The newspaper recently published a column from Gregory Kiley, accusing The Alliance for Affordable Energy of being funded by the Chinese government to undermine Louisiana’s economy and national security. This accusation was first made by the Pelican Institute, Louisiana’s local affiliate of a national network of right-wing “think tanks” historically supported by the Koch brothers and other conservative or corporate donors.
While we fail to see how our work threatens anything other than obscene profits for Wall Street shareholders or bonuses for corporate utility CEOs, we do think it is important to provide some facts.
First, The Alliance was founded by and for Louisianans. We are not part of some coordinated project to manipulate state policy for the interests of the uber-wealthy, corporate sponsors, or “foreign adversaries” — we’re a local organization that’s been fighting to keep your monthly electric bill affordable for over forty years.
Second, we have never received — nor would we accept — funding from entities connected to the Chinese government. The accusation specifically made by Kiley, and the Pelican Institute, relates to funding for The Alliance they claim came from the Energy Foundation China. This is false. But we may be able to explain how they got their facts so wrong.
The Alliance has received funding from the Energy Foundation, a well-respected philanthropic organization, for many years — as far back as 2014. In 2019, the Energy Foundation split into two entities: the U.S. Energy Foundation and Energy Foundation China. During that separation, Energy Foundation China kept the original Employer Identification Number (EIN) and the U.S. Energy Foundation was created as a new entity, with a new EIN.
The Alliance did receive funds from the Energy Foundation under that original EIN — back when it was only used for the American legal entity. And all grants to The Alliance received since 2019 are from the U.S. Energy Foundation EIN. But don’t take my word for it — you can find all this information on our website.
It is OK — albeit, embarrassing — to get these things confused. Due diligence can be tough, especially when you have a political narrative to push.
But that brings us to our third fact. Unlike Kiley — who fails to disclose he is a Washington, D.C.-based political consultant — or the Pelican Institute, which doesn’t publish its funder information, The Alliance has advocated for more transparency in regulatory and other policy-making processes for decades.
That’s why I went to the April Public Service Commission meeting to speak in favor of the rule-making proposed by Commissioner Skrmetta, which Mr. Kiley urges the Commission to adopt. In fact, we worked with LPSC staff to ensure those rules will maximize transparency without violating constitutional rights or prevent regular people from participating in the regulatory process.
It should be noted, these attacks against us come at a time when Louisiana is preparing to give away more state dollars than ever to some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people and corporations in the name of “economic development.” It comes at a time when many of our state’s appointed and elected officials have signed nondisclosure agreements to keep crucial facts about those “economic development” deals secret from the public.
Perhaps the Pelican Institute and Kiley hope their accusations will distract from this. But The Alliance will not be intimidated by self-proclaimed “think tanks.” We will not bow down to the corporate special interests who fund them, and who want to make you pay more and more for their benefit, while you get less and less in return. And unlike our accusers, we have nothing to hide. We’re here to fight for the rights and well-being of all Louisianans — and we’re not going anywhere