{"id":1924664,"date":"2023-05-04T23:12:34","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T03:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-lefts-favorite-pro-renewable-energy-watchdog-doesnt-legally-exist\/"},"modified":"2023-05-04T23:16:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T03:16:10","slug":"the-lefts-favorite-pro-renewable-energy-watchdog-doesnt-legally-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-lefts-favorite-pro-renewable-energy-watchdog-doesnt-legally-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Left&#8217;s top renewable energy watchdog is not legally recognized."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-lefts-favorite-pro-renewable-energy-watchdog-doesnt-legally-exist%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1924664&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Is the Energy and Policy Institute Hiding Something?<\/h2>\n<p>When it comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-lefts-favorite-pro-renewable-energy-watchdog-doesnt-legally-exist\/\" title=\"Left's top renewable energy watchdog is not legally recognized.\">exposing dark money networks<\/a> in politics, the Energy and Policy Institute is often the go-to source for mainstream media. But what they don&#8217;t tell you is that this so-called &#8220;watchdog&#8221; group operates in the shadows, hiding its donors and financial information.<\/p>\n<p>Despite its mission to &#8220;expose attacks on renewable energy and counter misinformation by fossil fuel and utility interests,&#8221; the Energy and Policy Institute seems to resemble the very &#8220;front-groups&#8221; it targets. Its incorporation status allows it to conceal its owners and funders, and its staff is full of veterans of the renewable energy industry.<\/p>\n<h3>Unincorporated and Unaccountable<\/h3>\n<p>Unlike most think tanks, the Energy and Policy Institute is not a nonprofit, nor is it registered as a for-profit business. The group is technically an &#8220;unincorporated association,&#8221; which means it is not bound to the strict lobbying and political spending limitations and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/john-kerry-financial-disclosures-show-millions-in-income-from-stocks-including-oil-companies\/\" title=\"John Kerry Financial Disclosures Show Millions in Income From Stocks, Including Oil Companies\">financial disclosure requirements<\/a> that standard nonprofit groups must follow. Nor does it need to file corporate registration records that would disclose its owners.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this lack of transparency, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mainstream-media-treats-joe-bidens-temper-much-different-from-president-trumps-criticism-of-the-press\/\" title=\"Mainstream media treats Joe Biden\u2019s temper much different from President Trump\u2019s criticism of the press\">mainstream media treats<\/a> the institute like any other think tank, quoting its work in hundreds of news articles since 2015.<\/p>\n<h3>Shrouded in Secrecy<\/h3>\n<p>The Energy and Policy Institute discloses no information on its location, owners, or funders on its website. Its &#8220;about&#8221; page includes nothing more than a mission statement, the names of a few staffers, and a land acknowledgment.<\/p>\n<p>Little is known about the Energy and Policy Institute&#8217;s sources of funding. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/southern-poverty-law-center-maintains-160-million-in-offshore-accounts\/\" title=\"Southern Poverty Law Center Maintains 0 Million in Offshore Accounts\">tax forms show<\/a> that former Google CEO and Democratic billionaire donor Eric Schmidt&#8217;s private charity, the Schmidt Foundation, granted $4,321,250 to the Sustainable Markets Foundation in 2019, in part to support the Energy and Policy Institute.<\/p>\n<p>But the Sustainable Markets Foundation, an environmentalist charity financed by major left-wing institutions, makes no reference to the Energy and Policy Institute in its tax filings. Investigative researcher Parker Thayer speculates that the Energy and Policy Institute may be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/teens-take-charge-likely-violating-federal-tax-law-experts-say\/\" title=\"Teens Take Charge Likely Violating Federal Tax Law, Experts Say\">fiscally sponsored project<\/a> of the Sustainable Markets Foundation, allowing it to operate in the shadows while avoiding financial disclosures.<\/p>\n<p>So, is the Energy and Policy Institute hiding something? It certainly seems that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Energy and Policy Institute, a critic of dark money in politics, is hiding its donors and all financial information Energy and Policy Institute logo \/ Twitter When the mainstream media need someone to sound off against the dark money networks fueling support for the oil and gas industry, they often turn to the innocuous-sounding<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":1924666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[4486,4084,9501,21000,22382,6056],"class_list":["post-1924664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-energy","tag-lefts","tag-legally","tag-recognized","tag-renewable","tag-watchdog"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1924666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}