NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen made a startling statement in the summer of 2014: “I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organizations—environmental organizations working against shale gas—to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas.”
Of course, Russia’s efforts to undermine natural gas production are not limited to Europe. In December 2019, Fiona Hill testified during the ridiculous Trump impeachment hearings that Russin President Vladimir Putin “saw American fracking as a great threat to Russian interests” and that a U.S. fracking ban would “play into strengthening Putin’s hands.” As Forbes contributor Dan Eberhart noted at the time, “That’s because natural gas supplies are central to European economic markets. Not only do more abundant gas supplies make the U.S. stronger, but they make us more capable of supplanting Russia as a key supplier of European gas.”
Fast forward to 2022.
Many EU countries are fully committed to adopting renewable energies. Germany will decommission its last nuclear power plant by the end of the year. And Germany, France, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Bulgaria have effectively banned fracking, even though Europe has more recoverable shale gas than even the United States.
But despite a nearly $600 billion investment in renewable energy, Germany finds itself importing most of its energy needs, in the form of natural gas and oil, from Russia. Germany has been punched in the face by reality: renewables will never meet the energy needs of a large country. In fact, not even close. After years of anti-fracking environmental activism in Europe, EU nations pay Russia over $1 billion per day for energy. Many European countries, and even the United States, are being completely manipulated and played on the energy front.
All of this should lead people to ask a legitimate question, based on the proof already available: How many of the environmental and renewable energy organizations have received, and are perhaps still receiving, funding from Russia? How many of the leftist environmental groups beating the drums for the fairy-dust dreams of solar and wind energy to “save the planet” are, in fact, Putin’s useful idiots? Are leftist environmental groups, knowingly or unknowingly, colluding with Russia in an effort to prevent the United States and Europe from regaining energy independence?
Perhaps some of the answers lie in the feces-smeared, syringe-laden, homelessness-abounding metropolis of San Francisco, where an NGO called the Sea Change Foundation placed its headquarters. Putin, through a middleman, has allegedly used this environmental group to funnel Russian government money to leftist environmental groups “in order to undermine U.S. natural gas and oil production to Russia’s benefit.” Tens of millions of dollars have been funneled through a Bermuda-based company, Klein Ltd., to the Sea Change Foundation to fund anti-fracking, anti-energy independent organizations and policies.
Recently, Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to three leftist environmental groups, including the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Sierra Club, to inquire about their funding sources and possible connections to the Russian government through the Sea Change Foundation.
The letter states:
It has been alleged that Putin is using a San Francisco-based eNGO, the Sea Change Foundation (Sea Change), to funnel money into U.S.-based environmental advocacy efforts designed to undermine American energy production. According to a 2014 report, Sea Change receives contributions from a ‘Bermuda-based company called Klein Ltd.’ which is used ‘for funneling Russian government money to American environmental groups in order to undermine U.S. natural gas and oil production to Russia’s benefit.’
The letter goes on to ask each organization if its officers were aware of potential Russian funding of Klein, if they had lobbied against hydraulic fracturing at the federal and state level, and if so, whether that lobbying was funded through Sea Change grants.
Though all the groups have profusely denied any and all connections, this isn’t the first time they’ve been investigated. Republicans made similar inquiries in 2017 and 2015.
Naturally, the press has gone out of its way to sideline the story. Washington Post “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler, for example, wrote a piece last month about the Sea Change Foundation and potential Russian funding, calling the allegation bogus. Kessler, of course, has made a career of running interference for the Left. So when Kessler says, in effect, “there’s nothing to see here,” best look closer. It’s long past time to get to the bottom of who is really funding these leftist environmental groups.
Our country must be committed to the idea that our national security is integrally linked to our energy independence, which includes rejecting the asinine ideas of net-zero, renewable gobbledygook that could be nothing but Russian disinformation campaigns. Europe’s national security is dependent upon its energy independence. Keeping Russia inside its borders in the future depends on the United States and Europe not being dependent on Russian energy and not filling Putin’s coffers with money to fund misadventures like the Ukrainian invasion.
Apparently, it’s a shocking concept, but we need to stop funding our enemies to our own detriment. That means rejecting the fool’s errand of renewables and committing every resource to make America an energy superpower again.