, cost the average family of four over $1,000
per year in direct and indirect expenses, and raised
electricity prices by 20 percent in 2017 alone.9
WHAT IS A CARBON TAX AND DIVIDEND? Analysis of similar proposals by the U.S. Energy
Information Administration indicate that a carbon
“If you want less of something, tax it.” Libertarian tax could lead to the loss of over 1 million jobs and
economist and Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman’s create a $1 trillion hit to the economy by 2030.10
wisdom still rings true. Unfortunately, this axiom
has been turned on its head to support a pro-tax, As for the effect on the climate, the center-right
Big Government agenda favored by the Left. Heritage Foundation found that, if the U.S.
ceased all economic activity and cut carbon
A carbon tax would levy fees on businesses for dioxide emissions to zero, it would lower global
every metric ton of carbon dioxide gas they temperatures “by no more 0.2 degrees Celsius
emit, raise the tax each year at a rate following by 2100.”11
inflation, and wait for all emissions to eventually
disappear . . . someday. Much of the massive cost emanating from a carbon
tax comes from renewable energy mandates, since
Many carbon tax supporters go a step further, using the goal of any carbon scheme is to gut oil, gas, and
revenues from a tax on carbon emitters to replace coal production and replace it with “clean” energy.
other federal taxes on Americans, claiming it would Simply put, any plan to move the U.S. to a low-
reduce CO2 emissions and “solve” climate issues carbon footprint necessarily means shifting energy
without significantly raising the general tax burden. production away from carbon-based fuels like oil
Thus, they’re often marketed as “revenue-neutral,” and natural gas to renewable energy sources like
wind and solar or nuclear. That’s a serious problem

6 JULY 2021
 since scientists have yet to discover any energy plants nationwide, and another 2.7 percent comes
source as cheap, safe, energy-dense, and portable as from hydropower.16
carbon fuels.
But many on the Left aren’t interested in promoting
A 2019 study by Mark Mills at the free-market nuclear power or damming rivers. When
Manhattan Institute compared energy output environmental liberals—many of them carbon tax
produced by investing $1 million worth of capital advocates—sing the virtues of renewable energy
into one of three areas: solar panels, wind turbines, sources, they usually mean wind and solar power, and
and natural gas wells. Over a 30-year period, nothing else. The environmental Left has a long-
Mills found that a $1 million investment yielded standing ideological opposition to nuclear power—an
600 percent more energy output from natural gas opposition birthed in the anti-war movement and
(300 million kWh) than either wind turbines (55 encouraged by the Soviet Union during the Cold
million kWh) or solar panels (40 million kWh).12 War. And many professional activist groups like the
In other words, after decades of federal subsidies Sierra Club oppose hydropower because, they argue,
and innovation, renewables are still nowhere near “damming rivers permanently disrupts the balance
as cost-effective as traditional energy sources—and of ecosystems.”17 Any plan to build more damns
may never be. will incur the wrath of the International Anti-Dam
Movement, which fumes over the “corruption
A few more basic arguments against a carbon and arrogance of over-powerful and secretive
tax include: corporations” that build them.18

1. Renewables won’t “save” the planet. That’s the key message: There’s no middle ground
to win or compromise to make because any global
Any energy policy should hinge on promoting warming plan proposed by the Left will turn on
energy availability—making it affordable and huge amounts of solar and wind power, not nuclear
accessible to all Americans. Renewables just don’t fit or hydroelectric energy. Conservatives cannot and
the bill. should not compromise with that.

Eco-Right groups generally embrace nuclear energy Call them “unreliables,” not renewables, because
and dams as sources of abundant clean energy, wind and solar are too fickle to reliably power the
with good reason. Both sources generate enormous electrical grid. Electrical grids require a continuous
volumes of energy without releasing greenhouse and uninterrupted supply of energy to function
gases. Both sources are highly efficient, able to properly. Provided with anything less than constant
run 24 hours a day, seven days a week over many electricity, they don’t just operate less efficiently;
years. They’re already in use across the country and they shut off, just like a computer or television.
around the world. In 2018, nuclear power provided
55 percent of America’s “carbon-free electricity,” If Americans got most or all of their energy from
according to the U.S. Department of Energy.13 solar panels and windmills, it would present bigger
Water-powered turbines in the Hoover Dam have problems than a changing climate. In Texas, for
powered major cities in California, Nevada, and example, electricity prices skyrocketed from $15
Arizona since the 1939.14 About 75 percent of to as high as $9,000—a 40,000 percent increase—
France’s energy comes from nuclear power plants, during an August 2019 heatwave, leaving parts
one of the reasons that country is a major net of the state on the verge of blackouts. The cause
exporter of energy.15 was reliance on wind turbines during a period of
weak winds and high energy use, following the
Surely, large countries like the United States retirement of several coal plants.19 And the historic
should diversify their energy production with snowstorm that blanketed Texas in February
nuclear and hydropower where practical. And the 2021 was exacerbated by the state’s increasing
U.S. already does: 8.6 percent of the energy used reliance on renewables, which froze over and left
annually in the U.S. comes from 59 nuclear power roughly 2 million people without power for days

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 or even weeks.20 If Texas were entirely dependent gas, or oil on hand at any given time but barely
on renewables to power its grid—with no gas or two hours of electricity stored in all utility-scale
coal to back up these “unreliables”—the Lone Star batteries in the national electrical grid and 1
state would have been left completely at Mother million electric cars on the roads.25
Nature’s mercy.
Turbines and solar panels are also extremely
Wind turbines typically generate electricity at resource-intensive to construct, requiring huge
about 34 percent capacity, compared with 85 to amounts of minerals and metals, most notably
89 percent for conventional natural gas, coal, and copper. Trying to power the country with them
nuclear power plants. And they produce electricity would have terrible effects on the landscape. For
only when the wind is strong enough, so they rely example, constructing a wind turbine uses some 800
on batteries to store it for for later use.21 But the pounds of copper and 30,000 pounds of concrete
wind is anything but cooperative—some days it in huge foundations reaching 15–20 feet into the
gusts, and others it’s still. ground.26 Modern batteries depend on lithium and
cobalt. Lithium is mined in poor nations in South
Similarly, solar panels are completely beholden America, and 60 percent of cobalt is mined in the
to the local weather, time of day, season, and Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country
geographical location to function properly—in notorious for human rights abuses and awful
other words, the amount of sunlight they receive. mining conditions.27
Outside the American Southwest, much of the
country is just too cloudy for solar panels to work Extracting the minerals and metals needed to
effectively (a problem not faced by nuclear plants or construct “green” technologies on the gigantic
gas- and coal-fired power plants).22 scale imagined by environmentalists would cause
unthinkable damage to the environment and the
Imagine trying to power the electrical grid with lives of the destitute people mining them for the
solar panels in Pennsylvania or Washington state benefit of rich Westerners.
during two or three days of snow or rain. As such,
electrical grids supplied by wind and solar power While environmentalists market renewables as
need backup generators. Ironically, nearly all of cutting-edge technology, they’ve actually been
them run on natural gas because it’s reliable.23 Far around for generations. Solar power was invented
from being the technology of the future, reliance on in the mid-1800s. Wind power has been propelling
renewables is a recipe for regular rolling blackouts sailing ships and powering windmills for some
a la Cairo, Egypt, and the other underdeveloped or 5,500 years. By the turn of the 20th century, the
developing areas. governments and businesses that established the first
electrical grids realized these technologies could not
While battery technology has come a long way in meet growing energy demand and turned instead to
recent decades, even today’s cutting-edge batteries coal, oil, diesel fuel, and natural gas.28
are severely limited in how much power they can
cheaply store. It costs less than $1 per barrel to What’s more, renewables are expensive. A recent
store oil or natural gas for a few months, and less study estimated the total cost of subsidizing
for coal. However, storing the equivalent amount renewables in the U.K. at nearly $90 billion (£70
of energy over a few months in batteries costs billion) between 2017 and 2024, or $165 (£129)
roughly $200.24 Consequently, the country has per household per year.29
an estimated two months’ supply of coal, natural

A carbon tax is just that: a tax. No matter how the

politicians slice it, taxpayers get stuck with the bill.

8 JULY 2021
 In the United States, roughly 30 percent of the
cost of wind power production is subsidized by
taxpayers. Since federal support began in 1992,
taxpayers have spent $100 billion underwriting
wind power—yet the promise of cheap, self-
sustaining wind power has not been achieved
and is not on the horizon. In fact, wind power
producers depend so much on government
subsidies that in 2019 the “low-cost energy source
of the future” they had to lobby Congress to
extend subsidies.30

The limited lifespan (20–25 years) of wind

turbines compounds their enormous expense.
Turbines typically lose 1.6 percent of their
utilization rates each year, meaning they steadily Prime Minister Justin Trudeau annoucces Canadian
lose value as energy producers until they need federal government to increase carbon pricing by $15 a
to be replaced. Replacement isn’t cheap: Official tonne per year starting in 2023.
documents put the cost of replacing the 18
turbines in Chippewa County, Minnesota at
$7,385,822, or $410,000 per turbine.31 carbon tax. “Almost 16 percent of households
earning $27,000 or less, and almost 17 percent of
2. A carbon tax is not revenue neutral—it’s a households earning between $27,000 and $47,700,
tax hike. were in energy poverty,” overwhelmingly due to
“growing electricity prices.”34
A carbon tax is just that: a tax. No matter how the
politicians slice it, taxpayers get stuck with the bill. Canada’s carbon tax took effect in 2018 and is set to
reach $50 per metric ton by 2022. It’s worth noting
In 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s that the results are already so dire that the Trudeau
Liberal Party enacted a carbon tax that substantially government was forced to scale back taxable
raised household energy prices. Far from being emissions on businesses in August 2018 to stop an
low cost or revenue neutral—implying everyday exodus of capital investment from the country.35
consumers would see little change in their energy According to the Wall Street Journal, foreign direct
bills—annual household energy prices in parts of investment in the country dropped a staggering 56
Canada are expected to rise as much as $1,120 to percent from 2013 to 2017, primarily due to new
meet emissions requirements.32 Far from being a cost- taxes and strict environmental regulations.
effective policy for energy consumers, the nation’s
carbon tax has thus far proven a huge tax increase Instead, energy and manufacturing companies
on regular Canadians. As one financial expert put increasingly turned their attention to the United
it, “carbon taxes were enacted on a false premise: States, where tax cuts and deregulation under the
that economists can design carbon taxes that lower Trump administration made Canada’s southern
emissions at the least possible cost while shielding the neighbor more appealing to investors and
economy from the drag of an added tax.”33 producers.36 The Biden administration has already
undermined this U.S. comparative advantage.
Before the carbon tax, Canadian energy prices
were already high. A 2016 study by the Fraser 3. Carbon taxes create a dependency on a
Institute found that “almost one-tenth of Canadian shrinking tax base.
households [put] 10 cents of every dollar towards
electricity, natural gas, and other forms of energy” There’s a key problem inherent in any carbon tax:
in 2013—four years before the creation of a creating dependency on a shrinking tax base. If

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 a tax on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse renewables by FY 2018 applies to installations,
gas emissions works as promised, the federal not operations. About three-quarters of the DOD’s
government will find fewer emissions to tax each energy consumption is spent on military operations,
year. The bottom line is that maintaining stable its primary role.39 America’s armed forces run on oil
revenues year after year would require either and gas (and nuclear), not sunlight and wind.
massively raising the carbon tax or increasing the
level of GHGs emitted each year. Forcing America to depend on unreliable renewables
would not end the military’s dependence on oil
This absurdity is compounded if the carbon tax and natural gas, merely redirect it to imported
replaces a national gas tax in order to make it energy sources—making the country increasingly
“revenue-neutral.” The government would forfeit dependent on foreign, often hostile powers.
gas tax revenues, which are relatively stable, in favor Fortunately, national energy independence is within
of relying on a tax base the government hopes to reach—thanks entirely to hydrocarbon fuels.
eliminate. Consumers would almost certainly be
stuck with an expensive carbon tax and a new gas In 2016, the Republican-led Congress voted to lift
tax in order to compensate for flagging revenues— the 40-year ban on oil exports as part of the annual
surely not what carbon tax supporters advocate for spending bill signed into law by President Barack
when they call it “revenue-neutral.” Obama. The ban was originally imposed to combat
the destructive oil shortages of the 1970s, when
4. Carbon fuels America’s economy the U.S. depended on oil imports from hostile
and defense. dictatorships in the Middle East. In the first half of
2017, oil exports increased to an average of 900,000
A carbon tax would also raise the cost of nearly every barrels per day going to 27 countries.40
product manufactured, packaged, transported, and
sold in the United States. In January 2019, the Energy Information
Administration reported a dramatic upsurge in
Carbon-based fuels—gasoline, diesel fuel, coal, and domestic oil production of 2.5 to 3 million barrels
natural gas—provided 80 percent of the energy per day of output compared with 2018.41 In 2019,
Americans consumed in 2018, according to the U.S. the agency predicted the U.S. would become a
Energy Information Administration. Wind, solar, net energy exporter in 2020 “as a result of large
and biomass provided just 8.8 percent.37 So a tax increases in crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas
on carbon dioxide emitted from these fuels would plant liquids (NGPL) production coupled with
target the energy driving 80 percent of the U.S. slow growth in U.S. energy consumption.”42 That
economy, effectively taxing use of every gas-fired prediction has since come true, and the country
stove, gallon of milk, television, airplane, and car, appears poised to become the world’s largest energy
along with almost everything else. exporter as well.43

A carbon tax could also generate a national security The incredible turnaround in American oil and gas
crisis since the Department of Defense (DOD) is production offers United States something only
the biggest single energy consumer in the country. dreamed of by most other countries: a relatively free
While the DOD has taken steps to diversify its hand to determine our own course, unfettered by
energy portfolio to include a small amount of foreign influence over our economy and defense. A
renewables to power military installations, it still carbon tax would sacrifice our energy independence
heavily depends on traditional energy forms. and undermine our national independence.
(Nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines
are notable “green” exceptions.) In FY 2014, the 5. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.
DOD used 87.4 million barrels of petroleum-based
fuel, almost 60 percent for the U.S. Air Force.38 It’s Many on the environmental Left accept as an article
worth noting that the DOD’s goal of producing of faith that carbon dioxide is a “pollutant.” But
or procuring at least 15 percent of its power from that’s silly. Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless

10 JULY 2021
 school, humans and animals breathe out CO2,
and plants breathe it in, releasing precious oxygen
(O2) as a byproduct. In fact, high concentrations
Despite the extreme rhetoric in of CO2 are routinely used in greenhouses to speed
up and improve plant growth with no thought to
the media and among activists, “poisoning” the workers inside the greenhouses.46
carbon dioxide in the air isn’t
For most of the history of life on Earth, CO2 levels
dangerous to life. in the atmosphere were much higher than today.
The prehistoric ancestors of modern plants are
gas discovered by scientists in the 17th century and thought to have evolved hundreds of millions of
essential to life on Earth. CO2 occurs naturally in years ago, when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
hot springs and geysers. When solid it forms dry was as high as 5,000 parts per million—as much as
ice, which is commonly used to preserve food and 10 times higher than today. Compared with then,
cheaply ship frozen products worldwide. We use there’s strong evidence that the Earth is currently in
the gas to carbonate soda, and yeast forms CO2 as a a carbon drought.47 After all, the Earth’s atmosphere
byproduct of producing alcohol. in the last major Ice Age—a period of endless
tundra, windswept forests, and unrivaled suffering
The EPA, which was given the authority to among our early ancestors—was roughly 180 parts
regulate carbon dioxide emissions in a landmark per million CO2, or half of today’s level, with much
2009 Supreme Court case, doesn’t consider CO2 of the rest dissolved in the much-colder oceans.48 If
itself a pollutant, only extreme concentrations of there were no carbon dioxide on Earth, it would be
the gas. Even then, the agency considers the gas a dead planet.
a “pollutant” only because of its supposed role in
climate change, not for endangering public health.44 But far from dying, satellites have observed what
CO2 is nontoxic to humans at concentrations below scientists call the “greening of the Earth.” In 2016, a
tens of thousands of parts per million. For reference, study in the journal Nature Climate Change reported
the current carbon dioxide concentration in the that a quarter to half of the planet’s vegetated land
atmosphere is just 400 parts per million. According has shown significant “greening” since the 1980s
to the center-right Cato Institute, “even worst-case largely because of rising carbon dioxide levels. “The
projections by the end of the century only put greening,” according to the study, “represents an
the concentration at 800–1000ppm”—not even increase in leaves on plants and trees equivalent
remotely close to toxic.45 in area to two times the continental United States”
[emphasis added].49
Despite the extreme rhetoric in the media and
among activists, carbon dioxide in the air isn’t Why then do extreme environmentalists target
dangerous to life. Quite the opposite—carbon is a carbon dioxide as a social evil? Dr. Richard
common element and a building block of life. Life Lindzen, MIT professor emeritus of atmospheric
on Earth is carbon-based, and carbon in the form of science, observes:
carbon dioxide—one carbon atom bonded to two
oxygen atoms—is essential to that life. The coal, oil, CO2 for different people has different
and natural gas we burn for fuel was first carbon attractions. After all, what is it? It’s not
dioxide gas in the atmosphere. That carbon dioxide a pollutant, it’s a product of every living
was consumed by prehistoric plants, which in turn creature’s breathing, it’s the product of all
were transformed by heat and pressure under the plant respiration, it is essential for plant
Earth’s surface over millions of years until they life and photosynthesis, it’s a product of
became today’s fossil fuels. all industrial burning, it’s a product of
driving—I mean, if you ever wanted a
Plant life relies on carbon dioxide in the air the leverage point to control everything from
way we need oxygen. As we all learned in grade exhalation to driving, this would be a
dream. [emphasis added]50

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 11

 COMPARING CARBON TAXES WITH CAP-AND-TRADE each other—the “trade” in “cap-and-trade”—but
emitting any amount of carbon dioxide gases over
Carbon tax supporters often call their policies those limits would incur heavy fines.
“market-friendly” to sell them to conservatives
and libertarians. But big tax increases are only Every year, the government would shrink the pool
streamlined in contrast with a much more of available permits, meaning the cost of buying
bureaucratic cap-and-trade system proposed by them would eventually outweigh the cost of paying
some on the Left. So what’s the difference? fines on emissions. Companies would then find
ways to reduce costs by lowering carbon emissions
Cap-and-trade is phony market economics at its and eventually ending them altogether. Or that was
worst. Under such a proposal, the U.S. would “cap” the plan, anyway.
the amount of carbon dioxide emissions certain
emitters (such as factories) are allowed to produce Cap-and-trade systems are even more bureaucratic
each year. This would be accomplished by selling a than carbon taxes, requiring the government to
limited number of permits from the government to manage a vast permitting process while carbon taxes
companies, with each permit allowing the holder are primarily a tax. Yet both policies would create
to emit only so much carbon dioxide. Companies a huge financial burden and a coercive government
would then be free to buy and sell permits from intrusion on energy production.

“Cap-and-Trade” puts a “cap” on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions certain emitters (such as factories) are allowed to
produce each year in the U.S.

CITIZENS’ CLIMATE LOBBY

Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) is an environmental became environmental activist after watching An
lobbying nonprofit managed and funded by liberals Inconvenient Truth, the controversial global warming
with an extensive “conservative outreach” agenda documentary created in 2006 by former vice
through key Republicans on its advisory board. president and climate activist Al Gore.51

CCL was created in 2007 by real estate broker Saunders was one of approximately 1,000 people
Marshall Saunders and is headquartered in Gore tasked in 2007 to present his “Climate
Coronado, California, where he resides. Saunders, Reality” slideshow at various places nationwide,
who remains the group’s president, reportedly holding a series of talks organized by Gore after the

12 JULY 2021
 launch of the documentary.52 The presentations
ultimately coalesced into Gore’s advocacy group
Climate Reality Project, which was initially
funded with the proceeds from the documentary
and the book by the same name.

In the presentation, Gore argued for a revenue-

neutral carbon tax to solve the Earth’s impending
“climate crisis.”53 Saunders reportedly gave the
presentation 43 times.54 In later interviews,
however, he claims he reportedly “realized that
Gore’s solution wasn’t compatible with the
problem” of global warming as he saw it, though
how his own analysis differed from Gore’s is
unclear.55
Al Gore shares his “Truth in 10” slideshow – arguing
In 2007, Saunders created his own advocacy for a revenue-neutral carbon tax to solve the Earth’s
group, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, to popularize impending “climate crisis.”
climate change activism and push legislation
through Congress. Besides lobbying, since 2009
the group has hosted an annual international CCL also backs legislation extending tax credits to
conference in Washington, DC, intended to train “green” industries. It was one of 20 organizations
participants in “how to communicate about climate to endorse the Growing Renewable Energy and
change and climate solutions.”56 Efficiency Now Act (GREEN Act) of 2019 (H.R.
7330, reintroduced as H.R. 848) introduced by
Part of the conference involves a lobbying day, when Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA). The bill would have
members lobbying members of Congress to support extended federal tax credits to renewable energy
CCL’s principal piece of legislation, the Energy research, including funding for “environmental
Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019 (H.R. justice” academic programs.59
763), which was introduced in January and failed
to leave the House Subcommittee on Energy.57 A While CCL stopped short of endorsing the far-left
version of the bill was reintroduced in April 2021 Green New Deal in early 2019—a resolution that
with 85 co-sponsors, all of them Democrats, to the included everything but a carbon tax—it hailed
group’s chagrin.58 Not surprisingly, CCL supports the the extreme proposal as proof that “there is huge
Climate Solutions Caucus in Congress, a nominally appetite among [the] American people, and growing
bipartisan caucus, historically dominated by appetite in Congress, for bold climate solutions,”
Democrats and liberal Republicans. adding that CCL shares the bill’s goal of ending
fossil fuels.60
CCL is tied into the larger eco-Left as well. It is a
member of the US-Climate Action Network (US-
CAN), a major environmental coalition whose
members were closely involved in organizing the
2017 People’s Climate March. CARBON TAX ADVOCACY AND GLOBAL
WARMING LEGISLATION
Structurally, the organization is built around the
Citizens’ Climate Lobby, an IRS-designated 501(c) Saunders has called climate change a threat “bigger
(4) lobbying nonprofit, with a much larger 501(c) than ISIS” and supports large-scale legislation to
(3) support arm—the Citizens’ Climate Education combat it.61
Corporation—created in 2008 to bolster fundraising.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 13

 CCL’s initial goal was to create a national cap-and- carbon tax would be “returned to households as
trade system.62 For instance, an archived version a monthly energy dividend,” which would “help
of the group’s website from October 2008 shows a ensure that families and individuals can afford
photograph of CCL members meeting with Rep. the energy they need during the transition to a
Susan Davis (D-CA) “to discuss cap-and-trade” greenhouse gas-free economy.”69
legislation.63 Congressional Democrats introduced
a cap-and-trade bill, popularly known as Waxman- CCL was a strong supporter of the Energy
Markey (H.R. 2454), in May 2009.64 According to Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763), a
Saunders, CCL lobbied in support of the cap-and- bill introduced in January 2019 by Rep. Ted Deutch
trade bill. After it failed to receive a vote in the U.S. (D-FL) that closely matches CCL’s own proposals,
Senate, the organization shifted support away from but which never left committee. The bill—which
a cap-and-trade agenda toward a carbon tax. was touted as bipartisan due to the co-sponsorship
of a single Republican (Francis Rooney (R-FL)) out
“Somebody mentioned to me offsets, and I thought of a total of 65 co-sponsors—would have legislated
what are offsets?” Saunders explained in a 2015 a $15 per metric ton tax, rising $10 per year, to be
interview. “Well, when that got explained to me, collected in a Carbon Dividend Trust Fund and
I immediately thought this is not going to work.” distributed in equal shares to the general public.
Shortly thereafter, Saunders met with Carbon Tax Additionally, the bill would have levied a border-
Center director Charles Komanoff, who convinced adjustment tax on imports from countries without a
him to support a carbon tax.65 carbon tax.7071 A version of the bill was reintroduced
in April 2021 with no Republican support.72
Like nearly every pro–carbon tax group,
CLL argues for a “carbon dividend” policy to
supplement its carbon tax, which it says “is the
key to offsetting [the tax’s] cost increases” to FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT
consumers.66 Saunders is candid about a carbon
tax’s effect on consumer prices: 67 Marshall Saunders is the founder and president
of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Saunders is a longtime
When I decide to buy a car, if I can see that the volunteer with the left-leaning advocacy group
price of gasoline is scheduled to go up about 10 RESULTS, which lobbies for related to poverty,
cents per gallon automatically over the next 10 education, and tax policies with major funding from
years, then I’m probably going to buy a car that uses the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 73
less gasoline. And when I see heating, my gas, and
my electricity bills going up and I can read the
paper that says that they are going to go up every
year, then I might put insulation in my attic that
I have postponed for some amount of years. And
gasoline goes up in price, I will make a decision
whether I need to make that trip or can I combine
the trips? So, in other words, it’s going to affect
millions of personal decisions.

In 2015, CCL proposed a tax of $10 per metric

ton of carbon dioxide, rising by a flat $10 every
year, to be levied on “the companies extracting
the carbon from the earth.” The funds from such
a tax would be “distributed to the American
public, stimulating the economy.” Additional Marshall Saunders, founder and president of Citizens’
tariffs would be imposed on goods coming from Climate Lobby, is a longtime volunteer with the left-
countries without a similar carbon tax in place.68 leaning advocacy group RESULTS.
In turn, billions of dollars in revenues from a

14 JULY 2021
 KEY STAFF authored a 2013 Wall Street Journal op-ed with Gary
Becker, an economics professor at the University
CCL staffers and Saunders have donated to the of Chicago, calling for a “revenue-neutral carbon
reelection campaigns of several Democrats. In the tax.” 78 Shultz and former Reagan administration
2018 midterm election cycle, they donated to the Secretary of State James Baker are the authors of
campaigns of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and the so-called Baker-Shultz carbon tax and dividend
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), as well as to the Kansas plan, which has been praised as “the most ambitious
and Idaho Democratic Parties. Federal Election climate plan in history” by former Federal Reserve
Commission (FEC) records indicate no donations Chair Janet Yellen and Climate Leadership Council
to Republican candidates.74 Chair Ted Halstead. 79 Shultz was, and Baker
continues to be, a key member of the Climate
Leadership Council, a leading eco-Right group.

Former Obama administration Energy Secretary

ADVISORY BOARD Steven Chu (2009–2013) is also a member of
CCL’s advisory board. Chu’s tenure was noted for
RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris is a member its particular interest in advancing climate change
of CCL’s advisory board. In a 2013 interview Daley- policies and reducing gasoline consumption. In
Harris said he was approached by Marshall in 2007 September 2008, the physicist and political activist
“to coach him in starting the Citizens’ Climate talked about the country’s need to figure out
Lobby” after unsuccessfully asking a number of “how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in
environmental groups to train CCL activists on Europe” (at that time, roughly $8 per gallon). He
climate issues.75 later tried to walk back his statement. 80
CCL’s advisory board boasts two notable CCL advisory board James Hansen has been called
Republicans: former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) the “father of climate change awareness” for his
and former Reagan administration senior official extreme involvement in global warming activism. 81
George Shultz. From 1981 to 2013, Hansen was director of NASA’s
Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York,
Bob Inglis is executive director of RepublicEn, a New York, where he tried to advance public funding
nominally right-leaning group sponsored by the for global warming policies. In 2008, he famously
Center for Climate Change Communications at told members of the House Select Committee on
George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He Energy Independence and Global warming:
lost his 2010 reelection bid to Tea Party Republican
candidate Trey Gowdy, something he attributes CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they
largely to his support for global warming policies. are doing and are aware of long-term consequences
“For many conservatives,” Inglis said after losing of continued business as usual. In my opinion,
the June 2010 primary, “it became the marker these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against
that you had crossed to Satan’s side—that you humanity and nature.82
had left God and gone to Satan’s side on climate
change.”76 He has been characterized by left-wing
Hansen has been arrested multiple times outside
environmentalists as “a conservative who believes
the White House while protesting mining policies
that climate change is real.”77
and the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
He criticized President Obama’s climate policies
George Shultz (1920-2021) served as director of as insufficient, criticized the 2015 Paris Climate
the Office of Management and Budget as well as the Accords as a “fraud” for not going far enough, and
secretary of Labor, Treasury, and State Departments supports a global tax on carbon emissions. 83
in the Reagan administration. He was chair of the
Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy
CCL’s advisory board also includes actors Don
at the center-right Hoover Institution, based
Cheadle and Bradley Whitford, as well as scientists
in Stanford University in California. Shultz co-

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 15

 Sylvia Earle, Katherine Hayhoe, Shi-Ling Hsu, $476,000. 90 From 2016 to 2017, CCL’s revenues
Daniel Kammen, David Titley, Peter de Menocal, grew by nearly 177 percent. 91
and Hahrie Han. Advisory board member Barbara
Love is professor emeritus of social justice education Because Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a 501(c)(4)
at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. advocacy nonprofit, it isn’t required by the IRS to
disclose its donors and few are known. In 2017,
Advisory board member Michael Gerrard is an the Hopewell Fund—part of the “dark money”
environmental law attorney; former chair of the nonprofit network managed by the consultancy
American Bar Association’s environment, energy, Arabella Advisors—paid CCL $15,000.92
and resources section (2004–2005); and chairman
of the Earth Institute, a left-leaning environmental Citizens’ Climate Education Corp. Citizens’
research group. 84 Climate Education Corporation is a 501(c)
(3) nonprofit and the clearinghouse for most of
Advisory board member Adele Morris is a senior CCL’s funding.
fellow and policy director for Climate and Energy
Economics at the Brookings Institution, where she In 2018, CCEC reported $3.2 million in total
has advocated for carbon pricing policies. 85 revenues ($2.9 million of which came from grants),
$4.3 million in total expenditures, and $1.7 million
Advisory board member Jay Butera is a carbon tax in net assets. 93
supporter and political activist. He has been hailed
as the “architect of [Congress’] Climate Solutions In 2017, the group reported $4.8 million in total
Caucus” by former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), a revenues ($4.7 million of which came from grants),
carbon tax supporter, for aiding in the creation of $3.2 million in total expenditures, and net assets of
the caucus in 2016. 86 $2.7 million. Its largest program expense in 2017
was $135,000 spent on its two-day annual climate
Advisory board member Betony Jones is a former conference. 94
staffer for the Clinton administration and principle
for the research firm Inclusive Economics. 87 While Citizens’ Climate Education Corporation
does not disclose its donors, data from the service
Advisory board member James Balog is an FoundationSearch indicate major grants to the
environmental filmmaker and founder of the Earth group from the following notable groups:
Vision Institute, which promotes environmentalism
through art and film. 88 • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation ($1.5 million since 2015),
• Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego
(donor-advised fund provider) ($575,000
FUNDING since 2013), and
• Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
Citizens’ Climate Lobby. In 2018, CCL reported (donor-advised fund provider) ($328,000
$682,000 in total revenues ($661,000 from grants), since 2014).
$616,000 in total expenditures, and net assets of
$542,000. 89

In 2017, the group reported $710,000 in total

revenues ($526,000 of which came from grants),
$476,000 in total expenditures, and net assets of

16 JULY 2021
 CLIMATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL AND AMERICANS FOR CARBON DIVIDENDS
The Climate Leadership Council (CLC) might 1999, he founded the New America Foundation
be considered one of the leading groups on the (now simply New America), a left-wing think tank
eco-Right. With support from Big Business and he ran until 2007 when he was succeeded by former
respected Republican Party elders, the CLC is Anne-Marie Slaughter, former director of policy
arguably the best-positioned group to preach the planning in President Obama’s State Department.98
carbon tax gospel to conservatives. But like most of One of New America’s longtime goals is spreading
the eco-Right, it pushes a global warming agenda left-wing climate change policies among evangelical
with funding and strong support from the Left. Christians, a campaign it calls “creation care.” New
America is heavily funded by left-wing foundations,
CLC was created in 2017 around a carbon tax and and George Soros has donated at least $7.7 million
dividend proposed by two venerable Republicans: to the group since 1999.99
James Baker III and George P. Shultz, both
former department secretaries in the Reagan
administration. The Baker-Shultz plan, as it’s
commonly called, was introduced in a Wall Street
Journal op-ed and calls for a $40 per metric ton
carbon tax, which would ratchet up annually. The Electricity bills and cost of living
plan also includes a border-adjustment tax for would dramatically rise because of
“carbon content,” effectively a tariff on imports
from countries without carbon pricing schemes.95 Baker-Shultz’s carbon tax.
The revenues from the Baker-Shultz carbon tax
would then be paid to Americans via “carbon CLC’s advisory board is a similarly mixed bag.
dividends”—a payoff to the people whose electricity Besides “Distinguished Co-Authors” James Baker
bills and cost of living would dramatically rise III and the late George P. Shultz (1920-2021), it
because of Baker-Shultz’s carbon tax. Critically, features prominent Republicans from the George
this aspect gives CLC grounds to call its carbon tax W. Bush administration as well as former Obama
“revenue-neutral.”96 administration Energy Secretary Steven Chu,
Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and liberal
The Baker-Shultz plan is one of the first carbon tax former Federal Reserve Chairs Ben Bernanke and
schemes introduced on the Right and is particularly Janet Yellin.100 The inclusion of partisans from both
noteworthy for its prominent and well-respected major political parties allows the CLC to promote
namesakes. But just as important are the leftists itself as “bipartisan.”
supporting the Climate Leadership Council and its
quest for carbon dividends.

The Climate Leadership Council was headed by SUPPORT FROM BIG OIL AND GAS
Ted Halstead, a self-described “policy entrepreneur”
and environmental activist, from its creation until At launch, the Climate Leadership Council touted its
his death in September 2020. In a 2017 TED Talk impressive list of founding members, which included
promoting CLC, Halstead said he founded CLC “in major oil and gas producers, environmental groups
order to counteract the excessive polarization of this like the Nature Conservancy, and notable people in
issue [climate change] in the United States and to business and government, particularly Republicans.101
find a conservative pathway forward.”97 Unlike most on the eco-Right, the CLC enjoys strong
support from Big Oil. Why?
While Halstead was not a radical—he authored
the 2002 book The Radical Center: The Future of One financial analyst speculated shortly after
American Politics—he’s no conservative, either. In CLC was announced that the companies “want

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 17

 to see a government-mandated increase to natural was to “dial coal out of the economy.”104 Internal
gas consumption at the expense of coal,” noting correspondence later showed that Enron employees
that their sudden support for a carbon tax came believed Kyoto—a predecessor to the 2015 Paris
just three weeks after the Trump administration Climate Accords—would “do more to promote
announced its decision to withdraw from the 2015 Enron’s business” than any other single regulation.105
Paris Climate Accords, an international global
warming agreement joined by President Obama.102 While one can only speculate on the motives of
CLC’s Big Business supporters, none of them
How better to beat the competition are coal producers.
than by weaponizing ExxonMobil sold its last
As Advertised In
government regulation? coal mine in Monterey,
California, in 2009.106
In 2015, Total, a French
P2JW171000-4-A006B0-1--------WO

It wouldn’t be the first Tuesday, June 20, 2017 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

time that gas producers multinational, sold its last

A6B | Tuesday, June 20, 2017

have targeted the coal coal mine in South Africa.

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

industry for extinction. A company press release

THE CONSENSUS CLIMATE SOLUTION
Enron—the innovative stated, “Faced with the
$100 billion company issue of climate change,
The Founding Members of the Climate Leadership Council believe that
solution that bridges partisan divides, strengthens our economy and
America needs a consensus climate
protects our shared environment.

that disintegrated in Total is committed to

The Council's carbon dividends solution embodies the conservative
principles of free markets and limited
government. It also offers an equitable, popular and politically-viable
way forward, paving the way for a

2001 amid scandal— much-needed bipartisan climate

promoting the use of
breakthrough.

Our carbon dividends program is based on four interdependent pillars:

was formed from a 1.
natural gas, the cleanest
A gradually rising and revenue-neutral carbon tax;

1985 merger of two 2.

3. fossil fuel, especially
Carbon dividend payments to all Americans, funded by 100% of the
revenue;
The rollback of carbon regulations that are no longer necessary; and
competitiveness.
Border carbon adjustments to level the playing field and promote American
natural gas producers compared to coal. . . .
4.
all current and prior climate
This plan would achieve significantly greater emissions reductions than
In fact, the bottom 70% of
that sought to carve Americans would be financially better We have also decided to
regulations, while helping America's businesses and workers get ahead.
off.

out a global market divest our coal marketing

Our carbon dividends solution is: Pro-Environment, Pro-Growth, Pro-Jobs,
Pro-Business and Pro-National Security.
Pro-Competitiveness,

for natural gas, operations” by 2016.107

Working with a range of constituencies, the Climate Leadership Council
consensus climate solution based on these pillars.
will develop and promote a

eventually with the And Royal Dutch Shell

government’s help.103 Corporate Founding Members quit its coal mines in
Spotting opportunity, 2015, with CEO Ben
the company lobbied Van Beurden announcing
the George W. Bush that the company was
administration to cap transitioning from an “oil-
CO2 emissions in line and-gas” to a “gas-and-
with the 2001 Kyoto oil” company.108
Protocol on global NGO Founding Members

warming, allowing
Enron to broker CO2
emissions permits Individual Founding Members CARBON TAX ADVOCACY
to CO2-producing Michael Bloomberg Stephen Hawking Thomas Stephenson
natural gas, oil, Steven Chu
Ray Dalio
Vinod Khosla

CLC announced itself in

N. Gregory Mankiw
Gregory Page
Lawrence Summers
Ratan Tata

and—critically—
Martin Feldstein Rob Walton
Laurene Powell Jobs
Ted Halstead
June 2017 with a full-
coal producers. Distinguished Co-Authors
page advertisement in the
James A. Baker, III George P. Shultz

Wall Street Journal calling

Given that coal emits for a carbon tax, which
roughly twice as much To learn more visit: www.clcouncil.org
it labeled a bipartisan
Watch our TED Talk: go.ted.com/tedhalstead

carbon dioxide when “consensus climate

Paid for by the Climate Leadership Council

burned as natural solution.” Consistent

gas, industry experts with the Baker-Shultz
have noted that the Climate Leadership Council’s full-page Wall Street Wall Street Journal
goal of those permits Journal advertisement.

18 JULY 2021
 op-ed launched with the ad, CLC simultaneously • An average employment shortfall of nearly
promised a four-pillared panacea to global warming: 300,000 jobs,
• A peak employment shortfall of more
1. “A gradually rising and revenue-neutral than 1 million jobs, 500,000 jobs lost in
carbon tax; manufacturing,
2. Carbon dividend payments to all Americans, • Destruction of more than 45 percent of coal-
funded by 100 percent of the revenue; mining jobs,
3. The rollback of carbon regulations that are no • An aggregate gross domestic product (GDP)
longer necessary; and loss of more than $2.5 trillion (inflation-
4. Border carbon adjustments to level the adjusted), and
playing field and promote American • A total income loss of more than $7,000 per
competitiveness.”109 person (inflation-adjusted).114
As CLC’s president, Ted Halstead described his Undoubtedly, CLC’s carbon tax and dividend
climate tax and dividend as the “killer app” of would reduce CO2 emissions—after all, obliterating
climate policy. The group wants a carbon tax manufacturing and fossil fuels would necessarily
starting at $40 per ton of carbon dioxide, targeting reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to zero.
“all fossil fuels and non-fuel CO2 emissions,”
imported and domestic, as well as “energy-intensive But what about its effect on the climate?
manufactured products”—which products is
unclear. CLC also calls for overturning all major The Cato Institute considered similar carbon tax
Obama-era climate regulations, including the EPA’s analysis by the EPA and concluded that, at best,
Clean Power Plan (overturned by President Trump), it would reduce global warming by 0.02 degrees
an end to tort liability by emitters, and removing Celsius by the end of the century.115 If the U.S.
the EPA’s authority to regulate CO2 emissions.110 ceased all economic activity and cut carbon dioxide
emissions to zero, it would only lower global
Halstead believed CLC’s approach appeals to liberals temperatures “by no more 0.2 degrees Celsius by
and conservatives alike, but only with a dividend 2100.”116 It doesn’t take a science degree to see that
to complement a carbon tax, something groups on that’s a bad deal.
the Left have been reluctant to embrace. The tax by
itself, he’s admitted, “has proven to be unpopular
and a political dead-end.”111 That isn’t surprising,
since the dividend—a monthly lump sum paid to
every household nationwide—is how CLC justifies CARBON BORDER-ADJUSTMENT TAX
calling its carbon tax “revenue-neutral.” CLC claims
that a rate of $40 per ton would result in dividends Besides a carbon tax and dividend, CLC proposed
of $2,000 per year for a family of four. The group a border-adjustment tax—essentially a tariff on
argues that this payoff would more than offset any imported goods from countries that don’t have
increases in household electricity prices, including carbon pricing systems.
the $0.36 per gallon it estimates the tax would add
to gas prices.112 The system would work like this: U.S. exports to
countries without carbon pricing systems are given
If implemented in 2021, CLC claims its carbon a rebate, while imports from those same countries
tax and dividend will cut CO2 emissions in half by are taxed (CLC prefers the term “fees”). The goal of
2035, as compared with 2005 levels.113 But these the program is to stop “free-riding by other nations”
figures are wildly optimistic. A 2014 study by the outcompeting American companies crippled by a
Heritage Foundation charted the effects of a $37 per carbon tax. In other words, the program seeks to
ton carbon tax and dividend. Over a 15-year period, make self-destruction global, not unilateral.117
the study estimated that the tax would cause:

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 19

 The tariff promotes a kind of eco-imperialism:
countries with self-destructive carbon schemes—
located exclusively in the wealthy West—would
be commercially favored over poor, developing If the U.S. ceased all economic activity
countries. Countries that don’t wish to subject their
citizens to expensive electricity plans would be and cut carbon dioxide emissions
punished for it—something CLC proudly calls the to zero, it would only lower global
“climate domino effect.”118
temperatures “by no more 0.2 degrees
The revenues from the tariff would be redistributed Celsius by 2100.”
to Americans like those from the carbon tax. But
this begs the question: If tariffs raise prices on
imported goods bought in the U.S., aren’t we to replace the federal gas tax. The bill also includes
robbing Peter to pay Paul? a border-adjustment tax like that proposed by
CLC. Unlike CLC’s carbon dividend, however, the
Fitzpatrick-Rooney bill doesn’t distribute revenues
to taxpayers, instead spending funds on highway
TARGETING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY infrastructure, “farmer assistance,” weatherization,
and other such projects.122
CLC’s carbon tax and dividend is primarily targeted
at winning support in the Republican Party. “I’m
convinced that the road to climate progress in the
United States runs through the Republican Party AMERICANS FOR CARBON DIVIDENDS
and the business community,” Ted Halstead said at
a TED Talk he hosted in 2017, entitled “A Climate Americans for Carbon Dividends (AFCD) is the
Solution Where All Sides Can Win.”119 501(c)(4) advocacy arm created in November
2018 to lobby Congress in support of CLC’s
The College Republicans adopted CLC’s carbon tax carbon tax.123
and dividend in 2018, pitching it as a “free-market
solution” to global warming.120 ACFD was initially headed by Ted Halstead until
his death in late 2020, when he was succeeded by
CLC’s plan is more aggressive than any carbon tax Greg Bertelsen, a former policy director for the
yet introduced by congressional Republicans, and it National Association of Manufacturers who also
hasn’t been endorsed by any members of Congress. leads CLC. At its creation, AFCD was managed by
How does it compare with past GOP carbon taxes? former Republican Rep. Ryan Costello (PA), a two-
term congressman and former member of the House
The 2018 carbon tax (MARKET CHOICE Act) Committee on Energy and Commerce who didn’t
introduced by Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) called seek reelection in the 2018 midterm election; he’s
for a $24 per metric ton tax on CO2 emissions been succeeded by Tiffany Adams, a former public
starting in 2020, rising 2 percent per year plus affairs vice president for the consultancy Forbes Tate
inflation, and a border-adjustment tax. It did not Partners.124 Since retiring, Costello has opened a
include a carbon dividend for taxpayers.121 government affairs consulting firm—Ryan Costello
Strategies—in Washington, DC; as a former
The carbon tax (MARKET CHOICE Act) member of Congress, he was legally barred from
introduced in 2019 by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R- lobbying before Congress until January 2020.125
PA) and Francis Rooney (R-FL) and co-sponsored
by two Democrats bears some similarities to CLC’s In 2018, the group spent $300,000 in lobbying
proposal. The bill would create a carbon tax of $35 expenditures to build support for the Baker-Shultz
per metric ton of carbon dioxide starting in 2021, carbon tax in the U.S. House of Representatives,
increasing by 5 percent each year (plus inflation), Senate, and White House.126 As of May 2020,

20 JULY 2021
 AFCD has spent $1.76 million in lobbying, corruption” group Represent.Us and co-founder of
much of it in support of the Baker-Shultz Carbon No Labels, a nominally centrist advocacy nonprofit
Dividends Plan.127 heavily funded by the left-wing William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation, John D. and Catherine T.
The money was paid to Squire Patton Boggs, a MacArthur Foundation, and Pierre Omidyar’s
major international law firm and the third-largest Democracy Fund.134
lobbying company in the country, which employs
AFCD’s lobbyists: mainly John Breaux and Trent
Lott. Breaux and Lott are former U.S. Senators
who founded a lobbying firm, the Breaux-Lott LEADERSHIP AND FOUNDING MEMBERS
Leadership Group after retiring from public office;
the firm was later purchased by Squire Patton Ted Halstead. Ted Halstead was president of the
Boggs.128 Interestingly, they’re credited by some Climate Leadership Council from its creation
media sources as the co-founders of Americans for until his death in September 2020. Halstead was
Carbon Dividends, which lists them as Advisory a self-described “policy entrepreneur,” notable for
Board co-chairs.129 founding several left-leaning or centrist think tanks
since the early 1990s. He’s also the author of two
Breaux, a Democrat, represented Louisiana books: The Radical Center: The Future of American
from 1987 to 2005. Lott, a Democrat-turned- Politics, written in 2001 with New America fellow
Republican, represented Mississippi in the House Michal Lind, which imagines a coming breakdown
and Senate from 1973 to 2007 and was briefly of the two-party system, and The Real State of
Senate Majority Leader in 2001, though he stepped the Union: From the Best Minds in America, Bold
down amid criticism after speaking at the 100th Solutions to the Problems Politicians Dare Not Address
birthday party of Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), in 2004, a collection of essays on various policy
a Democrat-turned-Republican who advocated issues he sees confronting the country.135
continued racial segregation.130 Lott is also a senior
fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a group that Halstead’s first venture was with Redefining
leans left despite its name. 131 Progress, a San Francisco–based think tank he
started in 1993 to develop environmentalist
Another Squire Patton Boggs lobbyist working for economic policies using startup capital from the
AFCD is David Schnittger, former deputy chief environmentalist group Echoing Green.136 He was
of staff to ex-Speaker of the House John Boehner the group’s executive director until 1997, when he
(R-OH), whose other clients in 2019 included CLC moved to its board of directors. That same year,
supporters Royal Dutch Shell, Procter & Gamble, the group released its Economists’ Statement on
and the Solar Energy Industries Association. Climate Change, which argued for market-based
Similarly, Squire Patton Boggs lobbyist Matthew carbon pricing schemes and obtained some 2,600
Cutts is a registered lobbyist for AFCD and Royal signatures.137 It closed in 2008.
Dutch Shell.132
During his tenure at Redefining Progress, Halstead
AFCD senior adviser Joe Lockhart was press authored a 1995 Washington Post op-ed calling for
secretary for the Clinton administration (1998– a kind of carbon tax (what he referred to then as a
2000) and other Democrats include Vice President “resource tax”), which would replace federal payroll
Walter Mondale, Rep. Paul Simon (D-IL), 2004 and income taxes “with taxes on the use of finite
presidential nominee John Kerry, and Massachusetts resources such as oil and coal, on pollution and on
Gov. Michael Dukakis.133 virgin materials that end up in the trash.”138
The group is also advised by Mark McKinnon, In 1999, Halstead founded New America (then
a television co-producer, gay marriage advocate, the New America Foundation), a left-leaning think
and left-leaning political activist. McKinnon is an tank, which he led until 2007. The group purports
Advisory Board member to the left-wing “anti- to reject ideology in favor of pragmatism, but it’s

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 21

 closely connected with the
Obama administration. In
2009, New America began
receiving federal contracts
from the State Department to
develop wireless networks in
Iran, Syria, Libya, and Cuba
(contracts that some alumni
criticized as impinging on the
group’s independence).139

CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter

worked in Hillary Clinton’s
State Department from
2009 to 2011 before
taking the reins of New
America in 2013. Slaughter
is hardly nonpartisan,
accusing President Trump of Ted Halstead, president of the Climate Leadership Council, was a self-described
“defiling and degrading” the “policy entrepreneur,” notable for founding several left-leaning or centrist think
presidency.140 New America tanks since the early 1990s.
COO Tyra Mariani was
chief of staff to Obama’s
Department of Education.141 Simone Frank is the group’s chief financial
Vice President Cecilia Muñoz was a senior staffer for officer. She is also a senior adviser for the centrist
all eight years of the Obama administration. Prior Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
to that, she was senior vice president for the left- and previously worked at Halstead’s think tank
wing Latino advocacy group UnidosUS (formerly New America.147 In 2018, Frank received total
National Council of La Raza, or “the race”).142 compensation of $105,840.148
While New America is nominally centrist and Jill Sigal is CLC’s senior vice president. She
technically nonpartisan, it’s heavily funded by previously worked as acting assistant secretary
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, George of energy in the Office of Congressional and
Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society, Intergovernmental Affairs. In 2005, she was
the Ford Foundation, and the William and Flora nominated by President George W. Bush to
Hewlett Foundation.143 serve as assistant secretary of energy to the Bush
administration.149 In 2018, Sigal received total
According to CLC’s IRS Form 990 filing for 2018, compensation of $141,668.150
Halstead’s total compensation was $356,188.144
Catrina Rorke is a CLC vice president. She is
Senior Staffers. Greg Bertelsen is CLC’s chief an associate fellow for the right-leaning R Street
executive officer, succeeding Halstead after his Institute, a think tank, where she founded the
death. According to the group’s website, he is a group’s energy program. Prior to that, she was a
liaison to Congress and the business community. fellow at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and was a staffer for the
He previously worked at the National Association liberal Republican Rep. Bob Inglis (SC), who
of Manufacturers and was an adviser to the EPA on lost his seat in 2010 largely due to his views on
“environmental justice” issues during the Obama manmade global warming.151 In 2018, she received
administration.145 In 2018, Bertelsen received total total compensation of $112,401.152
compensation of $270,823.146

22 JULY 2021
 Taiya Smith is director of CLC’s China $160,000 to the Niskanen Center as well as the
Program. In 2018, she received total left-wing groups Environmental Defence, Climate
compensation of $284,669.153 Central, and Planned Parenthood.160

Board of Directors. Ted Halstead was chairman of Craig McCaw also serves on the board of the
CLC’s board of directors, which includes a number Hoover Institution and was the former chair
of influential liberals and conservatives.154 of the liberal Nature Conservancy. McCaw’s
private foundation, the Craig and Susan McCaw
Martin “Marty” Kaplan is a former chair of the Foundation, granted $500,000 to CLC in 2017.161
Massachusetts Board of Education. Kaplan was a
trustee for the Germeshausen Foundation, a major Gary Rieschel is the founding partner of Qiming
funder of CLC, from the 1980s to approximately Venture Partners, one of China’s largest venture
2014.155 According to filings obtained by the capital firms.162
Capital Research Center, Kaplan is officially a
co-founder of CLC. He and Halstead are listed on Founding Members. The Climate Leadership
the group’s IRS application for recognition of tax- Council boasts support from major companies,
exempt status.156 energy producers, left-leaning nonprofits, and
influential figures in government and business.163
Kathryn Murdoch, daughter-in-law of conservative
billionaire and Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, Corporate Founding Members.
joined CLC’s board in December 2018. Kathryn
and her husband, James, apparently form the liberal • AECOM
wing of the family. A September 2019 New York • Allianz
Times article states that the couple “are claiming
their independence from the more conservative arm • AT&T
of the family,” largely over their belief in manmade • BHP
climate change. According to the Times,
• BP (British Petroleum)
The urgency of the climate crisis jolted • Calpine
her. “I decided to switch everything I was • ConocoPhillips
doing,” [Murdoch] said. “I wanted to be
• Exelon
able to look my children in the eye and say
‘I did everything I could.’”157 • ExxonMobil
• First Solar
Board member Juleanna Glover is a lobbyist who
• Ford Motor Company
is a former staffer in the President George W. Bush
administration.158 • General Motors
• Johnson & Johnson
Robert Litterman is chairman of Risk Management
• MetLife
for Kepos Capital, a New York–based investment
management firm. He’s a major advocate for a • Microsoft
carbon tax, seeing climate change as a “solvable” • Royal Dutch Shell
issue using traditional risk management strategies.
• Procter & Gamble
He’s also on the boards of the eco-Right group
Niskanen Center, the Commonfund (an asset • Pepsico
management firm for nonprofits), and the World • Santander
Wildlife Fund and Resources for the Future, both
left-wing environmental groups that have received • Schneider Electric
substantial funding from Litterman’s personal • Total
foundation.159 Litterman has granted at least • Unilever

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 23

 Nonprofit Founding Members and Strategic • Ray Dalio, hedge fund manager and co-
Partners. Most of the nonprofits supporting CLC chairman, Bridgewater Associates
are aligned with the political Left. Worth noting • Martin Feldstein, economist and former chief
are the endorsements of New America, a think tank economic adviser to President Reagan
Halstead formed in 1999, and Citizens’ Climate
Lobby, a major carbon tax advocate. • Stephen Hawking, physicist
• Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist and co-
• American Wind Energy Association founder, Sun Microsystems
• Atlantic Council • Nicholas Gregory Mankiw, economist and
• Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition former chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers (George W. Bush administration)
• Citizens’ Climate Lobby
• Gregory Page, former executive chairman of
• Clean Prosperity Cargill Inc.
• Conservation International • Raul Polman, former president for Western
• Evangelical Environmental Network Europe of Procter & Gamble and former
• New America CEO of Unilever (both companies have
endorsed CLC’s carbon tax)
• Policy Exchange
• Laurene Powell Jobs, Philanthropist and
• RepublicEn (George Mason University) widow of Steve Jobs
• University of Oxford, Smith School of • Klaus Schwab, founder and executive
Enterprise and the Environment chairman of the World Economic Forum
• The Nature Conservancy • George P. Shultz (1920-2021), former U.S.
• The Weather Channel secretary of state (Reagan administration)
• World Resources Institute • Thomas Stephenson, former U.S. ambassador
• World Wildlife Fund to Portugal (George W. Bush and Obama
administrations)
Individual Founding Members. CLC touts its • Lawrence Summers, economist, former vice
impressive list of endorsements from notables in president of development economics for the
government and business, including Republicans World Bank, and former U.S. secretary of the
from the Reagan and both Bush administrations. treasury (Clinton administration)
The list includes many prominent members of • Ratan Tata, investor and chairman, Tata
the Clinton and Obama administration as well as Group
centrist Democrats.
• Samuel Robson “Rob” Walton, former chair
of Walmart and son of Walmart founder Sam
• James A. Baker III, former White House Chief
Walton
of Staff, U.S. Treasury Department Secretary
(Reagan administration) • Janet Yellen, former Federal Reserve chair and
chair of White House Council of Economic
• Ben Bernanke, former Federal Reserve chair
Advisers (Clinton administration)
(2006-2014)
• Michael Bloomberg, Businessman and Former
New York City Mayor
• Steven Chu, Physicist and former U.S.
Energy Department Secretary (Obama
administration)

24 JULY 2021
 FUNDING • Craig and Susan McCaw Foundation:
$500,000
Climate Leadership Council. CLC is a 501(c)(3) • Arnhold Foundation: $150,000
nonprofit that received its tax exemption from the
• Charles Stewart Mott Foundation: $100,000
IRS in September 2016, a few months prior to its
public launch in 2017.164 • Germeshausen Foundation: $100,000

As CLC is so new that little information is CLC has also been awarded substantial grants
available about its funders. In 2016, the group filed from Arnold Ventures, a for-profit extension of the
a Form 990-N postcard with the IRS, indicating left-wing mega-funder the Laura and John Arnold
that it received less than $50,000 in revenues for Foundation. Between 2017 and 2021, Arnold
that year.165 Ventures has awarded CLC as much as $4.5 million;
the final grant amounts remain unclear.171
In 2017, however, CLC had a banner year with
total revenues of $4.2 million (all of which came Whomever its remaining donors are, they’re big.
from grants, as opposed to investment revenue),
total expenditures of $1.4 million, and net assets of In 2017, CLC’s biggest donation was for an
$2.8 million—all of which indicates rapid growth impressive $1.5 million. It reported more donations
and a substantial “endowment” from supporters.166 of $750,000, $550,000, and $500,000.172
CLC also paid out $64,265 in grants in 2017, all of
which went to unspecified groups in Europe.167 In 2018, donations to CLC ranged as high
as $500,000. Other large donations were
In 2018, CLC’s income shrank to $1.7 million (all for $350,000, $200,000, and four grants of
from grants), and it also reported total expenditures $100,000 each.173
of $2.6 million and net assets of $1.9 million. 168
Interestingly, CLC paid out $128,000 in grants Americans for Carbon Dividends. Americans
and program expenditures in Europe and Asia that for Carbon Dividends is a 501(c)(4) advocacy
year, but it made one grant to a U.S.-based group: nonprofit that received a tax exemption from
$50,000 to the left-wing think tank Urban Institute the IRS in November 2018.174 According to its
for “carbon dividends research.”169 2018 IRS Form 990 filing, AFCD reported total
revenues of $2.8 million (all of which came from
While CLC isn’t required to report its donors, data grants), total expenditures of $460,000, and net
from the service FoundationSearch indicate grants assets of $2.3 million.175
from a number of center-left foundations totaling
$1.35 million in 2016-2017. One CLC contributor, Few of AFCD’s donors are known. However,
the McCaw Foundation, is the private philanthropy ExxonMobil—a CLC supporter—has reportedly
of Craig McCaw, a CLC board member.170 contributed $1 million to AFCD.176 ConocoPhillips
has given the group another $2 million.177
• Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund (a donor-
advised fund provider): $500,000

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 25

 THE NISKANEN CENTER
The Niskanen Center is a nominally right-leaning forced energy transformation—and who was not
think tank that’s best described as “libertarian- interested in second-best in this area.”183
turned-liberal” owing to its general abandonment of
libertarianism and marked turn to the left.

Niskanen was formed after a 2014 rift between the

libertarian Cato Institute and a handful of staffers—
most notably then-vice president Jerry Taylor—who
adopted the theory of catastrophic manmade global
warming. In early 2015, they broke away to form
the Niskanen Center, a separate think tank headed
by Taylor. Since then, the group has been criticized
by observers on the political Right as an “infiltrator”
in the conservative/liberty movement for attempting
to legitimize left-wing views of climate change
among conservatives and libertarians and for its
substantial funding from left-wing foundations.178

The group has provided pro bono legal The Niskanen Center is a nominally right-leaning think
representation to plaintiffs suing oil companies tank that’s best described as “libertarian-turned-liberal”
ExxonMobil and Suncor in 2018, with Taylor owing to its general abandonment of libertarianism and
arguing that “oil companies should be held marked turn to the left.
accountable for climate change.”179 Notably,
Niskanen chief counsel David Bookbinder is
the former chief climate counsel to the Sierra
Club, where he was involved in the 2007 [William] Niskanen understood the politics of
Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. EPA, which the climate issue and motivations of the other side
established the EPA’s authority to regulate and was not about to let a theoretical ideal about
greenhouse gas emissions.180 controlling real pollutants (choosing taxation
over command-and-control) change his views
The Niskanen Center authors publish reports on a about carbon dioxide. That [Jerry] Taylor is using
number of issues—including poverty, regulation, climate advocacy to fund his new center is a double
fiscal and monetary policy, immigration, and health whammy to Niskanen’s memory. The Niskanen
care—but it’s arguably best known for its full- Center should be renamed. And “libertarian” should
throated defense of climate alarmism. Niskanen be taken out of its descriptive and promotional
president Jerry Taylor is a prominent defender of material for so long as climate alarmism/forced
carbon taxes and the author of an extensive 2015 energy transformation is atop the masthead.
paper “The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax.”181

The center is named for William Niskanen, a

senior economic aide to President Ronald Reagan ABANDONED LIBERTARIANISM AND ATTACKS
and longtime Cato Institute chairman who died CONSERVATISM
in 2011, four years before the center’s founding.182
Yet the climate alarmism espoused by Taylor and
Despite its decidedly liberal views on numerous
the Niskanen Center has been described by Cato
political issues, the Niskanen Center originally
Institute adjunct scholar Robert L. Bradley Jr. as
identified itself as a “libertarian advocacy
“violat[ing] the spirit and memory of William
organization.” In the group’s IRS Form 990 filings
Niskanen, who never bought into climate alarmism/
for 2015 and 2016, for instance, Niskanen called

26 JULY 2021
 itself “a libertarian 501(c)(3) think tank.” But as of In early 2019, Niskanen hosted a conference in
its 2017 filing, it’s just a “501(c)(3) think tank.”184 which Chait applauded the group’s attacks on
conservatives as the future of the Republican
In October 2018, president Jerry Taylor wrote that Party. “The Niskanen Center is the one institution
he had “abandoned” his left-leaning libertarianism planning for what can follow after the cleansing
in a piece entitled “The Alternative to Ideology” (he fire,” he said, referring to an imaginary point in
now prefers to describe himself as “a Republican”): the near future when “today’s Republican Party is
destroyed, rendered incapable of wielding power
When we launched the Niskanen Center at the national level, and its governing philosophy
in January 2015, we happily identified discredited completely.”188
ourselves as libertarians. Sure, we were
heterodox libertarians, but there are many
schools of libertarianism beyond those
promoted by Charles Koch’s political ADOPTION OF “OPEN SOCIETY” THEORY
operations. The school we identified with
was a left-libertarianism concerned with Ironically, Taylor’s newfound “alternative to
social justice. . . . I have abandoned that ideology” is itself the ideology held by elite liberal
libertarian project, however, because I have globalists called the “open society.” If that sounds
come to abandon ideology.185 familiar, that is because billionaire George Soros
made it famous with his handful of ultra-wealthy
Groups on the left praised Taylor’s announcement. groups, including the Foundation to Promote Open
“A libertarian think tank just gave up on Society, Open Society Policy Center, and Open
libertarianism,” wrote the left-leaning website Society Foundations.
Quartz, which hailed Taylor even as it lamented
that “ever fewer temperate souls are left to hold the The “open society” theory was envisioned by
middle ground in politics.”186 New York Magazine’s Karl Popper, a philosopher and former Marxist
Jonathan Chait, a liberal, noted that Niskanen’s who advocated for social engineering. A 1994
pro–big government ideas constitute “frontal obituary by the center-right magazine Reason
assaults on the basic orientation of the libertarian called him an “anti-authoritarian” who was “not a
political project.”187 doctrinaire libertarian.”189

According to a recent conspectus published by the

group intended for donors, Niskanen describes
its new mission as “work[ing] to promote an
open society both through active engagement in
the war of ideas and direct engagement in the
policymaking process.”190

We are globalists who share progressives’

desire to robustly address economic and
social inequality, liberals’ commitment to
toleration and civil liberties, moderates’
embrace of empiricism rather than
dogma, conservatives’ belief in the wealth-
creating power of free markets, and
libertarians’ skepticism about the ability
The Niskanen Center hosted “Starting Over: The Center- of technocratic elites to solve complex
Right After Trump,” a 2019 conference where New York economic and social problems.191
Magazine’s Jonathan Chait applauded the group’s attacks
on conservatives as the future of the Republican Party.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 27

 Niskanen runs the Open
Society Project, an anti-
Trump attack group created
in November 2016 with
funding from eBay founder
and liberal billionaire Pierre
Omidyar. Niskanen claims
the project’s “Meeting of
the Concerned” led to the
creation of Bill Kristol’s
Republicans for the Rule
of Law (also funded by
Omidyar), which regularly
launches ads accusing
President Trump of
“obstruct[ing] justice.”192

Critically, the group

identifies itself as an Niskanen’s Open Society Project and Bill Kristol’s Republicans for the Rule of
effective door for the Left to Law are both anti-Trump groups funded by liberal billionaire Pierre Omidyar.
infiltrate the Right:

As an organization letter to the movement, Taylor offers advice to

heavily staffed by those who have come out climate change alarmists about how to avoid
of the world of libertarianism, we have long- conservative criticism:
standing personal ties and credibility on the
right. This is critical because the messenger You are inadvertently confirming
is often more important than the message, conservative suspicions that you are stoking
and few who traffic in our arguments have fears about climate change as a convenient
any credibility with conservatives (the excuse to achieve your real objective:
political audience that arguably needs to dismantling capitalism as we know it and
hear our arguments the most). . . . putting society on a wartime footing under
the direction of avowed socialists.
Accordingly, we educate policy actors about
climate science and directly confront climate While that’s an unfair characterization of
skeptics; encourage Republicans to defend the motivations of most of the climate
regulatory authority to address greenhouse activists I know, “solution aversion” and
gas emissions . . . and, above all, promote the suspicion that environmentalists are
carbon taxation as the best federal response fundamentally hostile to contemporary
to climate risk.193 American society are two key factors
fueling conservative opposition to climate
action. [emphasis added]194

SUPPORT FOR THE GREEN NEW DEAL “The most important thing you’ve done right,”
Taylor concluded, “is to elevate climate change to
Taylor has even called himself “a friend” of the the top of the progressive agenda while making a
far-left activists pushing the Green New Deal, strong moral case for action.”195
calling their cause “just” if “sometimes given to
overstatement.” In a bizarre 11,000-word love

28 JULY 2021
 no expenditures in 2017 (the latest available year).201
CLIMATE CHANGE LAWSUITS Little about the group is published online, and it
does not have a website of its own.
The Niskanen Center has been tied to at least one
climate-related lawsuit.
Nevertheless, the group describes its mission in
part as “developing and advocating for legislation,
In April 2018, the City of Boulder, Colorado, and
regulations, and government programs to improve
County of San Miguel, Colorado, filed a lawsuit
the environment, protect natural resources, and
against oil and natural gas companies ExxonMobil
stimulate the economy.”202 It remains unclear how
and Suncor, accusing the “fossil fuel-producing
much lobbying the group has actually done thus far.
corporations” of harming the climate.196 The
Colorado communities were represented in the
The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax. Arguing
lawsuit by a joint climate group which included
for a carbon tax has become a major priority of the
Hannon Law Firm—a group that litigates
Niskanen Center. In March 2015, the Niskanen
environmental lawsuits and whose founder Kevin
Center released “The Conservative Case for a
Hannon was chief outside legal counsel in the
Carbon Tax,” a 28-page proposal authored by
suit—the environmentalist nonprofit EarthRights
president Jerry Taylor. In it, Taylor argued that
International, and the Niskanen Center, which
“conservatives should embrace a carbon tax” instead
represented the plaintiffs pro bono.197
of debating the merits of catastrophic manmade
climate change or global warming theory. The only
Taylor and Niskanen chief counsel David
alternative he allows is “command and control”
Bookbinder co-authored a blog post in April 2018
regulation proposed by radicals on the Left, such as
entitled, “Oil companies should be held accountable
cap-and-trade bills and other onerous policies.
for climate change.”198
A carbon tax, Taylor wrote, should be passed “in
The climate litigators claimed that ExxonMobil
return for elimination of EPA regulatory authority
and Suncor were culpable for over $100 million in
over greenhouse gas emissions, abolition of green
climate damages—including wildfires, flooding,
energy subsidies and regulatory mandates, and
road maintenance, landscaping, and individuals
offsetting tax cuts to provide for revenue neutrality.”
work efficiency.199
The costs of a carbon tax would be “invisible” to
energy consumers.203
Two Cato Institute experts, Randal O’Toole and
Robert Bradley Jr., individuals who had known
The Niskanen Center is a major proponent of a tax
William Niskanen, criticized the Niskanen Center’s
on carbon dioxide emissions. It has called for a tax
involvement in the lawsuit as going directly against
on methane produced by agriculture (“especially the
the memory of Niskanen and what he believed
livestock sector”) as well as oil and natural gas.204
with regard to climate policy. They related William
It supported California’s cap-and-trade program
Niskanen’s belief that “the case for a global warming
extension in 2016 but pushed for a carbon tax,
treaty is shockingly weak” and that he had “never
which would supposedly make “California an even
bought into climate alarmism.”200
more competitive economic dynamo.”205

Niskanen is credited with assisting then-Rep. Carlos

Curbelo (R-FL) with introducing the carbon tax
NISKANEN CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY bill MARKET CHOICE Act (H.R. 6463) in 2018.
The Republican majority in the U.S. House of
The Niskanen Center for Public Policy is the Representatives rejected the bill, and the House later
501(c)(4) lobbying arm of the Niskanen Center. passed a resolution (H.Con.Res. 119) “expressing
Interestingly, the lobbying group received an IRS the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be
tax exemption in February 2016 but appears to be detrimental to the United States economy.”
all but dormant, reporting low revenues and almost

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 29

 In September 2019, Niskanen announced its Taylor’s brother, James, is a senior fellow for
support for the 2019 MARKET CHOICE Act, environment and energy policy at the center-right
a carbon tax plan introduced by Reps. Brian Heartland Institute, a group that is skeptical of
Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Francis Rooney (R-FL), Salud global warming theory. James Taylor has described a
Carbajal (D-CA), and Scott Peters (D-CA).206 “’revenue-neutral’ carbon tax [as] a costly myth.”212

Jerry Taylor has stated his support for a plan Besides Taylor, Niskanen’s board of directors
proposed by the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum, includes Kathryn Washburn, wife of the late
which would enact a $65 per ton tax on carbon William Niskanen; sex industry entrepreneur Phil
dioxide emissions by 2022, rising to $296 per ton Harvey; investment adviser Robert Litterman;
in 2045. Taylor has claimed that the total cost to the Niskanen vice president Joseph Coon; vice
U.S. economy from this plan “would be less than president for research Will Wilkinson; vice
0.2 percent of GDP.”207 president for government affairs Andrew Mills;
director of immigration Kristen de Pena; director
Taylor’s essentially costless estimate is, to be of development David Osborne; and chief counsel
charitable, optimistic. To put it in perspective, the David Bookbinder.213
carbon tax proposed by Rep. Curbelo in 2018
set a $24 tax per ton of carbon dioxide starting Phil Harvey is a philanthropist, population control
in 2020—a level the center-right Competitive advocate, and founder of DKT International, a
Enterprise Institute projected would raise the nonprofit that sells low-cost contraceptives to the
average household’s annual expenditures for gas and Third World (mostly condoms, oral and injectable
utilities by over $1,000.208 Taylor’s preferred carbon contraceptives, and IUDs). The group is heavily
tax is nearly three times larger than the rate proposed funded by the left-wing Gates, Hewlett, Packard,
by Curbelo. and WestWind Foundations and receives funding
from the United Nations Population Fund.214
Even a $20 per ton carbon tax would shrink the size
of the economy by 0.8 percent, according to the Harvey is also president of Adam & Eve (formerly
right-leaning Tax Foundation, costing Americans Population Planning Associates), a North
425,000 jobs and raising taxes by $1.3 trillion over Carolina-based “porn powerhouse” that sells sex
a decade.209 toys, condoms, and erotic media and produces
pornographic films. In 1970, he used revenues from

LEADERSHIP AND STAFF

The leadership of the Niskanen Center
includes a mix of libertarians, moderates, and
environmentalists.

Jerome “Jerry” Taylor is the founding president

of Niskanen Center, a position he has held since
2015. Before his 2014 split with the Cato Institute,
Taylor worked as the group’s director of natural
resources studies, assistant editor of its magazine
Regulation, senior fellow, and finally vice president.
Prior to that, Taylor worked as director for energy
and environment at the center-right group
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).210 Jerry Taylor shares why he changed his mind about
In 2018, Taylor received total compensation of climate change and why he believes climate action and
$233,464 as president of the Niskanen Center.211 economic prosperity go hand-in-hand.

30 JULY 2021
 his sex industry retailer to form Population Services services in 2015, making it the center’s largest listed
International, a major international population independent contractor.224
control advocacy group.215 Harvey has donated at
least $50,000 to Niskanen.216
NISKANEN ADVISORY BOARD
Robert Litterman is a founding partner of Kepos
Capital, a New York–based investment adviser. Prior The Niskanen Center has an advisory board of
to that, he worked for 23 years at Goldman Sachs, 25 members. Notable members include failed
where he co-developed a notable asset allocation 2016 presidential candidate Evan McMullin
model. Litterman is a carbon tax advocate, arguing and his running mate, Mindy Finn. Both are
that carbon emitters should support carbon pricing founders of the anti-Trump group Stand Up
policies in exchange for an end to carbon-related Republic, whose funders include many of the same
tort liability akin to the tobacco industry.217 The left-wing foundations as the Niskanen Center:
Litterman Family Foundation has donated at least Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund, the Hewlett
$160,000 to the Niskanen Center, as well as the left- Foundation, and Silicon Valley Community
wing groups Planned Parenthood, Environmental Foundation.225 In addition, Jerry Taylor is a board
Defence, World Wildlife Fund, and Resources for member for Stand Up Republic.226
the Future. (Litterman is a board member for World
Wildlife Fund, and Resources for the Future).218 George P. Shultz, another advisory board member,
served as director of the Office of Management and
Niskanen chief counsel David Bookbinder is the Budget as well as secretary of Labor, Treasury, and
former chief climate counsel to the Sierra Club, State Departments in the Reagan administration.
where he managed the group’s involvement in the He is chair of the Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on
2007 U.S. Supreme Court case Massachusetts v. EPA. Energy Policy at the center-right Hoover Institution,
That case established the EPA’s authority to regulate based in Stanford University in California. Shultz
“dangerous” greenhouse gas emissions under the is the co-author of a 2013 Wall Street Journal op-
Clean Air Act of 1970, even though the law itself ed alongside University of Chicago economics
had nothing to do with the climate.219 Massachusetts professor Gary Becker calling for a “revenue-neutral
v. EPA gave the EPA the power to regulate virtually carbon tax.” Shultz is an advisory board member for
all emissions in the United States. the pro–carbon tax group Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

Prior to that, he litigated numerous cases for The full Niskanen advisory board is listed below:
increased regulation in California, “which effectively
imposed a moratorium on new coal-fired power • Mindy Finn, Stand Up Republic
plants,” brags Niskanen’s website.220 • Evan McMullin, Stand Up Republic
• George P. Shulz, Hoover Institution
Bookbinder, certainly no conservative, also claims
he “led Sierra Club’s work on judicial nominations, • David Frum, Senior Editor of The Atlantic
including the filibusters” against the George W. • Yuval Levin, Editor of National Affairs
Bush administration’s judicial appointments • Reihan Salam, Executive Editor of National
between 2003 and 2006.221 He was also involved Review
as Niskanen’s counsel in the 2018 climate-related
lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor.222 • Eli Lehrer, R Street Institute
• Eliot Cohen, Johns Hopkins School of
In addition, Bookbinder was a founding partner Advanced International Relations
at the environmental consultancy Element VI • Anat Admati, Stanford University
Consulting, “where he offered advice and insights to
organizations interested in U.S. climate policy.”223 • Brandon Arnold, National Taxpayers Union
Element VI Consulting has done work for the • Radley Balko, journalist and author
Niskanen Center, receiving $151,691 for consulting
• Tom Nichols, author

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 31

 • Virginia Postrel, author and columnist 2018 has been traced. It came overwhelmingly from
• Stuart Butler, Brookings Institution left-wing foundations, including George Soros’s
Foundation to Promote Open Society, the Hopewell
• William A. Galston, Brookings Institution Fund (part of the “dark money” network managed
• Benjamin Wittes, Brookings Institution by Arabella Advisors), the Hewlett Foundation,
• John H. Cochrane, Hoover Institution and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.229
Some of these grants bear descriptions which shed
• Tyler Cowen, Mercatus Center light on how the funds were meant to be used,
• J. Bradford Delong, University of California including “climate change litigation” and “carbon
at Berkeley tax advocacy.”
• Daniel Drezner, Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University Since 2016, Niskanen has received at least $2.75
million from the William and Flora Hewlett
• Jacob T. Levy, McGill University Foundation, a major funder of eco-Right groups
• Alexander McCobin, Conscious Capitalism which also funds the League of Conservation
• Mark S. Weiner, Rutgers University Voters Education Fund and the anti-fossil fuel
group Oil Change International.230 In 2017 alone,
• Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan Hewlett funding accounted for almost a quarter of
• Matt Zwolinski, University of Niskanen’s total annual revenues.231
San Diego

Niskanen Center, a 501(c)(3)

Area of Support / Funder Date Amount Duration Program Support
GENERAL SUPPORT

FUNDING The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

William B. Wiener Jr. Foundation
Goldman Sonnenfeldt Foundation
Apr-18 $400,000.00
May-18
May-18
$20,000.00
$25,000.00
1 year
1 year
1 year
General operating support
General operating support
General operating support
Phil Harvey Jul-18 $50,000.00 1 year General operating support
Democracy Fund Aug-18 $100,000.00 1 year General operating support

Most of Niskanen funding appears Litterman Family Foundation

Facebook
Oct-18 $100,000.00
Nov-18 $25,000.00
1 year
1 year
General operating support
General operating support and technology policy

to come from the Left. Bob Jones

KHD Charitable Fund
Dec-18
Dec-18
$5,000.00
$20,000.00
1 year
1 year
General operating support
General operating support
Democracy Fund Dec-18 $15,000.00 1 year Conference support
Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Foundation Jan-19 $50,000.00 1 year General operating support
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Jan-19 $1,000,000.00 2 years General operating support
Donors to the Niskanen Center. William S and Ina Levine Foundation
Lodestar Foundation
Jan-19
Jan-19
$25,000.00
$25,000.00
1 year
1 year
General operating support
General operating support

Niskanen’s known funders are Pivotal Foundation

Lonsdale Family Philanthropic Fund
Feb-19
Feb-19
$25,000.00
$10,000.00
1 year
1 year
General operating support
General operating support

almost exclusively on the left, Anonymous via New York Community Trust
Anonymous
Feb-19 $100,000.00
Feb-19 $75,000.00
1 year
1 year
General operating support
General operating support

although it has received at least CAPTURED ECONOMY PROJECT

Google Foundation Sep-18 $100,000.00 1 year Captured Economy project: intellectual property
Smith Richardson Foundation Dec-18 $50,000.00 1 year Captured Economy project
$250,000 from the eco-Right group CLIMATE POLICY, LITIGATION
The Laura and John Arnold Foundation Jun-17 $600,000.00 3 years Climate Policy, Eminent domain and pipeline litigation project
ClearPath.227 According to its own The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Generation Foundation
Nov-17
Feb-18
$300,000.00
$200,000.00
2 years
2 years
Climate Policy Department
Climate Policy Department

internal documents, Niskanen is Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Sant Family Foundation
Feb-18
Apr-18
$200,000.00
$50,000.00
2 years
1 year
Eminent domain and pipeline litigation project
Climate Policy Department

overwhelmingly funded by left- Anonymous Foundation

Tortuga Foundation
Apr-18
May-18
$100,000.00
$25,000.00
1 year
1 year
Climate Policy Department
Eminent domain and pipeline litigation project

wing donors, receiving grants from Park Foundation

Rockefeller Family Fund
Jun-18
Jun-18
$40,000.00
$50,000.00
1 year
1 year
Eminent domain and pipeline litigation project
Eminent domain and pipeline program
Energy Foundation Jul-18 $50,000.00 1 year Eminent domain and pipeline litigation project
the Energy Foundation, Laura and Linden Trust for Conservation
Sall Family Foundation
Aug-18
Sep-18
$100,000.00
$200,000.00
1 year
1 year
Climate Policy Department
Climate Policy Department
John Arnold Foundation, Silicon Alex C. Walker Foundation
McQuown Trust
Dec-18
Jan-19
$15,000.00
$50,000.00
1 year
1 year
Eminent domain pipeline project; Common law nuisance litigation project.
Climate litigation project

Valley Community Foundation, IMMIGRATION

Open Philanthropy Project Jan-18 $400,000.00 2 years Immigration Policy Department

Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Carnegie Corporation of New York
Feb-19
Feb-19
$150,000.00
$150,000.00
2 year Immigration Policy Department
2 year Linda Chavez immigration policy work

Linden Trust for Conservation, OPEN SOCIETY PROJECT

Linden Family Foundation Mar-18 $25,000.00 1 year Open Society Project
Pritzker Innovation Fund Jun-18 $50,000.00 1 year Open Society Project
Claws Foundation, Alex C. Walker Paul and Laura Jost
Linden Family Foundation
Jun-18
Jan-19
$50,000.00
$25,000.00
1 year
1 year
Open Society Project
Open Society Project
Educational and Charitable POVERTY AND WELFARE
Rockefeller Foundation Nov-18 $250,000.00 1 year Struggling Regions and Opportunity Zones Project

Foundation, and the Rockefeller Niskanen Center for Public Policy, a 501(c)(4)
Brothers Fund.228 Foundation/Donor
Open Society Foundation
Democracy Fund Voice
Date
Mar-17
Mar-18
Amount Duration Program Support
$500,000.00 2 years Immigration and Foreign Policy Departments advocacy
$175,000.00 1 year Open Society Project advocacy
Sall Family Foundation Sep-18 $200,000.00 1 year Climate policy advocacy

Over $6.5 million in grants to the

Niskanen Center between 2015 and Niskanen Center is overwhelmingly funded by left-wing donors, receiving
over $6.5 million in grants between 2015 and 2018.

32 JULY 2021
 The Democracy Fund—private foundation of eBay
founder Pierre Omidyar, a major liberal donor—
has granted at least $290,000 to the Niskanen
Center and Niskanen Center for Public Policy You can’t manage what you
since 2018.232
don’t measure.
Niskanen has received at least $160,000 from
the Litterman Family Foundation, the personal Tides Foundation, and TomKat Charitable Trust.238
philanthropy of Niskanen Center board member The group has been accused of being a “dark
Robert Litterman, an investment manager and money” organization by the center-right Washington
carbon tax advocate who sits on the boards of the Free Beacon. In 2019, it was discovered that the
eco-Right group Climate Leadership Council, Sustainable Markets Foundation had paid an LLC,
the World Wildlife Fund, and Resources for the Our Next Economy, in independent contractor fees
Future—the last two are left-wing environmental reportedly to support the Climate Investigations
groups that have received substantial donations Center (CIC), a center-left environmental
from Litterman’s foundation.233 Litterman journalism group, instead of using grants.239
has also donated to the left-wing groups
Environmental Defence, Climate Central, and
Planned Parenthood.234

Donors to Niskanen Center for Public Policy. CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE

The only known grants to the Niskanen Center
for Public Policy, Niskanen’s 501(c)(4) lobbying ENERGY SOLUTIONS
arm, come from groups on the left. According to
a 2019 donation history, the Center for Public Among the eco-Right, Citizens for Responsible
Policy reported three grants from funding groups Energy Solutions (CRES) is notable as one of the
for advocacy: few groups that doesn’t advocate for a carbon tax,
but rather policies establishing federal reporting
• George Soros’s Open Society Foundations: of greenhouse gas emissions—the first step in
$500,000 in 2017 for “Immigration and regulating them. As CRES puts it, “you can’t manage
Foreign Policy Departments advocacy.” what you don’t measure.”240
• Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund Voice:
While CRES has criticized carbon pricing schemes
$175,000 in 2018 for “Open Society Project
in France and Washington state, the group
advocacy.”
nevertheless supports policies “reducing carbon
• Sall Family Foundation: $200,000 in 2018 for emissions.”241 It supported American participation
“Climate policy advocacy.”235 2015 Paris Climate Accord under the Obama
administration. And it lobbied against President
The left-wing Environmental Defense Action Fund Trump’s decision to withdraw from the agreement
reported a $10,000 grant to the Niskanen Center in 2017, running television advertisements and
for Public Policy in 2015.236 And in 2017, the meeting with at least one White House aide to
Sustainable Markets Foundation granted $54,000 convince the president to maintain the global
to the Niskanen Center for Public Policy for warming “treaty.”242
“climate change.”237
Structurally, CRES is a trifecta: three separate
The Sustainable Markets Foundation provides nonprofits operating under a single banner. CRES
administrative support and grants to far-left itself is a 501(c)(4) lobbying group, CRES Forum
environmentalist groups, including 350.org and is its 501(c)(3) research and fundraising wing, and
Frack Action, and is itself funded by left-wing the CRES PAC aids sympathetic Republicans in
foundations including the Rockefeller Family Fund, reaching public office.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 33

 As might be expected, CRES receives substantial “nonpartisan” PAC that helps openly gay, lesbian,
funding from the Left. The group was formed and transgender candidates win public office. In the
in 2013 with startup capital from the Tides 2016 and 2018 elections, Victory Fund money went
Advocacy Fund (the action arm of the well-known exclusively to Democrats.246
Tides Foundation) and the Trust for Energy
Innovation, a lesser-known environmental funder CRES funds Republicans it believes are
that also channels grants to the Sierra Club, sympathetic to creating carbon reduction
League of Conservation Voters, and the lobbying regulations. In the 2016 election, the group
wing of the Natural Resources Defense Council.243 endorsed 29 Republican congressional candidates
The CRES Forum, its 501(c)(3) arm, has received and spent $2 million supporting them with
at least one grant from the left-wing William & direct mail, radio, digital, and television
Flora Hewlett Foundation. advertising.247 Much of its political spending is
directed through the CRES PAC. The group has
A number of prominent Republicans and also spent millions of dollars lobbying for more
conservatives are counted among CRES supporters. environmental regulations and promotion of
Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), a liberal renewable energy sources.
Republican praised by some on the Left for
championing President Obama’s 2015 Clean Power
Plan, has advised the group since July 2017.244
GLOBAL WARMING LEGISLATION
The CRES board is headed by James Dozier, a
political consultant with a background in moderate Mixed Support for a Carbon Tax. CRES
Republican Party congressional politics and the gay executive director Heather Reams has offered
rights group Log Cabin Republicans. Dozier and a mixed assessments of carbon taxes. In 2017,
handful of CRES allies and key staffers previously Reams (then CRES’ managing director) called
worked for the Gill Action Fund, a now-defunct the Niskanen Center’s carbon tax and dividend
501(c)(4) lobbying group created by billionaire plan “encouraging,” if unlikely to gain much
and gay rights advocate Tim Gill. Both the Gill Republican support.248
Action Fund and its associated $226 million Gill
Foundation were key in the campaign to legalize In December 2018, however, she penned an op-
gay marriage nationwide.245 Dozier also worked ed criticizing a failed carbon tax proposed in
for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a nominally Washington State, the second time such a scheme
had been rejected by local voters. Estimates show
that the tax would have raised gas prices up to 59
cents a gallon by 2035 within Washington, which
already has the third-highest gas prices in the
country. They also estimate that the taxes would
cost the average Washington household hundreds
of thousands more a year and would have led to
reduced economic growth in the state by 2020.
Acknowledging climate change–related protests
occurring in France and Australia, Reams stated:

Lessons learned from recent events in Paris,

Sydney, and . . . in the state of Washington
show that voters want action on climate
change; however liberal attempts to use
climate change to justify new channels for
James Dozier, head of the CRES board, has a background tax increases and expansion of the regulation
in moderate Republican Party congressional politics. state will face intense public backlash.249

34 JULY 2021
 Emissions Reporting Framework—a Green CRES is clear that the purpose of its carbon
Trojan Horse. CRES may not officially support reporting scheme is to ultimately reduce carbon
a carbon tax, but it advocates for the framework dioxide emissions by “transforming carbon into
needed to tax carbon. The group wants a voluntary a commodity.”255 What the group doesn’t say,
“nationwide system for carbon reporting” for however, is that even voluntary emissions reporting
companies and other greenhouse gas emitters, which necessarily cedes regulatory power to the federal
it insists is “not a carbon tax or pricing proposal.”250 government, which is more likely to expand its
regulatory scope than diminish it.
And strictly speaking, it’s
not—though a skeptic As a result, this kind
might point out that in of framework—if
CRES’s own words “you created—would
can’t manage what you almost certainly pave
don’t measure.”251 That’s Voters want action on climate change; the way for a carbon
important to remember however liberal attempts to use tax, cap-and-trade,
because, although CRES or some other carbon
falls short of pushing a climate change to justify new channels reduction policy.
carbon pricing scheme. for tax increases and expansion of
the group endorses the Climate Agreements
basic assumptions a the regulation state will face intense and Legislation. CRES
carbon tax group would public backlash. supported the 2015
be expected to make— Paris Climate Accords,
that global warming is an international climate
manmade and catastrophic. To that end, CRES change “treaty” signed by President Obama. The
uses the Left’s political vocabulary, referencing Obama administration treated it as an executive
“greenhouse gases,” “carbon footprints,” “clean agreement and never submitted it to the U.S.
energy,” and “renewable energy”—emotionally Senate for constitutional approval. The group ran
evocative terms meant to sway people to last-minute television advertisements on cable news
support leftist goals through fear and supposedly urging President Trump to keep the U.S. in the
scientific credentials. agreement after he announced his intent to withdraw
in 2017, calling his decision “disappointing.”256
CRES’s senior leadership has made unscientific
claims, arguing that global warming has caused CRES also offered support for the Green Real
“more extreme weather events and more ice melt in Deal, a 2019 bill introduced by Florida Republican
recent years,” both factually incorrect statements.252 Reps. Matt Gaetz and Francis Rooney (a carbon tax
supporter) as a Republican alternative to the far-
The group endorsed a 2019 bill that would left Green New Deal. 257 Some conservatives have
regulate “super pollutants,” a terrifying term for criticized the policy as a bureaucratic and expensive
hydrofluorocarbons—organic compounds used alternative to the bureaucratic and outrageously
as refrigerants and in air conditioners. This is expensive Green New Deal since it expands
a throwback to the Left’s pre-global warming the scope of government regulation and pushes
scare concerning supposed ozone depletion.253 renewable energy subsidies.258
The bill’s sponsors, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME)
and Chris Murphy (D-CT), have hyperbolically Notably, the Green Real Deal would create a
claimed it “could cut the rate of sea level rise by national framework for reporting carbon emissions.
25 percent . . . prevent two million premature Unsurprisingly, it has received traction on the
deaths each year, and avoid crop losses of over 30 eco-Right, with support from the American
million tons annually.”254 Conservation Coalition, RepublicEn, the
Conservative Energy Network, and former Reps.
This is politics, not science. Bob Inglis (R-SC) and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), both
carbon tax advocates.259

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 35

 $90,000 by Civitas” over the tax period covered by
LEADERSHIP the filing. He also reportedly “recused himself from
the CRES board’s consideration of this arrangement
James Dozier. The three organizations that
with Civitas.”263
comprise CRES are headed by James Dozier, who is
simultaneously the advocacy arm’s board president,
Before working at Civitas, Dozier was a Republican
the fundraising wing’s board chairman, and treasurer
congressional staffer turned gay marriage activist.
of the CRES PAC.260 (He was executive director of
From 2009 to 2012, he was deputy political director
the CRES advocacy arm from its creation until early
of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a nominally
2019, when he was succeeded by Heather Reams
“nonpartisan” PAC that helps openly gay, lesbian,
and joined the group’s board of directors.)
and transgender candidates win public office.
In effect, this amounts to aiding Democrats: In
Since 2012, Dozier has also worked as a principal
the 2016 and 2018 elections, the Victory Fund
for the Washington, DC, political consultancy
exclusively funded Democrats.264 Prior to that,
Civitas Public Affairs Group.261 Civitas is a
Dozier was a program officer for the Gill Action
registered lobbyist for CRES, which pays the
Fund, the now-defunct advocacy arm of the
company for “project management” and “advocacy
Gill Foundation, a grantmaking foundation that
management” services—nearly $1.7 million
primarily funds LGBT issues with over $226 million
between 2012 and 2017.262
in assets and that paid out some $13 million in
grants in 2017.265 Gill Action Fund reportedly shut
And Dozier himself was paid a flat $10,000 by down in 2017 and hasn’t filed with the IRS since
CRES in the years when he worked as the group’s 2014, though its reason for closing is unclear. 266
executive director (board directors are typically
barred from being paid, unless they’re also an
Founders. Civitas Public Affairs Group is oddly
employee). According to its 2017 disclosure filing,
well-connected with the Gill Action Fund, too.
“Dozier did work on CRES’s behalf as an employee
Its founders, Bill Smith and Patrick Guerriero,
of Civitas [Public Affairs Group] for approximately
were once Gill Action’s national political director
20-30 hours per week . . . [and] was paid a total of
and executive director,
respectively.267 Notably,
Smith reportedly worked
for Karl Rove in an
unknown capacity.268

Senior Officers. Another

principal, Joanne Schwartz,
was managing director for
Gill Action. Other Civitas
senior officers are alumni
from the gay marriage
campaigns of the early
2000s: national director
Marc Solomon was
national campaign director
for Freedom to Marry
and partner Katherine
Grainger, former assistant
counsel to Gov. Andrew
CRES is notable as one of the few groups that doesn’t advocate for a carbon Cuomo (NY-D), helped
tax, but rather policies establishing federal reporting of greenhouse gas craft the state’s 2011
emissions—the first step in regulating them. Marriage Equality Act.269

36 JULY 2021
 That may complicate Civitas’s claim of from the group as of 2019.273
“bipartisanship” since Guerrerio himself—
former leader of the LGBT group Log Cabin Naturally, most of CRES’ lobbying has focused
Republicans and a failed candidate for environmental and energy issues, particularly bills
Massachusetts lieutenant governor—announced promoting wind and solar energy, technology for
he was leaving the Republican Party in 2010 to directly capturing carbon dioxide and removing it
become an independent.270 Other Civitas staff from the environment (carbon capture), and “green”
are overwhelmingly products of the Left, coming energy jobs.274
from the Obama administration, the agitation
group EMILY’s List, NARAL Pro-Choice America, CRES’s approximate lobbying expenditures275 by
Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the NAACP, and year were:
GLSEN, which pushes gay and lesbian education in
K–12 schools.271 The company also lists a number • 2019: $330,000
of left-wing clients on its website, including the
• 2018: $430,000
Campaign Legal Center, Voto Latino, National
Immigration Law Center, and the Center for Secure • 2017: $580,000
and Modern Elections, a project of the left-wing • 2016: $400,000
“dark money” network hosted by the liberal firm
• 2015: $240,000
Arabella Advisors.272
• 2014: $290,000
Left-wing connections are fine for a private • 2013: $230,000
company, of course; but it does stretch CRES’
definition of itself as “conservative.” After all, the CRES Forum. CRES Forum is the group’s
eco-Right group is all-but-controlled by James 501(c)(3) “research” arm. Data from the service
Dozier, a member of Civitas’ senior leadership, with FoundationSearch shows $1,444,350 in grants276
his own ties to the professional Left. to CRES Forum from four donor-advised fund
providers and a left-of-center foundation, the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, between
2015 and 2017:
FUNDING, LOBBYING, AND ELECTION SPENDING • Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund:
$925,000 (2017)
CRES. CRES is a 501(c)(4) advocacy nonprofit,
so it is not required to disclose its donors, only • Schwab Charitable Gift Fund:
the amount of their donations. The advocacy $269,350 (2017)
arm is the main conduit for the organization’s • Foundation for the Carolinas: $50,000 (2015)
lobbying activities. Since 2013, CRES has
• William & Flora Hewlett Foundation:
spent $2.62 million on lobbying the federal
$200,000 (2017)
government, according to disclosures filed with
Congress. That money has overwhelmingly gone
to two Republican-run, DC-based public affairs CRES PAC. CRES maintains a political action
companies: Ballard Partners, a major corporate committee (PAC) also named Citizens for
lobbying firm, and Crossroads Strategies, which Responsible Energy Solutions. The PAC was
services some large center-left nonprofits. Dozier’s established in August 2016; James Dozier is the
firm, Civitas Public Affairs Group, is registered as PAC’s treasurer.277
a CRES lobbyist but has not received lobbying fees

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 37

 REPUBLICEN
The CRES PAC is technically a “Carey RepublicEn isn’t an independent think tank or
Committee,” a hybrid PAC and super activist group, but a project of the Center for
PAC—meaning that it isn’t connected Climate Change Communication at George
with a specific candidate (unlike Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, created
a traditional PAC) yet may make in 2012. This has implications for tracking the
contributions to a specific candidate’s group, since all its funding is really just funding to
own PAC and may also spend money the university program—a line item under a line
on independent expenditures like a item in an academic budget. Yet, RepublicEn is
super PAC. Carey committees have known to have received millions of dollars from
two separate bank accounts, one for the left-wing foundations.
traditional PAC spending and the other
for super PAC independent expenditures.
Nevertheless, RepublicEn (the “En” reportedly
(“Independent expenditures” refers to
stands for Energy, Enterprise, Environment)
spending by super PACs and other groups
deserves scrutiny for the prominence of
not associated with any specific candidate
its founder and mastermind: Bob Inglis, a
in support of specific candidates. This kind
Republican former congressman who lost his seat
of spending is reported to but not limited
to a fellow Republican in the 2010 Tea Party wave
by the Federal Election Commission.)278
largely due to his support for the Left’s theory
of catastrophic manmade global warming. Since
then, Inglis has become a champion of the eco-
Right and a scion of the eco-Left, which holds
In the 2016 election, the CRES PAC raised almost him up as an apologist for environmentalism.
$24,000 and spent just over $6,000. It gave direct Inglis’s “martyrdom” has earned him glowing
contributions to Rep. John Faso (R-NY), who won coverage by left-wing media as the “conservative
reelection, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who who believes that climate change is real.”282 In
also won reelection.279 Interestingly, Bob Inglis—a fact, the group proudly calls itself “the EcoRight.”
former U.S. representative and member of the eco-
Right—donated $250 to the group in 2016.280 “For many conservatives,” Inglis later complained
about his congressional defeat, support for
In the 2018 midterm election, the CRES PAC environmentalism “became the marker that you had
raised just over $14,000 and spent almost $23,000. crossed to Satan’s side—that you had left God and
It gave direct contributions281 to: gone to Satan’s side on climate change.”283

• Rep. Carlos Curbelo* (R-FL): $8,000 RepublicEn is Inglis’s carbon tax advocacy group.
• Rep. Ryan Costello* (R-PA): $1,000 As such, it is connected with the left-wing Citizens’
Climate Lobby (CCL), where Inglis is an advisory
• Rep. Mia Love (R-UT): $1,000 board member. The group supported Rep. Carlos
• Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL): $1,000 Curbelo’s (R-FL) failed 2018 carbon tax bill.284
• Rep. William Timmons (R-SC): $500 Despite its conservative credentials, many of
RepublicEn’s staffers have left-wing background,
• Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD): $500 working at think tanks funded by the Tides and
• Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME): $1,500 Packard Foundations.
• Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ): $1,000

*Curbelo sponsored a carbon tax bill in 2018. After

leaving office in 2018, Costello became a government
affairs consultant and manages the Climate Leadership
Council, a pro-carbon tax group.

38 JULY 2021
 SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL WARMING AND revenue neutral, more effective than any alternative
CARBON TAXES proposed by the Left, and fiscally conservative.

Center for Climate Change Communication. RepublicEn’s position on the tax rate it would
RepublicEn’s parent, the George Mason University prefer fluctuates. In its advocacy it has cited a
Center for Climate Change Communication, is report by the left-wing group Resources for the
effectively an academic advocacy group for left-wing Future that examines a $25 per metric ton carbon
environmental policies. It has published reports tax, although RepublicEn admits that a carbon
advancing the conspiracy theory that the fossil fuel tax would raise electricity costs on everyday
industry “deliberately misled Americans [about] the Americans.288 In February 2020, Inglis spoke at a
reality of human-caused climate change for decades” College Republicans event on a $15 per ton carbon
and purportedly showing that voters in swing states tax (rising to $100 per ton by 2050), calling it
support anti-fossil fuel policies.285 “revenue-neutral” in part because it would “increase
a polluter’s cost of production to reflect the costs
to the environment, or to internalize the polluter’s
This allegedly serious academic institution uses
negative externalities.”289
many unscientific arguments to bolster its claims,
claiming that “climate deniers” are “attacking the
scientific consensus of climate change.” It has even Inglis has argued that it would take fear of a
cited the widely debunked “97 percent consensus” looming climate “crisis” to spur the public into
figure that supposedly evidences widespread backing a carbon tax: “What I learned from 12 years
scientific support for global warming theory.286 The in Congress,” he told the media, “is that leadership
conspiracy theory that ExxonMobil defrauded the aimed at consensus, plus a crisis, equals change.”290
general public about global warming was legally
debunked in a 2019 lawsuit by the New York state But the group relies on faulty claims. RepublicEn
Attorney General’s office when the judge ruled the has said that federal subsidies have made oil and
claim “baseless.”287 gas “artificially cheap, obstructing the market
and preventing a level playing field” (presumably
RepublicEn. RepublicEn’s main goal seems to be against renewables). Without such subsidies, the
convincing Republicans to support carbon taxes. group claims that “consumers and producers
would be incentivized to switch, quickly, to
cleaner energy alternatives.”291
Most of the group’s tax arguments follow those
of other carbon tax supporters: Carbon taxes are

Bob Inglis, founder of republicEn, is a Republican former congressman who lost his seat largely due to his support for the
Left’s theory of catastrophic manmade global warming. He has since become a champion of the eco-Right.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 39

 But that’s just silly. For one thing, the bulk so-called
subsidies to oil and gas companies are actually tax
breaks—not cash payments—for things like capital
losses on newly drilled wells and to encourage
drillers to stay in the U.S. instead of going
abroad. Many of those tax breaks come from state
governments, not the federal government. In other
words, it’s a public incentive for companies to invest
capital and try to turn a profit, a common practice
in the U.S. and not corporate welfare as claimed by
many on the Left.

The underlying liberal argument is that a subsidy

is government allowing a person or company to
keep more of what it already owns and produces.
Conservatives typically take an opposite view of RepublicEn, a project of the Center for Climate Change
property rights. Communication at George Mason University, is known to
have received millions of dollars from left-wing foundations.
Oil and gas are cheap because they’re abundant
resources—thanks to the drillers who have found
clever ways to increase production and lower
costs. Ironically, RepublicEn’s market-warping BOB INGLIS
accusation better fits renewables, which are
subsidized by the government. Besides tax credits Bob Inglis is the founder and executive director
(which are subsidies according to RepublicEn of RepublicEn. Inglis, a former South Carolina
and liberals) totaling roughly $5.6 billion in congressman, is probably best known for
2016, renewables also received roughly $1 his embarrassing defeat in his district’s 2010
billion in direct payments that same year.292 The Republican primary, when the six-term sitting
2015 omnibus spending bill passed by Congress member lost 27 percent to 39 percent to Tea Party
diverted over $14 billion to “green” energy over upstart Trey Gowdy.295
seven years—there was no such equivalent for oil
and gas.293 The obvious goal here is to artificially According to the New York Times, Inglis partly
drive down the cost of electricity generated by attributed his defeat to a handful of congressional
wind and solar sources through taxpayer subsidies votes—such as opposing President George W.
in order to compete with cheap oil and gas—the Bush’s troop surge in Iraq—but largely laid the
exact opposite of RepublicEn’s claim. blame on his district’s opposition to his left-wing
view of global warming. “The most enduring
RepublicEn does not endorse legislation. However, heresy was just saying that climate change was
it has praised the Climate Leadership Council’s real,” he said. “That was the one that was most
carbon tax and dividend plan. In 2018, RepublicEn damaging, I’m convinced.”
backed Rep. Carlos Curbelo’s (R-FL) MARKET
CHOICE Act, which would have imposed a Critically, Inglis sponsored a carbon tax bill in
carbon tax. In 2019, it also supported the Energy 2009 that would have levied a $15 per metric ton
Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, which tax, rising to $100 per ton by 2040 (H.R. 2380,
included a carbon tax, co-sponsored by Reps. the Raise Wages, Cut Carbon Act).296 For that, the
Francis Rooney (R-FL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), and Times hailed him as the House of Representatives’
five other House Democrats.294 “most outspoken Republican climate believer.”297

40 JULY 2021
 “For many conservatives, it became the Elsewhere Inglis has said he’s “very grateful for the
marker that you had crossed to Satan’s side— sentiment” behind the Green New Deal but thinks
that you had left God and gone to Satan’s the idea itself is “overwrought,” pointing out that
side on climate change,” he added, “because it’s entirely partisan and not intended to garner
many evangelical Christians in our district Republican support.301
would say that it’s up to God to determine
the length of Earth, and therefore, you are Inglis is well-connected to the eco-Right. He’s an
invading the province of God.” advisory board member for the left-wing carbon tax
group Citizens’ Climate Lobby and a board member
Since leaving office, Inglis has built a reputation for the right-leaning R Street Institute. Notably,
as the Left’s favorite Republican when it comes he’s also a board member for Defending Democracy
to the climate. He regularly gives interviews to Together, a right-leaning group created by Bill
global warming groups, providing liberal media Kristol and other liberal Republicans to host The
outlets with quips that bash conservative climate Bulwark, a NeverTrump opinion website.
skepticism. Headlines hail his “conservative
climate change” and refer to him as “a Republican Notably, he compared South Carolina’s decision
believer in climate change,” the man who “takes not to hold a presidential primary in 2020, with
a stand on climate change,” and the “conservative President Trump running nearly undisputed for
who believes that climate change is real.”298 Inglis reelection, with the Nazis’ fake elections in the
has called the years since he lost reelection the Third Reich.302
“decade of disastrous disputation” because of the
Republican Party’s refusal to endorse devastating
environmental legislation.299

“These EcoRight allies of ours are messaging on FUNDING

the right and helping conservatives to hear it in
our own language,” he’s said, “because climate Funding for RepublicEn has largely come from
change is basically a conversation started by the left-wing foundations. It’s virtually impossible to
left in the language of the left.” In fact, a carbon track all of the funding to RepublicEn, since grants
tax “is supported by actual conservatives,” he told for the project go to George Mason University and
an audience in early 2020. “But my party is not are usually only vaguely defined. The university also
being controlled by actual conservatives. It’s being accepts online donations for RepublicEn. Known
controlled by populist nationalists, which are grants303 to the project since its founding in 2012
different than conservatives.”300 include:

If it isn’t clear, Inglis is not a friend of most serious • Skoll Global Threats Fund: $150,000
conservatives, and he isn’t well-liked by the far-Left, • Town Creek Foundation: $698,663
either. In March 2019, he joined socialist Rep.
• Linden Trust for Conservation: $15,000
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in an MSNBC
townhall, where he agreed with other speakers
It’s also likely that many huge grants to the
that the Tea Party movement was an “effective
university with the description “mitigate climate
movement” for “delay[ing] action on climate
change” were intended for RepublicEn and similar
change.” Notably, he was booed by a very left-wing
projects (though that is uncertain). Using that
audience when he suggested that Congress should
data304 since 2012 also shows:
deal with climate change first and in a moderate
way rather than focusing on health care reform. An
audience member even called him a “moron” after • Sea Change Foundation: $2.35 million
he praised the goals of the far-left Green New Deal • Energy Foundation: $325,000
but warned it couldn’t be done in a single Congress. • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: $74,818

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 41

 AMERICAN CONSERVATION COALITION
The American Conservation Coalition (ACC) severity of most environmental issues, including
is one of the top eco-Right groups preaching climate change.”311
environmentalism to conservative millennials.
At the helm of ACC is Benjamin “Benji” To this end, ACC promotes a “conservative”
Backer, a 21-year-old undergraduate student and approach to global warming on college campuses,
“conservative environmentalist” who founded ACC typically among College Republicans. It runs a
as a college freshman.305 Clean Energy Coalition—essentially an open
letter from 30 College Republican state chairs—
Few of ACC’s donors are known, but ACC has calling on the Republican Party to endorse “free-
received grants from at least two liberal groups. market environmentalism” so that “conservative
In 2018, it received $10,000 from the National values are not lost in the next generation and
Audubon Society—a leftist group with which it generations to come.”312
has a strangely close connection. ACC Campus, its
501(c)(3) arm, received a $100,000 grant over two
years from the left-wing Hewlett Foundation.306
Even split in two, that grant represents one-third of
the $149,000 that ACC Campus reported in total
contributions in 2018.307
“Grab bag” strategy—snatching
ACC is entirely millennial-run, at least nominally. policies from the Left and Right
The group’s website, opaque employee pay structure,
lobbying efforts, and fundraising burst between in the hope of netting “strong
its creation in 2017 and most recent IRS filing support from both Republicans
in 2018 strongly suggest outside guidance from
professional activists. The organization is run by and Democrats.”
volunteers and didn’t pay any staffers in 2017 or
2018.308 Nevertheless, as of December 2019 the
organization’s website had multiple open positions ACC endorsed pro–global warming Republicans
requesting candidates’ salary ranges.309 in Congress and state legislatures for reelection in
2018.313 It isn’t clear how effective ACC has been
While who those activists are isn’t clear, ACC is at advancing the global warming narrative among
connected to a prominent member of the eco- Republicans, but the group made inroads into the
Right: Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Trump administration. In July 2019, for instance,
(CRES), whose executive director, Heather Reams, ACC signed a memorandum of understanding with
is an ACC board member. CRES and ACC have the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
cooperated on at least one joint project, a July 2019 to “formalize a first-time nonbinding agreement of
poll that purports to show that climate change enhanced cooperation” between the groups to aid
is a major issue among Republicans, which the ACC’s environmental education efforts.314
groups distributed to lawmakers over a multi-
month advocacy campaign in late 2019.310 Many of ACC itself has received modest support from a
ACC’s projects focus on the theme of Republicans handful of Republican members of Congress, such
losing future electoral support by pointing to as Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA), who
the millennial bloc’s high level of interest in co-authored a December 2019 Fox.com op-ed with
environmentalism. It tries to use these statistics Backer asserting, “The climate is changing. Humans
to pressure the Republican Party into adopting a and global industrial activity are contributing.”315
global warming agenda or else lose future voters to
the Democratic Party. Backer himself has argued Curiously, ACC has removed its list of
that “the Republican party has refused to accept the endorsements from its website, though it’s unclear

42 JULY 2021
 why. An archived version of that webpage shows all of the organization’s policies are faulty, of
endorsements by: course, particularly in forest management and
conservation, issues that conservatives have
• Niskanen Center president Jerry Taylor (a supported for a century or more. ACC is also
libertarian turned liberal) cheering ACC’s highly critical of “radical environmentalists” and
efforts to “change the narrative when it comes the Green New Deal.319
to conservatives and the environment”;
• Michael Dorsey, an ex-Obama administration
staffer and co-founder of the far-left Sunrise
Movement, the principal activist group behind
the Green New Deal;
• Bob Inglis, a former liberal Republican
congressman who lost his seat in 2010
in large part due to his strong belief in
global warming;
• ClearPath Foundation founder Jay Faison;
• Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson
(R), a senior fellow at the center-left (and
misleadingly named) Bipartisan Policy
Center; and
• Former New Jersey Gov. Christine
Todd Whitman (R).316 The American Conservation Coalition (ACC) is one of
the top eco-Right groups preaching environmentalism
Also notable is that ACC has deleted its founding to conservative millennials.
coalition from its website, all of which included left-
wing or eco-Right groups. It no longer claims to be
part of any such coalition. The coalition included: A strong degree of naivety characterizes many
of ACC’s climate proposals, which are almost
• Citizens for Responsible Energy invariably accompanied by paeans for bipartisan
Solutions (CRES) support that fail to register the undercurrents of
• ConservAmerica wealth redistribution, restriction of individual
liberties, and authoritarianism present in the debate
• R Street Institute
over global warming. For example, the group
• Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund has called for an “all-of-the-above” approach to
• Conservative Energy Network generating energy that incorporates fossil fuels and
renewables, which would be better read as a “grab
• Conservatives for Environmental Reform bag” strategy—snatching policies from the Left and
• California Water Alliance Right in the hope of netting “strong support from
• Citizens’ Climate Lobby317 both Republicans and Democrats.” 320

Notably, the Ohio Environmental Council

Action Fund is the advocacy wing of the Ohio
Environmental Council, the state affiliates of the GLOBAL WARMING LEGISLATION
left-wing League of Conservation Voters.
Carbon Tax Ambivalence. ACC’s position on a
At its founding, ACC flirted with carbon pricing carbon tax has shifted from tepid endorsement in
schemes before ultimately coming out against 2017 to hedging during the 2018 midterm election
a carbon tax in an August 2019 op-ed.318 Not to flat rejection in 2019.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 43

 An archived snapshot of the group’s website from tax and embrace less divisive climate change
September 2017 reveals a part of ACC’s platform solutions.” Laudably, ACC criticized carbon taxes as
calling for a “carbon pricing policy.” The text was a supposedly “middle-of-the-road option” that has
later removed. been in existence for three decades yet never gained
much public support:
Experts agree: climate change is occurring,
and human actions contribute to it in a In an attempt to gain conservative support,
significant and measurable way. ACC is there have been recent efforts to brand
open to all proposals focused on curbing the carbon pricing as a “free market” solution.
effects of climate change. However, regardless of how you package
it, carbon pricing is not a free-market
There is a need to take action with a solution, as its very essence is the addition
measure such as a carbon pricing policy of regulation and extra costs in the market.
that is noninvasive, fair for both businesses While the policy is market-based, it’s still a
and citizens, and cuts costly and ineffective form of government intervention.323
regulations. [emphasis added]321
In October 2019, ACC criticized Rep. Brian
A year later, ACC clarified its position in a blog Fitzpatrick’s (R-PA) 2019 MARKET CHOICE
post entitled, “Let’s Stay Away from the Carbon Act (a successor to the 2018 Curbelo carbon tax),
Tax Debate.” The post was written in response calling the carbon tax “doomed legislation.” The
to Rep. Carlos Curbelo’s (R-FL) carbon tax (the group pointed out that Rep. Fitzpatrick’s own
2018 MARKET CHOICE Act) and the bill’s flat state, Pennsylvania, “relies heavily on natural gas
rejection by House Republicans, who passed a production”—one of the targets of any carbon
resolution opposing all carbon tax legislation. In tax.324 The group has rightly credited the expanded
the piece, ACC declined to take a side on carbon use of natural gas with reductions in the country’s
pricing policies, instead emphasizing bipartisan carbon dioxide output.
interest in “issues such as innovation in clean energy
and growth in its use.”322 Expensive and Ineffective Policies. ACC’s
opposition to carbon taxes deserves recognition,
A year after that, ACC refined its position on but its global warming “solutions” share the same
carbon pricing policies with a Washington Times problem as those proposed by other eco-Right
op-ed calling on legislators to “ditch the carbon groups opposed to a carbon tax or cap-and-trade
system: They accept
the Left’s extreme
assumptions about
climate change but
refuse to provide
equally extreme
answers. In fact,
ACC’s proposals are
a good way to make
Americans’ electricity
much more expensive
without touching
the climate.

At the heart of ACC’s

climate strategy is
An archived snapshot of the group’s website from September 2017 reveals a part of massive federal subsidies
ACC’s platform calling for a “carbon pricing policy.” The text was later removed. for new and unreliable

44 JULY 2021
 technologies, particularly lithium batteries and research, costing some $85 million, according to the
carbon capture and storage. Congressional Budget Office (CBO).327

We’ve already explained how resource-intensive ACC also backed the 2019 Better Energy
lithium batteries are. Carbon capture and storage is Storage Technology (BEST) Act (S. 1602)
a relatively new technology used to contain much introduced by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and
of the CO2 emitted when coal and other carbon- mostly co-sponsored by Senate Democrats.328
based fuels are burned, mostly during industrial The bill would have provided huge federal
production. The carbon dioxide is then piped funding for battery research to store electricity
elsewhere and pressure-injected into pockets deep generated via renewables—nearly $1 billion
underground, often in former oilfields, where the over 2020–2024, and another $405 million
gas slowly dissolves into surrounding rocks and
water until it “locks” into geological formations.325
Advocates support carbon capture technology
because it can reduce the amount CO2 in the
atmosphere rather than simply lowering the amount
of CO2 emitted, and they have suggested the EPA If you’re going to accept the
mandate its use in key energy industries, particularly
coal production. problem as the Left defines it,
you’ll have to accept the solutions
Critics such as Competitive Enterprise Institute
senior fellow Marlo Lewis Jr. argue that carbon as defined by the Left.
capture technology is “too costly and geographically
limited” for nationwide standards and would raise
consumer electricity prices. Critics also dispute the after 2024. To put that in perspective, according
claim that carbon capture technology would reduce to the CBO, Congress appropriated just $46
emissions, pointing to analysis indicating that coal million to such research in 2019. 329
plants using carbon capture techniques emitted
“more CO2 than a conventional coal power plant.”326 In December 2019, ACC hired Natural Resource
Results LLC, a DC-based lobby shop that has also
More importantly, neither of these technologies lobbied for the Nature Conservancy, the “dark
is sufficient to save the planet in the doomsday money” group New Venture Fund (part of the $600
scenario imagined by many on the Left and so won’t million lobbying empire run by DC consultancy
garner the bipartisan support ACC envisions. In Arabella Advisors), and Trout Unlimited and Ducks
fact, bipartisanship has little to do with it. This goes Unlimited (fronts for global warming policies
back to the wrongheaded approach of the eco- disguised as outdoor sports groups).330 According
Right: If you’re going to accept the problem as the to lobbying filings with the U.S. Congress, it’s the
Left defines it, you’ll have to accept the solutions as first and only lobbying firm hired by ACC (as of
defined by the Left. December 2019). 331

Lobbying and Legislative Support. ACC is too

small to do much lobbying, but it has supported a
number of environmental regulation bills, mainly
related to renewable energy storage and carbon LEADERSHIP AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS
capture technology.
As a youth-oriented organization, ACC’s leadership
The group supported the 2019 USE IT Act (H.R. consists of college-age activists. Benjamin
1166), a largely Democratic-backed bill that would “Benji” Backer, ACC’s president, is (at the time
have awarded federal funding for carbon capture of writing) a college senior.332 ACC’s board of
directors, however, speaks to the group’s ties to the
professional eco-Right.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 45

 The Board. Heather Reams is executive director of • David Yarnold, president and CEO of the
Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES), center-left National Audubon Society.
an eco-Right advocacy group that has produced at • Jason Grumet, founder and president of the
least one poll in conjunction with ACC. left-of-center Bipartisan Policy Center.
Brent Fewell is founder of Earth & Water Law • Eli Lehrer, president of the right-leaning
Group, an environmental law firm. Fewell R Street Institute, an eco-Right group and
was previously principal deputy assistant carbon tax supporter.
administrator in the EPA Office of Water in the • Paul Bodnar, managing director of the left-
George W. Bush administration.333 wing environmentalist think tank Rocky
Mountain Institute.
Todd Myers is director of the Center for • Andreas Merkl, former president of the left-
the Environment at the Washington Policy wing group Ocean Conservancy.
Center, a right-leaning think tank based in
Washington State.334 • John Seydel, sustainability director for the
City of Atlanta, Georgia, and a former
Holly Fretwell is the director of research and a campaign staffer for two Colorado Democrats,
research fellow for the Property and Environment Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Mark
Research Center, a center-right conservationist Udall. As an environmental activist, Seydel
think tank based in Montana. She is also a former was reportedly tasked by Atlanta as part of his
economics professor.335 job to craft “a strategy for how the city will
meet its 100 percent renewable energy goal.”
James “Jim” Connaughton is president and He’s also a supporter of Fossil Free Stanford,
CEO of Nautilus Data Technologies, a for-profit a student movement demanding Stanford
firm that develops waterborne data centers. University “fully divest from fossil years within
Connaughton is the former chairman of the five years” of 2018.341
George W. Bush administration’s White House
Council on Environmental Quality (2001–2009). But an archived snapshot of the board from
He later directed environmental and energy September 14, 2017, reveals a handful of members
policy for the natural gas company Constellation, no longer listed on ACC’s website. One of them,
a subsidiary of the oil and natural gas producer Rob Sisson, is executive director of eco-Right
Exelon.336 He is also an adviser to the eco-Right group ConservAmerica.
group ClearPath Foundation.337
Also absent is Sarah Hunt, former general counsel
Board of Advisors. ACC’s advisory board consisted and director of state affairs to the eco-Right
of 33 individuals as of April 2020.338 Notable group Niskanen Center. She now co-manages the
members include: liberal Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy, a
self-described “cross-partisan” think tank she co-
• Former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), whose founded with Bishop Garrison, an former adviser
carbon tax bill in 2018 was criticized by ACC. to the Obama administration.342 She previously ran
the Energy Innovation Project for the conservative
• Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA), ALEC, which was reportedly created with funding
a liberal Republican who called for the from the electric car manufacturer Tesla. Hunt is
impeachment of President Donald Trump in a carbon tax supporter, calling it “a more elegant,
November 2019.339 cost-efficient way to reduce greenhouse gas
• Former Rep. Bob Dold (R-IL), a gun emissions.”343 According to ACC’s IRS application
control advocate.340 for recognition of tax-exempt status, Hunt was a
founding board member for the 501(c)(3) wing,
• Collin O’Mara, president of the left-
ACC Campus.344
wing environmentalist group National
Wildlife Federation.

46 JULY 2021
 In 2018, the left-wing National
Audubon Society donated
$10,000 to ACC.348 ACC is also
closely connected with the group:
According to ACC’s application
to the IRS for recognition of
tax-exempt status, all of its assets
are to be distributed “exclusively
to National Audubon Society” in
the event that ACC is dissolved.349
David Yarnold, president and
founder of the National Audubon
Society, is a member of ACC’s
advisory board.350

While ACC claims to be

conservative, the National
Audubon Society does not.
The group has sued the Trump
administration for allegedly
An archived snapshot of the board reveals a handful of members no longer “stripping vital protections for
listed on ACC’s website, including ConservAmerica’s Rob Sisson and migratory birds” and accused it
Niskanen Center’s Sarah Hunt. of “hand[ing] industry a blank
check for bird deaths.”351 The
National Audubon Society has criticized the
Trump administration for withdrawing from
FUNDING the Paris Climate Accords, criticized President
Trump’s decision to undo President Obama’s
The American Conservation Coalition and its Clean Power Plan as “shortsighted and reckless,”
501(c)(3) arm, ACC Campus, are so new that little and argued for the unfounded and scientifically
information is available about their funders. challenged claim that “more carbon in the air
means worse natural disasters.”352
In 2018, ACC reported total revenues of $224,000
and total expenditures of $130,000, including In 2018, the left-wing Hewlett Foundation awarded
grants paid totaling $6,500.345 ACC Campus a $100,000 grant (paid out over two years) to ACC
reported 2018 revenues of $149,000 and total Campus, ACC’s 501(c)(3) arm.353 Hewlett’s money
expenditures of $41,000. 346
probably accounts for one redacted donation of
$50,000 made to ACC Campus that year. Another
Few of ACC’s donors are known, though a redacted grant for $85,000, however, remains a mystery.354
copy of the group’s 2018 filing obtained by the
Capital Research Center shows donations of
$90,000, $60,000, $50,000, and $5,000.347

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 47

 THE CLEARPATH NETWORK
ClearPath is the brainchild of Jay Faison, a wealthy warming skeptic. As he puts it, he “loved the
North Carolina entrepreneur and Republican who outdoors but disliked ‘crazy environmentalists,’”
has made climate change activism his retirement particularly “the overreach of the government
hobby. He formed ClearPath in 2014 with a huge stopping good real estate deals in the name of the
$166 million endowment.355 While the group environment.” In 2000, his wife “dragged” him to
shuns carbon taxes and other carbon pricing a global warming speech that changed his mind,
schemes, it aims to convince conservatives and launching Faison into climate change activism.360
congressional Republicans to adopt the Left’s global
warming framework and support “free market,” A tech entrepreneur, Faison made his fortune
pro-renewable energy policies. “Republicans think with a chain of Blockbuster Video stores. Later
this [global warming] is a Democratic conspiracy he purchased SnapAV, a small audio-visual
to create a bigger government,” Faison has said, but equipment company, and grew it into a highly
“there’s good evidence that is not the case.”356 successful enterprise (his net worth in 2013 was
$224 million). In 2013, Faison sold his majority
ClearPath isn’t a single organization, but a stake in SnapAV for $175 million and used most
network comprised of three nonprofits and a of the proceeds to form the ClearPath Foundation,
super PAC (though only two of the nonprofits are the network’s 501(c)(3) wing), the following year.
particularly active). This makes it an usual take Despite its name, ClearPath is a public charity and
on the typical trifecta approach seen among other not a private foundation.361
advocacy groups: a 501(c)(3) fundraising arm, a
501(c)(4) lobbying arm, and a PAC/super PAC According to ClearPath’s initial IRS filing,
for campaign spending. Faison moved $165.6 million to the ClearPath
Foundation, part of it through the Foundation
The network is exclusively interested in Republicans. for the Carolinas—a donor-advised fund (DAF)
Faison, a Republican, has told the press ClearPath provider that supports other eco-Right groups
will not align itself with Democrats, even if they and itself receives grants from the leftist Energy
support ClearPath’s agenda. “We will not work Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and George
against Republicans,” he’s said.357 To that end, the Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society.362 The
ClearPath super PAC spent millions of dollars in the huge sum has acted like an endowment, enabling
2016 and 2018 elections supporting Republicans, ClearPath to operate on its cash reserves and income
particularly those supportive of global warming from investments in the years since then.
legislation, like former Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL)
and Ryan Costello (R-PA).358 He also directed another $10 million to
ClearPath Action Fund for Conservative Clean
ClearPath’s lobbying wing has spent millions of Energy (at its launch, called “America Leads”),
dollars lobbying in support of federal aid to carbon the network’s advocacy arm, to lobby for pro-
capture technology and lithium batteries for storing renewable legislation.363
electricity generated by renewables. It also supports
hydropower, nuclear power, and natural gas (Green) Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing?
production through fracking.359 Unsurprisingly, Faison’s campaign has met with
strong skepticism from the Right and mixed
praise from the Left. ClearPath and Faison
have been called “wolves in sheep’s clothing” by
some conservatives.364 Myron Ebell, director of
MIXED RECEPTION FROM THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT the Center for Energy and Environment at the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, has called them
ClearPath founder Jay Faison is the son of North “infiltrators trying to subvert ALEC.” The American
Carolina real estate developers and a former global Legislative Exchange Council brings together

48 JULY 2021
 Washington, DC. Interestingly, EcoAmerica has
also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in
grants from ClearPath and the Foundation for
the Carolinas.369

Faison was even a panelist at the Future of Energy

Summit in 2015 and 2016, along with speakers
such as liberal stalwart and climate alarmist Al Gore
and Debbie Dooley, a Republican activist widely
considered an ideological sellout—particularly on
climate change initiatives.370

To be fair, Faison is no liberal. He’s very critical

of left-wing environmental groups like the
League of Conservation Voters, calling it “very
Jay Faison, ClearPath Founder, shuns carbon taxes harmful to responsible energy solutions [and] our
and other carbon pricing schemes. He aims to convince democracy.”371 According to FEC records, he is
conservatives and congressional Republicans to adopt the a major donor to the Republican Party and has
Left’s global warming framework and support “free market,” made it clear that his organization is not interested
pro-renewable energy policies. in seeking support among Democrats.372 In
2015, he donated $25,000 and $50,000 to the
presidential campaigns of Sen. Lindsey Graham
many conservative and libertarian local and state (R-SC) and Jeb Bush.373
legislators with policy writers to work on crafting
model legislation.365 “I support a free enterprise system unshackled from
bad regulation and big labor unions,” Faison wrote
At the group’s launch, The Hill, a left-leaning in a Politico op-ed shortly after launching ClearPath,
news website, reported skepticism from “but I also believe that my party needs a fresh
another Republican strategist and energy approach” toward reversing climate change.374 “I
lobbyist, who said that Faison “has a lot more always felt a little alone out there as a Republican,
history with the Environmental Defense and so I started ClearPath to create a dialogue
Fund,” a left-wing environmentalist group, around this in a way that hadn’t been done before
“than he does with Republicans.”366 and sort of be part of the solution,” Faison said
in an interview, adding he’d like to see the party’s
In 2012, Faison was an advisory board member candidates debate the solutions to climate change,
for the Environmental Defense Action Fund, the not the science. “We think that there are real
lobbying wing of the Environmental Defense Republican solutions to the problem.”
Fund, an eco-behemoth that was a strong supporter
of President Obama’s energy policies.367 He also Yet ClearPath’s leadership has murky ties to
served on the board of EcoAmerica, a 501(c) the Left. Its executive director, Rich Powell, is
(3) environmental nonprofit that has received $3 an former board member for the Circumpolar
million in grants from the left-wing MacArthur Conservation Union (a partner of the Natural
Foundation since 2012 to support research on Resources Defense Council) and collaborated
climate change.368 EcoAmerica is a member of with the Natural Resources Defense Council
the U.S. Climate Action Network, one of the (NRDC) and Environmental Defense Fund
more extreme protest groups involved in the 2017 as a speaker at multiple conferences hosted by
People’s Climate March. the liberal Aspen Institute.375 Former ClearPath
board member Robert Perkowitz served on the
Faison himself spoke at EcoAmerica’s 2019 boards of the Environmental Defense Fund and
American Climate Leadership Summit in the Sierra Club. Perkowitz is also the founder and
CEO of EcoAmerica.376

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 49

 Climate Infiltrators? Even more interesting in 2016 that a carbon tax “would only impose a cost
to observe is the Left’s treatment of ClearPath, on the economy with little to no environmental
which has ranged from tepid celebration to benefit,” adding that it’d be “political suicide to any
outright suspicion. Republican who would support it.”382

Politico included Faison Instead, ClearPath

in its list of the top 50 supports policies
“thinkers, doers, and revolving around heavy
visionaries” in America Republicans think this [global federal subsidies of
for 2015, drawing renewables, urging
favorable comparisons warming] is a Democratic conspiracy Congress to further
between him and to create a bigger government,” Faison finance research
the San Francisco into carbon capture
hedge fund manager, has said, but “there’s good evidence technology—pulling
environmentalist, and that is not the case.” CO2 from emissions
one-time presidential and burying it in the
candidate Tom Steyer. ground—and better
(Faison said the comparison made him “chuckle lithium batteries to store electricity generated by
and cringe.”)377 renewables. It strongly supports the expansion of
nuclear power, which doesn’t emit any CO2.383 It
Bloomberg wrote glowingly in November 2016 of also supports hydropower from dams and natural
“Jay Faison’s Expensive, Maddening Quest to Save gas production through fracking.384
the Planet (And the GOP).” And the New York
378

Times profiled him favorably in June 2016.379 The group’s support for nuclear power has put it
at odds with the environmental Left, which has
Mother Jones, however, didn’t buy it. “What’s the organized against nuclear weapons and energy since
real deal with this GOP megadonor who’s claim he at least the 1970s. Unlike the Left, Jay Faison isn’t
wants climate action?” wrote the staunchly liberal explicitly anti-coal and has argued that it can be
magazine in 2018, which accused Faison of being made cleaner, though “we need to work towards
more interested in aiding the Republican Party it.”385 But ClearPath has also made common cause
and—horror of horrors—relying on the free market with the left-wing NRDC to lobby for more
to solve global warming than “pushing Republicans government spending on “clean” power research.
to do much more.” 380 “This kind of cooperation has been effective,”
NDRC has stated.386
ClearPath’s opposition to a carbon tax even spurred
criticism from the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a In early 2020, ClearPath endorsed House Minority
liberal group that otherwise typically associates with Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) package
other members of the eco-Right. As the group’s of climate change bills, which would expand
communications director put it, “If you look at funding for carbon capture research, calling it a
their website there isn’t any mention of climate laudable “moonshot approach to carbon capture
change. It’s all about clean energy.”381 innovation.”387 Skeptical conservatives like the Club
for Growth called the bills “liberal environmental
policies,” which will “not make a single
environmentalist vote for a Republican.”388
GLOBAL WARMING ADVOCACY In mid-2019, ClearPath endorsed the Senate’s
Better Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Act,
ClearPath is one of the eco-Right groups that which would further subsidize grid-scale energy
opposes carbon taxes as unviable. George David storage research. (Current battery technology is
Banks, a ClearPath policy adviser, wrote in The Hill insufficient to sustain the U.S. electrical grid.)

50 JULY 2021
 ClearPath wrote that the act “goes straight to the
heart of what’s needed to leverage every clean
FUNDING
energy source” available.389
Except for its PAC, none of the groups in the
ClearPath network is required to disclose its donors.
Backing “Green” Republicans. From the start,
However, the network claims that its sole non-PAC
ClearPath founder Jay Faison indicated that his
donor is Jay Faison, who endowed it with $165.6
groups were interested only in backing “green”
million in 2014.395
Republicans, not Democrats. To date, his super
PAC, ClearPath Action, has spent $4.9 million
ClearPath mostly directs grants to other groups
in the 2016 and 2018 elections supporting
through DAF providers—third party charities
sympathetic Republicans in the U.S. House and
that may act as pass-throughs for big donors and
Senate.390 It’s also the top contributor ($16,200) to
other nonprofits. This has the result of “washing”
the 2020 reelection campaign of Rep. Garret Graves
ClearPath’s ties to just about every group it funds,
(R-LA), as of March 2020.391
since all that’s traceable is the amount ClearPath
initially donates to a DAF provider and how
LEADERSHIP much a DAF provider ultimately pays out to its
grant recipients—making it impossible to tie any
Board of Directors and Key Advisers. Besides Jay grants explicitly back to ClearPath. However, the
Faison, ClearPath’s board of directors consists of the group has stated that it has directed money to the
following notable members: formerly libertarian Niskanen Center, a major
carbon tax supporter.396
Marye Lord is the tax compliance manager at the
National Christian Foundation, a conservative In 2018, the ClearPath Foundation, the primary
donor-advised fund provider that has received 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the network, reported total
substantial pass-through funding from the revenues of $5.4 million (almost all of which came
ClearPath Foundation.392 from investment returns), total expenditures of
$13.7 million, and net assets of $143.3 million. It
Sam Thernstrom is the founder and CEO of the paid out grants to other nonprofits totaling $7.9
Energy Innovation Reform Project, a right-leaning million, of which $6.4 million was granted to the
group that advocates for carbon capture research Schwab Charitable Fund, a donor-advised fund
subsidies and other renewables. The Energy provider, making it impossible to determine which
Innovation Reform Project has received funding groups ultimately received the funds.397
from the ClearPath Foundation.393
In 2017, the ClearPath Foundation made $4.8
Holly Welch Stubbing is president of the million in grants, $4.2 million of which went to
Foundation for the Carolinas, the major DAF the Schwab Charitable Fund and $329,300 to the
provider that Jay Faison initially used to move National Christian Foundation, both donor-advised
millions of dollars to ClearPath. Left-wing fund providers.398
groups—including the Energy Foundation,
Hewlett Foundation, and George Soros’s Interestingly, in 2018 the ClearPath Foundation
Foundation to Promote Open Society—have also endowed $1.1 million to a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit
used the Foundation for the Carolinas as a fiscal called ClearPath Inc. and was its sole benefactor that
pass-through.394 year. 399 It’s unclear what ClearPath Inc.’s role is, but
it describes its mission as “to develop and advance
conservative policies to address climate change by
accelerating clean energy innovation.”400

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 51

 YOUNG CONSERVATIVES FOR CARBON DIVIDENDS AND YOUNG
CONSERVATIVES FOR ENERGY REFORM
Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends criticisms of U.S. energy policy haven’t kept up with
(YCCD) and Young Conservatives for Energy America’s near-energy independence, almost entirely
Reform (YCER) are two closely aligned (but thanks to massive fracking of natural gas, such as
separate) eco-Right groups founded to drum up this criticism by YCER:
Republican support for the Baker-Shultz carbon
tax and dividend plan. As their names suggest, The country is heavily dependent on foreign oil,
YCCD and YCER target College Republicans draining our economy and leaving families victim to
and other center-right millennials with volatile gas prices. We borrow money from China to
environmentalist policies. pay for oil purchased from some nations that do not
like us.406
YCCD was present at the 2020 Conservative
Political Action Conference (CPAC) outside
Washington, DC, where it had a major booth
on prime real estate among other, genuinely
conservative organizations. Eco-Right advocate BAKER-SHULTZ CARBON TAX PLAN
Bob Inglis’ RepublicEn was also present at the
conference.401 It was also endorsed by Sens. Lindsey Young Conservatives for Energy Reform doesn’t
Graham (R-SC), Tim Scott (R-SC), and the late actively support a carbon tax. YCER founder
John McCain (R-AZ).402 Michele Combs said in 2015, “I think it looks good,
but I don’t think it’s something we’re going to come
In 2015, YCER hosted a National Security and out on right now.” YCER is typically vague about its
Energy Independence Reception with the American specific policies. According to Combs, “our ultimate
Wind Energy Association, which advocates for policy goal is a comprehensive, bipartisan energy
major federal subsidies of wind turbine and a reform bill that would give us clean energy, improve
renewable electricity standard that would require energy efficiency, and also help small businesses.”407
state public utilities to phase out traditional energy
sources in favor of renewables.403 However, Young Conservatives for Carbon
Dividends (YCCD) supports the Baker-Shultz
While YCER has been in College Republican circles carbon tax and dividend, one of the first carbon tax
since 2012, it became IRS-recognized standalone schemes introduced on the Right.408 The plan calls
nonprofit in 2018. YCCD became a standalone for a $40 per metric ton carbon tax, which would
nonprofit in 2019. So they are too new to identify ratchet up annually. The plan also includes a border-
much in the way of their finances.404 However, adjustment tax for “carbon content,” effectively a
Capital Research Center has identified two major tariff on imports from countries without carbon
YCER donors: the liberal William and Flora pricing schemes. The revenues from the Baker-
Hewlett Foundation, which gave YCER $150,000 Shultz carbon tax would then be paid to Americans
in 2018, and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, via “carbon dividends”—a payoff to the people
a little-known funder of global warming groups, whose electricity bills and cost of living would
which has given YCER $225,000.405 dramatically rise as a result of Baker-Shultz’s carbon
tax—which also allows supporters to call the carbon
Like others on the eco-Right, YCCD and YCER tax “revenue-neutral.”409
are critical of oil, natural gas, and coal, with
YCER calling dependence on them a “a recipe for In January 2021, YCCD managing director
economic ruin.” The groups support a transition Chris Johnson argued in RealClearEnergy that
to renewable energy sources from imported oil in congressional Republicans must counteract the
the interest of national security. However, these Biden administration’s “misguided” climate

52 JULY 2021
 proposals by responding with a “comprehensive emit mercury, which is toxic to humans in large
emissions-reducing solution of their own: the Baker- quantities and can cause birth defects:
Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan,” which he claims is
“rooted in the conservative principles of free markets Combs: “My doctor told me not to eat fish, and I
and limited government.” YCCD’s goal, according said, ‘Why shouldn’t I eat fish?’ and I found out it
to Johnson, is to reduce carbon dioxide levels by 57 was because of the mercury that was in the fish.”
percent by 2035.410
Curious where that mercury comes from, Combs
In April 2021, YCCD was praised by a member did some research. And she found that coal-fired
of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a left-wing carbon power plants are the largest source of mercury
tax group, for supporting its Baker-Shultz plan, pollution in the U.S.
comparing the policy to “George H.W. Bush’s
successful act to curb acid rain” and concluding, Combs: “And I was surprised. I said I cannot believe
“Let’s honor Earth Day with a tax on carbon!”411 that we as Republicans are not involved in this issue
that is so important to the unborn.”415

(Mercury is a naturally occurring metal element,

particularly in the ocean and soil. One expert
FOUNDERS explains, “it is released in far smaller quantities by
coal plants—an estimated 2,000 tons of manmade
YCCD appears to be entirely millennial-run. Its list sources vs. tens of thousands of tons from natural
of founders and supporters is drawn from College sources. . . . Consuming above average amounts of
Republican groups and university students.412 fish is not detrimental to human health. Coal plants
are not a dangerous source of mercury.”)416
Michele Combs is the founder of YCER and a
former vice president of the Christian Coalition,
an eco-Right pro-life group. (Her mother is
longtime Christian Coalition president Roberta
Combs.) The Christian Coalition has received FUNDING
massive grants from the left-wing Hewlett and
Energy Foundations.413 Almost nothing is known about the finances of
either YCCD or YCER since both groups are too
The liberal website Grist gushed in a 2015 interview new to provide IRS Form 990 filings.
that Combs is “possibly the most impassioned
and unexpected messenger on clean energy and YCER’s most notable major donor, the William
climate change the GOP has ever seen.” Combs, and Flora Hewlett Foundation, gave it $150,000 in
a South Carolinian, credits herself with getting 2018. It’s unknown whether it continues to fund
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham “involved in YCER.417 The Hewlett Foundation—the private
the climate and energy issues.” She’s “very close” grantmaking foundation of the co-founder of the
with liberal climate hawk Al Gore (“I love Al PC manufacturer Hewlett-Packard—also funds the
Gore, but he’s the wrong messenger for us”) and Niskanen Center, Citizens for Responsible Energy
environmental activist Larry Schweiger, particularly Solutions (CRES), and American Conservation
when he was president of the liberal National Coalition on the eco-Right.418
Wildlife Federation.414

Combs reportedly became a climate change activist

after discovering that coal-fired power plants

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 53

 THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a multi-billion- from leftist groups. In 2002, the Los Angeles Times
dollar conservation group established in 1951. It accused the Nature Conservancy of hypocrisy for
arguably leans more left than right, yet its close profiting from an oil well it owned near Galveston,
proximity to activists in the eco-Right and interest Texas, on land that was supposed to be reserved
in carbon taxes cannot be ignored. for an endangered species of prairie chicken. TNC
claimed it had drilled a new well on the property
Unlike other groups on the eco-Right, TNC is less in 1999 with the aim of “dedicating the money to
of a traditional environmentalist group than a land prairie chicken conservation.”424
trust. It purchases vast tracts of land to prevent
their development, a tactic known as “private lands Environmentalist outrage led to a two-year U.S.
conservation”—as opposed to the public lands Senate investigation that sharply criticized the
conservation practiced by the national parks system. group’s practices. In turn, TNC swore off permitting
The organization owns conservation easements new drilling on its lands, but not from honoring
on 3.1 million acres in 49 states and close to existing legal arrangements with the oil company
$6.6 billion in assets, making it by far the largest operating the well.425
conservationist group in the world.419
In 2014, the New York Times raked the Nature
In 2019, TNC declared climate change the most Conservancy again after the group agreed to allow
“serious threat facing our planet today” and has the oil company to drill a replacement well in the
called for carbon taxes alongside expanded federal Texas plot after the old one dried up. Activists
subsidies for research into renewables.420 However, cried foul and the left-wing Center for Biological
unlike decidedly left-wing groups, the Nature Diversity berated TNC for “[losing] its moral
Conservancy strongly supports nuclear energy compass.” (In fact, the real fowl in question was
alongside other forms of renewable energy—a committed by federal authorities in 2012 for
position almost universal on the eco-Right—to unrelated reasons.)426
replace oil, natural gas, and coal.421
The Nature Conservancy is a favorite target of
radical environmentalist writer Naomi Klein, one
of the leading supporters of the far-left Green
ACCUSATIONS OF HYPOCRISY AND CRITICISM New Deal. During the 2014 oil drilling scandal,
Klein complained to reporters: “If the largest
FROM THE LEFT environmental organization in the world can’t figure
out how to stop pumping oil and gas, how are they
TNC is well-connected to major energy companies going to help the rest of us figure it out?”427 Writing
and publishes glowing blog posts on how they’re for the left-wing The Nation in 2013, Klein claimed
going green by “investing in nature.”422 For years the that TNC had “at least $22.8 million invested in
group maintained a business council that included the energy sector, according to its 2012 financial
18 major firms, notably Chevron, Royal Dutch statements” and had “accepted nearly $10 million in
Shell, and Duke Energy in the energy industry as cash and land contributions” from British Petroleum
well as Dow Chemical, a regular target of the Left. (BP).428
TNC board member James Rogers is a former CEO
of Duke Energy. TNC’s website has since removed
any mention of the business council, and the
organization appears to have dropped official ties
following attacks by anti-corporate activists.423 2004 IRS INVESTIGATION
The organization’s willingness to work with Following a series of reports by the Washington
industry has sometimes drawn scathing criticism Post in 2003 on TNC’s “financial irregularities and

54 JULY 2021
 conflicts of interest,” the IRS
launched an audit of the
group in early 2004. A tax
expert interviewed by the
Post described the audit as
“uncommon [in] scope for a
[public] charity.”429

It was revealed that TNC had

given a $1.5 million home
loan to then-president Steve
McCormick, who began
repaying the loan once the
Washington Post reported on
the suspicious arrangement.
Also discovered was TNC’s
practice of providing
employees with free housing
and company cars, which The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a multi-billion-dollar conservation
allegedly went unreported group established in 1951.
in its IRS filings. The Post
reported that TNC paid a
contractor’s wife for work the
contractor had done, possibly to conceal his SUPPORT FOR A CARBON TAX AND “NATURAL
reported income from the IRS and reduce his CLIMATE SOLUTIONS”
tax exposure. 430

TNC supports carbon pricing schemes to

According to reporters, TNC regularly sold supplement what it terms “natural climate
land parcels at a steep discount to would-be solutions” (NCS), a catch-all for various land
homebuilders, who would then make donations management policies it examined in a 2017 study.
to TNC equal to the difference in price. In one NCS hinges on reducing the “footprint” of livestock
instance, the group bought a $2.1 million property (read: fewer farm animals) and expanding the size
in New York, used conservation restrictions to of protected forests and wetlands to serve as carbon
exclude it from development (save for a clause sinks. The group also supports expanded federal
allowing one residence on the property), and resold subsidies for research into renewables.433
it to a donor and local TNC trustee for $500,000.
The donor then returned the favor with a $1.6 TNC’s position on a carbon tax is perhaps most
million donation to the Nature Conservancy. 431 thoroughly documented in a 2019 white paper
detailing its support for the 2015 Paris Climate
The resulting furor over the scandal nearly led Accords, an agreement that the United States
Congress revoke tax breaks on conservation rejoined in January 2021. Although the report
easements—a practice meant to incentivize doesn’t state a specific carbon tax rate, TNC
landowners to permanently exempt land maintains that a carbon tax is essential to its
from development—something the nonprofit climate agenda.434
monitor ProPublica has called “the billion-dollar
loophole.”432 Since the IRS audit, TNC has However, TNC has endorsed several carbon tax
reportedly restructured many of its practices. proposals, including the Climate Leadership
Council’s $40 per metric ton carbon tax (the Baker-
Shultz Plan).435 It briefly considered but ultimately
did not endorse a carbon tax ballot initiative in

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 55

 Washington State in 2018 (voters opposed the
measure by 56 percent).436
LEADERSHIP
President and CEO. Jennifer Morris is the CEO
TNC endorsed the SWAP Act of 2019, a $30
of the Nature Conservancy, a position she’s held
per metric ton carbon tax introduced by Reps.
since March 2020. Morris is a longtime officer
Francis Rooney (R-FL) and Daniel Lipinski (D-
for Conservation International, a left-leaning
IL). The tax would have targeted producers of
environmental advocacy group.442
coal, natural gas, and petroleum and any imports
of those commodities, and the bill would have
Mark Tercek was CEO of the Nature Conservancy
used the revenues to reduce individual payroll
from 2008 to 2019, when he resigned over
taxes.437 TNC also endorsed the Cut Carbon
allegations of discrimination against female
(RWCC) Act simultaneously introduced in 2019
employees (staff called the organization a “good old
by Lipinski and co-sponsored by Rooney, which
boys club”) and mismanagement of a discrimination
would have established a $40 per metric ton
investigation against TNC president Brian McPeek
carbon tax and redirected the revenues to Social
during the height of the #MeToo movement against
Security payments.438
sexual harassment (McPeek also resigned from
the organization).443 According to Politico, the
TNC advocates for a “debt conversion model”
investigation by an outside firm found that TNC
(also called “blue bonds”) for poor, mostly island-
had a “male-dominated culture where it is difficult
based countries to restructure their sovereign debt
for women to flourish” and “often sided with the
with lower interest rates and longer repayment
accused, rather than the accuser” in cases of alleged
periods, using the saved funds to finance marine
sexual harassment.444
conservation projects.439 The $1.6 billion scheme
was launched in 2019 with co-financing from
Prior to joining TNC, Tercek was a managing
Morgan Stanley and the World Bank, targeting
director for Goldman Sachs. His foundation, the
some 20 unnamed countries.440
Mark and Amy Tercek Foundation, has donated
over $1 million to the Nature Conservancy since
2008.445 Tercek’s total compensation in 2018 was
$818,838.446
LOBBYING
Board of Directors. According to its latest IRS
While TNC isn’t especially political, it spent $8.4 Form 990 (covering mid-2017 through mid-2018),
million on lobbying between 2016 and mid- The Nature Conservancy’s board of directors has 23
2020. Historically, its lobbying has mostly focused members—an unusually large number for a 501(c)
on the annual congressional appropriations bill; (3) public charity. Notable directors447 include:
expanding protections for the sage-grouse, a bird
that featured surprisingly prominently in the Trump • Jack Ma: co-founder of the Chinese
administration’s running fight over deregulation conglomerate Alibaba Group and trustee of
with environmentalists; funding for wildlife TNC’s China program.
conservation programs administered by the National • James Rogers (vice chair): former president
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and CEO of Duke Energy.
and the annual Farm Bill spending package. In
• Shona Brown (board secretary):
2020, the Nature Conservancy also lobbied on the
former Google senior vice president of
coronavirus (COVID-19) relief bill, angling for
business operations.
“forest and fire provisions,” although the specifics
remain unclear.441 • Bill Frist: former U.S. senator (R-TN)
and chairman of the Republican Senatorial
Committee.
• Frances Ulmer: former Alaska lieutenant
governor (D; 1994–2002).

56 JULY 2021
 • Meg Whitman: former CEO of Hewlett-
Packard and Republican California
gubernatorial candidate (2010).
• Laurence D. Fink: Billionaire
and chairman of the multinational
investment firm BlackRock.
• Craig McCaw: Cellular phone
entrepreneur and founder of McCaw
Cellular (now part of AT&T).
• Joseph Gleberman: Managing director
of the Pritzker Organization, the private
capital firm of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker
(D) and his family.
• Jane Lubchenko: Environmental scientist and Jennifer Morris, CEO of the Nature Conservancy, is a
former administrator of the National Oceanic longtime officer for Conservation International, a left-
and Atmospheric Administration for President leaning environmental advocacy group.
Barack Obama.
• Rajiv “Raj” Shah: President of the left-
wing Rockefeller Foundation and former
administrator of the U.S. Agency for citizenship or permanent residency, came under
International Development (USAID) under media scrutiny from the Left and Right in early
President Obama. 2021 when he attempted to build a media empire
by purchasing the parent company to numerous
major newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune.
This led to revelations about the billionaire’s
FUNDING significant spending on left-wing nonprofits that
aid Democratic politicians and liberal causes.451 He
The Nature Conservancy is easily the largest has gifted nearly $82 million to TNC and its state
nonprofit on the eco-Right. In 2018, the group affiliates since 2007.452
reported total revenues of $1.2 billion, total
expenditures of $908 million (including grants paid Most of its seven-figure grants have vague
totaling $67 million and nearly $400 million in descriptions, but a few reveal attempts to coordinate
staff compensation), and net assets of $6.6 billion.448 TNC’s work with professional environmental
In 2019, the group reported total revenues of activist groups, such as a $15 million grant in 2017
$998 million, total expenditures of $933 million from the liberal MacArthur Foundation “in support
(including grants paid totaling $61 million), and of a strategic alliance with Environmental Defense
net assets of $6.7 billion.449 Fund to advance climate solutions.”453

Unsurprisingly, TNC receives enormous grants from TNC is a donor to many university agriculture
major foundations, mostly on the Left. The biggest and environmental studies departments, state land
donation it received was a $45 million grant from trusts and conservation groups, and even local
the Wyss Foundation in 2014, the philanthropy governments and conservation authorities. It also
of Swiss billionaire and environmentalist Hansjörg makes grants to activist groups such as the League of
Wyss. Wyss is a former CEO of the global medical Conservation Voters, Environmental Defense Fund,
instrument manufacturer Synthes USA, a company and Ducks Unlimited (a conservationist front for an
that got in hot water in 2009 for conducting illegal environmental advocacy group), although this is the
experiments with a bone-cement product without minority of TNC’s annual grantmaking.454
conducting clinical trials that lead to the deaths of at
least three people.450 Wyss, who does not hold U.S.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 57

 OTHER ECO-RIGHT GROUPS
CONSERVATIVE ENERGY NETWORK (CEN) CONSERVATIVES FOR CLEAN ENERGY
Michigan-based advocacy group that advocates for Organization founded by two Republican
“clean energy.” In 2017 and 2018, every known consultants in 2014 to advocate for expanded
grant to CEN came from liberal foundations. In use of renewable energy through government
2018 alone, over half of its funding came from subsidies. It has received funding from a number
the Energy Foundation, a major pass-through of left-wing sources, including the Energy
group formed by the Rockefeller Foundation, Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In
MacArthur Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts 2017, it defended this decision, saying it was
to bundle sums from left-wing donors in the guise “happy to work with, and get support from,
of “philanthropy.”455 any organization that sees the economic and job
creation benefits of clean energy.”462

ALLIANCE FOR MARKET SOLUTIONS

Carbon tax advocacy group founded by Alex Flint,
a former U.S. Senate Republican staffer and vice
president of the Nuclear Energy Institute who
now directs AMS.456 In 2017, the group published
Carbon Tax Policy: A Conservative Dialogue on Pro-
Growth Opportunities, a short book offering a $15
per ton carbon tax as a “free market” alternative to
left-wing climate change proposals.457

CONSERVAMERICA AND CONSERVATIVES FOR Conservative Energy Network is a liberal-funded,

RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP Michigan-based advocacy group that advocates
for “clean energy.”
One of the first eco-Right groups, formed in 1995
as Republicans for Environmental Protection and
renamed ConservAmerica in 2012 in an effort
to appear less partisan.458 The group is arguably
more conservationist than environmentalist and CONSERVATIVES FOR ENERGY FREEDOM
focuses on promoting clean air and water rather
than climate change. For instance, it supported A Florida-based eco-Right group that has received
construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline in funding from the Georgia Conservation Voters,
2014.459 ConservAmerica opposes a carbon tax and a state affiliate of the left-leaning League of
proposes expanded public-private partnerships that Conservation Voters.463
would include easements and land exchanges to
increase access to public lands.460

Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship is the

501(c)(3) arm of ConservAmerica. It has advocated
for expanded use of renewable energy, including
geothermal power.461

58 JULY 2021
 R Street’s total contribution and grant revenue
CHRISTIAN COALITION OF AMERICA between 2012 and 2017 and 71 percent of the
organization’s total foundation support during
A social conservative group that also advocates
that period.468 In 2018, R Street received $4.15
for an expanded definition of “pro-life” to include
million from the Hewlett Foundation according to
environmentalist views of the climate and the
Hewlett’s website.469
development of natural resources. The Christian
Coalition was founded in 1988 by Christian
broadcaster and Republican presidential candidate
Marion Gordon “Pat” Robertson and is ecumenical.
While the group supports numerous mainstream
conservative positions on health care, abortion,
and other issues, it supports the expanded use of
renewable energy as a means to secure U.S. energy
independence from foreign countries.464

EVANGELICAL ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK (EEN)

EEN is a nominally conservative group for
Evangelical Christians that supports numerous
left-wing environmental policies, including higher Christian Coalition of America is a social conservative
federal fuel economy mandates. It is heavily group that also advocates for an expanded definition of
funded by liberal foundations, including the “pro-life” to include environmentalist views of the climate
Marisla Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the development of natural resources.
and the Energy Foundation.465 EEN was founded
in 1993 by Ron Sider, an environmental activist
who has called for socialized medicine, a carbon
trading program, and an increase in the minimum
wage. EEN tactics have also been described
as attempts to “capitalize on the conservative WESTERN WAY RESOURCES
commitment to ‘family values’” through its
Healthy Families, Healthy Environment campaign A nominally right-leaning advocacy group that
launched in 2001.”466 supports left-leaning public lands policies and the
expanded use of renewables.470

R STREET INSTITUTE
A right-leaning think tank based in Washington,
DC. R Street is not primarily an environmentalist
organization, and it holds moderate or conservative,
free-market positions on numerous issue. However,
the group supports a carbon tax.467 Left-leaning
foundations such as the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation, Energy Foundation, and Foundation
to Promote Open Society provided 26 percent of

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 59

 ENDNOTES
1 American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, H.R. 2454, 111th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-
congress/house-bill/2454.
2 Barack Obama, “Obama: My Plan Makes Electricity Rates Skyrocket,” video, San Francisco Chronicle, uploaded March
18, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4.
3 Climate Protection Act of 2013, S. 332, 113th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/332;
American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act, S. 2940, 113th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/
senate-bill/2940; Climate Protection and Justice Act of 2015, S. 2399, 114th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/
bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2399; Tax Pollution, Not Profits Act, H.R. 2014, 115th Cong., https://www.congress.
gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2014/text; Market Choice Act, H.R. 6463, 115th Cong., https://www.congress.
gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6463; American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act of 2018, H.R. 4926, 115th Cong.,
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4926; Modernizing America with Rebuilding to Kickstart the
Economy of the Twenty-first Century with a Historic Infrastructure-Centered Expansion (MARKET CHOICE) Act,
H.R. 4520, 116th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4520; and Office of Rep. Brian
Fitzpatrick, “Fitzpatrick, Carbajal, Rooney, Peters Introduce MARKET CHOICE Act,” September 26, 2019, https://
fitzpatrick.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/fitzpatrick-carbajal-rooney-peters-introduce-market-choice-act.
4 George P. Shultz and James A. Baker III, “A Conservative Answer to Climate Change,” Wall Street Journal, February 7,
2017, https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-conservative-answer-to-climate-change-1486512334.
5 Rupert Darwall, “The Baker-Shultz Carbon-Tax Plan Is a Bad Deal for Americans,” National Review, February 13, 2017,
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/02/baker-shultz-carbon-tax-plan-bad-deal-americans/.
6 James A. Baker III et al., “The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends,” Climate Leadership Council, February 2017,
https://www.clcouncil.org/media/2017/03/The-Conservative-Case-for-Carbon-Dividends.pdf.
7 Baker, “The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends.”
8 Ken Kimmell, “Carbon Tax Proposal Promoted by Leading Conservatives Good Starting Point,” Union of Concerned
Scientists, June 20, 2018, https://www.ucsusa.org/press/2018/carbon-tax-proposal-promoted-leading-conservatives-good-
starting-point#.W3xQAehKiUm.
9 David Kreutzer and Kevin Dayaratna, “Boxer–Sanders Carbon Tax: Economic Impact,” Heritage Foundation, April 11,
2013, https://www.heritage.org/taxes/report/boxer-sanders-carbon-tax-economic-impact.
10 David Kreutzer, “Impacts of Carbon Taxes on the US Economy,” Heritage Foundation, November 17, 2014, https://
www.heritage.org/testimony/impacts-carbon-taxes-the-us-economy.
11 Kevin Dayaratna, Nicolas Loris, and David Kreutzer, “The Obama Administration’s Climate Agenda: Underestimated
Costs and Exaggerated Benefits,” Heritage Foundation, November 13, 2014, https://www.heritage.org/environment/
report/the-obama-administrations-climate-agenda-underestimated-costs-and-exaggerated.
12 Mark P. Mills, “The ‘New Energy Economy’: An Exercise in Magical Thinking,” Manhattan Institute, March 26, 2019,
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/green-energy-revolution-near-impossible.
13 U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, “5 Fast Facts About Nuclear Energy,” January 16, 2018, https://
www.energy.gov/ne/articles/5-fast-facts-about-nuclear-energy.
14 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, “Hoover Dam,” https://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/faqs/powerfaq.html.
15 World Nuclear Association, “Nuclear Power in France,” https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-
profiles/countries-a-f/france.aspx.
16 U.S. Energy Information Administration, “What Is Energy,” https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/what-is-energy/
sources-of-energy.php; U.S. Energy Information Administration, “How Many Nuclear Power Plants Are in the United
States, and Where Are They Located?,” https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=207&t=21.
17 Massachusetts Sierra Club, “Canadian Hydropower,” October 29, 2019, https://www.sierraclub.org/massachusetts/
canadian-hydropower.
18 Patrick McCully, “The International Anti-Dam Movement,” International Rivers, https://www.internationalrivers.org/
the-international-anti-dam-movement.
19 David R. Baker, Will Wade, and James Thornhill. “Sometimes, a Greener Grid Means a 40,000% Spike in Power Prices,”
Bloomberg, August 26, 2019, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-26/sometimes-a-greener-grid-means-
a-40-000-spike-in-power-prices.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 61

 20 Cameron Arcand. “Frozen Wind Turbines in Texas Expose Major Flaw in Renewable Energy,” Western Journal. February
15, 2021. https://www.westernjournal.com/frozen-wind-turbines-texas-expose-major-flaw-renewable-energy/.
21 Travis Fisher and Alex Fitzsimmons, “What If Your Life Were as Unreliable as Wind Power?,” Institute for Energy
Research, March 5, 2014, https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/wind/what-if-your-life-were-as-
unreliable-as-wind-power/.
22 U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, “Solar Radiation Basics,” https://www.
energy.gov/eere/solar/articles/solar-radiation-basics.
23 Sean Ericson and Dan Olis, “A Comparison of Fuel Choice for Backup Generators,” National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, 2019, https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/72509.pdf.
24 Mills, “The ‘New Energy Economy.’”
25 Mills, “The ‘New Energy Economy.’”
26 Copper Development Association, “Wind Energy Basics,” https://www.copper.org/environment/green/casestudies/wind_
energy/wind_energy.html; and ForConstructionPros.com, “Ohio’s First Large-Scale Wind Farm Uses Lafarge Cement
for Turbine Concrete Foundations,” March 4, 2013, https://www.forconstructionpros.com/concrete/article/10886050/
ohios-first-largescale-wind-farm-uses-lafarge-cement-for-turbine-concrete-foundations.
27 Sarah Katz-Lavigne, “Demand for Congo’s Cobalt Is on the Rise. So Is the Scrutiny of Mining Practices.,” Washington
Post, February 21, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/21/demand-congos-cobalt-is-rise-so-is-
scrutiny-mining-practices/; and Ronald Stein, “Renewables May Make Us Feel Good, But Realistically They Just Don’t
Work,” Eurasia Review, September 24, 2019, https://www.eurasiareview.com/12092019-renewables-may-make-us-feel-
good-but-realistically-they-just-dont-work-oped/.
28 Kenneth Haapala, “The Wind God’s New Clothes: Limits to Wind and Solar,” Capital Research Center, May 22, 2018,
https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-wind-gods-new-clothes-part-2/.
29 John Constable, “Current Costs of British Renewables Subsidies per Household,” Global Warming Policy Forum,
October 14, 2019, https://www.thegwpf.com/current-costs-of-british-renewables-subsidies-per-household/.
30 Stephen Moore, “Washington Subsidies Not Helping the Wind Industry,” Washington Times, October 18, 2019, https://
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/18/washington-subsidies-not-helping-the-wind-industry/.
31 Palmer’s Creek Wind Farm, “Palmer’s Creek Wind Farm Site Permit Application: Chippewa County, Minnesota,”
April, 2017, https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=showPoup&docum
entId=%7B29950B36-761E-4C68-B259-F0FBF90842F4%7D&documentTitle=20174-130706-01; and Isaac Orr,
“It Costs $532,000 to Decommission A Single Wind Turbine,” American Experiment, October 3, 2019. https://www.
americanexperiment.org/2019/10/it-costs-532000-to-decommission-a-single-wind-turbine/.
32 Kenneth Green, “We’re Finally Told What the Carbon Tax Will Cost Us. Are You Sitting down?,” Financial Post, June
29, 2018, https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/and-heres-your-very-small-carbon-bill-canada.
33 Green, “We’re Finally Told What the Carbon Tax Will Cost Us.”
34 Kenneth P. Green, Taylor Jackson, and Ian Herzog, “Higher Energy Prices Fuel Energy Poverty in Canada—Especially
in Ontario,” Fraser Institute, March 19, 2016, https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/higher-energy-prices-fuel-energy-
poverty-in-canada-especially-in-ontario.
35 Paul Vieira, “Canada Scales Back Carbon-Tax Plans,” Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/
canada-scales-back-carbon-tax-plans-1533150307.
36 Mary Anastasia O’Grady, “Canada Backtracks on a Carbon Tax,” Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2018, https://www.wsj.
com/articles/canada-backtracks-on-a-carbon-tax-1534110070.
37 U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Sources of Energy,” June 28, 2018, https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/
what-is-energy/sources-of-energy.php.
38 Sierra Hicks, “Powering the Department of Defense,” American Security Project, September 2017, https://www.
americansecurityproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Ref-0204-Powering-the-DoD.pdf
39 U.S. Department of Defense, “Annual Energy Management and Resilience Report (AEMRR), Fiscal Year 2018,” June
2019, https://www.acq.osd.mil/eie/Downloads/IE/FY%202018%20AEMR.pdf
40 Gillian Rich, “Oil Export Ban Lifted as Obama Signs Spending Bill,” Investor’s Business Daily, December 18, 2015,
https://www.investors.com/news/under-armour-earnings-under-armour-stock-falls-on-accounting-probe/.

62 JULY 2021
 41 Simon Lack, “American Energy Independence Is Imminent,” Forbes, January 28, 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/
simonlack/2019/01/28/american-energy-independence-is-imminent/#3ee67e0c2870.
42 U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Annual Energy Outlook 2019,” January 24, 2019, https://www.eia.gov/
outlooks/aeo/pdf/aeo2019.pdf.
43 Tsvetana Paraskova, “U.S. Is Now Largest Oil . . . and Gas Producer in the World,” Oilprice.com, August 20, 2019,
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/US-Is-Now-Largest-Oil-And-Gas-Producer-In-The-World.html; and
Jude Clemente, “The U.S. Is Becoming the World’s Largest Oil and Natural Gas Exporter,” Forbes, March 22, 2020,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2020/03/22/the-us-is-becoming-the-worlds-largest-oil-and-natural-gas-
exporter/#5005b9235cb2.
44 Keith Johnson, “How Carbon Dioxide Became a ‘Pollutant,’” Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2009, https://www.wsj.com/
articles/SB124001537515830975.
45 Paul C. “Chip” Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels, “Spin Cycle: Carbon Dioxide Is NOT ‘Carbon Pollution,’” Cato
Institute, August 12, 2015, https://www.cato.org/blog/spin-cycle-carbon-dioxide-not-carbon-pollution.
46 Knappenberger and Michaels, “Spin Cycle.’”
47 Craig D. Idso, “The Positive Externalities of Carbon Dioxide,” Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide
and Global Change, October 21, 2013, http://www.co2science.org/education/reports/co2benefits/
MonetaryBenefitsofRisingCO2onGlobalFoodProduction.pdf.
48 Dennis T. Avery, “Life on Earth Was Nearly Doomed by Too Little CO2,” Watts Up With That?, June 30, 2017, https://
wattsupwiththat.com/2017/06/30/life-on-earth-was-nearly-doomed-by-too-little-co2/.
49 Zaichun Zhu et al., “Greening of the Earth and Its Drivers,” Nature Climate Change, April 25, 2016, https://www.
nature.com/articles/nclimate3004.
50 Popular Technology.net, “Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Is Not Pollution,” November 20, 2008, http://www.
populartechnology.net/2008/11/carbon-dioxide-co2-is-not-pollution.html.
51 Allison Piper, “Environment and Advocacy: Interview with Marshall Saunders,” Harvard Political Review, September 6,
2017, https://harvardpolitics.com/interviews/marshall-saunders/ (unavailable March 18, 2021).
52 Jace Dostal, “President of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Calls on Americans to Help Solve Climate Change,” Iowa State Daily,
April 10, 2015, http://www.iowastatedaily.com/cystainability/article_a70b9916-df1e-11e4-9df8-63d8c86255ba.html.
53 Al Gore, “New Thinking on the Climate Crisis,” TED, April 8, 2008, at 29:20, https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=rUO8bdrXghs.
54 Anna Awimbo, “What Are We Here for? Q&A with Sam Daley-Harris,” New Dream, September 19, 2013, https://
newdream.org/blog/what-are-we-here-for.
55 Dostal, “President of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Calls on Americans to Help Solve Climate Change.”
56 Citizens’ Climate Education, “International Conference,” https://citizensclimateeducation.org/programs/international-
conference/.
57 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, “10th Annual Citizens’ Climate International Conference,” https://citizensclimatelobby.
org/2019-conference/.
58 Steve Valk. “The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2021 hits the House,” Citizens’ Climate Lobby. April
1, 2021. https://citizensclimatelobby.org/energy-innovation-carbon-dividend-act-2021/
59 Office of Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), “Chairman Thompson, Ways and Means Democrats Unveil Growing
Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now Act,” November 19, 2019, https://mikethompson.house.gov/newsroom/press-
releases/chairman-thompson-ways-and-means-democrats-unveil-growing-renewable-energy.
60 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, “CCL responds to Green New Deal resolution,” February 7, 2019, https://citizensclimatelobby.
org/ccl-responds-to-green-new-deal-resolution/.
61 Dostal, “President of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Calls on Americans to Help Solve Climate Change.”
62 Francesca Luberti, “Marshall Saunders,” City Atlas, December 23, 2015, http://newyork.thecityatlas.org/people/
marshall-saunders-2/.
63 Citizen’s Climate Lobby, home page, https://web.archive.org/web/20081022210257/https://citizensclimatelobby.org/.

CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTER 63

 64 American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, H.R. 2454, 111th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-
congress/house-bill/2454/cosponsors.
65 Luberti, “Marshall Saunders.”
66 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, “Household Energy Costs Laser Talk,” November 24, 2019, https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
laser-talks/household-energy-costs/.
67 Luberti, “Marshall Saunders.”
68 Dostal, “President of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Calls on Americans to Help Solve Climate Change.”
69 “Carbon Fee and Dividend Explained,” Citizens’ Climate Lobby, https://citizensclimatelobby.org/carbon-fee-and-
dividend/.
70 Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2019, H.R. 763, 116th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-
congress/house-bill/763/text.
71 Amy Clifton and Michael Savarese, “Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act Is Important Legislation for
Tackling Climate Change Preparedness,” News-Press, March 4, 2019, https://www.news-press.com/story/opinion/
contributors/2019/03/04/energy-innovation-and-carbon-dividend-act-eicda-legislation-tackling-climate-change-
preparedness/3029396002/.
72 Steve Valk. “The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2021 hits the House.” Citizens’ Climate Lobby. April
1, 2021. https://citizensclimatelobby.org/energy-innovation-carbon-dividend-act-2021/
73 Information provided by FoundationSearch, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, www.FoundationSearch.com.
74 Federal Election Commission, “Citizens’ Climate Lobby,” https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-
contributions/?contributor_employer=Citizens+Climate+Lobby&two_year_transaction_period=2018&min_
date=01%2F01%2F2017&max_date=07%2F08%2F2018.
75 Awimbo, “What Are We Here For? Q&A with Sam Daley-Harris.”
76 John McArdle, “Gowdy Crushes Inglis in S.C. Runoff,” CQ Politics, June 22, 2010, https://web.archive.org/
web/20100628043350/http:/www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003688244.
77 Roger Cohn, “A Conservative Who Believes That Climate Change Is Real,” Yale Environment 360, Yale School
of Forestry and Environmental Studies, February 14, 2013, https://e360.yale.edu/features/interview_bob_inglis_
conservative_who_believes_climate_change_is_real.
78 George Schultz and Gary Becker, “Why We Support a Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax,” RealClearPolitics, April 8, 2013,
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/04/08/why_we_support_a_revenue-neutral_carbon_tax_117849.html.
79 Janet L. Yellen and Ted Halstead, “The Most Ambitious Climate Plan In History,” Fortune, September 10, 2018, https://
fortune.com/2018/09/10/baker-shultz-climate-plan/.
80 Alex Guillén, “Chu Walks Back ‘08 Gas Prices Quote,” Politico, March 14, 2012, https://www.politico.com/
story/2012/03/chu-walks-back-europe-gas-prices-quote-073934.
81 Oliver Milman, “James Hansen, Father of Climate Change Awareness, Calls Paris Talks ‘a Fraud,’” Guardian, December
12, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-change-paris-talks-fraud.
82 Paul Nastu, “James Hansen: Try Fossil Fuel CEOs for ‘High Crimes Against Humanity,’” Environment Energy Leader,
June 24, 2008, https://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/06/james-hansen-try-fossil-fuel-ceos-for-high-crimes-
against-humanity/.
83 Milman, “James Hansen.”
84 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, “Michael Gerrard, J.D.,” https://citizensclimatelobby.org/about-ccl/advisory-board/michael-
gerrard/.
85 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, “Dr. Adele Morris,” https://citizensclimatelobby.org/about-ccl/advisory-board/adele-morris/.
86 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, “Jay Butera,” https://citizensclimatelobby.org/about-ccl/advisory-board/jay-butera/.
87 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, “Betony Jones, M.S.,” https://citizensclimatelobby.org/about-ccl/advisory-board/betony-jones/
88 Earth Vision Institute, “About,” https://earthvisioninstitute.org/about/.
89 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, IRS Form 990, 2018, part I, lines 8, 12, 18, and 22.

64 JULY 2021
 90 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, IRS Form 990, 2017, part I, lines 8, 12, 18, and 22.
91 Citizens’ Climate Lobby, IRS Form 990, 2016–2017, part I, line 12.
92 Hopewell Fund, IRS Form 990, 2017, Schedule I (List of Grants).
93 Citizens’ Climate Education Corp, IRS Form 990, 2018, part I, lines 8, 12, 18, and 22.
94 Citizens’ Climate Education Corp, IRS Form 990, 2017, part I, lines 8, 12, 18, and 22 and Part 3: line 4a.
95 George P. Schultz and James A. Baker III, “A Conservative Answer to Climate Change,” Wall Street Journal, February 8,
2017, https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-conservative-answer-to-climate-change-1486512334.
96 Schultz and Baker, “A Conservative Answer to Climate Change.”
97 Ted Halstead, “A Climate Solution Where All Sides Can Win,” TED Talk, April 2017, 13:01, https://www.ted.com/
talks/ted_halstead_a_climate_solution_where_all_sides_can_win.
98 Politico Staff, “Birthday of the Day: Anne Marie Slaughter, New America Foundation CEO,” Politico, September 27,
2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/27/playbook-birthday-anne-marie-slaughter-846223.
99 Foundation to Promote Open Society, IRS Form 990, 1999–2018, Schedule I.
100 Climate Leadership Council, “Founding Members,” 2019, https://www.clcouncil.org/founding-members/.
101 Climate Leadership Council, “The Consensus Climate Solution,” paid advertisement, Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2017,
https://www.clcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Climate_Leadership_Council_WSJ_Ad.pdf.
102 Tristan Brown, “Big Oil In The Climate Leadership Council: It’s About More Than Just The Gas,” Seeking Alpha, June
26, 2017, https://seekingalpha.com/article/4083971-big-oil-climate-leadership-council-just-gas.
103 Mario Loyola, “A Shale-Gas Revolution, If We Can Keep It,” National Review, October 10, 2019, https://www.
nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/10/28/a-shale-gas-revolution-if-we-can-keep-it/.
104 U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Frequently Asked Questions: How Much Carbon Dioxide Is Produced When
Different Fuels Are Burned?” https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=73&t=11.
105 Patrick J. Michaels, “Why Enron Wants Global Warming,” Cato Institute. February 6, 2002, https://www.cato.org/
publications/commentary/why-enron-wants-global-warming.
106 Debra Landis. “ExxonMobil Sells Monterey Coal Mine,” State-Journal Register (Springfield, IL), January 27, 2009,
https://www.sj-r.com/article/20090127/NEWS/301279892.
107 Total, “Total Confirms Its Withdrawal from Coal Production and Marketing,” August 24, 2015, https://www.total.com/
en/media/news/press-releases/total-confirms-its-withdrawal-coal-production-and-marketing.
108 Cecilia Jamasmie, “Total, Shell Exit Coal Mining,” Mining.com, June 2, 2015, https://www.mining.com/total-shell-exit-
coal-mining/.
109 Climate Leadership Council. “The Consensus Climate Solution.”
110 Ted Halstead et al., “Exceeding Paris: How The Baker-Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan Will Significantly Exceed the U.S.
Paris Commitment & Achieve 50% U.S. CO2 Reduction By 2035,” Climate Leadership Council, September 2019,
https://clcouncil.org//media/Exceeding-Paris.pdf?sept_2019; and Schultz and Baker, “A Conservative Answer to Climate
Change.”
111 Halstead, “A Climate Solution Where All Sides Can Win,” 13:01.
112 Halstead, “A Climate Solution Where All Sides Can Win.”
113 Climate Leadership Council, https://clcouncil.org/.
114 Kevin Dayaratna, Nicolas Loris, and David Kreutzer, “The Obama Administration’s Climate Agenda: Underestimated
Costs and Exaggerated Benefits,” Heritage Foundation, November 13, 2014, https://www.heritage.org/environment/
report/the-obama-administrations-climate-agenda-underestimated-costs-and-exaggerated.
115 Paul C. Knappenberger and Patrick J. Michaels, “0.02o C Temperature Rise Averted: The Vital Number Missing from
the EPA’s ‘By the Numbers’ Fact Sheet,” Cato Institute, June 11, 2014, https://www.cato.org/blog/002degc-temperature-
rise-averted-vital-number-missing-epas-numbers-fact-sheet.
116 Dayaratna et al., “The Obama Administration’s Climate Agenda.”
117 Climate Leadership Council, “Our Plan,” https://clcouncil.org/our-plan/.

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 118 Halstead, “A Climate Solution Where All Sides Can Win.”
119 Halstead, “A Climate Solution Where All Sides Can Win.”
120 Nicolas Loris and Elliot Raia, “College Republicans’ Misguided Support for a Carbon Tax,” Heritage Foundation, April
6, 2018, https://www.heritage.org/energy-economics/commentary/college-republicans-misguided-support-carbon-tax.
121 MARKET CHOICE Act, H.R. 6463, 115th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6463/text.
122 Friends Committee on National Legislation, “Bill Analysis: The Market Choice Act of 2019 (H.R. 4520),” October 10,
2019, https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2019-10/bill-analysis-market-choice-act.
123 InfluenceWatch, “Internal Revenue Service,”https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/11/americans-for-
carbon-dividends-determination-letter.-11.2019.pdf
124 Ballotpedia, “Ryan Costello,” https://ballotpedia.org/Ryan_Costello.
125 Ryan Costello Strategies, https://ryancostello.com/
126 Squire Patton Boggs, “Lobbying Report,” 2018, Q3 and Q4, https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetai
ls&filingID=92E9CFF0-7E1C-4100-BEF4-819A0A020961&filingTypeID=69 and https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cf
m?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=AEA4BC24-34DD-425F-844F-998141647C10&filingTypeID=78.
127 Legislative Resource Center, “Lobbying Report,” Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, filings for 2019,
https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=86B562CD-CCF3-4952-A667-
5CE192F52342&filingTypeID=69, https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=D643C656-
86F9-4C58-B44B-27EEC8B5498F&filingTypeID=60, https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&fil
ingID=EEE3F481-AD73-4EA9-BFDA-E15D0E07DE70&filingTypeID=51, and https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?
event=getFilingDetails&filingID=D8732CF6-E6C5-45C0-8919-CB20D2DF5C25&filingTypeID=69.
128 Dan Eggen, “Patton Boggs Lobbying Firm Buys Group Run by Lott, Breaux,” Washington Post, July 2, 2010, https://
web.archive.org/web/20121110171336/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/
AR2010070105008.html.
129 Bradley Olson and Timothy Puko, “Conservative Group Will Push for Carbon Tax, a Contrast to GOP Resistance,” Wall
Street Journal, June 19, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-conservative-political-group-to-push-for-u-s-carbon-
tax-1529444820; and Americans for Carbon Dividends, “About Us,” https://www.afcd.org/about-us/.
130 Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Under Fire, Lott Apologizes for His Comments at Thurmond’s Party,” New York Times, December
10, 2002, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/10/us/under-fire-lott-apologizes-for-his-comments-at-thurmond-s-party.
html.
131 Bipartisan Policy Center, “Trent Lott,” https://bipartisanpolicy.org/person/trent-lott/.
132 OpenSecrets, “Lobbyist Profile: Matthew Cutts,” Center for Responsive Politics, https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-
lobbying/lobbyists/summary?cycle=2019&id=Y0000046970L
133 “Joe Lockhart,” The Glover Park Group, Archived by WayBack Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/20140330223113/
http://gloverparkgroup.com/our-team/joe-lockhart/
134 “About,” Represent Us, https://represent.us/about/; and Information provided by FoundationSearch, No Labels
Foundation, www.FoundationSearch.com.
135 Ted Halstead and Michael Lind, The Radical Center: the Future of American Politics (New York: Anchor Books, 2002);
and Ted Halstead, The Real State of the Union: From the Best Minds in America, Bold Solutions to the Problems
Politicians Dare Not Address (New York: Basic Books, 2004).
136 “Ted Halstead,” Echoing Green, https://echoinggreen.org/fellow/ted-halstead/.
137 Peter Passell, “Yawn. A Global-Warming Alert. But This One Has Solutions,” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.
com/1997/02/13/business/yawn-a-global-warming-alert-but-this-one-has-solutions.html
138 Ted Halstead and Jonathan Rowe, “The Green Revenue Path,” Washington Post, September 10, 1995, https://www.
washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/09/10/the-green-revenue-path/5ade1fa9-78b0-426d-8126-d2718a00a4fb/.
139 Rachel M. Cohen, “Has the New American Foundation Lost its Way?,” Washingtonian, June 24, 2018, https://www.
washingtonian.com/2018/06/24/has-new-america-foundation-lost-its-way-anne-marie-slaughter/.
140 Politico Staff. “Birthday of the Day: Anne Marie Slaughter, New America Foundation CEO,” Politico, September 27,
2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/27/playbook-birthday-anne-marie-slaughter-846223; and New America,
“Anne-Marie Slaughter,” https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/anne-marie-slaughter/.

66 JULY 2021
 141 New America, “Tyra A. Mariani,” https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/tyra-a-mariani/.
142 New America, “Cecilia Muñoz,” https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/cecilia-mu%C3%B1oz/
143 FoundationSearch, s.v. “New America,” www.FoundationSearch.com.
144 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part VII.
145 Climate Leadership Council, “Greg Bertelsen,” 2019, https://clcouncil.org/staff/greg-bertelsen/.
146 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part VII.
147 Climate Leadership Council, “Simone Frank,” 2019, https://clcouncil.org/staff/simone-frank/.
148 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part VII.
149 White House, “Personnel Announcement,” May 6, 2005, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/
releases/2005/05/20050506-2.html.
150 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part VII.
151 R Street, “Catrina Rorke,” https://www.rstreet.org/team/catrina-rorke/.
152 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part VII.
153 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part VII.
154 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part VII.
155 Germeshausen Foundation, “About,” archived April 21, 2014, https://web.archive.org/web/20140421224233/http://
www.germeshausen.org/about.htm.
156 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 1023, part V. Founding board included Ted Halstead and Martin Kaplan.
157 John Schwartz, “Kathryn Murdoch Steps Out of the Family Shadow to Fight Climate Change,” New York Times,
September 26, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/climate/kathryn-murdoch-climate-change-voting.html.
158 Climate Leadership Council, “Board of Directors,” 2019, https://www.clcouncil.org/board/.
159 Climate Leadership Council, “Board of Directors.”
160 FoundationSearch, s.v. “Litterman Family Foundation,” FoundationSearch.com; and Litterman Family Foundation, IRS
Form 990, 2014–2016, Schedule I.
161 Climate Leadership Council, “Board of Directors”; and FoundationSearch, s.v. “Litterman Family Foundation.”
162 Climate Leadership Council, “Board of Directors.”
163 Climate Leadership Council, “Paid Advertisement: The Consensus Climate Solution,” Wall Street Journal, June 20,
2017, https://www.clcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Climate_Leadership_Council_WSJ_Ad.pdf.
164 Internal Revenue Service, “Climate Leadership Council: Determination Letter,” September 7, 2016.
165 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990-N, 2016.
166 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2017, part I, lines 8, 12, 18, and 22.
167 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2017, part I, line 13, Schedule I.
168 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part I, lines 8, 12, 13, 18, and 22.
169 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, Schedules F and I.
170 FoundationSearch, s.v. “Climate Leadership Council,” www.FoundationSearch.com.
171 Arnold Ventures, “Grants List,” 2019, archived at https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/10/Arnold-
Ventures-Grants-List.-10.2019.pdf.
172 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2017, Schedule B.
173 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, Schedule B.
174 Internal Revenue Service, “Climate Leadership Council.”
175 Climate Leadership Council, IRS Form 990, 2018, part I, lines 12, 18, and 22.

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 176 Tom DiChristopher, “Exxon Mobil Pledges $1 Million to Campaign to Promote Carbon Tax,” CNBC, October 9, 2018,
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/09/exxon-mobil-pledges-1-million-to-campaign-to-promote-carbon-tax.html.
177 Amy Harder, “Exclusive: Oil Giant ConocoPhillips Backs Carbon Tax Push,” Axios, December 17, 2018, https://www.
axios.com/conocophillips-backs-carbon-tax-push-a0c47c65-7a0e-4ec6-85c6-771687849a97.html.
178 Hayden Ludwig, “The Niskanen Center: Climate Change Chameleons,” Capital Research Center, May 15, 2019, https://
capitalresearch.org/article/the-niskanen-center-climate-change-chameleons/.
179 Jerry Taylor and David Bookbinder, “Oil Companies Should Be Held Accountable for Climate Change,” April 17, 2018,
https://niskanencenter.org/blog/oil-companies-should-be-held-accountable-for-climate-change/.
180 Niskanen Center, “David Bookbinder,” May 20, 2019, https://niskanencenter.org/blog/staff/david-bookbinder/.
181 Jerry Taylor, “The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax,” Niskanen Center, March 23, 2015, https://niskanencenter.org/
wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Conservative-Case-for-a-Carbon-Tax1.pdf (currently unavailable), archived at https://
www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/05/the-conservative-case-for-a-carbon-tax.pdf.
182 Jonathan Miller, “A Place for the GOP to Mull Life after Trump,” Roll Call, May 1, 2019, http://www.rollcall.com/news/
congress/place-gop-mull-life-trump.
183 Robert Bradley Jr., “Jerry Taylor: Old vs. New (What Would Bill Niskanen Say?),” Institute for Energy Research, April 1,
2015, https://www.masterresource.org/niskanen-center/taylor-vs-taylor-1/.
184 Niskanen Center, IRS Form 990, 2015–2017.
185 Jerry Taylor, “The Alternative to Ideology,” Niskanen Center, October 28, 2019, https://niskanencenter.org/blog/the-
alternative-to-ideology/. See also Miller, “A Place for the GOP to Mull Life after Trump.”
186 Michael J. Coren, “A Libertarian Think Tank Just Gave up on Libertarianism,” Quartz, October 31, 2018, https://
qz.com/1443787/a-libertarian-think-tank-just-gave-up-on-libertarianism/.
187 Jonathan Chait, “I Have Seen the Future of a Republican Party That Is No Longer Insane,” New York Magazine,
December 17, 2018, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/niskanen-center-future-republican-party-sane-libertarian.
html.
188 Jeet Heer, “The Niskanen Center Is a Splendid Policy Shop, but It Is Not the Future of the Republican Party,” New
Republic, December 18, 2018, https://newrepublic.com/minutes/152745/niskanen-center-splendid-policy-shop-not-
future-republican-party.
189 Brian Doherty, “In Memoriam: Karl Popper,” Reason, December 1, 1994, https://reason.com/1994/12/01/in-
memorium-karl-popper/.
190 Niskanen Center, “Niskanen Center Conspectus,” https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/05/Niskanen-
Center-Conspectus.pdf
191 Niskanen Center, “Niskanen Center Conspectus.”
192 Niskanen Center, “Changing the Conversation: Annual Report 2017–8/2018,” https://www.influencewatch.org/app/
uploads/2019/05/Niskanen-Center-Annual-Reort-2017-2018.pdf
193 Niskanen Center, “Niskanen Center Conspectus,” 1.
194 Jerry Taylor, “An Open Letter to Green New Dealers,” Niskanen Center, September 18, 2019, https://niskanencenter.
org/blog/an-open-letter-to-green-new-dealers/.
195 Taylor, “An Open Letter to Green New Dealers.”
196 EID Climate, “After Months of Silence, Boulder to Hold Rally With Activists to Announce Climate Lawsuit,” April 20,
2018, https://eidclimate.org/after-months-silence-boulder-hold-rally-with-activists-announce-climate-lawsuit/.
197 Amy Cooke, “High Powered Legal Team for Plaintiffs in the Boulder Climate Lawsuit,” Independent Women’s Forum,
http://iwf.org/blog/2807807/High-powered-legal-team-for-plaintiffs-in-the-Boulder-climate-lawsuit.
198 Taylor and Bookbinder, “Oil Companies Should Be Held Accountable for Climate Change.”
199 Gale Norton, “Climate Change Lawsuits: Boulder Can Do Better,” Denver Post, April 20, 2018, https://www.
denverpost.com/2018/04/20/climate-change-lawsuits-boulder-can-do-better/.
200 Amy Cooke, “Swift Condemnation for Boulder Climate Lawsuit and DC Think Tank,” Independence Institute, May 29,
2018, https://i2i.org/swift-condemnation-boulder-climate-lawsuit-and-dc-think-tank/.

68 JULY 2021
 201 Internal Revenue Service, “Niskanen Center for Public Policy: Determination Letter,” February 8, 2016, https://www.
influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/05/Niskanen-Center-for-Public-Policy-Determination-Letter-2017.pdf; and
Niskanen Center, IRS Form 990, 2017, Schedule A, part I, lines 12 and 18.
202 Niskanen Center, IRS Form 990, 2017, Schedule A, part III, line 1.
203 Taylor, “The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax.”
204 Ed Dolan, “A Carbon Tax Should Be the Centerpiece of the Green New Deal,” Niskanen Center, February 5, 2019,
https://niskanencenter.org/blog/a-carbon-tax-should-be-the-centerpiece-of-the-green-new-deal/.
205 Jerry Taylor, “Tax Carbon, California—the Rest of the Nation Will Thank You,” Niskanen Center, August 10, 2016,
https://niskanencenter.org/blog/tax-carbon-california-rest-nation-will-thank/.
206 Niskanen Center, “Press Release: Niskanen Center Applauds Introduction of the 2019 MARKET CHOICE Act,”
September 26, 2019, https://www.niskanencenter.org/press-release-niskanen-center-applauds-introduction-of-the-2019-
market-choice-act/; and Office of Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, “Fitzpatrick, Carbajal, Rooney, Peters Introduce MARKET
CHOICE Act,” September 26, 2019, https://fitzpatrick.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/fitzpatrick-carbajal-
rooney-peters-introduce-market-choice-act.
207 Jerry Taylor, “A Conservative Carbon Tax,” Milken Institute Review, January 19, 2017, http://www.milkenreview.org/
articles/a-conservative-carbon-tax.
208 Mario Lewis, “Sorry, GOP Rep. Curbelo: A Carbon Tax Is Not a Conservative Policy,” CNSNews, July 26, 2018, https://
www.cnsnews.com/commentary/marlo-lewis/sorry-gop-rep-curbelo-carbon-tax-not-conservative-policy.
209 Tax Foundation, “Options for Reforming America’s Tax Code,” Tax Foundation, 2016, https://files.taxfoundation.
org/20170130145208/TF_Options_for_Reforming_Americas_Tax_Code.pdf.
210 Niskanen Center, “Jerry Taylor,” https://niskanencenter.org/blog/staff/jerry-taylor/.
211 Niskanen Center, IRS Form 990, 2017, Schedule J, part II, line 1.
212 Heartland Institute, “James Taylor,” https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/james-m-taylor; and Heartland
Institute, “A ‘Revenue Neutral’ Carbon Tax Is a Costly Myth,” February 23, 2019, https://www.heartland.org/news-
opinion/news/a-revenue-neutral-carbon-tax-is-a-costly-myth.
213 Niskanen Center, IRS Form 990, 2017, Schedule A, part VII, section A.
214 DKT International, “Donors,” https://www.dktinternational.org/about/donors/.
215 Jay Cheshes, “Hard-Core Philanthropist,” Mother Jones, 28, 2002, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2002/09/
hard-core-philanthropist-phil-harvey/.
216 Niskanen Center, “Donation History,” 2019, https://niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Niskanen-Center-
donation-history-March-2019-3.pdf (unavailable), archived at https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/05/
Niskanen-Center-2019-Donations.pdf.
217 Karsten Strauss, “Business Leaders Explore a Path Toward a Carbon Tax,” Forbes, November 29, 2017, https://www.
forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/11/29/forging-a-path-for-a-carbon-tax/#ef1491b2c5be; and Eric Roston, “There’s
One Unspeakable Fix That Would Help Pay for the GOP’s Tax Cuts,” Bloomberg, November 3, 2017, https://www.
bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-11-03/there-s-one-unspeakable-fix-that-would-help-pay-for-the-gop-s-tax-cuts.
218 Niskanen Center, “Donation History.”
219 Niskanen Center, “David Bookbinder,” https://niskanencenter.org/blog/staff/david-bookbinder/.
220 Niskanen Center, “David Bookbinder.”
221 Niskanen Center, “David Bookbinder.”
222 Taylor and Bookbinder, “Oil Companies Should Be Held Accountable for Climate Change.”
223 Niskanen Center, “Press Release: Niskanen Center Welcomes David Bookbinder as Chief Counsel,” February 16, 2017,
https://niskanencenter.org/blog/press-release-niskanen-center-welcomes-david-bookbinder-chief-counsel/.
224 Niskanen Center, IRS Form 990, 2015, Part VII, Section B.
225 Hewlett Foundation, “Stand Up Ideas,” May 29, 2018, https://hewlett.org/grants/stand-up-ideas-for-general-operating-
support/, archive at https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/03/stand-up-ideas-2018-grant-hewlett-
foundation.pdf.

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 226 Stand Up Republic, “Board of Directors,” https://standuprepublic.com/board/, archived at https://www.influencewatch.
org/app/uploads/2019/06/Stand-Up-Republic-Board.-06.2019.pdf.
227 ClearPath Foundation (2040 Foundation), IRS Form 990, 2015, Schedule I.
228 Niskanen Center, “Donation History”; and FoundationSearch, “Niskanen Center,” 2015–2017, FoundationSearch.com.
229 Information provided by FoundationSearch, Niskanen Center, 2015-2017, FoundationSearch.com.
230 Niskanen Center, “Donation History.”
231 FoundationSearch, s.v. “Niskanen Center,” 2017. Hewlett Foundation donated $800,000 to Niskanen Center. Niskanen
Center’s total revenues in 2017 were $3,529,677 (22.66 percent).
232 Niskanen Center, “Donation History”; and FoundationSearch, “Niskanen Center,” 2015–2017.
233 “Board Of Directors,” 2019, Climate Leadership Council, https://www.clcouncil.org/board/.
234 FoundationSearch, s.v. “Litterman Family Foundation,” FoundationSearch.com.
235 Niskanen Center, “Donation History.”
236 Environmental Defense Action Fund, IRS Form 990, 2015, Schedule I, Part II.
237 Sustainable Markets Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2017, Schedule I.
238 Sustainable Markets Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2017, Schedule I.
239 Todd Shepherd, “Climate Change Reporting Website Obscures Its Funding with Dark Money Network,” Washington
Free Beacon, October 12, 2019, December 6, 2019, https://freebeacon.com/issues/climate-change-reporting-website-
obscures-its-funding-with-dark-money-network/; and Spencer Walrath, “Climate Investigations Center Utilizes
Dark Money Network to Obscure Its Funders,” Energy in Depth, October 14, 2019, https://eidclimate.org/climate-
investigations-center-utilizes-dark-money-network-to-obscure-its-funders/.
240 Charles Hernick and Benjamin Backer, “You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure, Time for Nationwide Carbon
Reporting,” The Hill, December 28, 2018, https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/423101-you-cant-manage-
what-you-dont-measure-time-for-nationwide-carbon.
241 Heather Reams. “From Seattle to Streets of France, a Message to Lawmakers on Energy Policy.” InsideSources, December
20, 2018, https://www.insidesources.com/from-seattle-to-streets-of-france-a-message-to-lawmakers-on-energy-policy/.
242 Jonathan Easly, David Henry, and Jordan Fabian. “How Trump Left the Paris Climate Deal,” The Hill, June 1, 2017,
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/336015-how-trump-left-the-paris-climate-deal
243 Paul Blumenthal, “Groups with Liberal Ties Tapped to Re-Elect the GOP Establishment,” Huffington Post, January 29,
2015, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/29/gop-dark-money_n_6566244.html; and Hayden Ludwig, “The
Myth of the Conservative Carbon Tax: A Who’s Who of the EcoRight,” Capital Research Center, October 12, 2018,
https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-myth-of-the-conservative-carbon-tax-part-4.
244 Kate Sheppard, “Meet the Republican Senator Who Wants to Fight Global Warming,” Mother Jones, October 27, 2015,
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/10/kelly-ayotte-clean-power-plan-climate-change/.
245 Hayden Ludwig. “Gay Marriage Activists Push Carbon Taxes on the GOP.” Capital Research Center, April 24, 2019.
https://capitalresearch.org/article/gay-marriage-activists-push-carbon-taxes-on-the-gop/; and Gill Foundation, IRS Form
990, part I, line 12.
246 OpenSecrets, “LGBTQ Victory Fund PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates,” https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/
pacgot.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00476978.
247 John DiStaso, “Ayotte Named Senior Adviser to Right-of-Center Energy-Focused Political Group,” WMUR Manchester,
July 17, 2017, https://www.wmur.com/article/ayotte-named-senior-adviser-to-right-of-center-energy-focused-political-
group/10315108.
248 Heather Reams. “Carbon Dividends Proposal Demonstrates GOP Leadership on Clean Energy,” Medium, February 23,
2017, https://medium.com/@Citiz4Solutions/carbon-dividends-proposal-demonstrates-gop-leadership-on-clean-energy-
dfbd74542318.
249 Heather Reams, “From Seattle to Streets of France, a Message to Lawmakers on Energy Policy,” InsideSources, December
20, 2018, https://www.insidesources.com/from-seattle-to-streets-of-france-a-message-to-lawmakers-on-energy-policy/.

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 250 Charles Henrick, “A Voluntary Federal Framework,” CRES Forum, October 31, 2018, https://cresforum.org/2018/10/a-
voluntary-federal-framework/; and CRES Forum, “Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Through a Voluntary Federal
Framework that Empowers States, Municipalities, and Businesses,” https://cresforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/
Reducing-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions.pdf.
251 Charles Hernick and Benjamin Backer, “You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure, Time for Nationwide Carbon
Reporting,” The Hill, December 28, 2018, https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/423101-you-cant-manage-
what-you-dont-measure-time-for-nationwide-carbon.
252 David A. Wemer, “Trump Abandons US Climate Leadership with Pact Withdrawal.“ Atlantic Council, November
5, 2019, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/trump-abandons-us-climate-leadership-with-pact-
withdrawal/.
253 Super Pollutants Act of 2019, H.R. 4143, 116th Congress, https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-
bill/4143/text.
254 Office of Sen. Susan Collins, “Collins, Murphy Announce Bipartisan Climate Bill to Combat Super Pollutants,” August
1, 2019, https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/collins-murphy-announce-bipartisan-climate-bill-combat-super-
pollutants.
255 Charles Hernick, “Time Is Now for Ambitious Approach to Clean Energy in Maryland,” CRES Forum, March 6, 2019,
https://cresforum.org/2019/03/opinion-time-is-now-for-ambitious-approach-to-clean-energy-in-maryland/.
256 Colin Finnegan, “Watch Our Paris Climate Agreement TV Ad,” CRES Forum, May 31, 2017, https://cresforum.
org/2017/05/video-watch-paris-climate-agreement-tv-ad/; and Colin Finnegan, “CRES Forum Statement on President
Trump’s Decision to Withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement,” CRES Forum, June 1, 2017, https://cresforum.
org/2017/06/cres-forum-statement-president-trumps-decision-withdraw-paris-climate-agreement/.
257 Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, “CRES Statement on the Green Real Deal,” March 22, 2019, https://www.
citizensfor.com/pressreleases/cres-statement-on-the-green-real-deal/.
258 Ross A. Marchand, “Green New Deal a Raw Deal for All Americans,” RealClearPolicy, April 23, 2019, https://www.
realclearpolicy.com/articles/2019/04/23/green_real_deal_a_raw_deal_for_all_americans_111175.html.
259 Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, “What Is the Green New Deal,” April 30, 2019, https://www.citizensfor.com/
what-is-gaetzs-green-real-deal/.
260 Dozier was treasurer for the Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions PAC (FEC identification number C00553974),
which existed from 2013 to January 2017, when it filed for and obtained FEC termination. Dozier is treasurer of its
successor, CRES PAC (FEC identification number C00625145), created in August 2016; both PACs are treated as a
single entity here in order to avoid confusion.
261 Hayden Ludwig, “Gay Marriage Activists Push Carbon Taxes on the GOP,” Capital Research Center, April 24, 2019,
https://capitalresearch.org/article/gay-marriage-activists-push-carbon-taxes-on-the-gop/.
262 U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, s.v. “Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions,” 2013–December 2019;
and Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, IRS Form 990, 2012–2017, part VII, section B.
263 Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, IRS Form 990, 2012–2017, part VII, Schedule O.
264 OpenSecrets, “LGBTQ Victory Fund.”
265 Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2017, part I, lines 25 and 30.
266 Chris Johnson, “Gill Action Fund ‘Shut Down’: Source,.” Washington Blade, November 10, 2017, https://www.
washingtonblade.com/2017/11/10/gill-action-fund-shut-down-sources/.
267 Andy Kroll, “Meet the Megadonor Behind the LGBTQ Rights Movement,” Rolling Stone, June 23, 2017, https://www.
rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/meet-the-megadonor-behind-the-lgbtq-rights-movement-193996/.
268 Kerry Eleveld, “The Gay Goodfellas,” Advocate, June 19, 2008, https://www.advocate.com/news/2008/06/19/gay-
goodfellas.
269 Civitas, “Joanne Schwartz,”https://civitaspublicaffairs.com/team/joanne-schwartz/; John Tomasic, “Appealing to Better
Angels: A Q&A with Gay-Marriage Warrior Marc Solomon,” Colorado Independent, December 8, 2014, https://www.
coloradoindependent.com/2014/12/08/appealing-to-better-angels-a-qa-with-gay-marriage-warrior-marc-solomon/; and
State of Politics, “Cuomo Loses Grainger to Civitas,” https://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2012/04/cuomo-loses-grainger-
to-civitas/.

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 270 Chris Johnson, “Patrick Guerriero Leaves Republican Party,” Washington Blade, September 8, 2010, https://www.
washingtonblade.com/2010/09/08/patrick-guerriero-leaves-republican-party/.
271 Civitas, “Our People,” https://civitaspublicaffairs.com/#our-people.
272 Civitas, “Some of Our Clients,” https://civitaspublicaffairs.com/#our-clients.
273 U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, s.v. “Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.”
274 Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, “Legislative Opportunities to Advance Clean Energy,” January 10, 2020,
https://www.citizensfor.com/opportunities/.
275 OpenSecrets, “Client Profile: Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions,” lobbying expenditures, 2013–2019, https://
www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2018&id=D000069780.
276 FoundationSearch, s.v. “CRES Forum,” 2015–2017, http://www.foundationsearch.com/.
277 Federal Election Commission, “Reports Image Index for Committee ID: C00625145: CRES PAC.” https://docquery.fec.
gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00625145.
278 OpenSecrets, “Glossary of Terms,” s.v. “Independent Expenditures,” https://www.opensecrets.org/resources/learn/
glossary.php#Independent+Expenditures.
279 Ballotpedia, “John Faso,” https://ballotpedia.org/John_Faso, and “Chuck Grassley,” https://ballotpedia.org/Chuck_
Grassley.
280 OpenSecrets, “Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates,” https://www.
opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00625145&cycle=2016.
281 OpenSecrets, “Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions PAC Profile,” https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.
php?strID=C00625145&cycle=2018.
282 Roger Cohn, “A Conservative Who Believes That Climate Change Is Real,” Yale Environment 360, February 14, 2013,
https://e360.yale.edu/features/interview_bob_inglis_conservative_who_believes_climate_change_is_real.
283 Ben Geman, “Rep. Inglis: Voters Saw Me on ‘Satan’s Side’ of Climate Change Debate,” The Hill, November 11, 2010,
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/130351-inglis-says-voters-saw-satans-side-in-his-climate-views
284 Stephen Lacey, “Why Only 5,000 Voters Could Help Pass a New Republican Carbon Tax,” Greentech Media, July 24,
2018, https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/why-5000-voters-could-help-pass-a-gop-carbon-tax.
285 John Cook et al., “America Misled: How the Fossil Fuel Industry Deliberately Misled Americans About Climate
Change,” George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, October 2019, https://www.
climatechangecommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/America_Misled.pdf; and A. Leiserowitz
et al., “Climate Action Is Smart Politics in Six Swing States,” Climate Nexus Poling, 2019, https://www.
climatechangecommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ClimateNexus_Memo_Annual_Climate_Change_
State_Poll.pdf
286 Cook et al., “America Misled”; Leiserowitz et al., “Climate Action Is Smart Politics in Six Swing States.”
287 Brendan Pierson, “Exxon Mobil Scores Win in New York Climate Change Lawsuit,” Reuters, December 10, 2019,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-lawsuit/exxon-mobil-scores-win-in-new-york-climate-change-lawsuit-
idUSKBN1YE1ZU.
288 Joseph E. Aldy et al., “Considering a Carbon Tax: Frequently Asked Questions,” Resources, November 2, 2012, https://
www.resourcesmag.org/common-resources/considering-a-carbon-tax-frequently-asked-questions/#Q10; and RepublicEN,
“Carbon Tax FAQs,” https://www.RepublicEn.org/learn/carbon_tax_faq.
289 Brian Lin, “Former Republican Representative Speaks on Climate Change Proposal at College Republicans Event,” Rice
Thresher, February 26, 2020, https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2020/02/robert-inglis.
290 RP Siegel, “How a ‘RepublicEN’ Takes on the Right Flank on Climate,” GreenBiz, May 15, 2019, https://www.greenbiz.
com/article/how-RepublicEn-takes-right-flank-climate.
291 RepublicEn, “Carbon Tax FAQs.”
292 Erin Mundahl, “US Still Subsidizing Renewable Energy to the Tune of Nearly $7 Billion,” InsideSources, March 12,
2019, https://www.insidesources.com/us-still-subsidizing-renewable-energy-to-the-tune-of-nearly-7-billion/.

72 JULY 2021
 293 Katie Tubb, “Congress Should Keep Its Promise to End Energy Subsidies,” Daily Signal, March 6, 2019, https://www.
dailysignal.com/2019/03/06/congress-should-keep-its-promise-to-end-energy-subsidies/; and U.S. Congress, Joint
Committee on Taxation, “Estimated Budget Effects of Division P of Amendment #1 to the Senate Amendment to H.R.
2029,” December 16, 2015, https://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=4859.
294 RepublicEn, “Carbon Tax FAQs.”
295 Alex Isenstadt, “Inglis Is Latest Incumbent to Stumble,” Politico, June 9, 2010, https://www.politico.com/story/2010/06/
inglis-is-latest-incumbent-to-stumble-038296
296 Raise Wages, Cut Carbon Act of 2009, H.R. 2380, 111th Cong., https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hr2380.
297 Evan Lehmann, “Republicans Learn the Perils of Being Politically Incorrect on Climate Change,” New York Times,
November 22, 2010, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/11/22/22climatewire-republicans-
learn-the-perils-of-being-politic-3326.html.
298 James Rainey, “Bob Inglis, a Republican Believer in Climate Change, Is Out to Convert His Party,” NBC News,
September 20, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bob-inglis-republican-believer-climate-change-out-
convert-his-party-n912066; and Cohn, “A Conservative Who Believes That Climate Change Is Real”; Andrea Cooper,
“Bob Inglis Takes a Stand on Climate Change,” Sierra Club, October 13, 2016, https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2016-
6-november-december/feature/bob-inglis-takes-stand-climate-change; and Bob Inglis, “Conservative Climate Courage
(No, he’s not kidding.), TED Talk, November 2017, https://www.ted.com/talks/bob_inglis_conservative_climate_
courage_no_he_s_not_kidding.
299 Elizabeth Ouzts, “A Former Republican Congressman Changed His Mind on Climate Change. Can He Convince the
GOP to Follow Him?,” Energy News Network, November 25, 2019, https://energynews.us/2019/11/25/southeast/a-
former-republican-congressman-changed-his-mind-on-climate-change-can-he-convince-the-gop-to-follow-him/.
300 Brian Lin, “Former Republican Representative Speaks on Climate Change Proposal at College Republicans Event,” Rice
Thresher, February 26, 2020, https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2020/02/robert-inglis.
301 Sara Bernard, “Bob Inglis Sees Value in the Green New Deal—and He’s a Republican,” Crosscut, https://crosscut.com/
sponsored/bob-inglis-sees-value-green-new-deal-and-hes-republican.
302 Eric Connor, “Inglis Draws Parallels to Third Reich in Arguing for SC to Have GOP Presidential Primary,” Greenville
News, October 31, 2019, https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2019/10/31/bob-inglis-us-politics-similar-
third-reich-says-sc-needs-gop-primary/4083414002/
303 FoundationSearch, s.v. Recipient: “George Mason University” and Grant Description: “climate.” Note that these were
grants from known funders of similar causes, but cannot be traced directly to RepublicEn, since its budget and donors
are not publicly available.
304 FoundationSearch, s.v. Recipient: “George Mason University” and Grant Description: “climate.” Note that these were
grants from known funders of similar causes, but cannot be traced directly to RepublicEn, since its budget and donors
are not publicly available.
305 Benji Backer, Twitter, January 6, 2020, https://twitter.com/BenjiBacker; Benjamin (Benji) Backer, LinkedIn Corporation,
2020, http://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-benji-backer-763423126/; Benji Backer, “I Was the Only Republican
Witness at the Climate Change Congressional Hearing This Week—and I Feel Optimistic,” Independent, September
19, 2019, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/climate-change-greta-thungberg-us-trump-ilhan-omar-benji-
backer-a9112751.html.
306 National Audubon Society, IRS Form 990, 2018, Schedule I, p. 58, https://www.influencewatch.org/app/
uploads/2020/04/national-audubon-society-2018-form-990.pdf; and Hewlett Foundation, “Grants: American
Conservation Coalition Campus,” October 29, 2018, https://hewlett.org/grants/american-conservation-coalition-
campus-for-the-clean-energy-program/, archived at https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/12/Hewlett-
Foundation-2018-grant-to-ACC-Campus.-12.2019.pdf
307 American Conservation Coalition Campus, IRS Form 990-RZ, part I, line 1.
308 “We are indeed proud of ACC and ACC Campus’ growth, and especially that we have been able to accomplish so
much which keeping overhead low and using students and volunteer staff in 2017/18 to advance pro-environment
conversations with conservative millennials” [emphasis original]. Benjamin Backer, email, December 16, 2019.
309 American Conservation Coalition, “Join Our Team,” https://www.acc.eco/.

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 310 Colin Finnegan, “National Survey: Millennial GOP Voters Call on Republicans To Do More To Address Climate
Change; Encourage Acceleration of Clean Energy Production in U.S.,” Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum,
July 22, 2019; and Nick Sobczyk, “Republicans Solidify Energy Innovation Pitch,” E&E News, December 10, 2019,
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061770221.
311 Oliver Milman, “Political Polarization over Climate Crisis Has Surged Under Trump,” The Guardian, October 11, 2019,
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/11/political-polarisation-climate-crisis-trump.
312 American Conservation Coalition, “College Republican Clean Energy Coalition Expands to 30 States,” www.acc.eco/
cr-clean-energy-coalition.
313 American Conservation Coalition, “ACC 2018 Midterm Election Endorsements,” http://www.acc.eco/endorsements18.
314 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Memorandum of Understanding Between the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the American Conservation Coalition,” July 24, 2019, https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-07/
signed_mou_with_american_conservation_coalition_july242019_text_version.txt.
315 Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Benjamin Backer. “How to Depolarize the Climate Change Debate,” Fox News,
December 10, 2019, https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/cathy-mcmorris-rodgers-benji-backer-climate-change.
316 American Conservation Coalition, “Our Endorsements,” archived September 14, 2017, https://web.archive.org/
web/20170914013101/https://www.acc.eco/endorsements/.
317 American Conservation Coalition, “Our Founding Coalition,” archived September 14, 2017, https://web.archive.org/
web/20170914001446/https://www.acc.eco/founding-coalition/.
318 Danielle Butcher, “Ditch the Carbon Tax and Embrace Less Divisive Climate Change Solutions,” Washington Examiner,
August 8, 2019, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/ditch-the-carbon-tax-and-embrace-less-divisive-climate-
change-solutions.
319 Ronnie Thompson, “Active Forest Management Will Reverse the Trend of Intensifying Wildfires,” American
Conservation Coalition, August 16, 2018, https://www.acc.eco/blog/2018/8/16/active-forest-management-will-reverse-
the-trend-of-intensifying-wildfires.
320 Thompson, “Active Forest Management Will Reverse the Trend of Intensifying Wildfires.”
321 American Conservation Coalition, “Where We Stand on Important Issues,” https://www.acc.eco/platform.
322 Ronnie Thompson, “Let’s Stay Away from the Carbon Tax Debate,” American Conservation Coalition, August 13, 2018,
https://www.acc.eco/blog/2018/8/13/lets-stay-away-from-the-carbon-tax-debate.
323 Butcher, “Ditch the Carbon Tax and Embrace Less Divisive Climate Change Solutions.”
324 Karly Matthews, “Let’s Talk Legislation: The MARKET CHOICE Act Isn’t About Markets,” American Conservation
Coalition, October 14, 2019, https://www.acc.eco/blog/2019/10/14/lets-talk-legislation-the-market-choice-act-isnt-
about-markets.
325 Carbon Capture and Storage Association, “What Is CSS?,” http://www.ccsassociation.org/what-is-ccs/; and Carbon
Capture and Storage Association, “Storage,” http://www.ccsassociation.org/what-is-ccs/storage/.
326 Mario Lewis, “Comments of the Competitive Enterprise Institute,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 18, 2019,
https://cei.org/sites/default/files/MarloLewisComments03192019.pdf.
327 Jackson Blackwell and Bethany Bowra, “The USE IT Act Is a Step in the Right Direction,” American Conservation
Coalition, May 6, 2019, http://www.acc.eco/blog/2019/5/6/the-use-it-act-is-a-step-in-the-right-direction; and USE IT
Act., H.R.1166 and S. 383, 116th Cong,. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1166/text.
328 Karly Matthews, “Let’s Talk Legislation: The BEST Act Addresses Energy Storage,” American Conservation Coalition,
September 15, 2019, https://www.acc.eco/blog/2019/9/16/lets-talk-legislation-the-best-act-addresses-energy-storage;
BEST Act, S.1602, 116th Cong., https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1602; and Office of Sen.
Susan Collins, “Senators Collins, Heinrich Lead Bipartisan Group in Introducing Energy Storage Bill to Bolster
Renewables, Fight Climate Change,” May 22, 2019, https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senators-collins-heinrich-
lead-bipartisan-group-introducing-energy-storage-bill-bolster.
329 Congressional Budget Office, S. 1602, BEST Act, October 22, 2019, http://www.cbo.gov/publication/55752.
330 Theodoric Meyer, “Christmas Comes Early for K Street,” Politico, December 19, 2019, https://www.politico.
com/newsletters/politico-influence/2019/12/19/christmas-comes-early-for-k-street-783894; and OpenSecrets,
“Lobbying Firm Profile: Natural Resource Results LLC,” Firms, http://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/firms/
summary?cycle=2019&id=F224032.

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 331 U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, s.v. “American Conservation Coalition,” December 31, 2019, https://
soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=processSearchCriteria.
332 Benji Backer, “Benji Backer—20 Year-old Conservative Speaker and Blogger,” http://www.benjibacker.com/.
333 Earth & Water Law, “Brent Fewell,” https://earthandwatergroup.com/about-us/brent-fewell/.
334 Property and Environment Research Center, “Todd Myers,” https://www.perc.org/people/todd-myers/.
335 Property and Environment Research Center, “Holly Fretwell,” https://www.perc.org/people/holly-fretwell/.
336 Tom LoBianco, “Energy and Environment: New Chu Can’t Win,” Washington Times, February 24, 2009, https://
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/24/energy-environment-new-chu-cant-win/; and White House, “James L.
Connaughton,” https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/connaugton-bio.html.
337 ClearPath, “Jim Connaughton,” https://clearpath.org/about-us/jim-connaughton/.
338 American Conservation Coalition, “Board of Advisors,” https://www.acc.eco/board-of-advisors.
339 Slade Gordon, “Slade Gorton: Please, My Fellow Republicans, Follow the Facts,” Salt Lake Tribune, November 27, 2019,
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2019/11/27/slade-gorton-please-my/.
340 Katherine Skiba, “Rep. Bob Dold, An Illinois Republican, Backs Gun Control Bill,” Chicago Tribune, June 24, 2016,
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-bob-dold-gun-control-bill-20160624-story.html.
341 Elizabeth Daigneau, “This Millennial Is Helping a Major City Go Green,” Governing, October 2017, https://www.
governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-atlanta-sustainability-john-seydel.html.
342 Rainey Center, “Bishop Garrison,” https://raineycenter.org/bishop-garrison-bio/.
343 Fred Lambert, “Tesla Hosts a Party for New Energy Division of the Conservative Lobbying Powerhouse ALEC,”
Electrek, December 2, 2016, https://electrek.co/2016/12/02/tesla-hosts-a-party-for-new-energy-division-of-the-
conservative-lobbying-powerhouse-alec.
344 American Conservation Campus Coalition, IRS Form 1023, https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/01/
ACC-Campus-Form-1023.pdf and https://web.archive.org/web/20170914011551/https://www.acc.eco/board-of-
directors-1/.
345 American Conservation Coalition, IRS Form 990, 2018. part I, lines 12, 13, 18, and 22.
346 American Conservation Coalition, IRS Form 990-EZ. American Conservation Coalition Campus. 2018. part I, lines 9, 17.
347 American Conservation Coalition, IRS Form 990, 2018, Schedule B, https://www.influencewatch.org/app/
uploads/2020/01/American-Conservation-Coalition-Form-990-2018.pdf.
348 National Audubon Society, IRS Form 990, 2018, Schedule I, p. 58, https://www.influencewatch.org/app/
uploads/2020/04/national-audubon-society-2018-form-990.pdf.
349 American Conservation Coalition, IRS Form 1023, p. 15, https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2020/01/
American-Conservation-Coalition-Form-1023.pdf.
350 American Conservation Coalition, “Board of Advisors.”
351 National Audubon Society California, “Federal Judge Rules Audubon Lawsuit Against Trump Administration
May Proceed,” July 31, 2019, https://ca.audubon.org/news/federal-judge-rules-audubon-lawsuit-against-trump-
administration-may-proceed.
352 Hannah Waters, “U.S. Exit from Paris Climate Agreement Sets America on Lonely, Misbegotten Path,” National
Audubon Society, June 1, 2017, https://www.audubon.org/news/us-exit-paris-climate-agreement-sets-america-lonely-
misbegotten-path; and Hannah Waters. “Five Reasons Why Ditching the Clean Power Plan Is Shortsighted and
Reckless,” National Audubon Society, October 12, 2017, https://www.audubon.org/news/five-reasons-why-ditching-
clean-power-plan-shortsighted-and-reckless.
353 Hewlett Foundation, “Grants: American Conservation Coalition Campus. For the Clean Energy Program,” . 29 October,
2018, https://hewlett.org/grants/american-conservation-coalition-campus-for-the-clean-energy-program/, archived at
https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/12/Hewlett-Foundation-2018-grant-to-ACC-Campus.-12.2019.pdf.
354 American Conservation Coalition Campus, IRS Form 990-EZ, 2018, Schedule B, https://www.influencewatch.org/app/
uploads/2020/01/ACC-Campus-Form-990-EZ-2018.pdf.
355 ClearPath Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2014, part I, line 8.

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 356 Jim Morrill, “Jay Faison Hopes His Latest Start-up Can Change Minds on Climate Change,” Charlotte Observer, July
27, 2015, https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article28763269.html.
357 John Downey, “Jay Faison Seeks Partisan Path to Republican Support for Clean Energy,” Charlotte Business Journal,
March 8, 2016, https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/energy/2016/03/jay-faison-seeks-partisan-path-to-
republican.html.
358 Federal Election Commission, “ClearPath Action: Independent Expenditures,” https://www.fec.gov/data/independent-
expenditures/?committee_id=C00608943&two_year_transaction_period=2016&cycle=2016&data_type=processed&is_
notice=true.
359 See U.S. House of Representatives, “Lobbying Disclosures,” http://disclosures.house.gov.
360 Morrill, “Jay Faison Hopes His Latest Start-up Can Change Minds on Climate Change.”
361 Morrill, “Jay Faison Hopes His Latest Start-up Can Change Minds on Climate Change.”
362 FoundationSearch, s.v. “ClearPath Foundation & Foundation for the Carolinas,” http://www.foundationsearch.org/; and
ClearPath Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2014, part I, line 8.
363 Darren Goode, “Republican Pledges $175 Million to Push Party on Climate,” Politico, June 8, 2015, https://www.
politico.com/story/2015/06/republican-climate-change-jay-faison-118755.
364 Daniel Lauer, “Jay Faison and the ClearPath Foundation: Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing?” Capital Research Center, August
20, 2018, https://capitalresearch.org/article/jay-faison-and-the-clearpath-foundation-wolves-in-sheeps-clothing/.
365 Chris White, “Former Trump Official Suggests Exxon’s Exit from ALEC Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test,” Daily Caller, July
16, 2018, https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/16/trump-exxon-alec-test/.
366 Timothy Cama, “Meet the Man Who Is Trying to Change the GOP on Clean Energy,” The Hill, July 31, 2016, https://
thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/289618-meet-the-man-who-is-trying-to-change-the-gop-on-clean-energy.
367 Environmental Defense Fund, “Ideas That Take Off,” 2012 Annual Report, https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/
AR2012/ar2012_report_web.pdf.
368 FoundationSearch, s.v. “MacArthur Foundation,” http://www.FoundationSearch.org.
369 ecoAmerica, “American Climate Leadership Summit 2019,” http://ecoamerica.cvent.com/events/2019-american-climate-
leadership-summit/speakers-b00127cb5bcc495388181cfd27bccca6.aspx.
370 Lauer, “Jay Faison and the ClearPath Foundation.”
371 Cama, “Meet the Man Who Is Trying to Change the GOP on Clean Energy.”
372 Federal Election Commission, Individual Contributions, s.v. “Jay Faison,” https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-
contributions/?contributor_name=jay%20faison.
373 Politico, “Politico 50,” https://www.politico.com/magazine/politico50/2015/jay-faison.
374 Jay Faison. “I’m a Republican. I Want My Party to Tackle Climate Change,” Politico, July 19, 2015, https://www.
politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/a-gop-approachto-tackling-climate-change-120336; and Darren Goode,
“Republican Pledges $175 Million to Push Party on Climate,” Politico, June 8, 2015, https://www.politico.com/
story/2015/06/republican-climate-change-jay-faison-118755.
375 US Staff, “McKinsey & Company,” https://bearsofficialsstore.com/company/mckinsey__company/page37.
376 ecoAmerica, “American Climate Leadership Summit 2019.”
377 Politico, “Politico 50.”
378 Zachary Mider, “Jay Faison’s Expensive, Maddening Quest to Save the Planet (And the GOP),” Bloomberg, November
1, 2016, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-01/jay-faison-s-expensive-maddening-quest-to-save-the-
planet-and-the-gop.
379 Coral Davenport, “Conservative to Fund Republicans Who Back Climate Change Action,” New York Times, June 30,
2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/us/politics/jay-faison-republicans-elections-climate-change.html?referer=.
380 Rebecca Leber, “What’s the Real Deal With This GOP Megadonor Who’s Claimed He Wants Climate Action?,” Mother
Jones, November 5, 2018, https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/11/jay-faison-whats-the-real-deal-with-this-
gop-megadonor-whos-claimed-he-wants-climate-action/.
381 Leber. “What’s the Real Deal With This GOP Megadonor Who’s Claimed He Wants Climate Action?”

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 382 George David Banks, “‘Conservative’ Folly: How the Carbon Tax Undermines GOP Climate Policy,” The Hill. April
15, 2016, https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/276423-conservative-folly-how-the-carbon-tax-
undermines-gop.
383 Jim Rendon, “Filling a Void on the Right,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 11, 2020, https://www.philanthropy.
com/article/A-165-Million-Gift-Fuels-a/247996.
384 See U.S. House of Representatives, “Lobbying Disclosures.”
385 Mider, “Jay Faison’s Expensive Maddening Quest to Save the Planet (And the GOP).”
386 Rendon, “Filling a Void on the Right.”
387 Melanie Zanona, Anthony Adragna, and Eric Wolff, “Kevin McCarthy Faces Uneasy Right Flank over Climate Push,”
Politico, February 13, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/13/gop-climate-change-kevin-mccarthy-115025.
388 Rachel Frazin, “House Republicans Propose Carbon Capture and Sequestration Legislation,” The Hill, February
12, 2020, https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/482772-house-republicans-propose-carbon-capture-and-
sequestration.
389 Office of Sen. Susan Collins, “Senators Collins, Heinrich Lead Bipartisan Group in Introducing Energy Storage Bill to
Bolster Renewables, Fight Climate Change,” May 22, 2019, https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senators-collins-
heinrich-lead-bipartisan-group-introducing-energy-storage-bill-bolster.
390 OpenSecrets, “ClearPath Action Independent Expenditures,” 2016 and 2018 cycles, https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/
indexpend.php?cmte=C00608943&cycle=2018&txt=
391 OpenSecrets, “Rep. Garret Graves - Louisiana District 06,” https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/
contributors?cid=N00036135&cycle=2020&type=I; and Steven Mufson, “Are Republicans Coming out of ‘the Closet’
on Climate Change?,” Washington Post, February 4, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/can-
republicans-turn-over-a-new-leaf-on-climate-change/2020/02/03/6a6a6bd8-4155-11ea-aa6a-083d01b3ed18_story.html.
392 LinkedIn, “Marye Lord,” https://www.linkedin.com/in/marye-lord-884a303a/.
393 Energy Innovation Reform Project, “Samuel Thernstrom,” 2019, https://www.innovationreform.org/our-team/samuel-
thernstrom/.
394 LinkedIn, “Holly Welch Stubbing,” https://www.linkedin.com/in/hwelch/.
395 Benjamin J. Hulac, “Carbon-Free Nuclear Power in a Crisis Just When It’s Most Needed,” Roll Call, February 26, 2020,
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/02/26/carbon-free-nuclear-power-in-a-crisis-just-when-its-most-needed/.
396 Rendon, “Filling a Void on the Right.”
397 ClearPath Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2018, part I, lines 12, 13, 18, 22.
398 ClearPath Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2017, part I, line 13, Schedule I.
399 ClearPath Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2018, Schedule I.
400 ClearPath Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2018, Additional Data for part III, line 4a.
401 Hayden Ludwig, “Liberal-Funded Eco-Right Infiltrates CPAC—and the Conservative Movement,” Capital Research
Center, March 10, 2020, https://capitalresearch.org/article/liberal-funded-eco-right-infiltrates-cpac-and-the-conservative-
movement/.
402 Young Conservatives for Energy Reform, “Endorsements,” http://yc4er.org/about-us/endorsements/.
403 Joel Griffith, “Why Young “Conservatives” for Energy Reform Aren’t What They Seem,” Daily Signal, August 4, 2015,
https://www.dailysignal.com/2015/08/04/why-young-conservatives-for-energy-reform-arent-what-they-seem/; and
American Wind Energy Association, “Electricity Policy,” http://www.awea.org/policy-and-issues/electricity-policy.
404 Internal Revenue Service, “Tax Exempt Organization Search,” s.v. “Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends” and
“Young Conservatives for Energy Reform,” https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/tax-exempt-organization-search.
As of March 2020, only the groups’ IRS determination letters are available. However, they’ve had a joint Facebook page
since 2012.
405 Joel Griffith, “Why Young “Conservatives” for Energy Reform Aren’t What They Seem,” Daily Signal, August 4,
2015, https://www.dailysignal.com/2015/08/04/why-young-conservatives-for-energy-reform-arent-what-they-seem/;
and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2018, Schedule I, https://www.influencewatch.org/
app/uploads/2020/03/Hewlett-2018-Grant-to-YCER.png. Foundation Search, s.v. “Young Conservatives for Energy
Reform,” https://www.foundationsearch.com/.

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 406 Young Conservatives for Energy Reform, “About Us,” http://yc4er.org/about-us/.
407 Amanda Little, “From the Christian Coalition to Climate Change: One Conservative Activist’s Story,” Grist Magazine,
October 5, 2015, https://grist.org/climate-energy/from-the-christian-coalition-to-climate-change-one-conservative-
activists-story/.
408 YCCD’s bio (as of March 2020) on Twitter describes it as “a new advocacy organization backing the Baker-Shultz plan; a
pro-growth, pro-innovation climate solution.” Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends, Twitter, https://twitter.com/
yccdaction.
409 George P. Schultz and James A. Baker III, “A Conservative Answer to Climate Change,” Wall Street Journal, February 8,
2017, https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-conservative-answer-to-climate-change-1486512334.
410 Chris Johnson, “Carbon Dividends: A Plan for Republicans on Climate Change,” RealClearEnergy, January 26,
2021, https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2021/01/26/carbon_dividends_a_plan_for_republicans_on_climate_
change_657957.html.
411 Sharon Swan, “A Carbon Tax Will Aid Climate Change,” Redlands Community News, April 14, 2021, https://www.
redlandscommunitynews.com/opinion/commentary/a-carbon-tax-will-aid-climate-change/article_d698db00-9e01-11eb-
b1b0-8ba992a9e508.html.
412 Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends, “Our Team,” http://www.yccdaction.org/our-team.
413 Young Conservatives for Energy Reform, “Michele Combs: Founder and Chairman of the Young Conservatives for
Energy Reform,” http://yc4er.org/leadership/; and FoundationSearch, “Young Conservatives for Energy Reform,” http://
www.foundationsearch.org/.
414 Amanda Little, “From the Christian Coalition to Climate Change: One Conservative Activist’s Story,” Grist Magazine,
October 5, 2015, https://grist.org/climate-energy/from-the-christian-coalition-to-climate-change-one-conservative-
activists-story/.
415 Yale Climate Connections, “Pro-Life Republican Michele Combs’ Journey to Energy Advocacy,” March 25, 2019, http://
www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/03/a-pro-life-republicans-journey-to-energy-advocacy/.
416 Alex Epstein, “The Truth About Coal and Mercury,” Forbes, November 24, 2015, http://www.forbes.com/sites/
alexepstein/2015/11/24/the-truth-about-coal-and-mercury/.
417 William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, IRS Form 990, 2018, Schedule I, https://www.influencewatch.org/app/
uploads/2020/03/Hewlett-2018-Grant-to-YCER.png.
418 Hayden Ludwig, “Liberal-Funded Eco-Right Infiltrates CPAC-and the Conservative Movement,” Capital Research
Center, March 20, 2020, https://capitalresearch.org/article/liberal-funded-eco-right-infiltrates-cpac-and-the-conservative-
movement/; and Hewlett Foundation, “American Conservation Coalition Campus: For the Clean Energy Program,”
October 29, 2018, https://hewlett.org/grants/american-conservation-coalition-campus-for-the-clean-energy-program/.
419 Nature Conservancy, “Private Lands Conservation,” 2020, http://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/how-we-
work/private-lands-conservation/.
420 Christopher Webb and Zubair Zakir, “What the Paris Agreement Means for Carbon Pricing and Natural Climate
Solutions,” Nature Conservancy, March 2019, https://www.nature.org/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/Carbon_
Pricing_NCS_White_Paper.pdf.
421 Nature Conservancy, “The Science of Sustainability,” October 14, 2018, https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-
insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/.
422 Nature Conservancy, “Companies Investing in Nature,” 2020, http://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/how-
we-work/working-with-companies/companies-investing-in-nature1/.
423 Nature Conservancy, “Working with Companies,” 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20160923230714/http://www.
nature.org/about-us/working-with-companies/businesscouncil/ilc-main-content.xml. This is unconfirmed. However, the
“Business Council” page on TNC’s website is now only accessible via web archive.
424 Justin Gillis, “Group Earns Oil Income Despite Pledge on Drilling,” New York Times, August 3, 2014, https://www.
nytimes.com/2014/08/04/science/group-earns-oil-income-despite-pledge-on-drilling.html.
425 Gillis, “Group Earns Oil Income Despite Pledge on Drilling.”
426 Gillis, “Group Earns Oil Income Despite Pledge on Drilling.”
427 Gillis, “Group Earns Oil Income Despite Pledge on Drilling.”

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 428 Naomi Klein, “Time for Big Green to Go Fossil Free,” The Nation, May 20, 2013, http://www.thenation.com/article/
archive/time-big-green-go-fossil-free/.
429 Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, “IRS to Audit Nature Conservancy from Inside,” Washington Post, January
17, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2004/01/17/irs-to-audit-nature-conservancy-from-
inside/40cf20c3-50c8-4c8d-93bb-48374acd6915/.
430 Stephens and Ottaway, “IRS to Audit Nature Conservancy from Inside.”
431 Stephens and Ottaway, “IRS to Audit Nature Conservancy from Inside.”
432 Peter Elkind, “The Billion-Dollar Loophole,” ProPublica, December 20, 2017, http://www.propublica.org/article/
conservation-easements-the-billion-dollar-loophole.
433 Nature Conservancy, “New Study Finds Nature Is Vital to Beating Climate Change,” October 15, 2017, http://www.
nature.org/en-us/newsroom/new-study-finds-nature-is-vital-to-beating-climate-change/.
434 Webb and Zakir, “What the Paris Agreement Means for Carbon Pricing and Natural Climate Solutions.”
435 Nature Conservancy, “Statement by the Nature Conservancy Regarding the Climate Leadership Council’s Carbon
Dividends Plan,” February 7, 2017, https://www.nature.org/en-us/newsroom/statement-by-the-nature-conservancy-
regarding-the-climate-leadership-council/.
436 Phuong Le, “Nature Conservancy Weights Potential Carbon Tax Measure in Washington,” Spokesman-Review (Spokane,
WA), June 13, 2017, https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/jun/13/nature-conservancy-weighs-potential-carbon-
tax-mea/; and Hal Bernton, “Washington State Voters Reject Carbon-Fee Initiative,” Seattle Times, November 7, 2018,
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/voters-rejecting-carbon-fee-in-first-day-returns/.
437 SWAP Act, H.R.4058, 116th Cong. (2019), https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/4058/text.
438 Raise Wages, Cut Carbon Act, H.R. 3966, 116th Cong. (2019), https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-
bill/3966/text.
439 Nature Conservancy, “Playbook for Climate Action,” http://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/
playbook-for-climate-action/.
440 Helen Avery, “Blue Bonds Get Boost from TNC and World Bank,” Euromoney, April 24, 2019, www.euromoney.com/
article/b1f3p8wqt3td31/blue-bonds-get-boost-from-tnc-and-world-bank.
441 U.S. Senate, Lobbying Database, s.v. “Nature Conservancy,” 2016–2020 (Q1), https://soprweb.senate.gov/index.
cfm?event=processSearchCriteria.
442 Nature Conservancy, “The Nature Conservancy Announces Jennifer Morris as CEO,” March 18, 2020, http://www.
nature.org/en-us/newsroom/new-ceo-jennifer-morris/.
443 Adam Wernick, “A #MeToo Scandal Engulfs The Nature Conservancy,” The World, July 23, 2019, https://www.pri.org/
stories/2019-07-23/metoo-scandal-engulfs-nature-conservancy.
444 Zack Colman, “Nature Conservancy CEO Tercek Exits as Shake-up Widens,” Politico, June 7, 2019, https://www.
politico.com/story/2019/06/07/nature-conservancy-ceo-tercek-exits-as-shake-up-widens-1517846.
445 FoundationSearch, “Nature Conservancy,” http://www.FoundationSearch.org.
446 Nature Conservancy, IRS Form 990, 2017 (covers through June 2018), part VII.
447 Nature Conservancy, IRS Form 990, 2017 (covers through June 2018), part VII.
448 Nature Conservancy, IRS Form 990, 2017 (covers through June 2018), part I, lines 12, 13, 18, and 22.
449 Nature Conservancy, IRS Form 990, 2019 (covers through June 2019), part I, lines 12, 13, 18, and 22.
450 Mina Kimes, “Bad to the Bone: A Medical Horror Story,” Fortune, September 18, 2012, http://fortune.
com/2012/09/18/bad-to-the-bone-a-medical-horror-story/.
451 Hayden Ludwig, “Swiss Billionaire Gave Millions to Eric Holder’s Partisan Gerrymandering Group,” Capital Research
Center, May 10, 2021, https://capitalresearch.org/article/swiss-billionaire-gave-millions-to-eric-holders-partisan-
gerrymandering-group/.
452 FoundationSearch, “Nature Conservancy,” http://www.FoundationSearch.org.
453 FoundationSearch, “Nature Conservancy,” http://www.FoundationSearch.org.
454 Nature Conservancy, IRS Form 990, 2017 (covers through June 2018), Schedule I.

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 455 Data gathered via multiple Form 990s and Foundation Search. In 2018, CEN’s total revenues were roughly $3.1 million;
that same year, Energy Foundation granted CEN $1.7 million.
456 Alliance for Market Solutions, “About,” https://amsresearch.org/about/; and Alex Flint, LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.
com/in/alex-flint-0a294574/.
457 Alex Brill, ed., Carbon Tax Policy: A Conservative Dialogue on Pro-Growth Opportunities, Alliance for Market
Solutions, 2017, https://amsresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Carbon-Tax-Policy-A-Conservative-Dialogue-on-
Pro-Growth-Opportunities.pdf.
458 Andrew Restuccia. “Republicans for Environmental Protection Rebrands,” The Hill, April 2, 2012, https://thehill.com/
policy/energy-environment/219507-republicans-for-environmental-protection-rebrands.
459 Frank James, “Green GOP Group Caught Between ‘Rock and a Hard Place,’” NPR, April 22, 2014, https://www.npr.
org/sections/itsallpolitics/2014/04/22/305957364/green-gop-group-caught-between-rock-and-a-hard-place.
460 ConservAmerica, “Priorities,” https://www.conservamerica.org/priorities; and Bob Dold, Nan Hayworth, Tina Beattie,
“The Conservative Carbon Tax: Right Idea, Wrong Tool for Addressing Climate Change,” Ensia, March 13, 2017,
https://ensia.com/voices/zero-emissions-energy-tax-credit/.
461 Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, “Accomplishments,” http://www.conservativestewards.org/accomplishments/.
462 Erin Mundahl, “Conservatives for Clean Energy Backed by Liberal Interest Groups,” InsideSources, 2017, https://www.
insidesources.com/energy-foundation-funds-conservatives-for-clean-energy/.
463 Kristi E. Swartz, “Conservative Renewables Advocate Faces Ethics Complaint,” Energywire, December 21, 2018, https://
www.eenews.net/energywire/2018/12/21/stories/1060110313.
464 Christian Coalition, “America’s Path to Progress,” http://www.cc.org/americas_path_to_progress.
465 Michael F. Haverluck, “Millions Spent to Sell Evangelicals on ‘Climate Change’” OneNewsNow.com, June 21, 2015,
https://www.onenewsnow.com/church/2015/06/21/millions-spent-to-sell-evangelicals-on-climate-change.
466 Richard Larsen, “Evangelical Environmental Network,” http://users.clas.ufl.edu/bron/PDF–Christianity/Larsen–
EvangelicalEnviroNetwork.pdf.
467 Eli Lehrer, “a Carbon Tax Won’t Happen Without Some Give from the Left,” R Street, October 31, 2014, https://www.
rstreet.org/2014/10/31/a-carbon-tax-wont-happen-without-some-give-from-the-left/.
468 FoundationSearch, s.v. “R Street,” November 15, 2019.
469 Hewlett Foundation, “R Street Institute: For the Cyber Program,” November 12, 2018, https://hewlett.org/grants/r-
street-institute-for-the-cyber-program/; Hewlett Foundation, “R Street Institute: For Advancing a Free-Market Clean
Energy Agenda,” November 20, 2018, https://hewlett.org/grants/r-street-institute-for-advancing-a-free-market-clean-
energy-agenda-2/; Hewlett Foundation, “R Street Institute: For Support of the Governance Project,” March 19, 2018,
https://hewlett.org/grants/r-street-institute-for-support-of-the-governance-project-0/; and Hewlett Foundation, “R Street
Institute: For Support of a Free-Market Research Project for Birth Control Access,” June 7, 2018, https://hewlett.org/
grants/r-street-institute-for-support-of-a-free-market-research-project-for-birth-control-access/.
470 PR Newswire, “Western Conservative Group Outlines Trump’s Possible Conservation Agenda,” https://www.prnewswire.
com/news-releases/western-conservative-group-outlines-trumps-possible-conservation-agenda-300357439.html.

80 JULY 2021
 NOVEMBER 2020
EDITED BY
JON RODEBACK

MAPPING SOROS’S
“PHILANTHROPY”
AT HOME AND ABROAD