The Climate Investigations Center (CIC), a database of energy company documents that the climate activist community has hailed for publishing internal industry communications, has its own hypocritical lack of transparency. New reporting by the Free Beacon reveals that Kert Davies, CIC’s founder and director, is funding his database through a series of opaque passthrough organizations supported by billionaire funders at the heart of the “Exxon Knew” and climate litigation campaigns.

Darker than Dark Money

CIC is not registered as a non-profit with the IRS, despite describing itself as “a not-for-profit association of writers and advocates” in a 2016 complaint filed with the Department of Energy over the production of a Freedom of Information Act request. In addition, the organization does not produce annual reports, list its funders, or disclose its parent organization. In 2018, the New York Times described CIC as an “allied group” of Greenpeace, which is “supported by anonymous donors seeking to limit the risks of climate change.” CIC’s lack of transparency and the anonymity of its donors and monetary support make this organization darker than dark money.

CIC, Greenpeace, Our Next Economy, oh my!

Instead of registering as a nonprofit, CIC lives under the parent entity Our Next Economy, according to reporting by the Free Beacon. Our Next Economy was formed in 2009 by John Passacantando, a former colleague of Davies at Greenpeace, and it now serves as a passthrough organization for CIC. Davies and Passacantando first began working together in 1998 at Ozone Action and moved to Greenpeace together in 2000.

CIC’s decision to utilize Our Next Economy as a passthrough organization—rather than register as a nonprofit of their own to receive direct funding from groups like the Rockefeller Family Fund, Tides Foundation, or even the Sustainable Markets Foundation—reveals their intention to obscure their funders, according to Hayden Ludwig, an investigative researcher with the Capital Research Center:

“If CIC is really an investigations group, then you think they’d be OK with being a nonprofit…So going through the LLC shows me that they’re really intent on hiding their money lest they come under fire from the press.”

The funders hiding behind the curtain

Between September 2010 and August 2017, the Sustainable Markets Foundation directed nearly $5 million to Our Next Economy through payments to an independent contractors for “program coordination,” rather than traditional grants. From 2010-2013, these payments ranged from $180,000 to $320,000. However, these grants tripled the year CIC was formed and now exceed $1.5 million per year.

A 2014 Senate EPW report highlighted their lack of transparency:

“SMF only exists on paper and has zero public presence – no website, no Facebook page, no Twitter account, nothing…Nearly all of the members of the Billionaire’s Club donate to SMF, including Schmidt, Global Wallace Fund, RFF, RBF, Park, Energy, and Tides.”

“Since SMF only serves as a pass through to funnel money into these organizations, it is apparent that they are merely a tool for the Billionaire’s Club to facilitate the transfer of money to fringe startups,” it went on to explain.

The Rockefeller Connection

SMF’s list of powerful donors includes the Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF) and Rockefeller Brothers Fund—key funders of the climate litigation campaign. RFF has promoted CIC’s Climate Files database and invited both Passcantando and Davies to join their 2016 strategy session in New York to “delegitimize” ExxonMobil. It’s worth noting that Passacantando is married to RFF’s associate director Lisa Guide. RFF contributions to Our Next Economy are unknown: in violation of IRS disclosure laws, the organization has not produced a comprehensive list of their grant recipients to the IRS since 2013 – the year before CIC was formed.

Davies’ “Nonprofits” Already Face Legal Trouble….

This isn’t Davies only entity under scrutiny for its lack of transparency. Davies serves as the director of the non-profit Climate Communications and Law, which is currently the subject of a legal complaint alleging that the company failed to register as a non-profit per Maryland state law. The complaint specifically asks Maryland’s Secretary of State to level misdemeanor violations against Kert Davies. Climate Communications and Law is another passthrough organization, specifically set up to field donations for the blog Climate Liability News (CLN), which promotes litigation and investigations against energy companies. CCL and CLN’s board are identical and include Kert Davies, Alyssa Johl, and Richard Wiles—three of the most prolific leaders of the climate liability campaign. CIC and CLN have collaborated in the past to release a reports on the Global Climate Coalition.

Conclusion

Kert Davies has gone through extensive lengths to obscure the powerful interests fueling his various projects, evading non-profit registration, and hiding behind the guises of Our Next Economy to receive funding from the notorious passthrough organization the Sustainable Markets Foundation. This all begs the question—why would an organization that prides itself on bringing transparency to the energy industry go through such lengths to conceal its own support? By obscuring their funding, CIC is able to escape scrutiny about their motivations and can’t be accused of acting in the direct service of the powerful interests like the Rockefellers who are seeking to smear the industry or plaintiffs’ attorneys gunning for a large payday.