Gerard Scimeca
Chairman, CASE

A new report this month from the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology underscores evidence of Russia’s continued meddling behind the scenes to shape U.S. policy, but these efforts have nothing to do with impacting the outcome of our elections. Russian influence instead has been focused on undermining U.S. energy policy by aiding and funding environmental groups in their coordinated efforts against fossil fuels, especially hydraulic fracking and U.S. energy infrastructure.

It’s no secret that America’s energy boom – led by fracking and improved technologies such as horizontal drilling – pose a direct threat to Russia’s energy dominance across Europe. What is less known is the extent to which their influence is being spread to organizations here at home who share their anti-U.S. energy agenda. This is a concern for consumers not just for the potential impact on our economy and the cost and availability of energy, but also for the danger of American policies being dictated by foreign interests. Former NATO General Secretary and even Hillary Clinton have conceded Russia’s backing of environmental activists in Europe to disrupt energy policies there, it’s hardly a stretch to see these efforts spreading to the U.S.

Last June, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) connected the dots between Russian energy interests and funding to environmental groups such as Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council, the League of Conservation Voters and Center for American Progress. These groups all received millions in donations to support their efforts against fracking and pipeline projects from an organization called the Sea Change Foundation, a secretive group run by a hedge fund manager with extensive ties to a law firm infested with Russian energy interests and ties to the Russian government.

According to tax records a report from the Daily Caller News Foundation last year, Sea Change has assets of $168 million, a startling amount for a group only 12 years old that provides absolutely no information about their activities on their one page website. Sea Change itself is funded by a shell company set up and now sharing office space with a law firm representing 20 companies with ties to Russian oligarchs or the government itself. The shell company, Klein Ltd., gave Sea Change $23 million in donations which it then spread, according to reports, to named U.S. environmental groups.

The reports connect the dots very well: a law firm representing Russian energy interests and government officials sets up a shell company that funds millions to the secretive Sea Change Foundation. Sea Change then makes millions in donations to U.S. environmental groups, who then claim they have no ties to Russia. Disturbing.

Congressman Smith has asked Secretary Mnuchin for an investigation to determine whether tax-exempt environmental groups are being funneled money by foreign interests hostile to U.S. energy development. While CASE strongly disagrees with the environmental agenda that seeks to shut-down U.S. energy exploration and development, we acknowledge that these left-leaning groups have a right to their views. What they don’t have a right to do, however, is to promote the interests of foreign governments with laundered money from phony front groups.

It is beyond unfortunate that U.S.-based groups share a common goal with our geopolitical adversaries; should they succeed so will those who seek to do us economic and political harm. If anything warrants a full investigation of the facts, it is this deplorable connection between America’s adversaries and our domestic environmental activists.