Keith Addis is a staunch environmentalist, Hollywood insider, and a bundler of campaign donations for President Barack Obama.
Addis is a founder of Industry Entertainment, a Hollywood management and production company that boasts a clientele list including Ted Danson and Dennis Quaid. A profile of Addis says Industry Entertainment "attracts the industry's artistic elite with over 20 gifted managers and producers."
He is also a staunch environmentalist. Addis sits on the board of Oceana, an environmental group. Prior to that, he was chairman of American Oceans Campaign (AOC), which merged with Oceana in 2001.
Addis has pledged to raise between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama’s campaign, records show.
Oceana, "the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation" according to its website, brings together Addis’s professional work and environmental activism. The Washington Times characterized Oceana as "a liberal nonprofit conservation group with some hefty Hollywood connections," and its website dedicates a page to a long list of "Celebrity Supporters."
The list includes Sam Waterston (who sits on Oceana’s board), Morgan Freeman, Nicolas Cage, and Danson, with whom Addis started AOC and who also sits on Oceana’s board.
An Oceana fundraiser in August featured Morgan Freeman and Jeff Goldblum as special guests, the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot reported.
Oceana’s goal is "to stop climate change through legislative advocacy, source control, public education and awareness, and ecosystem protection."
The group declares that "we must invest in offshore wind and other renewables and permanently move away from offshore drilling" for "the health of the oceans and the billions of people that depend on them."
Although Obama claimed to support opening more area to drilling in the second debate, he has backed "green" energy wholeheartedly, pumping billions of taxpayer dollars into various wind and solar programs—at least 34 of which are laying off employees or entering into bankruptcy, according to the Heritage Foundation.
Oceana has also identified the shipping industry as a top polluter, declaring, "If global shipping were a country, it would be the sixth largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions."
The activist group is working to combat this pollution "by petitioning the government to regulate shipping emissions and by promoting ways to reduce emissions through operational and technical measures."
Oceana’s founders continue to support Obama and his fellow Democrats despite their reliance on cash from Overseas Shipholding Group, the PAC and founding family of which have donated nearly $1 million to Democratic groups and committees.
The nonprofit Oceana pays its top staff members quite well—pay that winds up in the coffers of Democratic causes.
Mike Hirshfield, for example, is senior vice president for North America and chief scientist, made $204,782 in 2010, according to Oceana’s Form 990.
Hirshfield donated a total of $1,500 to Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, as well as $250 to Priorities USA Action, the president’s Super PAC, and $250 to the League of Conservation Voters, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Andrew Sharpless, Oceana’s CEO, earned $262,357 in 2010. He donated only to Democratic candidates in the 2008, 2010, and 2012 election cycles, including $1,250 to Obama and $2,000 to Hillary Clinton, on top of $1,500 to the League of Conservation Voters.
James Simon is Oceana’s executive vice president. He made $233,208 in 2010, and his sole political donation was $250 to Obama in 2008.
Experts have questioned whether the president’s environmental policies hurt America’s energy future, with California Rep. Devin Nunes tying the president to a "radical environmental element" in America.
Neither Addis nor Oceana returned a request for comment.