Kevin Mooney

Credentials

M.A. Government and Communications, Regent University (2006)¹ ²
B.A. Journalism and Political Science, Rider University³

Background

Kevin Mooney is a Washington D.C.-based reporter for The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation⁴, and a journalist at the Commonwealth Foundation.⁵

According to his personal website, Kevin Mooney’s work has also appeared in National Review, The Epoch Times, the Washington Examiner, Broad & Liberty, the publications of the Capital Research Center, The Washington Free Beacon, the Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The American Spectator, Newsbusters, and Breitbart.com.⁶

According to his personal website, Kevin Mooney “specializes in reporting on the environmental movement, its impact on economic activity and new scientific data that questions the premise of man-made global warming. Another special area of interest concerns the actions of organized labor and its impact on public policy and the free market.” Mooney also states that he has “appeared on several Fox News programs including the Tucker Carlson program where he discussed the financial relationship between the Russian government and the U.S. environmental movement.”⁷

According to his profile page at the Commonwealth Foundation, Mooney “specializes in covering the actions of public sector unions and how their public policy stances impact constitutional limited government.”⁸

On a 2018 version of Mooney’s personal website, Mooney noted that he had worked with “several free market think tanks associated with the State Policy Network including the Pelican Institute and the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity.”⁹ In the 2023 version, Mooney states that “prior to joining the Heritage Foundation and the Commonwealth Foundation, Kevin worked as an investigative reporter with The Pelican Institute for Public Policy based in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, the Franklin Center and CNSNews.com.”¹⁰

Stance on Climate Change

Kevin Mooney has consistently written and reported on climate change from a position of denial or delay (see “Key Quotes” and “Key Deeds,” below).

Mooney’s articles have sometimes referenced “deep state” conspiracy theories, or anti-semitic conspiracy theories regarding billionaire philanthropist and businessman George Soros.¹¹ ¹² ¹³

Key Quotes

December 30, 2022

Writing with Hayden Ludwig for the Capital Research Center, Mooney reported that:¹⁴

“Before leaving the Biden White House in September, Gina McCarthy made her mark as a climate change policy heavyweight by overseeing the most interventionist federal green energy schemes to date under the guise of ‘infrastructure’ and ‘inflation reduction.’

“McCarthy, who previously served as President Barack Obama’s EPA chief and as president and CEO of the well-endowed Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), is making way for John Podesta, chairman of the left-leaning Center for American Progress and President Joe Biden’s ‘clean energy’ advisor. McCarthy has set the table for Podesta to continue the Biden administration’s ongoing assault against America’s oil and gas industry.”

July 5, 2022

In The Daily Signal, Kevin Mooney reported that “climate activists are working in coordination with the Biden White House and Democrat-dominated congressional committees to silence political opponents under the guide of ‘disinformation,’ legal and energy policy analysts say.¹⁵

“Under President Joe Biden, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has kept a tight lid on how the administration advances its climate agenda, Chris Horner, an attorney representing a government transparency group, told The Daily Signal.

“Horner said the White House science office refuses to respond forthrightly to related open records requests from his client, a nonprofit called Energy Policy Advocates. Such answers, he said, would enlighten Americans on the White House’s recruitment of outside activists and academics to discredit dissenters on climate change.”

April 29, 2022

In an Earth Day-related piece for The Daily Signal, Kevin Mooney criticized wind power subsidies as wasteful due to “dire predictions of [climate] catastrophe that never materialized”:¹⁶

“Politicians…routinely distort the cost-benefit analysis of choosing wind over another energy source. They’ve propped up wind with subsidies and been dishonest and deceptive about the environmental costs of wind. Eagle deaths are one cost; excessive land use is another.

[…]

“Given the time and history behind us since the first Earth Day in 1970, it’s fair to ask what the opportunity cost has been for the dire predictions of catastrophe that never materialized, versus the time and effort that could have been spent addressing genuine challenges.

“Kent Lassman, president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank devoted to economic freedom, suggests that it’s high time to retire Earth Day.

“‘Its history is littered with slogans, speeches and grand pronouncements—but not with many environmental improvements,’ Lassman writes in an op-ed published by The Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. ‘Each year Earth Day gets its share of pageantry and more than a little propaganda. It’s time to let it rest.'”

November 12, 2021

In a piece for The Daily Signal, Kevin Mooney repeated a longtime climate denial talking point that carbon pollution has benefitted human welfare:¹⁷ ¹⁸

“While the Biden administration continues to pursue regulatory policies based on a concept known as the ‘social cost of carbon,”’ increased carbon dioxide emissions have led to a ‘greening of the planet,’ Kevin Dayaratna, principal statistician and data scientist for The Heritage Foundation, said in his presentation at the Heartland Institute’s 14th International Climate Change Conference.”

December 22, 2020

In an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, Mooney echoed “deep state” conspiracy theories regarding a United Nations takeover of U.S. government policies:¹⁹

“Getting documents out of a government agency is a heavy lift. That’s what the nonprofit organization Energy Policy Advocates aims to do in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, seeking State Department documents that describe how the Obama administration circumvented the Constitution to join a United Nations climate treaty.

“A joint status report filed earlier this month suggests something of a ‘deep state’ effort could be underway to delay the release of any such documents until after Joe Biden becomes president.

[…]

“Environmental Policy Advocates had sought to break loose the Obama-era Paris Agreement documents prior to the 2020 election so that voters could have insight into how the Obama administration sidestepped the Senate’s ‘advice and consent’ [sic] role. But in September, the district court denied a motion for a preliminary injunction to compel the State Department to release records pertaining to the Paris Climate Agreement.”

February 16, 2019

For The Washington Free Beacon, Kevin Mooney reported on allegations by Reps. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) that the World Resources Institute and other environmental non-profits were illegally representing the Chinese government in Washington:²⁰

“The World Resources Institute, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit devoted to curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable development, was one of several environmental advocacy groups that received letters from the House Natural Resources Committee in 2018 inquiring about their relationship with China’s government and the impact this relationship has had on their political activism.

[…]

“The letters detailing potential violations of [the Foreign Agents Registration Act] were also sent to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Earthjustice. To date, none of the green groups that were the subject of the committee’s correspondence have agreed to register and all deny operating as foreign agents.”

December 27, 2018

Reporting for The Daily Signal from the annual United Nations climate change conference in Katowice, Poland, Kevin Mooney quoted Craig Rucker of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, who denied the human-driven causes of climate change:²¹

“…Craig Rucker, the president of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a nonprofit based in Washington that favors free-market solutions to energy policy, told The Daily Signal that Trump ‘made the right call’ in withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.

“He also pointed to updated scientific research from the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change challenging the findings of the U.N. report, which was released at a media event in Katowice during the COP24 conference.

“’The only consensus on climate change that exists is among those in the “climate alarmism” movement,’ Rucker said. ‘There are a growing number of scientists from across the global who point to natural influences as what drives climate, and not human activity.'”

September 11, 2017

Kevin Mooney wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner in which he echoed a longtime climate delay talking point: waiting for technological solutions to climate change, rather than capping or reducing greenhouse gas emissions:

“Although global warming alarmists have predictably made every effort to link Hurricanes Harvey and Irma with higher greenhouse gas levels, the real threat to American energy comes not from global warming, but from misguided global warming policies,” Mooney wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner.²²

“There will always be challenges to humanity in the form of extreme weather, but we’ll be better positioned to handle natural disasters in the future if policymakers embrace technological innovation and responsible industrial development rather than unfounded global warming hysteria,” he concluded.²³

January 11, 2010

In an article for Breitbart, Kevin Mooney covered research commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) in opposition to to the American Clean Energy and Security Act to curb greenhouse gas emissions, which the House of Representatives had passed on June 26, 2009 with a 219–212 vote. (The legislation was also called the Waxman-Markey bill, because it was introduced by Reps. Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts.) The groups claimed the legislation would cause job losses and “cumulative loss in gross domestic product (GDP) up to $3.1 trillion.”²⁴

In addition to mentioning the so-called “climate-gate” controversy—in which multiple investigations concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing by climate scientists — Kevin Mooney cited the debunked Oregon Petition:²⁵

“There’s no question that industrial states stand to lose the most and this should become a point of contention in 2010, just as it was in the Virginia governor’s race. But free market advocates who are looking to unseat cap and trade proponents now have the added benefit of climate-gate.

[…]

“Republican candidates should get started now in exposing anti-scientific research that underpins alarmist positions on global warming. In their messaging to voters they can draw from the expertise of numerous, well-credentialed skeptics who have found expression for their own research, despite the best efforts of the scientific establishment.”

August 11, 2009

Citing a study by the industry-friendly National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF), Kevin Mooney wrote in the Washington Examiner that the proposed Waxman-Markey bill would cause “acute job loss, reduced income and higher energy prices.”²⁶

Mooney quoted Jay Timmons, the executive director of NAM:

“’Climate change is a very complex issue and I hope Senators will look closely at this study as they consider climate change legislation this fall.’”²⁷

August 3, 2009

In an piece for the Washington Examiner, Kevin Mooney cited the research of geologist Don Easterbrook to argue that the world was about to enter a period of global cooling. Mooney suggested this was a reason to oppose the Waxman-Markey bill:²⁸

“U.S. policymakers who cite ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming as justification for anti-emission regulations are relying upon outdated and misleading material from the United Nations that deliberately omits the influence of natural forces, according to climate skeptics. In fact, a growing body of evidence now points to the emergence of another cooling cycle that could persist for decades.

“Dr. Don Easterbrook, a geologist and professor emeritus at Western Washington University, has presented data that shows a cooler and wetter climate is in order for the next 25 to 30 years. The Pacific Ocean has a warm temperature mode and a cool temperature mode known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation or PDO, he said in a recent study.”

June 25, 2009

Mooney alleged that the Environmental Protection Agency had “suppressed” a report by the industry-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute, which claimed that “[N]atural forces as opposed to human activity are largely responsible for temperature fluctuations.”²⁹

Key Deeds

July 12, 2017

Kevin Mooney appeared on FOX’s Tucker Carlson Tonight show to discuss claims of “collusion” between U.S. environmental groups and Russia on an anti-fracking campaign.³⁰

In July 2017, Kevin Mooney appeared on FOX’s Tucker Carlson show to promote accusations of collaboration between Russia and U.S. anti-fracking activists.

According to Core News, a project of the group America Rising Advanced Research:³¹

“…host Tucker Carlson and the The Daily Signal’s Kevin Mooney discussed the pending investigation into Russian funds supporting the Environmentalist Left. Earlier this week, Core News Texas reported that House Republicans were calling for an investigation into Russian funds supporting the Environmentalist Left.

“In FOX News’ interview, Mooney noted how Russia allegedly funneled money to American environmental groups, as well as the Russian motivation:

“‘Let’s give Russia credit, they know how to look out for their own interests, but the problem is they’re using our own environmental movement to advance their interests. And here is the really big bombshell, and let’s thank Representative Lamar Smith and his colleagues with the oversight of energy who’ve dug into this and connected the dots. Russia is using a shell company in Bermuda, the funnel company, which then goes to a group called the Sea Change Foundation, which then disperses tens of millions of dollars to our own environmental organizations in the U.S., which, in turn, carry the water for Vladimir Putin to slam and smear the innovative practice of fracking, which has enabled the shale gas revolution, which, as you know, has really, greatly bolstered America’s geopolitical position.’”