Standing behind self-proclaimed conservatives who advocate green energy schemes are left-leaning foundations and organizations that have seized upon clever marketing schemes.
The goal is to beguile young conservatives into accepting the premise of “clean, renewable” energy initiatives that would result in bigger government and higher taxes. Moreover, the wind and solar power infrastructure that green groups describe as “clean energy” have their own environmental baggage.
For starters, I would encourage college-age students attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, which kicks off this Wednesday, to take a hard look at the money standing behind the Conservative Energy Network, an umbrella group that was launched in 2016. These are state-level groups that slyly posture as conservative while advocating for additional burdens on America’s already beleaguered taxpayers. Follow the money leading into the Conservative Energy Network and much of it goes back to a San Francisco-based group known as the Energy Foundation.
That’s important because the Energy Foundation operates as a “pass-through” charitable foundation for progressive causes and is closely tied with Tom Steyer, the hedge fund billionaire who advocates for far-left causes. Yet, the “members and allies” of the Conservative Energy Network include such groups as Young Conservatives for Energy Reform, Conservatives for Energy Freedom, the Christian Coalition, and Conservatives for Clean Energy, to name just a few.
The late, great Stan Evans, a noted author who served as chairman of the American Conservative Union in the 1970s, warned against CPAC “turning into a kumbaya” that lost its focus. If you think that’s funny, just imagine what it was like to be there when he said it. “The purpose of CPAC was to conservatize the Republican Party,” he told me a few years ago when the conference was first moved to its current location at the National Harbor in Maryland. What began as tight-knit group of a few hundred activists built around the political ascendancy of Ronald Reagan now attracts in excess of 10,000 attendees.
There are many strands to the conservative movement that George H. Nash, a biographer and historian, has documented and explored in a series of books. The libertarian wing of the movement now seems predominant over traditionalists at CPAC. That’s partly a function of the emphasis organizers place on attracting large groups of students, which is understandable and appropriate. The libertarian appeal to individual and economic freedom is what typically draws young people into the movement. But it’s also clear that Evans had a point to make when he expressed concern about the size and scope of CPAC and how it might impact its mission.
There’s an argument to be made that the conference has lost focus at the expense of religious conservatives and traditionalists who have been moved off center stage. But the Green New Deal offers up an opportunity to unite the many strands of the conservative movement in a way they haven’t been united since the time of Reagan and the Cold War. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the openly socialist member of congress, recently revealed what has long been true. The environmental movement is at its core an anti-human, anti-life movement. She has been widely quoted as saying that it may be immoral for young people to have children because of climate change. That’s hardly a fringe view among contemporary environmental activists who favor command-and-control policies that subtract from human freedom.
There are any number of economic arguments that have been made highlighting how costly and burdensome the Green New Deal would be to average Americans. A good source here is Nicolas Loris, an energy and environment policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, who has produced comprehensive research on the topic. There is also the Heartland Institute, a free market outfit that has published a series of reports in cooperation with dozens of scientists from across that globe that point to natural influences as the primary drivers of climate change. There are strong economic and scientific arguments that can be used to take down green energy schemes. But there are also compelling cultural arguments the pro-life movement and Christian conservatives can take up in response to the worst impulses of environmental activists.
For starters, libertarians and traditionalists could join forces to challenge organizations that are peddling a carbon tax while marketing themselves as either libertarian or conservative. The Niskanen Center, for instance, identifies as libertarian while pushing for the carbon tax. Once again, follow the money to determine the ideology.
The Niskanen Center received $350,000 from the Energy Foundation in 2015 and 2016 for clean energy and climate work and $1,050,000 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, some for general operating and some for energy and climate programs. Specifically, $300,000 of this was received for its “climate policy and litigation program” on Nov. 7, 2017. Niskanen also received $200,000 for two years in March 2018 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. These are all left-leaning foundations that favor big-government solutions in the realm of energy and environmental policy.
The Institute for Energy Research, a genuine free market group, has published a new analysis of the carbon tax that college students attending CPAC should peruse. Simply put, the tax would do nothing for climate while devastating the economy.
“The release of this analysis comes at an important time as numerous carbon tax proposals arise in Washington and are being considered for introduction in Congress,” Tom Pyle, the president of IER, said in a press release. “This study shows that when carbon tax scenarios are subject to the same scrutiny as an actual legislative proposal, it is all pain and no gain for the overall economy, with the states, in particular, being significantly impacted…”
Despite the healthy tension that has always existed between libertarians and traditionalists, we can all agree that green energy schemes backed by left-leaning foundations are antithetical to the conservative movement.
Kevin Mooney (@KevinMooneyDC) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C. who writes for several national publications.
