Climate catastrophists targeting GOP primaries | Hour 2

All right, so more on money and politics. This was a This was an interesting tale that I came across over at the rare foundation, R a I R rare foundation.com. So apparently there's a, a billionaire crypto founder and the former head of the Sierra club. And apparently they've gotten together. I'm guessing the billionaires bringing the money and the Sierra club Guy is bringing the activism to the table. And they've created something called the Clean Break Fund. Clean Break Fund. Okay? And they happened to appear at a recent summit. It was called the Prelude Climate Summit. I don't know why, but whatever. They recorded a podcast while they were at the prelude climate summit among all of the faux leads talking about the weather altogether and about how they're going to enact their climate change agenda, um, all around the world, I guess. So the billionaire crypto founder, uh, Chris Larson and the Sierra club founder or former head, I should say Michael Brune. So Larson and Brune. Okay. Okay. They go onto this podcast and they start bragging about how they have been running a coordinated campaign of deception and massive spending to manipulate Republican voters and punish conservatives who stand against their climate agenda. And their biggest target was Congressman Chip Roy out in Texas. He's not the only one. In fact, let me go ahead and Give you the local connection. Darlene Graham. Darlene Graham received support from Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC during her campaign for the special primary in South Carolina. This PAC is known for backing candidates aligned with certain progressive values and initiatives. So this is how they're playing now. Just in case... You were unclear, whatever. And you've got some of these people, they're bragging about how they're doing it. So they laid out in this podcast their subversive strategy to impose the climate change agenda on conservatives through deceptive infiltration. The idea, as the name would suggest, the Clean Break Fund, the idea is to break away from failed tactics such as. ESG. Remember that? Oh, man. Woke One was crazy. Yeah. ESG. Environmental, social, and governance. And embrace conservative-friendly messaging, such as religion, to manipulate Republicans to get on board. So you believe in God, don't you? Hey, God would want you to save the planet. I mean, I'm sure it'll be a little bit more refined. But that's basically, I guess, the messaging that they're going to be going with. So the aggressive tactics on display, massive super PAC spending, deceptive attack ads, punishing opponents, infiltrating the opposition, these tactics were not invented for climate change as an issue. But Chris Larson openly admitted that they were imported directly from the crypto industry's highly successful fair shake super PAC. Fairshake spent hundreds of millions of dollars to turn crypto from a regulatory target into a political kingmaker in a single election cycle. According to Larson, the same bare-knuckle playbook is now being actively used by the AI industry's own super PAC. Called Leading the Future. That group is not associated with Larson. They've raised over $ 100 million in to punish politicians who want stronger AI regulation, particularly at the state level. Now, Larson and Bruhn are openly applying these proven political warfare methods to the climate fight. He said, quote, I mean, obviously, that ESG was a total failure. Yeah, when people figured it out, yeah, it collapsed pretty quickly. He said, we tried to load up the environmental stuff with a bunch of social and governance work that was like every Republican's kind of worst nightmare. That climate was a Trojan horse to bring in all these lefty ideas, and we have to stop doing that. I even think we have to stop talking about equity and sustainability. So we're just not going to talk about all the stuff that's important to us, right? We're just going to We're just going to appeal to your faith to go along with our politician who is open to our agenda, but won't say so. That's the idea. So the, the scheme involves getting rid of failed tactics like ESG while manipulating the right through existing organizations. He says, quote, we're putting a lot of resources into groups like clear path, the evangelical environmental network, and the American Conservation Coalition. Okay, so these are the groups that they are funding. Funding from the Clean Break Fund comes from, do you want to take a guess? The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Fund, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation as well. So basically, like if you're If you're listening to NPR, you're probably hearing all of those same names too. Bruin outlined their definition of victory candidates in both parties talking about climate and energy issues in ways that are effective with their own voters, whether they mentioned climate or talk about the cost of extreme weather accountability for major emitters or impacts on air and water. It doesn't really matter as long as they're just talking about like some of this stuff that appeals to their voters. Like, We're going to support conservatives who are down with the Green New Deal, which I don't know if you're a conservative if you are down with the Green New Deal, right? Larson explained that their prime target was Congressman Chip Roy. Larson and his allies funded the group Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC. Does that name sound familiar? The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC? Yes. Yes. Because that's the one that Darlene Graham got support from, too. The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC ran aggressive attack ads in the Texas Republican primary. The ads contained no mention of climate change. They attacked Chip Roy from a fake MAGA perspective. They accused him of not being friends or sufficiently loyal or an ally to Donald Trump. That he's not a real MAGA, whatever. And this is a guy who has voted for the Trump agenda like all the time. And he lost in that primary for, was it governor or U.S. Senate? I think it was governor. No, U.S. Senate. I forget what he ran in. Democratic strategist Chris Moyer, he said the industry can't waste another moment in building political power and understanding how to play hardball, how to instill fear so that anyone who thinks of crossing them when it comes to an important vote thinks twice and knows that there will be political repercussions if they do. Peter Davidson, the CEO of Aligned Climate Capital, launched the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC, and he has been vocal against the Freedom Caucus. for trying to sunset all of the tax credits on solar. Yeah. Chip Roy was a threat to the tax credits for solar. He was against them. And so he had to go. He was a threat to the inflation reduction act. The IRA, that gravy train. Remember that thing? This was basically a repackaging of the green new deal under Biden. Gosh, why is everything so expensive? Uh, The Inflation Reduction Act, which, spoiler alert, did not reduce inflation and did not make things more affordable. It did buy off a bunch of green energy companies with tax credits and stuff, helped their business model. A great deal. All right, for over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create-A-Video, great local company in Mint Hill that has helped more than 2 million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. Now, Create-A-Video is helping families and groups create brand new memories while they're traveling. 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Check out GroupTravelVideos.com. That's GroupTravelVideos.com. Or call 704-846-7870, extension 206. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes, you can. You can email Katie. Katie at GroupTravelVideos.com. Group travel videos from old memories to new adventures, preserving life's moments for a lifetime. Okay, so the Green New Deal, or the Inflation Reduction Act, as they called it, it was basically modeled off of the Green New Deal that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Had been pitching, right? And it was imposed upon the American people in 2022 through a party line vote. The radical left was immediately on board. You had the Communist Party USA celebrating the Green New Deal. America's largest Marxist organization, the DSA, they pushed hard for the Green New Deal. Even had a national level campaign that spanned all DSA chapters. And they called it the Green New Deal Campaign Commission. So they were all happy about the Green New Deal, the Inflation Reduction Act. They still recognized what it was, even though it had a different name. And the House Freedom Caucus members were opposed, which is also why Ralph Norman is on this list of the targets of this new clean break fund. Other targets, Andy Biggs. from Arizona, Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace, both of South Carolina. Michael Bruhn, one of the founders of the Clean Break Fund here, appearing on this podcast, he says, this Trump bullying on climate is coming to an end soon, so hyperscalers should think where they want to be in the future. Hyperscalers? What's that got to do with the climate? Oh, it's a data center. Do you see the connections. On the left, right? Why are they all just all of a sudden now against the data centers? Like you're literally, you're talking smack to data centers on a podcast. Like, do you understand how a podcast gets to the audience and, Hyperscalers is the term used for giant tech companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI that operate enormous data centers and consume vast amounts of electricity to power artificial intelligence. Brune is warning that the current political reality under Trump is merely a temporary inconvenience. And once this window closes... The climate lobby expects to regain power and big tech companies had better be on the right side of the fight. It's a threat. That's what he issued in this podcast is a threat. Like you may have Trump right now, but Trump's not going to be there forever. And when he's gone and we get back into power, we're coming for all your data centers. Rare Foundation, this is a piece by Renee Now. In the end, deep-pocketed climate interests are spending tens of millions of dollars to deceive GOP voters, eliminate their opponents, and compel conservatives to embrace the climate agenda through infiltration and political warfare. And again, I point this out, Darlene Graham, who just won the Republican special primary, she has received support from one of these PACs, the Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC. That's not to say that she's all in for the Green New Deal and she's some, you know, lefty on the climate or anything like that. I'm not making that argument. And remember, these PACs, they're going after their threats. So for whatever reason or reasons, they viewed Ralph Norman as a bigger threat than Darlene Graham. That's why they put money into her campaign or ran ads. In support of her and against Norman. That's why they do it, right? Norman was the threat. Norman was in the House Freedom Caucus as well. So I'll be watching how Darlene Graham votes on stuff because she's got no track record to speak of and she's going to be there if she wins. She's going to be there. after Donald Trump exits. So she still has, what, another four years to go on her term when he leaves. So I'll be watching. So along the lines of what they've been talking about here with the data center stuff and who's funding what and, you know, Roy Cooper's running all around. Saying, you know, things cost too much. In fact, the name of his campaign is make stuff cost less. That's the tour. It's the make stuff cost less tour. I mean, you got to hand it to him. The branding there is just on point, right? So what is he citing? Well, he's talking about, you know, energy prices among other things, how energy prices are so high. And it's interesting because, uh, He was governor for eight years. Josh Stein, the Mini Cooper, he is governor now. And fulfilling the executive order of first-term Democratic Governor Josh Stein, his Energy Policy Task Force presented a report showing energy prices in North Carolina rose faster than any state from 2017 through 2024. Huh. 2017 through 2024. That's a span of like seven years. That's also when Roy Cooper was governor. Roy Cooper, running around on his Make Stuff Cost Less tour, he has been talking about energy prices and large load tariffs and are part of the Stein administration's task force recommendations in order to ensure large load customers like data centers shoulder the majority of the costs associated with new large load customers. And that's also been the way of thinking at the General Assembly under Republican majority leadership too. And that's what statewide polling of voters shows too. So like everybody seems to be in agreement that If you're going to build one of these hyperscale data centers, you're going to be using a large load of energy, then you should pay for it, right? You should not be getting. Tax credits or deductions or any kind of special freebies or anything like that. From thecentersquare.com by Alan Wooten, Duke Energy, supplier of more than 3.6 million retail customers statewide, expects a demand increase of 16% through 2040. Okay, so that's the demand for energy is expected to rise 16% over the next, what, 15 years. For the 20 years between 2005 through 2025, the increase was 7%. Residential rates have gone up nearly 30% since 2017, and they're asking for another. Rate increase. And of all of the states that have data centers, North Carolina ranks 13th in the number. Do you know how many data centers we have in this state already? 97. 97. Virginia's got the most. They have 674. followed by Texas with 537. Then California with just under 300, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Arizona, New York, Oregon, Indiana, Washington, Iowa, and Florida. Half of them have about 200 to 300. And then the other half of those have like. More than 100. And then we come in at 13th with 97. Now it's funny though, is that Stein is laying the blame on this, on the rate increases and all of this on natural gas. Okay. But Cooper, when he was governor, right, he was in lockstep with the Biden administration's $ 891 billion inflation reduction act, right? The green new deal. And that was in 2022. And the Inflation Production Act, as I call it, that produced 9% inflation in one year. The Nash County governor, now calling Raleigh home, refused signature on the Atlantic Coast pipeline as well. Remember that? Tried to get a slush fund that he could hand out to his people. political allies in the environmentalist wacko movement to basically shut them up and let the pipeline get built. Throughout his political career that dates back five decades to 1988, he's also picked up $ 440, 000 in campaign contributions from Duke Energy that he's now ripping on. Wooten goes on to say Republicans are five for five in North Carolina's U.S. Senate races since losing to the late Kay Hagan in 2008. 1998 was the last time that the Democrats won a Senate seat during a midterm election. You got to go back to 1998. Republicans in statewide races for this decade, 2020, 2022, 2024, this decade, they are 32 and 10 against Democrats in statewide races. Now there was another bill that was run a couple of years ago that factors into all of this for North Carolina. And it's called the carbon plan law. John Sanders writes about this at the John Locke foundation, johnlocke.org power bills are getting worse in North Carolina while families try to cope. High rates have grabbed the attention of news media and politicians like Josh Stein, uh, attorney general, Jeff Jackson, AKA baby Jesus. And, um, Former Governor Roy Cooper. Strangely, they do not focus on fixing the state policies behind the higher rates. Wait a minute. There are policies at play here? I thought this was just about the data centers. A new report from the John Locke Foundation does. The report's called Energy Poverty in North Carolina Securing Affordable Reliable Power. It offers several policy recommendations to uphold affordable, reliable electricity and protect households most at risk of energy poverty. The top recommendation is repeal of the state's carbon plan law. You see, in 2022, right? The same time frame as the Green New Deal was being rammed through. During the initial carbon plan discussions, the John Locke Foundation provided analysis to the North Carolina Utilities Commission, showing that the four portfolios then under discussion were all too expensive. We also demonstrated that achieving the law's requirements as cheaply and reliably as possible would still increase electricity rates. They predicted this would happen. And they were right four years ago. I'll give you some of the details on this in a minute. In 2022, during the initial carbon plan discussions, the John Locke Foundation provided analysis to the North Carolina Utilities Commission showing that what they were looking to do was going to raise electricity rates. Since the carbon plan law passed, Customers for Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress have seen their electricity prices increase anywhere from 30 to 36 percent, depending on which company you're with. That outpaces the state average increase of 25 percent. In 2023, the Utilities Commission heard testimony from utilities engineer Dustin Metz of the utilities commission, public staff, warning that customer rates could approximately double before 2030 based on what they were doing. And that process is now playing out. A new report from the Institute for Energy Research and Always On Energy Research shows that since the carbon plan law was passed, customers for Duke have seen their prices rise 30 to 36%. Those are already significant spikes, John Sanders says, but the carbon plan law's impact on rates is still ongoing. So this carbon plan law, it originated in 2019 under the make stuff cost less guy, my good friend, Roy Cut-Em-Loose Cooper. This was part of him joining the U.S. Climate Alliance in 2017. Group of governors, We're out there to fight against climate change. We are yelling at clouds. We are making the weather change. And impose the Paris Climate Accords through extreme state-level policies. The ends of such policies include, among other things, getting rid of gas and diesel-powered vehicles and farm equipment, revamping building codes, getting rid of gas stoves and appliances, making state permitting decisions include environmental justice, incorporating the social cost of carbon charges, and replacing traditional power plants with unreliable, weather-dependent, renewable facilities. For some reason, Cooper did not want his involvement with the Climate Alliance to be highlighted. Huh. A portion of an organizational email chain noted the following, quote, NC's comms team has asked that the mention of North Carolina be downplayed in national press materials, so we will remove it from these sub-headlines, but keep it in the opening paragraph of the press release. We have already told the New York Times and Bloomberg of the update to ensure that their articles are accurate, but, at the request of Governor Cooper's team, did not frame it as a major news item. So, like, they're just working the refs there, if the refs were on your team, right? You're telling the media, hey, you know, just don't highlight North Carolina. He doesn't really want a lot of this to be known to his constituents. Cooper's Executive Order 80, number 80, back in 2018, ordered the state to honor Roy's commitments to the U.S. Climate Alliance. Doing so included, among other things, developing a clean energy plan for North Carolina. That plan sought to force a 70% reduction in power sector greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, with carbon neutrality by 2050. Cooper's plan relied on input from 166 environmentalists and other quote-unquote stakeholder groups. Now, in 2021, the General Assembly began debating House Bill 951, which originated as a bill to study advanced small modular reactors, nuclear, right, and other emerging energy generation sources, issues, and trends. Along the way, the bill was essentially transformed into Cooper's Clean Energy Plan, promising to achieve a 70% reduction in emissions, right, by 2050. The key difference is between Cooper's plan and the resulting carbon plan law was the addition of some guardrails, right? The legislature put guardrails in there. The plan has to be, quote-unquote, reasonable. And it set forth the, quote, least cost path consistent to achieve compliance with the authorized carbon reduction goals and to, quote, maintain or improve upon the adequacy and reliability of the existing grid. At the time, the John Locke Foundation warned that this law would mean higher electricity rates. That's why we said that only by strict adherence to the affordability and reliability guardrails could the General Assembly lawmakers prevent even higher rate increases under this law. And fortunately, last year, the General Assembly took that action. Okay? Legislators learned that the carbon plan law's interim goal, the 70% reduction by 2030, was having a very expensive impact on the Utility Commission's computer modeling, which they used to implement this plan. They learned that it effectively placed a carbon tax of like. $ 10, 000. Per metric ton of CO2 emitted on new natural gas plants, and that eliminating the interim goal would save us an estimated $ 13 billion. This revelation led to the passage of another law, which Governor Stein vetoed. And Stein is also a member of the United States Climate Alliance. The heart of the carbon plan is to close down working power plants and replace them with solar and wind facilities. Existing nuclear is the cheapest source, he says, followed by natural gas combined cycle and coal. Like, the guy who's running around the state now complaining about the cost of electricity rates is the guy that is responsible. The Utilities Commission, like, those are appointments. This was his plan. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.