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“In reality, an elite group of left-wing million-aires and billionaires, which this report refers toas the ‘Billionaires Club,’ that directs and con-trols the far-left environmental movement,which in turn controls major policy decisionsand lobbies on behalf of the U.S. Environmen-tal Protection Agency (EPA).”—U.S. SENATECOMMITTEE ONENVIRON-MENT& PUBLICWORKS, MINORITY REPORT

A s a hydrologist, Dr. Jay Lehr washeavily involved in establishing theEPA in 1971 as well as writing some

of the legislation passed by Congress toimplement the EPA’s mandate to protect theenvironment. By 1980, the laws were work-ing to protect the environment with minimaldisruption to the economy. Beginning in 1981, however, he observed

that liberal environmental activist groupsrealized the EPA could be used to advancetheir political agenda by “regulating virtuallyall human activities regardless of theirimpact on the environment.” Lehr, now sci-ence director for the Heartland Institutewarns: “Since that time, not a single environ-mental law or regulation has been passed thatbenefitted either the environment or society.”

(Italics added)“Today,” laments Lehr, “EPA is all but a

wholly owned subsidiary of liberal activistgroups.” Its regulations “account for abouthalf of the nearly $2 trillion-a-year cost ofcomplying with all national regulations inthe U.S.” Politicians love it because they canwin votes by professing they are the protec-tors of the public health and wildlife. Evenmore significant, companies use “regulationsto handicap competitors or help themselvesto public subsidies.” In short, the EPA hasbecome a tool for special interests to manip-ulate self-serving environmental police at theexpense of the environment and people.

Policy by Special Interest Paul Driessen, a Washington-based environ-mental policy analyst for CFACT (Commit-tee for a Constructive Tomorrow), has foundthat “U.S. environmental activist groups are a$13 billion-a-year industry.” While perhaps abit high, it nonetheless shatters the poor-boyimage that environmental organizations suc-cessfully promote through the mainstreammedia or in their shiny pamphlets. Environ-mentalism is big business, a juggernaut thatuses false propaganda and pseudoscience to

deceive millions of ignorant Americans.Those millions who are innocently deceivedbecome the shock troops to shut down busi-ness; especially the fossil fuel industry. Books have been written (and ignored)

on some of the inside workings of the Greenjuggernaut, but it wasn’t until the U.S. SenateCommittee on Environment and PublicWorks published a very well-documentedMinority Report that the magnitude of thistruly destructive force became apparent. The92-page report, entitled “The Chain of Envi-ronmental Command: How a Club of Bil-lionaires and Their Foundations Control theEnvironmental Movement and Obama’sEPA,” shows that much of this money comesfrom a select few within the so-called onepercent—the very rich group that progres-sive environmentalists love to hate. Their wealth is staggering. Just 10 out of

more than 200 of these foundations haveassets over $23 billion. Most of it is used tocontrol the agenda for environmentalactivism by only funding high-priorityissues. Then there are the environmentalactivist groups. Just 15 of the hundreds (orthousands) of these nonprofit groups hadassets of $7.9 billion in 2012. Together with

Green Billionaire$How rich left-wingers control U.S. environmental policy.

By Michael S. Coffman, Ph.D.

“It’s easy being green with Grandpa’s foundation.”© JOHN BARDWELL

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the foundations that fund much of theirdirty work, the total assets of just these feworganizations are more than $31 billion. Ron Arnold, executive vice president of

the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise,has done in-depth analyses of these facts fordecades and has written numerous booksand articles detailing his findings. Of the top100 nonprofit foundations, Arnold found“more than $80 billion...in giving [by foun-dations] to environmental recipients from2000 to 2012.”Paul Driessen adds, “The liberal founda-

tions that give targeted grants to Big Greenoperations have well over $100 billion attheir disposal.” Add to that the fact that mostof green activism has very little overhead.Driessen’s estimated $13 billion that fundsgreen activism annually is almost entirelydirected to stopping whatever business activ-ities these attack dogs are paid by the foun-dations to war against that year. Says theSenate report: these “environmental activistorganizations serve as the face of the move-ment and provide cover for where the secre-tive foundations direct their resources.” Oneof these donors, the Sea Change Foundation,is a U.S. foundation wholly owned by KleinLtd., a foreign company “attempting to effectpolitical change” in the United States.The Senate Report warns: “The green

revolving door at EPA has become a valuableasset for the far left and their wealthy donors.In addition to providing insider access toimportant policy decisions, it appearsactivists now at EPA also funnel governmentmoney through grants to their formeremployers and colleagues.”It’s a David-and-Goliath story, but not in

the way you might expect. In just one com-parison, Ron Arnold found that the “Ameri-can Petroleum Institute’s (API) IRS Form990 for the most recent year showed a paltry$237.9 million in assets.” Asset for asset, “BigOil is outgunned by orders of magnitude.”While API has to hire lobbyists, public rela-tions firms and support groups, Big Greenorganizations, notes Arnold, have “millionsof high-demographic members ready to bemobilized as needed” at no cost. It’s a David-and-Goliath battle all right, but contrary toconventional wisdom, Big Oil is David whileBig Green is Goliath. Try to explain that toalmost anyone on the street and they willcall you a liar.Three very prominent organizations

play key roles as facilitators: the Environ-mental Grantmakers Association, the

Democracy Alliance, and the Divest/Investmovement. The EGA was created and fund-ed by the Rockefeller Family Fund until2007, when it became autonomous. Today,Arnold says it is made up of more than 200private foundations which meet to deter-mine what issues each foundation will beresponsible for funding in the future.Although dated, the 1992 meeting of theEGA was taped and quietly purchased by

Arnold’s Center for Free Enterprise. Most ofthe discussions in these closed meetings aremundane and boring. Yet, others graphicallydescribe how certain industries must bedestroyed, along with the people employedby them.

The EPA Revolving DoorActivist groups encourage their “far-left envi-ronmental activist” members, especially theirleaders, to take jobs in the EPA and other fed-eral agencies and then work hand in handwith their former colleagues in far left envi-ronmental groups. The Senate Report warns:“The green revolving door at EPA hasbecome a valuable asset for the far-left andtheir wealthy donors. In addition to provid-ing insider access to important policy deci-sions, it appears activists now at EPA alsofunnel government money through grants totheir former employers and colleagues.” Remember Al Armendariz? (See photo.)

There is deliberate, illegal collaborationbetween EPA employees and environmentalgroups. Among many dozens of corruptionexamples, the Senate report discovereddamning emails (apparently the hard drivedidn’t fail fast enough) that clearly showed ascheme whereby the Rockefeller FamilyFund agreed to pay the salary of one ShaliniVajjhala to work at the White House Councilon Environmental Quality. According tointernal EPA documents, this arrangementbenefited the agency as Vajjhala would havethe opportunity to, “stake our claim there.”“Our” is the EPA Office of International andTribal Affairs and “there” is the White House.

FOUNDATION ASSETS 2012David and Lucile Packard Foundation $6,299,952,716Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation $5,697,258,026Heinz Family Foundation $ 117,095,904Marisla Foundation $ 51,482,397Park Foundation $ 366,405,008Rockefeller Brothers Foundation $ 800,956,943Schmidt Family Foundation $ 46,542,559Sea Change Foundation $ 124,350,435Walton Family Foundation $1,999,066,369William and Flora Hewlett Foundation $7,735,371,139TOTAL $23,238,481,496

Remember Al Armendariz? (See “EPA’s TidalWave,” RANGE, Summer 2013.) He was forced toresign from the EPA on April 30, 2012, after hesaid he used the Roman technique of “crucifying”the first citizen when arriving in a new town—inthis case an oil company—in order to get the restto fall in line. Prior to his appointment to the EPAin late 2009, Armendariz worked for a majorenvironmental leftist group, the EnvironmentalIntegrity Project (EIP’s 2009 income was $2.5million from foundation grants and services), andwas an expert witness for the Sierra Club. Once inthe EPA, he immediately hired two moreattorneys from EIP. He is now senior campaignrepresen tative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal.

Assets for just 10 of approximately 200 foundations totaled over $23 billion in 2012. These assets are usedto fund and direct hundreds of radical environmental organizations. SOURCE: U.S. Senate

EPA PH

OTO

BY G.J. M

CCAR

THY

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Then EPA administrator Lisa Jacksonenthusiastically stated in another email, “Ithink it’s a fine idea and can only help EPA inthe long run.” Diane Thompson, her chief ofstaff, affirming by writing: “My thoughtsexactly. The more inside connections thebetter.” (Underline original.) After Vajjhalacycled through the White House and EPA,she returned to the Rockefeller Family Fund.Perhaps not surprisingly, Vajjhala is also acontributor to the Huffington Post, which isheavily funded by another foundation in thiscomplex web of conspirators, the ParkFoundation.

In yet another connection, Nancy Kete, amanaging director at the Rockefeller Foun-dation and former employee of the EPA, isalso the wife of John Beale, who is now inprison for fraud committed while workingfor the EPA. (See “Secret Science,” p. 62.) Itwas Beale who used highly questionable“secret science” to constantly justify ever-restrictive ozone and particulate matter stan-dards that are now costing the United Statesup to a trillion dollars a year. In yet anotherillustration of the tight relationships betweenthe administration, the billionaires club andthe EPA, President Barack Obama appointedKete to the National Commission on the BPDeepwater Horizon Oil Spill and OffshoreDrilling.

A review of senior Obama EPA officials

makes clear that the agency actually sought“individuals with ties to large environmen-tal groups for key leadership positions.”These groups are heavily rewarded by “gar-nering the lion’s share of donations fromthe billionaires club.” It is so bad that in2009 there was a term coined within theEPA, “NRDC mafia,” because so many keypositions throughout the federal govern-ment came from the Natural ResourcesDefense Council.

Direct Media PropagandaAs with so much else, the media is complicitin hiding the magnitude of the deceptionand the influence the billionaires club has onenvironmental goals of the radical greengroups and on the policy formulation of theEPA. Warns the report: “The failure to open-ly acknowledge this force and the silence ofthe media with whom they coordinate fur-ther emphasize the fact that until today, thebillionaire’s club operated in relative obscuri-ty hidden under the guise of philanthropy.”

The billionaires club hides its efforts far“from the political stage.” Its efforts are“deliberate, meticulous, and intended tomislead the public,” claims the Senate report.“What is clear is that these individuals andfoundations go to tremendous lengths to avoidpublic association with the far-left environ-mental movement they so generously fund.”

(Italics added.)These foundations also have an extensive

propaganda network in the U.S. media. TheNew York-based Park Foundation is just oneexample of dozens mentioned in the Senatereport. The Park Foundation is run by Ade-laide Park Gormer, who inherited hermoney from her father. She viscerally hatesfracking. She believes it is evidence of “rapeand pillage” of the earth by mankind. Shefunded hundreds of thousands of dollars ofresearch by ecologist Robert Howarth ofCornell University allegedly “proving” frack-ing the “Marcellus Shale produces moregreenhouse gas emissions than coal mining.”Like every other study done to prove frack-ing is harmful to the environment,Howarth’s study was fully discredited byother scientists, even other environmental-ists. Facts don’t matter, however. Emotion iseverything.

The Park Foundation also gives grants tomedia outlets like the Huffington Post whichfaithfully promote the false information. Inthis example, using the name Cornell Uni-versity provides the credentials needed tomake it believable to the millions of averageenvironmentally concerned Americans. Forinstance, Park awarded Yes! magazine a$50,000 grant which then referred toHowarth as “co-author of last year’s land-mark Cornell University study, which estab-lished the staggering greenhouse-gasfootprint of fracking.”

This kind of deception is the norm and itinvolves dozens, if not hundreds, of mediaoutlets. Americans’ desire for clean air andwater in a healthy environment predisposesthem to be literally brainwashed. Theybelieve evil corporations are destroying plan-et earth. They are deluded into writing lettersto politicians, heavily promoting environ-mental candidates in elections, joiningprotests, and otherwise doing all they can tostop or destroy perfectly safe business activi-ties that greatly improve the health and safe-ty of the American people as well as theenvironment. Most disturbing is that these“innocent” Americans sacrifice their moneyand their time, all while enriching the pock-ets of the Billionaires Club—often the verypeople and companies they think they arestopping. The time is overdue to expose thiscorruption. Once exposed, the second step isto get rid of the incredibly corrupt EPA. ■

To read some of the transcripts, go tohttp://www.undueinfluence.com/ega.htm.

ECO-ORGANIZATION ASSETS 2012American Lung Association $ 31,049,040BlueGreen Alliance $ 3,179,681Center for American Progress $ 12,282,335Earthjustice (formerly Sierra Club Legal Def. Fund) $ 58,945,673Environmental Defense Fund $208,751,208Environmental Integrity Project $ 1,744,942Greenpeace $ 15,313,140League of Conservation Voters Education Fund $ 7,545,946National Audubon Society $450,334,791National Wildlife Federation $ 66,456,891Natural Resources Defense Council $268,165,564Sierra Club Foundation $ 98,974,748The Nature Conservancy $6,168,924,112Union of Concerned Scientists $ 8,195,448World Wildlife Fund $450,932,452TOTAL $7,850,795,971

Environmental organizations are well heeled with just 15 of the hundreds or thousands of organizationstotaling nearly $8 billion in assets. SOURCE: U.S. Senate

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