Exposing Washington State’s Climate Cash Scandal

washi-1

CEI’s Chris Horner recently discovered some questionable payments between green activists and government officials in the state of Washington. We uncovered emails through Freedom of Information Act requests that show special interests are paying the salaries and expenses of staffers in Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s office, one of the ringleaders fighting President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.

One of these arrangements, recently covered in The Wall Street Journal, includes an environmental advocacy group, the World Resources Institute, actually hiring the state of Washington as a contractor last year. According to records, a WRI grant funds the position of Reed Schuler, Gov. Inslee’s senior policy adviser for climate and sustainability:

“Under its contract, Washington State sends progress reports alongside its $33,210 quarterly invoices to the nonprofit.” In exchange, Schuler duties include “prepare[s] letters, executive orders, and other directives for the Governor’s signature.”

The money trail continues to the Hewlett Foundation, an organization that has pledged $600 million to climate advocacy between 2018 and 2023. Governor Inslee’s climate advisor, Chris Davis, explained to staff that Mr. Schuler’s government job was possible “through support from the Hewlett Foundation.”

What’s worse is Washington isn’t acting alone. Gov. Inslee worked with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and California Governor Jerry Brown to organize the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition aimed at enforcing Paris-like energy restrictions in 15 states. We have to look around the country and ask ourselves, who else is being bought and paid for?

Governors Inslee, Brown, and Cuomo have a radical agenda unconstrained by the law or basic decency. Progressives decry “dark money” and yet allow committed activists to hire their staff and set their agenda. We must continue to do everything we can to stop them. Would you like to join that effort? Click here to help us continue this investigation.