A group forwarding the radical green agenda is spending thousands on ads promoting a plan by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.; shown) to encourage “the government to double its funding for energy research.”
Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions has spent over $50,000 on an ad campaign in Nashville and Memphis, the Volunteer State’s two largest cities.
A report in the Jackson Press on the media buy estimates that spending by the group on the Alexander proposal could reach “an estimated $150,000 for one week of television advertising,” if similar ads are run in smaller markets around the state.
Under the “Our Principles” tab on the group’s website, Citizens for Responsible Energy reveals their statist goals:
America can lead the world in developing comprehensive and responsible energy solutions that can reduce pollution, improve public health, secure our energy future and grow our economy. Private and public investment into new technologies can have tremendous benefit to our economy, environment, global competitiveness and ultimately, national security and independence.
As Americans we know our country works best when we work together. Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions is a grassroots campaign to move legislators to a bipartisan, common sense approach to address our nation’s need for reliable energy.
Many Republicans in Tennessee would likely be surprised to learn that their senior senator — a self-described “conservative” — is financed by an organization committed to using government as a tool to further its green agenda.
According to a story in KnoxNews.com, Senator Alexander believes that a “surer path” toward U.S. energy independence is “to double the $9 billion the government spends annually on non-military-related energy research and trust the marketplace to produce better results.”
Beyond this, there are other examples of Alexander’s love of growing government and pushing the eco-statist agenda. A story in The Tennessean reports that “a study by Congressional Quarterly shows that on bills on which Obama had a clearly stated position, Alexander voted with the president 62 percent of the time.”
Of more immediate concern than Alexander’s agenda and the financial support it is receiving from a liberal environmental lobbyist, is the source of the money.
As the Jackson Press explains:
Matt Collins, an activist with the Tennessee Campaign for Liberty, questions the motives behind these ads.
“It is curious that a newly formed lobbyist group is able to spend such a large amount of dark money so quickly since their inception. Where did this money come from?” he questioned.
An article in The Hill mentioning the group sheds a little light on the lobbyist’s connections:
A lobbying company led by former GOP Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) is representing a client that promotes “responsible energy solutions” — of some sort, anyway.
“Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions” has hired McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies LLC, according to a Lobbying Disclosure Act filing.
LaTourette, who spent nearly two decades in the House and was a close ally of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), heads McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies LLC.
And:
A Washington, D.C., street address listed for “Citizens” is the same address as Civitas Public Affairs Group. Civitas did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday.
Documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), however, reveal a direct connection between Civitas and Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.
Legal paperwork filed with the FCC by the stations that ran the Citizens for Responsible Energy commercials list James Dozier as the group’s chairman. On his résumé, Dozier lists himself as “Senior Associate” of the Civitas Public Affairs Group.
Dozier’s dossier is impressive, at least when it comes to left-wing lobbying. The Jackson Press reports, “Mr. Dozier is a veteran of liberal causes, including the Victory Fund, Gill Action Fund and work for pro-abortion Congresswoman Connie Morella.”
Dozier’s LinkedIn profile also lists his work with Log Cabin Republicans.
What is Victory Fund? Their mission, according to their website, is “to change the face and voice of America’s politics and achieve equality for LGBT [lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender] Americans by increasing the number of openly LGBT officials at all levels of government.
Why? Again, from their website:
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender office holders are our clearest and most convincing champions for true equality. As leaders in government, they become the face and voice of a community. They challenge the lies of extremists and speak authentically about themselves, their families and their community.
And, what of the Gill Action angle? The group’s website declares: “Gill Action was founded in 2005 by philanthropist and entrepreneur Tim Gill with the mission of securing equal rights for all Americans regardless of sexual orientation and gender expression.”
As for the Log Cabin Republicans, they claim to be “the nation’s original and largest organization of Republicans who support fairness, freedom, and equality for LGBT Americans.”
Beyond their work to influence legislation that will place the burden of advancing the green agenda on the backs of American taxpayers, Citizens for Responsible Energy — a shadowy, heavily funded lobbying organization — has demonstrable ties to powerful Republicans (Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senator Lamar Alexander), the pro-abortion lobby, and groups working for greater “rights” and government access for homosexuals and transgenders (Log Cabin Republicans, Victory Fund and Gill Action Fund).
These purportedly disparate interests unite around the green lobby and the plunder of the people to advance it. This doesn’t seem to be the sort of coalition from whom Senator Alexander would want to be taking bags of cash.
The question remains, then: Who benefits?
Another critical question is posed in the Jackson Press piece. Again, quoting Matt Collins:
Other questions remain such as the organization’s true agenda. The “Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions” website is vague as to their actual goals indicating that their activities are shrouded in secrecy; what are they hiding? Regarding Senator Alexander’s energy plan, why is he pushing part of President Obama’s radical environmental agenda? There is nothing Constitutional about it.
Collins is right. There is nothing constitutional about Senator Alexander’s “maverick GOP vision” to grow government as a means of “saving” the environment and developing clean energy. There is not, in fact, a single line in the Constitution authorizing the federal government to take money from taxpayers and re-direct it toward energy research.
Another concern for conservatives and Tennesseans who may have believed they were electing one of their own to Washington, is Alexander’s close ties to Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions and the work of that group’s chairman (James Dozier) with groups committed to securing access to power (and government grants) for homosexuals and transgenders.
Photo of Sen. Lamar Alexander: Lamar Alexander
Joe A. Wolverton, II, J.D. is a correspondent for The New American and travels frequently nationwide speaking on topics of nullification, the NDAA, and the surveillance state. He can be reached at [email protected]
