BIG OIL’S NEMESIS
Wealthy activist targeted
Oil companies that bankrolled a $ 9.7 million effort in 2014 to block laws against fracking in California now are focusing their sights on Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge- fund founder turned climatechange activist.
The top individual political donor in the U. S. last year, Steyer has put millions of his $ 2.7 billion personal fortune into the cause, hired Governor Jerry Brown’s former top spokesman and challenged Chevron Corp. Chief Executive Officer John Watson to a public debate on gas prices.
In its campaign against him, Californians for Energy Independence — whose contributors include Chevron, Occidental Petroleum Corp. and ExxonMobil Corp. — has been probing possible conflicts between Steyer’s business interests and legislative advocacy, attacking him in press statements as a “billionaire super- PAC king” and shadowing his public appearances.
“This is part and parcel of the way politics works right now,” said Bob Biersack, senior fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, which documents the influence of money in politics.
Steyer is part of this small but growing cadre of mega- donors whose influence has grown since the U. S. Supreme Court ruling in the 2010 Citizens United case lifted limits on independent campaign spending. Now, non- candidates including Steyer, the Koch brothers and George Soros are subjects of attacks, much like politicians.
Steyer — who founded and ran Farallon Capital Management LLC for almost 27 years before leaving at the end of 2012 to focus on climate issues — backs a bill in the California Senate that would cut petroleum use in half, double the energy efficiency of buildings and increase retail sales of renewable
electricity to 50 per cent by 2030.
MEDIA OUTREACH
In July, Steyer hired Gil Duran, a former top spokesman for Brown, as a spokesman on California issues. Duran minimized his role, saying in an interview that Steyer had effective media- outreach aides already. Last week, in a letter he made public, Steyer challenged Chevron’s Watson to an open debate on why gas prices in California have risen more than in other states. Chevron spokesman Braden Reddall didn’t say how Watson responded to the challenge.
NextGen Climate Action, Steyer’s super political action committee, has spent $ 729,000 on lobbying the California government so far this year, compared with about $ 100,000 in the prior legislative session, according to data from the Secretary of State’s office. Oil and gas interests, led by the Western States Petroleum Association trade group and Chevron, have spent $ 6.8 million — including on lobbying against the bill Steyer supports.
ENERGY- EFFICIENT RETROFITS
Californians for Energy Independence says it has evidence that one of Steyer’s businesses, Kilowatt Financial, could make more money if the bill is passed. Steyer is listed as a manager of the limitedliability company in an April 2014 filing with the Secretary of State. Kilowatt makes consumer loans for energy- efficient home renovations and is merging with another lender.
Sabrina Lockhart, spokeswoman for the energy- independence group, said Kilowatt stands to gain from the legislation because the bill mandates the renovations. Steyer’s spokeswoman, Suzanne Henkels, says he stepped down from Kilowatt last year and directed all his green- energy investments into a charitable trust, meaning he won’t profit from the company’s operations.
KEYSTONE CRITIC
Steyer also was criticized for his opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline between Alberta and Nebraska. The national Republican Party denounced him in a web posting for opposing the pipeline after Farallon profited from oil and gas investments, and invested in a company proposing a rival pipeline. Steyer still has vowed to back Democratic lawmakers who face attacks for voting against it.
On Aug. 11, Lockhart sent reporters an e- mail calling Steyer a “billionaire super- PAC king” and asserting his criticism of higher gas prices is out of sync with his goal of weaning drivers off gasoline.
Her e- mail also noted that a July 2014 Washington Times article said Steyer used tax havens in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Mauritius while heading Farallon. Steyer declined to comment to the Washington Times, and Duran and Henkels didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment from Bloomberg News.
‘ DIRTY HIM UP’
“They are going to try to dirty him up,” said Court, a Steyer ally. “He is personally committed on a moral level to preventing a 4- degree temperature change that is irreversible, and he has $ 3 billion to pursue his passion.”
Steyer gave $ 75.4 million to federal candidates and causes in 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, almost triple the contributions of the nexthighest individual donor, Michael R. Bloomberg, majority owner of Bloomberg News parent company Bloomberg LP.