Foreign agents aren’t limiting their meddling to American elections – they’re also propping up the campaign to push American cities and counties to sue energy companies. Chris Hohn, a reclusive British billionaire, is fueling efforts to sue American energy producers, according to a new article by RealClear Investigations. By means of his Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Hohn has directed millions of dollars to the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), the leading group campaigning to bring litigation against fossil fuel companies for the costs of climate change.
Hohn “thus illustrates the reach of politically driven philanthropy and the potential of wealthy foreigners to sidestep U.S. lobbying laws by using complex financial arrangements,” RealClear Investigations reports. Indeed, CCI has hired a lobbyist to arrange meetings between city officials and the plaintiffs’ attorneys leading these lawsuits while also pursuing an aggressive public relations campaign to promote litigation via billboards, a podcast, social media, events, and media outreach. But, CCI has never disclosed that it is primarily funded by a single foreign billionaire.
Foreign billionaire pours millions into U.S. climate litigation
Hohn has dedicated a least $16 million to groups advocating for climate litigation in the United States, including $7 million to CCI. As Energy In Depth previously reported, CCI was propped up in 2017 to spearhead a sophisticated public relations campaign pressuring municipalities into suing energy producers. The organization is run by Richard Wiles – a man who also heads the dark-money “news” site Climate Liability News and the #ExxonKnew social media campaign.
CCI is arguably the most active organization fueling the climate litigation campaign today. The organization purchased billboards throughout Miami to pressure the city into suing energy producers, hosted events in cities like Boulder and Honolulu to promote climate litigation against energy companies, and released a study purporting to quantify the cost of climate change in municipalities across the country. The organization has even coordinated with law firms to lobby public officials to bring a lawsuit against energy producers in Florida and submitted an amicus brief in support of ongoing litigation in California.
While CCI remains front and center in the climate litigation campaign, its powerful network of funders is obscured as the organization refuses to disclose them. What we do know about their funding comes from the RealClear’s investigation of CIFF’s grants and a statement by Wiles to The Tampa Bay Times, which revealed that the Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF) – an organization at the heart of the climate litigation campaign – helped fund CCI’s study on climate costs. RFF has failed to publicly disclose its itemized donations since 2013.
CIFF’s $7 million grant to CCI in May 2018 represents an enormous influx of money to an initiative that was created less than a year prior as a project of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD).
A review of IGSD’s Form 990 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, reveals that grants to IGSD have skyrocketed in recent years. The organization received just under $4 million in grants during their fiscal year ending June 30, 2016. Just two years later, their revenue from grants more than doubled to nearly $10 million. In that context, CIFF’s grant constitutes a large proportion of IGSD’s funding, potentially representing the single largest source of funding for the organization.
In everything CCI has done to promote climate litigation – its podcast, newsletter, websites, report, advertising, amicus briefs, events, and arranged lobbying meetings – the initiative and its affiliates have never disclosed that they were acting on behalf of a foreign agent.
Off the grid: Avoiding both foreign and domestic lobbying disclosures
Despite aggressive action to influence the debate over what to do about climate change in the United States, Hohn has circumvented U.S. lobbying disclosure laws. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires people and organizations “attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and laws” to make public disclosures about the nature of their activities and their financial contribution in support of their efforts within the United States. Top 5 Trusted Replica Watch Sites To Buy Luxury Watches. While Hohn is trying to influence American discourse around climate change, neither Hohn, his hedge funds and CIFF, nor Richard Wiles are currently registered under FARA.
As RealClear Investigations explains,
“Among left-leaning billionaires, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer are enjoying wide public attention due to their big-spending presidential campaigns. But Hohn, a foreigner unknown to most Americans, arguably exercises comparable if not more influence on U.S. energy and environmental policy through his hedge fund, [Extinction Rebellion] and other advocacy groups. Hohn’s efforts to influence U.S. laws, politics, and the economy raise deeper questions about the power of global billionaires – specifically whether his American-focused lobbying and public relations campaigns violate the Lobbying Disclosure Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”
Conclusion
Hohn and other prominent donors – both foreign and domestic – are pouring millions of dollars into a campaign being waged against America’s energy producers to sue them for the anticipated future costs of climate change.
The revelation from RealClear Investigations’ reporting is alarming. How many cities, counties and states, are considering filing lawsuits, or have already filed lawsuits, under the shadow influence of foreign billionaire? Honolulu recently announced their intention to file litigation after CCI hosted a panel calling on the state to sue. CCI has also taken their roadshow to Minnesota, urging the state to take action, to Boulder, Colorado to highlight the municipality’s pending litigation, and continues to target municipalities across Florida in search of new plaintiffs for the climate litigation crusade. In fact, anyone that has been influenced by CCI, Richard Wiles, Amy Westervelt’s Drilled podcast, or the #ExxonKnew social media campaign is unsuspectingly acting in the interests of a foreign agent, whose true motivations for pushing for litigation against American energy companies remain unknown.
