The League of Conservation Voters anticipates spending $25 million this election cycle, amounting to a five-fold increase over 2010.
“We are poised to make, by far, the biggest investment we’ve ever made in elections,” environmental group President Gene Karpinski told The Washington Post.
Karpinski told the Post his group’s activity is “making climate change part of the conversation.” It comes as billionaire ex-hedge fund manager Tom Steyer has injected about $22 million of his own cash through his NextGen Climate Action PAC to elevate climate change as an issue, though he has attracted only about $1.7 million from outside donors.
While Steyer’s entrance is relatively recent, the League of Conservation Voters has traditionally been one of the most politically active environmental organizations — as far as elections go. Of the 29 candidates its advocacy arm, LCV Action Fund, has endorsed since 2013, only one, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, is a Republican.
The group’s efforts have focused on supporting candidates who back President Obama‘s climate agenda and, more specifically, those who support proposed Environmental Protection Agency carbon emissions rules for new and existing power plants. Most scientists say that greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are causing the earth to warm.
The League of Conservation Voters and other environmental donors, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council — whose advocacy outfit teamed up with LCV Action Fund this year to form a political action committee that has raised $4 million — *aren’t making the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline a litmus test for support.
Some politicians who received League of Conservation Voters support would prefer building the Canada-to-Texas pipeline, even though environmental groups have pushed Obama to reject it because they say it would exacerbate climate change. Those senators include Collins, as well as Democrats Mark Begich, of Alaska, and Kay Hagan, of North Carolina.
