Keystone XL opponents will protest a San Francisco fundraiser for Hillary Clinton Wednesday, but will skip the one billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer is hosting in the same city for the Democratic White House frontrunner.
Activists are opting for the event hosted by Esprit co-founder and Clinton friend Susie Tompkins Buell because it’s easier to access than Steyer’s beachfront estate, said Jamie Henn, a spokesman for climate group 350.org.
“[T]he Buell one is closer and we didn’t want to split our crowd. Steyer’s house is like way out on the beach,” Henn told the Washington Examiner in an email. “Anyways, the point isn’t to protest the fundraisers, it’s to send a message to Hillary. One event does that just as well as two, so we went with the one that was more convenient.”
Both Buell and Steyer are vocal detractors of the Canada-to-Texas project, which environmental groups fear will exacerbate greenhouse gas emissions scientists blame for warming the planet.
Steyer has become the biggest financier of the increasingly coordinated environmental movement, as he spent $74 million of his own money on the 2014 elections. He’s planning to spend big on the 2016 race and is expected to have political ambitions of his own.
Henn downplayed the decision to attend Buell’s fundraiser.
“If Steyer’s had been the only one, than we would have done that one!” he said.
Many green groups want Clinton to tack further left on climate change. They’ve been wary of her silence on Keystone XL — Clinton has said she won’t comment on the TransCanada Corp. project because she oversaw it while she was secretary of state.
The project has been under federal review for more than six years. Its proponents blame the delay on President Obama for catering to his environmental supporters. They say worries about the project’s climate effects are overblown, pointing to a State Department review that said Keystone XL wouldn’t significantly affect the environment.
