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Greens Continue to Profit Off Fossil Fuels

Tom Steyer / AP
September 29, 2014

The environmentalists that are pouring millions into the 2014 elections continue to profit from the very energy practices that they attack, according to a stinging op-ed by Michael James Barton in the New York Post.

Barton's main target is the hypocrisy of billionaire Tom Steyer, who "is using his fortune to combat what he thinks is the greatest threat to America," yet made millions in the industry through his hedge fund.

As for Steyer, he left his $20 billion hedge fund back in 2012, promising to pull his personal holdings from "ecologically unsound" investments.

Did he back up his loud, proud, moral stand by immediately dumping his energy assets, no matter the personal loss? Hah: Steyer waited until market conditions were optimal for reaping some final profits from the energy sector.

Steyer has described his conversion to climate activism as a "personal version of a ‘Paul on the Road to Damascus’ moment."

A more apt analogy might be to Michael Corleone from "The Godfather": Just when Steyer thought he was out, energy profits pulled him back in.

Steyer is far from the only hypocrite in the green movement, Barton points out. George Soros, for example, funds many of the biggest players in the environmentalist world, yet recently bought a large stake in CONSOL Energy, which is involved in fracking.

Al Gore, one of the most vocal environmentalists, sold his own TV channel to the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is almost entirely backed by oil money from the Middle East.

Even large environmentalist groups such as the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club are guilty.

In one notable scandal, the Nature Conservancy raised millions from well-intentioned donors to buy land to help protect a threatened species, the Attwater’s prairie chicken, from extinction.

But after the purchase, it approved oil drilling there. The endangered birds are no longer on the land, but the group continues to grow rich off of oil profits.

After a two-year Senate investigation and exposure by the Los Angeles Times, the Nature Conservancy promised to cease new oil drilling on its lands.

But it apparently decided it likes cash more than endangered species, and expanded fossil-fuel extraction on the land despite its promise.

Environmental groups are not above taking bribes, either. From 2007 to 2010, the Sierra Club accepted $25 million in secret payments from a natural-gas company for Sierra’s anti-coal campaign.

Barton concludes that "it’s difficult to take the environmentalist leaders seriously."