Guest essay by Leo Goldstein

The recent escalation of rogue Attorneys General persecuting conservative political organizations and their real or alleged supporters suggests that Climate Alarmism has been playing a much wider role in politics than it seemed. The Left has been riding Climate Alarmism to muzzle and defund its opponents since at least 2000. Following the infamous Tobacco Precedent, the Left has declared a broad range of conservative, libertarian, and Republican organizations as front groups for “fossil fuels,” and threatened their donors and supporters with civil action or even criminal persecution. The climate alarmists do not even hide their aspiration for unlimited political power. One of many examples is a declaration by 350.org: “We think the climate crisis is about power”. Few months ago I wrote about progressive defunding of climate realists and real science. But the recent barrage of subpoenas, combined with other accumulated evidence, suggests that Climate Alarmism has caused and/or been used for an unprecedented campaign of political suppression, running for more than 15 years.

Apparently, the extreme Left bought the Democratic Party in 2004, and openly boasted about it: “Now it’s our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we’re going to take it back.” Neither party in this transaction has denied or retracted this well-documented and publicized statement. This purchase was financed in part by Quantum Hedge Funds, which is domiciled in the Netherlands Antilles and/or Cayman Islands, and is personified by George Soros. Since then, everyone involved has actively used the property that changed hands to persecute conservatives under the pretext of countering climate change.

Their modus operandi can be observed as follows:

1) Hostile foreign entities and their domestic accomplices compile lists of individuals and/or organizations that they want to muzzle and/or destroy for any reason. The political targets are invariably conservatives, libertarians, and Republicans. Other targets include vital industries and defense, but those campaigns are beyond the scope of this article.

2) These lists are merged, sorted, and truncated to obtain an actionable target list.

3) The targets on the list are declared “climate deniers,” industry shills, and so on. Their names are publicized and smeared. Their friends and supporters are intimidated.

4) Finally, the targets list is handed down to the purchased congresspersons and government officials, who persecute them by abusing the power of their offices.

An infamous January 2013 “study” by Robert Brulle (Drexel University) entitled Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations, broadly promoted by government agencies and the media, gives us an insight into this process. Among other things, Mr. Brulle [compiled] a target list of allegedly climate change counter-movement organizations (CCCM) organizations. This “study” was immediately debunked and ridiculed, so I want to highlight just one aspect of it: most of the targeted political organizations and think tanks did not have any substantial links to either climate debates or energy industries. The list, containing 118 targets, is reproduced below. Organizations that were included solely for their broadly conservative political views (to the best of my knowledge) are in bold.

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Advancement Of Sound Science Center Inc. The Alliance For Climate Strategies (ACS) American Coal Foundation American Coalition For Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) American Conservative Union Foundation American Council For Capital Formation American Council For Capital Formation Center For Policy Research American Energy Alliance/Institute For Energy Research American Energy Freedom Center American Enterprise Institute For Public Policy Research American Farm Bureau American Friends Of The Institute Of Economic Affairs American Gas Association American Legislative Exchange Council American Natural Gas Alliance American Petroleum Institute American Policy Center American Tradition Institute Americans For Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) Americans For Prosperity/Americans For Prosperity Foundation Annapolis Center For Science-Based Public Policy Association Of Global Automobile Manufacturers Atlas Economic Research Foundation Capital Research Center/Greenwatch Cascade Policy Institute Cato Institute Center For The Defense Of Free Enterprise Center For The Study Of Carbon Dioxide And Global Change/CO2 Chamber Of Commerce Of The United States Of America Citizen’s Coalition On Global Climate Policy Citizens For Affordable Energy Climate Audit Climate Science Coalition Of America Climate Strategies Watch CO2 Is Green Coalition For American Jobs Coalition For Vehicle Choice Coalition To Preserve American Security And Sovereignty Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow Competitive Enterprise Institute Congress Of Racial Equality Consumer Alert/National Consumer Coalition Consumer Energy Alliance Cooler Heads Coalition Cornwall Alliance For The Stewardship Of Creation Edison Electric Institute Energy Citizens Energy Makes America Great Environmental Literacy Council Federation For American Coal, Energy And Security Free Enterprise Action Institute/Free Enterprise Education Institute Freedom Action Freedom Works Freedom Works Foundation Friends Of Coal Frontiers Of Freedom Institute And Foundation George C. Marshall Institute Global Climate Coalition Global Climate Information Project Global Warming Initiative Greening Earth Society Heartland Institute Heritage Foundation Hoover Institution Hudson Institute Ice Age Now Independence Institute Independent Institute Independent Petroleum Association Of America Independent Women’s Forum Industrial Energy Consumers Of America Information Council On The Environment Institute For Biospheric Research Institute For Energy Research Institute For Liberty Institute For The Study Of Earth And Man Intermountain Rural Electric Association International Climate And Environmental Change International Climate Science Coalition International Policy Network James Madison Institute John Locke Foundation Landmark Legal Foundation Manhattan Institute For Policy Research Manhattan Libertarian Party Media Research Center Mercatus Center, George Mason University Mountain States Legal Foundation National Association Of Manufacturers National Center For Policy Analysis National Center For Public Policy Research National Mining Association National Petrochemical And Refiners Association National Petroleum Council National Rural Electric Cooperative Association National Taxpayers Union National Taxpayers Union Foundation Oklahoma Council Of Public Affairs Oregon Institute Of Science And Medicine Pacific Research Institute For Public Policy Plants Need Co2 Reason Foundation/Reason Public Policy Institute Responsible Resources Science And Environment Policy Project Science And Public Policy Institute Southeastern Legal Foundation Sovereignty International State Policy Network Surface Stations. Org Texas Public Policy Foundation Thomas Jefferson Institute For Public Policy TS August/The Second Of August Washington Policy Center Western Fuels Association World Climate Report World Coal Association

Brulle’s paper is quite explicit about its target identification criteria, including conservative, libertarian, and Republican views not related to the climate debates. According to the article’s Methodological Appendix,

“To develop a comprehensive roster of CCCM organizations for this study, a two-step process was used. First, a consolidated list of all of the organizations identified in prior studies was created. This compilation resulted in a list of 538 organizations for consideration as a CCCM organization.” This long list was not revealed, but it used a list from a 1997 “study” by the Leftist National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Moving a Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations.

As you can see, even the pretense of a relation to the climate debates is missing. Alleged CCCM organizations from “studies” by the Union of Concerned Scientists (whose membership rules are so lax, dogs can be admitted as members) and Greenpeace were added as well.

In the second step, this long list was narrowed down to 118 organizations, using opinions of Greenpeace, SourceWatch, and Wikipedia as the guiding light (“evidence that this organization is generally perceived to be part of the climate counter-movement”.) SourceWatch (originally Disinfopedia) is a project of the deceptively named Center for Media and Democracy, funded by the mentioned Quantum Hedge Funds and other usual suspects.

Oh, and one more thing: this “scholarship” was definitely funded by taxpayers’ money, in case there was any doubt.

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