Over the last year, an organization known as Climate Defiance has propelled itself into the national spotlight by deploying activists to engage in civil disobedience aimed at pressuring Democratic lawmakers to oppose the oil and gas industry. Climate Defiance activists have been arrested for the stated purpose of making support for any fossil fuels as unacceptable on the Left as opposing abortion or gay marriage.
More than half of Climate Defiance’s revenue of $543,000 in 2023 for its advocacy group came from a variety of sources, including significant funding from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the Schmidt Family Foundation — as well as checks by way of grantmakers such as the Tides Foundation and the charity of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. The donations to the Oil and Gas Action Network, which top $3.9 million, illustrate how top foundations have broadened their missions beyond the typical scope of charitable giving to prop up unconventional activism, said Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research. “It’s one thing to protest, but it’s another to start crossing over into breaking the law and trespassing,” Pyle said. “The organizations that fund these efforts should be heavily scrutinized, and the IRS ought to consider stripping their tax-exempt status, or, at least, review it. While quietly relying on larger and more influential backers for resources. As the billionaire-funded Oil and Gas Action Network transferred funds to Climate Defiance, the group “We CAN win, but only by rightfully blaming the billionaire class who treats humanity as their servants and the planet as their personal garbage dump,” Climate Defiance also in 2023 was incorporated as both a tax-exempt charity and under 501(c)(4) — a section of the IRS code for “social welfare” groups that The bulk of Climate Defiance’s activity, according to financial disclosures, appears to be routed through its advocacy arm