A secret climate activist group with significant financial backing is quietly playing a more prominent role in advocating against Natural gas powered appliances, Like a stove.
The Gas Leak Action Campaign – which appears to have first been established in late 2021 or early 2022 – recently launched a $1 million ad campaign warning of the dangers posed by natural gas, the first of its kind. This is the biggest effort till date. The group says on its website that natural gas harms the environment, pollutes indoor air and puts stoves “in constant danger of exploding.”
The group has also launched a campaign against the American Gas Association (AGA), the nation’s leading industry group representing natural gas providers. At an event in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, Gas Leaks joined Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., with several environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, to criticize AGA’s lobbying activities. Hosted.
“Instead of banning fossil fuels, our country is flooding the market with gas and unless we do something, we’re all going to go under,” Markey said. Original sponsor of the Green New Deal,
Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., speaks during an event hosted by Gas Leaks earlier this month. (Gas Leak/Youtube/Video Screenshot)
Karen Harbert, President and CEO of AGA A statement said natural gas is “fundamental to protecting America’s energy security, achieving our environmental goals, and promoting economic prosperity.”
He said, “Advocacy groups are knowingly spreading misinformation and promoting ill-informed energy policy that will drive up prices and harm the environmental progress this industry makes that provides life-essential energy to our customers and communities.” “And will continue to implement inclusive solutions to reduce emissions.” ,
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Meanwhile, Gas Leaks has posted a number of positions over the past two years, including executive director, senior communications director, digital manager and digital designer, with salaries ranging from $65,000 to $160,000, according to a Fox News Digital review of job search sites. Overall, the situation indicates that the group’s annual salary and wage costs potentially exceed $465,000.
But despite the rise of gas leaks and growing influence with Democratic lawmakers and similar climate-focused organizations, the group shares little about itself online — its founder, funding and history are all hidden from public view. A Reuters report last month broadly stated that the gas leak was “constituted by veterans of climate advocacy.”
The gas leak has led to several campaigns targeting gas stoves, calling them dangerous to the environment and public health. (Jakub Porzycki/Nurfoto via Getty Images)
A LinkedIn search revealed that those “advocacy veterans” include Caleb Heeringa, a former communications officer for the Sierra Club who serves as campaign director for Gas Leaks; and Jamie Hein, founder of Fossil Free Media, co-founder of 350.org, and board member of Gas Leaks.
According to Gas Leaks’s “About page”, which has been removed from the group’s site but archived, Gas Leaks is supported by the clean energy advocacy organization Climate Nexus, itself financially supported by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Which is a non-profit organization. Regularly raises money from donors for progressive initiatives.
The arrangement means that gas leakers do not need to file their own 990 tax ID form with the Internal Revenue Service and, therefore, Work without sharing information publicly Regarding its internal operations or finances.
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Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, a nonprofit government watchdog, said, “Senator Whitehouse conveniently gave up his soapbox against dark money when it came time to align himself with the dark money group, Which is furthering their preferred radical climate agenda.” Group. Sutherland notes the difference between the two’s relationship with the Whitehouse and the gas leaks High-profile push against Black money in politics.
“This latest pop-up green group is spreading misinformation in a vague attempt to ban gas stoves.”
Climate activists march on Madison Avenue protesting energy policy and fossil fuel use in New York on September 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Brian Woolston)
Fox News digital analysis of grants identified a single gas leak donor: the California-based Heising-Simons Foundation, which states on its website that it “seeks to advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, funding groundbreaking research in the science Wants to enable, enhance.” Supporting the education of our youngest learners and human rights for all people.”
In 2022 and 2023, the Heising-Simons Foundation awarded two grants of $150,000 to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, both earmarked for the Gas Leak Action Campaign.
The Heising-Simons Foundation has reportedly donated more than $3.3 million in recent years Rocky Mountain Institute, a climate think tank that last year was involved in an aggressive effort targeting gas stoves through regulation. The Heising-Simons Foundation was also founded in 2007 by Mark Heising, who remains its vice chairman and is financially involved in several green energy companies.
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Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, said, “The only green thing about today’s environmental movement is that billions of cash flow freely between leftist billionaires, their activists in the green movement, and the politicians who obey them ” Washington, DC-based nonprofit.
“Their campaign to ban natural gas stoves is another example of the collusion between self-employed wealthy elites like Mark Heising, green pressure groups like the Rocky Mountain Institute, and the Democratic Party machine.”
Richard Trumka Jr., a Biden-appointed member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, repeatedly suggested that his agency was considering banning gas stoves because of their health and climate impacts. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
While environmentalists have been trying to crack down on natural gas and gas appliances over their climate impacts for years, the pressure reached a fever pitch early last year when member Richard Trumka Jr. US Consumer Product Safety Commission, said that banning gas stoves “was on the table.” Shortly thereafter the Department of Energy issued regulations targeting gas stoves.
In a social media post at the time, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm pointed out Study funded by Rocky Mountain Institute and said the government should “fix this” by increasing access to electric stovetops. The study, also cited by environmentalists and other officials, linked 12% of childhood asthma cases to gas stoves.
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Gas Leaks, Climate Nexus, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and the Heising-Simons Foundation did not respond to requests for comment for the purposes of this story. Markey and Whitehouse also did not respond to requests for comment.
