Analysis: Americans for Prosperity Anti-Wind Letter, June 2014

The fossil fuel-funded Americans for Prosperity spearheaded a letter published as a full page advertisement in Politico on June 9, 2014 that was signed by 117 organizations. The letter attacked wind energy and called on Congress to oppose the extension of the Wind Production Tax Credit. The Energy and Policy Institute examined the list of signatories and found the following:

• Sixty organizations are either funded by fossil fuel interests like the Koch Brothers, ExxonMobil, and the American Petroleum Institute, and/or have known ties to the Koch Brothers’ political network.

  • Thirty-six have been exposed as fossil fuel-funded front groups.

  • The additional 24 organizations have been known to operate within the Koch Brothers’ vast political network as allies of the State Policy Network, American Legislative Exchange Council, or other Koch-backed organizations, and may very likely be funded by fossil fuel interests.

• Forty-two of the organizations are local anti-wind groups, many of which have minimal public presence or are small collections of local anti-wind activists. Due to the lack of an online footprint, we were unable to determine the size or funding of many of these groups. However, some of the local anti-wind groups listed attended a meeting organized by a fossil fuel front group in Washington, D.C. in 2012.

  • Twenty-one of the 117 organizations have no public presence or a sparse online footprint.

  • For example, “Sherman.Wind.Resistance” has no public presence except for a single reference [.doc] to the email address sherman.wind.resistance@gmail.com

  • The organization “Lee County Informed” is a group of 10 families fighting a local wind farm, but has minimal public presence and no online footprint.

  • “Save our Skies Ohio” has been unincorporated in the state of Ohio, according to business records.

• Americans for Prosperity claims that 117 organizations signed the letter. However, there are only 116 organizations listed, and the list includes entities that are hardly organizations.

  • The Weyrich Lunch is not an organization, but a weekly gathering of elite conservatives that happens every Wednesday in Washington. The gathering is affiliated with Grover Norquist’s Wednesday morning meetings (of fossil fuel-funded Americans for Tax Reform).

  • Less Government is a front group managed by consultant Seton Motley, but it has no website at its URL, lessgovernment.org and no public presence except for Seton Motley’s work as a pundit.

  • Ohioan for Affordable Electricity has no online footprint, and is actually just one anti-wind activist, Tom Stacy. Stacy apparently runs “Save Western Ohio,” but the organization’s website is a collection of old or dead links.