The Texas Group Waging a National Crusade Against Climate Action

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : Many of the foundation's executives and board members have worked for the oil and gas industry, including Mike Nasi, a top lawyer for coal companies who is a senior adviser to its Life:Powered project.
54% :Taking on New FightsSince President Biden came to office pledging to make climate action a top priority, the organization has only increased its efforts to combat what it sees as the overblown response to global warming -- disputing broadly accepted models that project an uptick in temperatures, questioning the viability of wind and solar energy and dismissing the 2015 Paris climate agreement as a political stunt that will "will push more people into poverty."
53% : With influence campaigns, legal action and model legislation, the group is promoting fossil fuels and trying to stall the American economy's transition toward renewable energy.
53% :Mr. Isaac said that the benefits of oil, gas and coal outweigh the risks, and that while emissions may be warming the planet, the changes are modest and humans can adapt.
53% : A Local Group Goes NationalJames Leininger, who earned a fortune selling medical beds, founded Texas Public Policy Foundation in 1989 to promote charter schools.
51% : And through an initiative called Life:Powered, the group makes what it calls "the moral case for fossil fuels," which holds that American prosperity is rooted in an economy based on oil, gas and coal and that poor communities and developing nations deserve the same opportunities to grow.
50% : "When you look at their advocacy, it is consistently a false choice between being environmentally responsible and enjoying economic prosperity," said Jeff Clark, chief executive of Advanced Power Alliance, an Austin-based trade group for renewable energy companies.
49% : "They're against offshore wind, yet they spent decades advocating for offshore oil drilling.
45% : For more than four decades, the Navajo Generating Station near Page, Ariz., burned coal from a nearby Peabody mine, releasing mercury, arsenic, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides from its smokestacks, along with carbon dioxide, while draining the underground water supply.
43% : It is upfront about its opposition to Vineyard Wind and other renewable energy projects, making no apologies for its advocacy work.
43% : With YouTube videos, regular appearances on Fox and Friends, and social media campaigns, the group's executives have sought to convince lawmakers and the public that a transition away from oil, gas and coal would harm Americans.
35% : As it evolved, the organization embraced other causes including criminal justice, immigration, border security, taxes, and energy.
27% : They have frequently seized on current events to promote dubious narratives, pinning high gasoline prices on President Biden's climate policies (economists say that's not the driver) or claiming the 2021 winter blackout in Texas was the result of unreliable wind energy (it wasn't).
24% : Meanwhile, the foundation is suing the Environmental Protection Agency, challenging its designation of greenhouse gases as a danger to human health and welfare, and this summer lodged its objection to a proposal at the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require public companies to disclose the financial risks they face from climate change.

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