Court Documents Show Coal Giant Peabody Energy Funded Dozens Of Climate Denial Groups

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According to a new analysis by The Guardian, Peabody Energy, the U.S.โ€™s largest coal mining company, has been funding dozens of different climate change-denying organizations forย years.

The analysis is based on recentlyย released court documents that came to light as a result of the companyโ€™s bankruptcy filings. In April, Peabody filed for bankruptcy as the global demand for coal continued toย plummet.

DeSmog readers will recognize many names revealed to have received funding from Peabody, including climate deniers Willie Soon, Richard Lindzen, Roy Spencerย and Richard Berman. All three of these men have gained notoriety from the fossil fuel industry for publishing works and promoting the idea that climate change is just part of natural โ€œwarming and coolingโ€ cycles that the earth goesย through.

Then there are the familiar front groups revealed: Americans for Prosperity, American Legislative Exchange Council, CFACT, Institute for Energy Research,ย State Policy Network, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and dozensย more.

From The Guardian report:

โ€œThese groups collectively are the heart and soul of climate denial,โ€ said Kert Davies, founder of the Climate Investigation Center, who has spent 20 years tracking funding for climate denial. โ€œItโ€™s the broadest list I have seen of one company funding so many nodes in the denialย machine.โ€

The companyโ€™s filings reveal funding for a range of organisations which have fought Barack Obamaโ€™s plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and denied the very existence of climateย changeโ€ฆ

Among Peabodyโ€™s beneficiaries, the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change has insisted โ€“ wrongly โ€“ that carbon emissions are not a threat but โ€œthe elixir of lifeโ€ while the American Legislative Exchange Council is trying to overturn Environmental Protection Agency rules cutting emissions from power plants. Meanwhile, Americans for Prosperity campaigns against carbon pricing. The Oklahoma chapter was on theย listโ€ฆ

โ€œThe breadth of the groups with financial ties to Peabody is extraordinary. Thinktanks, litigation groups, climate scientists, political organisations, dozens of organisations blocking action on climate all receiving funding from the coal industry,โ€ said Nick Surgey, director of research for the Center for Media andย Democracy.

โ€œWe expected to see some denial money, but it looks like Peabody is the treasury for a very substantial part of the climate denialย movement.โ€

The Guardian also notes that Peabody was unique in their climate change denial. While most companies simply casted doubt about the idea that human activities like burning coal can change the climate, Peabody went as far as to claim that rising CO2 emissions were actually beneficial to theย planet.

Last November, the company lost a court battle and were forced to admit to their own shareholders that investing in the company could be a liability due to threats of climate change and the effects that rising emissions could have on theย industry.

Many of the groups that were listed as recipients of Peabodyโ€™s money were think tanks and lobbyists that were working both federally and with state governments to defeat environmental legislation that would have cracked down on carbonย emissions.ย 

The documents uncovered by The Guardian are similar, though not nearly as damning, toย the recently released Exxon files that show that the oil giant was well aware of the dangers of climate change and how their company was contributing to the problem forย decades.

The Peabody climate denial funding revelations are sure to generate a lot of interesting chatter inย Washington.ย 

Bloomberg Newsย reports thatย President Obama’s mentor at Harvard, Laurence Tribe, has received $435,000 from Peabody to help the company attack the Clean Powerย Plan.

As more and more coal companies are filing for bankruptcy, we’ve seen how the coal companies have been funding climate change denial quietly. Peabody used every avenue imaginable โ€”ย think tanks, scientists, lobbyists, and politicians โ€”ย in order to cast doubt on global warming science, and they are not alone in theseย efforts.

As The Guardian articleย concludes:ย 

Earlier this year, bankruptcy filings from the countryโ€™s second-biggest coal company, Arch Coal Inc,ย revealed fundingย to a group known mainly for its unsuccessful lawsuit against the climate scientist Michaelย Mann.

The $10,000 donation to the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E) was made in 2014, according to court documents filed in Archโ€™s chapter 11 bankruptcy protectionย case.

Last October, court filings from another coal company seeking bankruptcy protection, Alpha Natural Resources,ย revealed an $18,600 payment to Chris Horner, a fellow at E&E.

Visit the Center for Media and Democracy site to see the full list of individuals and groups takingย Peabody’s money.

Image via KOMU.com.

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Farron Cousins is the executive editor of The Trial Lawyer magazine, and his articles have appeared on The Huffington Post, Alternet, and The Progressive Magazine. He has worked for the Ring of Fire radio program with hosts Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Mike Papantonio, and Sam Seder since August 2004, and is currently the co-host and producer of the program. He also currently serves as the co-host of Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV, a daily program airing nightly at 8:30pm eastern. Farron received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of West Florida in 2005 and became a member of American MENSA in 2009.ย  Follow him on Twitterย @farronbalanced.

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