Who Puts Up The Cash To Fund Climate Denialism?

Last cycle, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, one of the biggest funders of Climate Change deniers in Congress gave 82% of their contributions to Republicans and just 18% to Democrats. That's a big change from a decade ago when there were far more openly corrupt Democrats eager for bribes from groups like the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association as it was then known. Back then, corrupt Democrats were gobbling up 46% of their sewer contributions. Many of those Democrats-- like Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Leonard Boswell (Blue Dog-IA), Don Cazayoux (Blue Dog-LA), Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN), Rick Boucher (VA), Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR), Nick Lampson (Blue Dog-TX), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS), Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA), Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL), Charles Melancon (Blue Dog-LA), John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)... have been defeated, died or switched parties.

Last cycle the only Democrats taking their bribes were Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR), Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA), Cedric Richmond (New Dem-LA), Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Marc Veasey (New Dem-TX) and Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA).

Last week, the NY Times published a piece by Lisa Friedman and Hirono Tabuchi, Following The Money That Undermines Climate Science trying to track the money undermining Climate Science and funding climate denial. "Many of the think tanks that continue to question established climate science," they wrote, "are nonprofit groups that aren’t required to disclose their donors. That’s true of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market research organization in Washington that disputes that climate change is a problem. So, the program for a recent gala organized by the institute, which included a list of corporate donors, offered a rare glimpse into the money that makes the work of these think tanks possible."

Among the sponsors for the Game of Thrones-themed gala were groups that have long been aligned with fossil fuel interests, including the Charles Koch Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. The fuel and petrochemical group, which lobbies for gasoline producers, pushed to weaken car fuel economy standards, one of the Obama administration’s landmark climate policies.

But the program for the event, obtained by the New York Times and verified by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, also included major corporations, like Google and Amazon, that have made their commitment to addressing climate change a key part of their corporate public relations strategies.

Those companies both signed a pledge of support for the Paris Agreement and joined a coalition that vowed to stick to the climate pact’s goals after President Trump announced the United States would withdraw from it.

A Google representative said the tech giant’s support of the gala did not necessarily mean it supports climate denial. “We’ve been extremely clear that Google’s sponsorship doesn’t mean that we endorse that organization’s entire agenda,” said a spokesman for the tech giant, whose manager for outreach was listed on the dinner’s host committee.

A spokeswoman for Amazon, where employees have been urging the company’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, to adopt a climate change policy, said the company “may not agree with all of the positions of each organization,” but believed that its $15,000 contribution to the event “will help advance policy objectives aligned with our interests.”

Analysts at C.E.I. do advocate on a wide range of policies, including opposing antitrust laws, an issue dear to tech and telecom giants as well as other major corporations.

Still, the organization is arguably best known for its work disputing the science of climate change, and the corporations’ support comes at a time when the think tank has played an outsized role in the Trump administration. The head of the environment program at the C.E.I., Myron Ebell, led the Trump administration’s transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency, spearheaded the opposition to the Paris Agreement.

How does the C.E.I. itself view corporate America’s support? In a statement, the organization’s president, Kent Lassman, was clear. The institute asks support from those, he said, that “share our values.”

Among the big sponsors of the event were Marathon Petroleum, which openly funds Climate Denialism. Last cycle, all of their biggest investments in Congress were for Republicans but they spent on some notoriously crooked Democrats as well:

• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- $11,500
• Tony Cardenas (New Dem-CA)- $10,000
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)- $10,000
• Cedric Richmond (New Dem-LA)- $9,500
• Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA)- $7,500
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)- $7,500
• Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)- $6,500

Other sponsors of the Climate Denial dinner included Verizon, Phillip Morris, Uber, the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Association of Broadcasters and Altria.