Labrador Letter: Who’s Really Funding the War on American Energy?

Earlier this month I joined 18 other attorneys general asking the Department of Justice to investigate something that explains a lot about why energy costs keep rising and why lawsuits against American energy companies never seem to stop.

Over the past decade, five foreign organizations have poured nearly $2 billion into over 150 American climate groups. These aren’t small donations. This is systematic funding with a clear goal to shut down oil and gas production in the United States.

The money comes from organizations based in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Denmark. At least one of them, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, has documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Groups connected to China are bankrolling lawsuits against American energy companies, funding protests against pipelines, and paying lobbyists to push regulations that close power plants and eliminate energy jobs.

The American groups taking this money aren’t independent organizations pursuing American interests. ClimateWorks Foundation received $344 million from these foreign sources, Energy Foundation China got $88 million, the Grantham Foundation took $80 million, New Venture Fund accepted $67 million, and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors received $130 million. Those are just the top five. Another 145 American organizations are taking this foreign money.

These foreign entities don’t just write checks and disappear. They monitor results, review performance, and provide what they call “tailored support” to make sure the American groups stay on mission. The money funds lawsuits against energy companies, organizes protests against pipelines, and pays for lobbying campaigns that push costly regulations.

Anyone acting on behalf of a foreign entity must register as a foreign agent and disclose that relationship. The Foreign Agents Registration Act exists so Americans know when foreign interests are trying to influence our policies. None of these 150 organizations have registered, which means they’ve hidden the source of their funding while filing lawsuits, running lobbying campaigns, and pushing regulations that hurt American families.

Idaho families are paying for this. Every time one of these groups wins a lawsuit that blocks energy development, costs go up. Every time they successfully lobby for regulations that shut down production, jobs disappear. Every time they kill a pipeline project, American energy gets more expensive and less reliable, which is exactly what these foreign funders want.

We’ve been fighting these battles for years without knowing the full picture of who’s funding the opposition. Foreign interests have been working to weaken American energy independence through billions of dollars funneled to American organizations that hide the source.

The Department of Justice has the authority to investigate and enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and the evidence sits in grant agreements and tax filings. If these organizations have violated the law by acting as unregistered foreign agents, that law needs to be enforced.

Protecting American energy means protecting Idaho families. When foreign interests work to make American energy expensive and scarce, they’re working against every family trying to make ends meet, every business trying to compete, and every community that depends on energy jobs.

Idaho families deserve to know who’s really behind the fight to eliminate affordable energy in America. The Department of Justice has the tools to shine a light on this operation, and they should use them.