Several years ago, Kert Davies, then a research director for Greenpeace, complained that secret funds, or “dark money,” was behind the opposition to then-President Barack Obama’s efforts to combat climate change. Davies argued this dark money powered the climate “denial machine.” This ominous source of funding was claimed to be responsible for blocking congressional action on Obama’s climate agenda.

The media seems to be filled with stories about the danger of dark money and how conservatives are using it to thwart the democratic process. In September, the Kansas City Star published an article raising the specter that conservatives used dark money to support the election campaign of Eric Greitens as governor of Missouri. But it is not just election campaigns that raise the issue. That same month Politifact published an article asserting that “millions in dark money has been spent to tilt the courts right.” The idea behind these articles is that corporations or conservative groups are unfairly using so-called dark money to hide the source of support for candidates or public policies.