The Gas Leak Action Campaign has grown tremendously in the last two years
A secretive climate activist group with significant financial backing is quietly taking a more prominent role, arguing against natural, gas-powered appliances like stoves.
The Gas Leaks Action Campaign — which looks set to be established in late 2021 or early 2022 — recently launched a $1 million ad campaign warning of the dangers of natural gas, the largest such effort of its kind. The group says on its website that natural gas harms the environment, polluting indoor air and making stoves a “constant risk of explosion.”
The group also led a campaign against the American Gas Association (AGA), the nation’s leading industry group representing natural gas providers. Washington, D.C. held earlier this month. In the event, gas leaks sense to blow up AGA’s lobbying activities. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., have organized several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club.
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“Instead of turning off the tap on fossil fuels, our country is flooding the market with gas, and if we don’t do something, we’re all going to drown,” said Markey, an original sponsor of the Green New Deal.
“Natural gas is fundamental to protecting America’s energy security, achieving our environmental goals, and promoting economic prosperity,” AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert said in a statement.
“Despite advocacy groups deliberately spreading misinformation and promoting ill-advised energy policy that raises prices and sacrifices environmental progress, the industry continues to implement comprehensive solutions to provide life-saving energy to our customers and communities and reduce emissions,” she added.
Meanwhile, according to a US Newzs Digital review of job search sites, Gas Leaks has posted several positions, including executive director, senior communications director, digital manager, and digital designer, with salaries ranging from $65,000 to $160,000 in the past two years. In total, the positions represent the group’s annual salary and wage costs of more than $465,000.
But despite the rise of gas leaks and growing influence with Democratic lawmakers and similarly climate-focused organizations, the group shares little about itself online — its founders, funding, and history are all shielded from public view. A Reuters report last month widely claimed the gas leaks were “made up by climate advocacy veterans”.
A LinkedIn search found those “advocacy veterans” include Caleb Heeringa, a former Sierra Club communications official who serves as gas leaks campaign director; and Jamie Henn, founder of Fossil Free Media, co-founder of 350.org, and member of the Gas Leaks board.
According to Gas Leaks’ “about page,” which appears to have been removed from the group’s site and is archived, Gas Leaks is supported by the clean energy advocacy organization Climate Nexus, which is financially supported by the nonprofit Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Progressive programs receive money from regular donors.
The arrangement means Gas Leaks is not required to file its own 990 tax ID form with the Internal Revenue Service and, therefore, can operate without publicly sharing information about its internal operations or finances.
“Senator Whitehouse has conveniently abandoned his soapbox railing against dark money, it’s time he got cozy with the dark money group,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, a nonprofit government watchdog. group. Sutherland drew a contrast between both the White House’s relationship with gas leaks and his high-profile push against dark money in politics.
“This latest pop-up green group is spreading misinformation in a shady attempt to ban gas stoves.”
A US Newzs Digital analysis of grants identified only one gas leaks donor: the California-based Hysing-Simons Foundation, which says on its website that it seeks to “initiate, advance, and advance groundbreaking research in science, sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy.” Support education for our young learners and human rights for all.”
In 2022 and 2023, the Hysing-Simons Foundation awarded two $150,000 grants to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, both earmarked for the Gas Leaks Action Campaign.
The Hysing-Simons Foundation has given more than $3.3 million in funding in recent years to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a climate think tank involved in an aggressive push to target gas stoves through regulation last year. The Heising-Simons Foundation was co-founded in 2007 by Mark Heising, who remains its vice chair and is financially involved in several green energy companies.
“The only thing green in the environmental movement today is the billions of cash flowing freely between left-wing billionaires, their activists in the green movement, and politicians who do their bidding,” said Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research. Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.
“Their campaign to ban natural gas stoves is yet another example of the collusion between self-dealing affluents like Mark Hysing, green pressure groups like the Rocky Mountain Institute, and the Democratic Party machine.”
While environmentalists have been trying for years to crack down on natural gas and gas appliances for their climate impacts, early last year the U.S. The push reached a point when Richard Trumka Jr., a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, called for a ban on gas stoves. “On the table.” Shortly thereafter, the Energy Department issued regulations targeting gas stoves.
In a social media post at the time, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm pointed to a Rocky Mountain Institute-funded study and said the government “needs to address this” by increasing access to electric stovetops. The study, also cited by environmentalists and other authorities, linked gas stoves to 12% of childhood asthma cases.
Gas Leaks, Climate Nexus, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and the Hysing-Simons Foundation did not respond to requests for comment for this article. Markey and the White House also did not respond to requests for comment.