The Rockefeller Way: The Family's Covert ' Climate Change Plan

I knew that this family had a bone in the green, I just did not realize how deep they are in,no wonder this issue will not go away.These people are actively trying to do to big oil,what they did to big tobacco years ago.I added a link at the back end,which brings us to this past January on this operation they are running against exxon/mobil.Makes me wonder what else is going on under the cover of this even bigger operation they are running against the American people under a virus cover story

The Rockefeller Way: The Family's Covert ' Climate Change Plan

by The Energy & Environmental Legal Institute December 2016

Executive Summary 

The Rockefellers are arguably the wealthiest and most powerful family in the history of the United States. For more than 100 years, they have shaped and directed America’s economic, financial, political, and public policy while simultaneously amassing one of the largest family empires in the modern era. 

Most Americans hold the billionaire philanthropists in high esteem, associating the Rockefeller name with “oil” and “capitalism.” In reality, the Rockefellers are intent on controlling nearly every major institution in America, using philanthropy as a means of increasing their influence on the world stage under the guise of advancing various social causes. Their avid opposition to the very fossil fuel industry that made John D. Rockefeller America’s first billionaire shows that the Rockefellers are not political ideologues. Instead, they are mere opportunists who support political agendas convenient to enhancing their leverage in the global arena. 

Through the Rockefellers’ web of family foundations, universities, and institutions, as well as huge grants to other charities, they have gained unprecedented influence in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, energy, and the environment. Their highly complex integration of hedge funds, interlocking boards positions, and non-profit organizations has steered public policy on these issues and provided them with foreknowledge of emerging markets and access to the developing worlds’ natural resources. 

Since the beginning of their philanthropic endeavors, the Rockefellers have used social causes to amass influence in policy areas of their choosing. Since the 1980s, their cause of choice has been the climate change agenda (originally called global warming). Their crusade to collapse the fossil fuel industry in favor of renewable energy in well-documented, from their involvement in major global climate treaties and organizations – the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1992 to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol – to spending hundreds of millions to advance the renewable energy industry. Through their Sustainable Development Program, the Rockefeller's continue to promote their self-serving “clean energy” policies throughout both the federal government and general public. 

As the most prolific benefactors of the climate activist movement, the Rockefellers’ impact on the energy industry sees no bounds, as the family’s objectives permeate throughout federal and state energy policy, as well as international social engineering globalist compacts such as Agenda 21. With the immeasurable influence that accompanies mass wealth and power, the Rockefeller empire has proven an effective puppeteer of advancing its main objective: the destruction of the fossil fuel industry to increase its clout over the energy sector. 

On November 5, 2015, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched an unprecedented investigation into ExxonMobil to determine if the company had defrauded investors by not disclosing the risks that climate change could have on its business.1 This occurred only weeks after the Columbia Journalism School’s (CJS) Energy and Environment Reporting Fellowship accused Exxon of misleading the public through its Los Angeles Times article, “How Exxon went from leader to skeptic on climate change.”2 

Despite the raging debate over the impact of man-made climate change, left-leaning politicians, lobbyists, and most significantly, billionaires, have declared it settled science, using the issue as a means of gaining control over the energy arena. Research shows that Eric Schneiderman’s legal investigation, as well as Columbia Journalism’s negative portrayal of ExxonMobil were neither objective nor independent. In fact, substantial evidence leads to the premise that both Columbia Journalism School’s accusations against ExxonMobil and Eric Schneiderman’s legal investigation into the oil giant were not only financed, but orchestrated by the Rockefeller family. 

Notably, the Rockefellers bankrolled the Columbia Journalism School’s Energy and Environmental Reporting Fellowship Project’s demonization of the oil company. 3 However, both Schneiderman’s investigation and Columbia Journalism School’s publications were years in the making. 

  

The Rockefeller Family Fund hosted and led two closed door meetings with prominent climate activists – one in 2012 and one in January 2016. Uncovered emails show that the main issue at both gatherings was how to best take down the fossil fuel industry. 4 Aside from key leaders of the Rockefeller's many foundations, both summits included the major players in the climate movement such as: Matt Pawa (attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law), Sharon Eubanks (director of the Department of Justice’s tobacco litigation effort in the 1990’s and known anti Exxon activist), representatives of Greenpeace, and Carroll Moffit of the Climate Accountability Institute.5 During both summits, Eric Schneiderman was considered the possible catalyst to spearhead the legal investigation, while ExxonMobil was repeatedly mentioned as the possible target. 

Schneiderman’s fervent outspokenness against “climate deniers,” and public call to enact policies conducive to increasing renewable energy use made him a perfect and willing candidate.6 When announcing his crusade against Exxon, Schneiderman cited studies from the Rockefeller funded outlets InsideClimate News and Columbia Journalism School’s Exxon reports. 7 Revealingly, numerous members of the Rockefeller family had long urged Schneiderman to investigate the oil company. 

However, as evidenced in the Rockefeller-hosted La Jolla 2012 meeting report, the family and climate activists needed a well-known, respected, and objectively perceived media outlet to push the public narrative. Although not disclosed in the summit’s documentation, it appears they found one in the Columbia Journalism School. While arguably the most prestigious journalism school in the country, the Columbia Journalism School is not only a beneficiary of millions in Rockefeller donations, it is composed, almost entirely, of professors closely affiliated with the green movement. 

In 2013, a year after the plan was crafted, climate alarmist and author of a well-known book condemning Exxon/Mobil, Steve Coll, was appointed Dean of the Columbia Journalism School. 

Not surprisingly, Coll spearheaded the school’s Energy and Environmental Reporting Fellowship’s project that smeared Exxon. Coll is closely tied to the Rockefellers, as he previously chaired the climate change proponent New America Foundation, which received significant funding from the family. These revelations suggest that the Rockefellers used their influence over both the Columbia Journalism School and Steve Coll to put Coll in place as Dean, providing him the platform to do what he had done voluntarily and enthusiastically once before: publically and thoroughly castigate ExxonMobil. 

Along with Coll, as a bastion of climate activists, the Columbia Journalism School was likely an eager participant in the plot to smear Exxon. At least seven CJS professors are directly connected to green activist billionaire George Soros, receiving either awards or significant amounts of money from the socialist philanthropist. Moreover, several CJS alumni board members are prominent climate change advocates, including Scott Dodd, and Thomas Watkins. 

This report proposes that the assault on ExxonMobil was neither the idea of Eric Schneiderman, nor the Columbia Journalism School. Instead, the Rockefellers, with the help of other billionaires and prominent climate activists, carefully orchestrated both the legal and media investigations into ExxonMobil in an effort to achieve their goal of collapsing the fossil fuel industry to gain control over the energy sector. 

The Rockefellers: 

Growing Their Empire 

Under the Guise of 

Protecting the Environment 

John D. Rockefeller 

John D. Rockefeller’s rise from a modest upbringing to becoming one of the most successful businessmen in history is the epitome of the American dream. Born in the mid-1800’s, he first entered the oil industry in 1863 by investing in a startup refinery in Cleveland. By 1870, the ambitious young man, along with his brother William, founded the Standard Oil Trust, which by the 1880s, controlled about 90 percent of U.S. refineries and pipelines.8 Revolutionizing the oil industry by enhancing the quality of fossil fuel made John D. Rockefeller the first billionaire in American history. 9 

While some history books portray him as a kind-hearted capitalist, J.D. Rockefeller was anything but. Instead, he was a ruthless monopolist who sought to control every aspect of the American economy, once declaring that “Competition is a sin.”10 Rockefeller crushed his competition by enlisting a small army of lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians to destroy anyone that stood in his way. He was quoted as saying, “The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.”11 As his strongman tactics came to light, public opinion turned against him, as the press portrayed him as a symbol of corporate greed. 

Eventually, to address the rising outcry against the John D. Rockefeller’s ethically questionable means of dominating the oil industry, Congress passed the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act, which led to the eventual dissolution of the Standard Oil Trust in 1911. 12 As CNN reported, “The companies that sprung from Standard Oil's breakup -- including ExxonMobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP) and a big chunk of what are now BP's (BP) U.S. operations -- remain among the world's largest.”13 

Although John D. retired from the day to day operations of Standard Oil in the mid-1890s, his hunger for power only grew. As a means of increasing his empire while appearing concerned with the less fortunate, Rockefeller dove head-first into philanthropy. Gaining influence in the American education system, Rockefeller donated over half a billion dollars to various causes – founding the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now known as Rockefeller University). 14 Although John D. Rockefeller was one of the most successful businessmen in American history, he was a man whose craving for control over the American economy knew no bounds, leading him to do everything in his power to advance his empire under the facade of promoting social causes. 

John D. Rockefeller Jr. 

Despite the fact that his father purported to be a deeply religious protestant, as inaugural president of the Rockefeller Foundation, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. established the Bureau of Social Hygiene in 1913 to support birth control clinics and research, donating thousands to Margarete Sanger’s Birth Control League.15 In 1930, under John Rockefeller Jr.’s direction, the Rockefeller Foundation began subsidizing the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, which conducted eugenics experiments in Germany. 16 

The Rockefeller's Openly 

Reveal Their Desire 

for Unlimited Societal Control 

With the help of a $58 million endowment from John D. Rockefeller Jr., his five sons, John D. John D. Rockefeller III, Nelson Rockefeller, Laurence Rockefeller, Winthrop Rockefeller, and David Rockefeller, established the Rockefellers Brothers Fund (RBF) in 1940.17 The family sought to advance international governing bodies early on, as first made evident when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated eighteen acres of land on the East River of New York to the newly formed United Nations shortly after World War II.18 His son, David Rockefeller, who concurrently chaired the Chase Manhattan Bank and the Council on Foreign Relations (a Rockefeller funded think tank that has dominated the course of U.S. foreign policy since its inception in 1921) provided the family substantial leverage over both Wall Street and global initiatives. Throughout the years, David made his desire for control clear, once saying: 

“Some even believe [the Rockefellers] are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I’m proud of it.”19 

David’s older brother, Nelson, who served as New York’s governor before becoming Gerald Ford’s unelected Vice President, echoed his sentiment, stating, “The secret to success is to own nothing, but control everything.” 20 

The Rockefellers Use the Green 

Movement to Grow Their Empire 

Beginning in the 1980s, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund became leading advocates of the global warming agenda. According to its Sustainable Development Program Review, “The RBF first began grant making on climate change in 1984 and has consistently maintained an interest on the issue through this period.” 21 In their Sustainable Development Program Review, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund boasts of being one of the first major global warming activists, citing its strong advocacy for both the 1988 formation of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 1992 establishment of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.22 Throughout the 1990s, RBF spent a significant portion of its funds advancing the global adaptation of the Rio Treaty, which obligated complicit countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent from the 1990 levels by 2012. 23 In 1997, with the assistance of Al Gore, RBF helped promote and orchestrate the Kyoto Protocol with Japan. 24 Referencing RBF’s support of Kyoto, the Sustainable Development Program Review stated, “During 1995 to 1997, fewer than 10 U.S. foundations contributed a combined amount of less than $4 million to support this work, of which the RBF committed $700,000.”25 

In 1998, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund began influencing Europe’s energy policies. 26 Between 1998 and 2003, RBF donated $10 million to fund an alliance of local, state, and federal leaders in the United Kingdom and Germany to address the issue. 27 Starting in 2005, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund made its most dramatic pivot to date, shifting the vast majority of Sustainable Development’s resources towards addressing climate issues. This was done to the detriment of protecting ecosystems and biodiversity, where funding was drastically cut. 28 

Not surprisingly, the Rockefeller's are heavily invested in renewable energy. In July 2016, RBF provided $10 million to Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd., a company that expands renewable energy in Africa.29 “Of the fund’s $816 million under management, about $97.5 million have gone to so-called “Impact Investments” including its stake in Mainstream as well as positions in vehicles like the New Energy Capital Infrastructure Credit Fund.” 30 The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is aiming to divest from fossil fuels entirely by 2018.31 

The Rockefeller’s Funding 

of the Green Movement 

Since 2000 The Rockefeller’s currently operate four major foundations: 

1.) The Rockefeller Foundation ($4.2 billion in assets) 

2.) The Rockefeller Brothers Fund ($4.8 billion in assets) 

3.) The Rockefeller Family Fund (established in 1968 with $93.9 million in assets) 

4.) Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc. (founded in 1991 with $61 million in assets).

According to 990 IRS Tax return forms, since 2000, the four Rockefeller Foundations have poured tens of millions into major green activist groups such as: the Energy Foundation, the Tides Foundation, the New America Foundation, the World Health Organization, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the National Resources Defense Council, the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Center for International Environmental Law, and the Southern Environmental Law Center. 

The Rockefellers Funnel 

Money Through the 

Energy Foundation to 

Push Climate Policy 

The Energy Foundation, co-founded by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1991, received extensive scrutiny from the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.33 In the Senate report, “The Chain of Environmental Command: How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA,” the Energy Foundation is described as a “pass-through” organization that funnels tens of millions from billionaire owned foundations (which they dubbed the “Billionaire’s Club”) to green lobbyists, allowing the wealthy to hide their political clout. 34 The Senate committee concluded: 

The Energy Foundation is a quintessential example of a pass through frequently employed by the Billionaire’s Club. Energy Foundation receives money from several key foundations and redirects it to activists. In doing so, they are providing two services: distance between the donor and the activist, and enhancing the clout of the donors as their individual influence is maximized by pooling resources.35 

The Senate report names the Rockefeller Foundation as the fifth largest donor to environmental causes in 2011 (providing 117 grants totaling $43.8 million), and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation as the 6th largest funder of the issue. 36 Since 2000, the Energy Foundation has received a combined total of over $4.7 million from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. As a pass-through organization, the Energy Foundation takes the money it receives from billionaire run foundations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation, and donates it to green activist groups legally permitted to lobby the government for public policy. These groups include: the American Lung Association, the Blue Green Alliance, the Environmental Defense Fund, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Resource Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.37 

When scrutinizing the millions contributed by the Rockefellers to the Energy Foundation over the past decade and a half, it becomes clear that they most likely chose to hide their donor intent through an intermediary – the Energy Foundation – in order to push their climate agenda at both the state and federal levels of government. As explained in the Senate report, wealthy individuals can fund a 501(c)(3) organization (such as the Energy Foundation), and direct it to transfer large sums of money to 501(c)(4) organizations, which can legally fund political campaigns and lobby for public policy.38 At the end of the report, the Senate Committee concluded that the Rockefellers founded, and donated millions to, the Energy Foundation as a means of influencing climate and energy policy at the highest levels of government. 39 

The Rockefellers Promote 

U.N. Agenda 21 

Since its origin in 1992, the Rockefeller family has been a substantial benefactor, supporter, and advocate for United Nations Agenda 21. U.N. Agenda 21 is an initiative implemented by the United Nations as “a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment.”40 Agenda 21 promotes “smart growth,” by creating financial incentives for citizens to leave rural areas for big cities in the name of ‘saving the planet.’ 41 

Kirk MacDonald laments, “Like radical philanthropist George Soros, the Rockefeller Foundation enthusiastically backs Agenda 21, a United Nations-sponsored plan that aims to expand government control over virtually every aspect of rural Americans’ lives.”42 

President Obama, an active supporter of the initiative, created the White House Rural Council to advise on how best to give the federal government control over fuel, energy, and fiber.43 

Since 2002, the Rockefellers have bankrolled several major U.N. Agenda 21 promotional organizations, donating: $16.7 million to Living Cities since 2002, $9.2 million to Smart Growth America since 2008, $14.7 million to the Brookings Institution, and $2.5 million to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.44 

Through their millions in donations to green activists, as well as their aggressive advocacy of major climate treaties and organizations such as the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, and U.N. Agenda 21, the Rockefeller family has been, and continues to be, the largest promoter and benefactor for the green movement, a movement they have used as a means to expand their empire over the past three decades. 

The Rockefellers Develop Their 

Plan to Smear ExxonMobil 

The Rockefellers Hold Secret Meetings with Green Activists In the summer of 2012, two Rockefeller funded foundations, the Climate Accountability Institute (CAI) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), held a workshop in La Jolla, CA. The purpose of the “workshop” was to plan how best to publically demonize fossil fuel companies through the same narrative used against Big Tobacco in the 1990’s.45 The gathering was led by the who’s-who of the climate movement, including activists Matt Pawa, an attorney for the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and a board member for Climate Accountability Institute, Sharron Eubanks, director of the Department of Justice’s tobacco litigation crusade in the 1990’s, and Carroll Muffett, CAI board member.46 During the meeting, leading climate activists crafted a strategy to simultaneously target ExxonMobil through the criminal justice system and national media. Their agreed upon tools for doing so appear to be New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the Columbia Journalism School. The activists concocted the following four-pronged strategy to convince the American public that fossil fuels are destroying the planet: 

1.) Target a major oil company; 

2.) Obtain internal company documents through legal discovery; 

3.) Make libel and false advertising claims against the targeted company; and 

4.) Make conspiracy, and thus, RICO, a prominent part of their case.47 

Details of the 2012 La Jolla meeting were soon released by attendees in a report entitled “Establishing Accountability for Climate Change Damages: Lessons from Tobacco Control.” The following are key excerpts from the document: 

Strategy to target a fossil fuel company: 

Picking up on this notion, Naomi Oreskes suggested that some portion of sea level rise could be attributed to the emissions caused by a single carbon-producing company. 48

On the RICO Act: 

Richard Ayres, an experienced environmental attorney, suggested that the RICO Act, which had been used effectively against the tobacco industry, could similarly be used to bring a lawsuit against carbon producers.49 

On targeting ExxonMobil: 

Stanton Glantz expressed some enthusiasm about such a strategy, based on his experience with tobacco litigation. As he put it, “I would be surprised if the industry chose to attack the calculation that one foot of flooding in Key West could be attributed to Exxon/Mobil.50 

Most revealingly, the La Jolla report openly admitted that it needed the right state attorney general to use his legal and political power to investigate ExxonMobil:51 State attorneys general can also subpoena documents, raising the possibility that a single sympathetic state attorney general might have substantial success in bringing key internal documents to light. 52 

As revealed by InsideClimate News (ICN), the Rockefellers have “long urged” Eric Schneiderman to investigate ExxonMobil and other oil companies.53 InsideClimate News is a Rockefeller-bankrolled climate alarmist group, founded and published by David Sassoon, a former consultant to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.54 

Schneiderman was the perfect man for the job. In a 2014 speech, the New York Attorney General exclaimed, “I can’t really argue with Tom Steyer’s effort to say climate deniers have no place in public life in America.”55 He further stated that regular citizens are “passively resisting the imperative to action,” called for a “shift in public consciousness,” and directed leaders in the climate change movement to pressure politicians to take action.56 

However, the 2012 La Jolla summit was only the first of two Rockefeller-hosted meetings. On January 8, 2016, a coalition of climate change activists and political operatives secretly gathered behind closed doors at the Rockefeller Family Fund’s headquarters. The agenda of the meeting: plan the attack on ExxonMobil through a coordinated campaign aimed at creating public scandal by obtaining the company’s internal documents through investigations by state prosecutors, divestment efforts, and political pressure.57 

The meeting was led and organized by Rockefeller Family Fund Director Lee Wasserman, Kenny Bruno (activist with the New Venture Fund), Naomi Ages (top GreenPeace official), Dan Cantor (Executive Director of the Working Families Party), Jamie Henn (co-founder of 350.org), and Rob Weissman (president of Public Citizen).58 The objectives of the “workshop,” obtained through retrieved emails, tell the story of what took place. The summit's agenda, as discovered in an email from Kenny Bruno to other attendees, were: “To establish in the public’s mind that Exxon is a corrupt institution;” “To delegitimize them (ExxonMobil) as a political actor;” and “To drive Exxon & climate into the center of the 2016 election.”59

It is clear that the investigation into ExxonMobil did not simply materialize overnight. On the contrary, it was the result of a calculated, coordinated, and carefully planned four-year effort to collapse the oil corporation by wealthy funders (The Rockefellers with the help of other billionaires) and green activists. Recently, the Rockefeller Family Fund admitted that, for years, it poured tens of thousands of dollars into InsideClimate News to study how oil companies were dealing with the “realities of climate change,” and that since 2008, members of its family have repeatedly encouraged ExxonMobil to increase spending on alternative fuels. 60 

In April 2016, the Rockefellers further revealed their dedication to toppling the fossil fuel industry to the Wall Street Journal, “It’s about helping the larger public understand the urgencies of finding climate solutions,’’ said Lee Wasserman, director of the Rockefeller Family Fund. 61 This statement, combined with the Rockefellers’ admission of funneling tens of thousands over the past several years to InsideClimate News, an outlet they directly control which devotes most of its articles to condemning fossil fuels, indicates that the Rockefellers aggressively sought to sway public opinion against the fossil fuel industry. 62 

George Soros’ Influence on 

New York Attorney General 

Eric Schneiderman 

Billionaire globalist George Soros’ contributions to the advancement of the climate change agenda are well documented. As one of the most influential men in the world, Soros founded the Open Societies Foundations as his main avenue to further major globalist causes, particularly the climate change movement. Through the Open Societies Foundations, he has funneled billions to major green activist foundations such as: the Aspen Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Green for All, the New America Foundation, Presidential Climate Action Project, the Tides Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, the Global Green Grants Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. 

Thus, it comes as no surprise that Soros donated heavily to Eric Schneiderman. In 2008, Soros personally gave $9,500 (the maximum allowed under New York law) to Schneiderman’s state senate campaign.63 Schneiderman’s 2010 Attorney General campaign also received substantial financing from major hedge fund billionaires including: David Einhorn (a board member of the Soros funded Robin Hood Foundation), William Ackman (an active supporter of a Michael Bloomberg 2016 Presidential run 64), and the maximum allowed by law from George Soros himself. 65 A search of the New York Campaign Finance Board database shows that while the Soros family donated $1,121,073 to New York state political candidates since 2000, no single candidate received more than Eric Schneiderman’s $111,000.66 

InsideClimate News: A Vessel for the Rockefellers to Promote the Climate Agenda in the Media InsideClimate News (ICN), a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2007, describes itself as an “independent, non-profit, non-partisan news organization that covers clean energy, carbon energy, nuclear energy and environmental science—plus the territory in between where law, policy and public opinion are shaped.” 67 Its stated mission is to “produce clear, objective stories that give the public and decision-makers the information they need to navigate the heat and emotion of climate and energy debates.” 68 However, this news outlet is neither non-partisan nor objective. As such, its website shows articles attacking fossil fuels such as: “Exxon: The Road Not Taken,” “Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale: Big Oil & Bad Air on the Texas Prarie,” “Clean Break: The Story of Germany’s Energy Transformation,” and “KeyStone and Beyond,” among many others.69 While InsideClimate News lists both the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Family Fund as its main benefactors, 70 it does not publicize the amounts received from these foundations. 

InsideClimate News’ board of directors is comprised entirely of green activists, many of whom are closely entangled with the Rockefellers and the Columbia Journalism School. Founder David Sassoon is a former climate action consultant for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund who coincidentally, holds a degree from the Columbia Journalism School.71 Senior Executive Susan Kish previously served as the Director of Knowledge Services at New Energy Finance, launching and producing the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit, the most prominent meeting of leaders across the global clean energy and carbon markets. 72 Prior to that, Ms. Kish served as the CEO of known renewable energy promoter First Tuesday Zurich.73 Simon K.C. Li, editing and leadership consultant, sits on the Board of Visitors at the Columbia Journalism School, 74 while Michael Northrop directs the Sustainable Development grant making at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, focusing exclusively on renewable energy. 75 Northrop previously served on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC Sustainability Advisory Board, the City of New York's Waterfront Advisory Board, as well as on the boards of directors of Oceana and Princeton in Asia.76 Lastly, board member Lawrence Rodman is currently a Master's Degree candidate at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, joining ICN after ending his 40 year corporate law career to dedicate his time to advancing the climate agenda. 77 

In summary, InsideClimate News is nothing more than a Rockefeller megaphone. When considering that: the Rockefellers bankroll ICN, two ICN board members have directly helped the Rockefellers advance their climate agenda, most ICN articles attack the fossil fuel industry (including numerous articles disparaging ExxonMobil), the fact that Eric Schneiderman cited both ICN and the Columbia Journalism School when announcing his investigation into Exxon, it appears that under the direction of the Rockefellers, InsideClimate News and the Columbia Journalism School worked in concert to smear oil company. 

Steve Coll and the 

Columbia Journalism School: 

Willing Pawns of 

the Rockefeller Agenda 

Steve Coll

Steve Coll, Dean of the Columbia Journalism School, and leader of its Energy and Environmental Reporting Project, which attacked ExxonMobil, has been an ardent climate change proponent for decades. Coll currently serves as a Global Board Member and Advisory Board Chair of the Soros-run Open Societies Foundations, which is one of the largest champions of the green movement in the world.78 As chairman of the New America Foundation from 2007 to 2012, Coll transformed the organization into a prolific climate movement funder. In April 2010, under Coll’s direction, the New America Foundation partnered with Arizona State University to form Future Tense (a green organization) in an effort to advance renewable energy use through bioengineering studies. 79 

As shown on the New America Foundation’s 990 IRS tax return forms, during Coll’s tenure between 2007 and 2012, the organization received considerable funding from the main actors in the climate change movement. This included: $10.47 million from the Rockefeller foundations, $3.7 million from the Soros-run Open Society Foundations, $4.81 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, $6 million from the Ford Foundation, $375,000 from the Schmidt Family Foundation, $295,000 from the Tides Foundation, and $1.46 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. 

Although the Rockefellers used InsideClimate News to publicly promote an anti-fossil fuel sentiment, they are too intertwined with it for its reporting to appear unbiased. Thus, they seemingly needed a renowned, respected, and an objectively-perceived media outlet to provide more credibility to their claims against Exxon. They apparently found one in the Columbia Journalism School. While already a climate change advocate, the Columbia Journalism School needed a leader desirous of smearing fossil fuel companies, specifically ExxonMobil. 

On March 18, 2013, Steve Coll was appointed Dean of Columbia Journalism School, 80 less a year after the Rockefeller orchestrated La Jolla meeting where climate activists decided to target ExxonMobil through the use of the media and a “sympathetic state attorney general.” After all, if   the Rockefellers wanted to villainize the oil company in the press, who better to lead the charge than known Exxon adversary Steve Coll? 

Coll’s reveals his disdain for ExxonMobil in his 2012 book, Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power. Pulling no punches, Coll attacks the oil company early and often throughout the book, accusing Exxon of widespread corruption and misrepresentation for not only denying climate change, but substantially contributing to it. 81 

Steve Coll’s connection to the Rockefellers is transparent, as the New America Foundation received over $10.4 million from the Rockefellers while he was at the helm. According to 990 IRS tax filings, the Rockefellers, through their numerous foundations, have given millions to Columbia University. The school has received: $33.9 million from the Rockefeller Foundation, $1.4 million from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and $425,000 from the Rockefeller Family Foundation. When combined with the fact that the Rockefellers donated heavily to a green organization formally chaired by Steve Coll, it appears that the billionaire family significantly influenced Steve Coll’s appointment to Dean of Columbia Journalism School, making him the final piece of the puzzle in their scheme to attack ExxonMobil simultaneously through the media and legal system. 

Soros’ Substantial Funding 

of Columbia University 

Columbia University has received a total of $9.7 million from George Soros’s Open Society Foundation, making it the third-most Soros-funded school in the world, and the second-most in the U.S.82 $1.25 million of this money flowed directly to the Columbia Journalism Review (an affiliate of CJS). 83 The school was also provided an additional $1.63 million from the Tides Foundation, another Soros-financed organization. Moreover, the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), a research institute funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and close affiliate of the Columbia School of Journalism, has received over least $500,000 in Soros donations. 84 

Columbia University Received Funding From the Following Billionaire Controlled Green foundations: 

1. David and Lucile Packard Foundation: $437,500 in 2012; $437,500 in 2013 

2. Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation: $1,100,000 in 2013 

3. Marisla Foundation: $40,000 in 2013 

4. Rockefeller Foundation: $129,000 in 2012 

5. Schmidt Family Foundation: $50,000 (2012); $100,000 (2013) 

6. Walton Family Foundation: $25,000 (2012); $25,000 (2013) 

7. William and Flora Hewlett Foundation: $200,000 (2012) 

8. Pew Charitable Trusts: $240,000 (2013); $335,000 (2014) 

9. Tides Foundation: $1,070,000 (2012); $135,000 (2013) 

Columbia Journalism Schools’ 

Faculty is Composed of 

Climate Activists 

Although the Columbia Journalism School is considered one of the best the United States has to offer, the school’s curriculum, faculty, and reporting are overwhelmingly supportive of liberal political causes, particularly climate change. According to a 2013 study conducted by the Media Research Center (MRC), sixty-eight percent of full time faculty at the school work for overtly left wing news outlets.85 Of the forty full-time members of the faculty, twenty-seven write for liberal publications such as: The Huffington Post, Slate, The American Prospect, Mother Jones, Salon, The Nation, and Greenpeace. 86 Further demonstrating Columbia Journalism School’s left wing political bias, from January of 2010 to April 2012, out of the 104 special lectures presented at the school, twelve were given by faculty, while 27 of the speakers (over one fourth) were surrogates of prominent liberal organizations.87 

At least seven Columbia Journalism School faculty members are closely tied to billionaire green activist George Soros, as professors Nina Berman, Howard French, Todd Gitlin, Victor Navasky, June Cross, Rhoda Lipton, and James Stewart have all either received awards or direct project  funding from his Open Society Foundations.88 Navasky serves as Chairman of the Soros-funded Columbia Journalism Review, an affiliate of CJS. 89 Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) regularly compliments Soros as “decidedly a supporter of quality journalism,” proclaiming that NPR “should not be ashamed” of Soros’ funding.90 CJR also promoted a 2008 Financial Times article by Soros, in which, the billionaire blatantly advocated for socialism. 91 

Additionally, Todd Gitlin, Chairman of the Columbia journalism Ph.D. program, founded the radical leftist group, Students for a Democratic Society, a violent, anti-war protest group in the 1960s. 92 Moreover, three Columbia Journalism School professors currently sit on the boards of unabashedly liberal news outlets, with Thomas B. Edsall at The Huffington Post, Todd Gitlin at Greenpeace, and Victor Navasky at The Nation. 93 Finally, known Soros ally, Jeffrey D. Sachs, serves as director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, a radical organization emphasizing the effects of humans on the environment.94 

The Connection Between the Columbia Journalism School’s Alumni Board and the Climate Change Movement 

Several members of Columbia Journalism School’s alumni board are green activists. Thomas Watkins has strong connections to the Rockefellers and Soros,’ as he is currently a consultant for the climate movement heavy-weight World Health Organization, and states in his linkedin profile that climate change is one of only two causes in which he specializes. 95 Over the past fifteen years, the World Change Organization has received tens of millions in funding from climate activist billionaire controlled foundations such as: the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Open Societies Foundations, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. 

Similarly, Columbia Journalism School Alumni Board member Scott Dodd previously served as Editorial Director of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a climate alarmist group whose Board of Trustees consists of Hollywood climate activists such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Redford, 96 as well as Wendy Schmidt, President of the Schmidt Family Foundation (a major green organization).97 Before working directly for NRDC, Dodd presided over its affiliate, onEarth.org.98 

Conclusion 

The Rockefeller family, whose track record of advancing the climate change agenda is unrivaled, appears to have orchestrated the simultaneous media and legal assaults against ExxonMobil. Through their financial influence, it is posited that the Rockefellers planned, coordinated, and subsidized the combined efforts of the Columbia Journalism School and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s investigation into ExxonMobil. The collective facts lead to the premise that Eric Schneiderman launched a legal probe into Exxon as a result of the Rockefellers anointing him their “chosen one” at their 2012 La Jolla meeting. Schneiderman’s public statements denouncing climate deniers and call to action to fight climate change lend strong credence that he is the “sympathetic attorney general” the Rockefellers needed to go after ExxonMobil. 

Even with Schneiderman as their surrogate, if they were going to successfully dismantle the oil company, the Rockefellers seemingly needed to gain widespread public support through a respected news outlet, which they likely found at the Columbia Journalism School. Their man on this front appears to be climate activist Steve Coll, who, aside from exhibiting blatant contempt for Exxon in his widely published book, served as chairman of the Rockefeller bankrolled New America Foundation. Because the Rockefellers helped Coll transform the New America Foundation into a major player in the climate change movement, their influence over him is significant, to say the least. 

Since the Rockefellers had contributed millions to the Columbia Journalism School over the years, they likely wielded enough power to influence Coll’s appointment as Dean. With Coll leading Columbia Journalism School’s Energy and Environmental Reporting Fellowship Project, the Rockefellers, along with other activist billionaires, openly bankrolled the initiative, because they knew that it would publically deem ExxonMobil a threat to the environment. 

In light of the revelations that the Columbia Journalism School: is funded by nearly all of the major players in the climate change movement, is led by a man who previously authored a thorough condemnation of ExxonMobil, employs several faculty members with direct connections to George Soros, and has an alumni board stacked with green radicals, it is reasonable to conclude that Dean Steve Coll, as well as the rest of the powers that be at the Columbia Journalism School, would have been more than happy to drag Exxon through the mud. 

The battering of ExxonMobil is only the beginning of a large, widespread, and coordinated effort to collapse the fossil fuel industry in the United States. As reported in The Washington Times on March 29, 2016, emails obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) through open records requests show that the offices of the New York Attorney General and several other Democrat attorneys general secretly concocted a scheme with anti-fossil fuel activists to use the criminal justice system to investigate individual scientists and nonprofits under fraud and RICO laws.99 

After an intense legal battle, E&E Legal uncovered a Common Interest Agreement (CIA) signed by the involved attorneys general and several climate activists in what is essentially a secrecy pact. Each signer promised to alert the others if open records requests were filed with their offices regarding their scheme to target “climate deniers” in an attempt to keep citizens from discovering their tyrannical infringement on individual liberty and the First Amendment. The CIA is invalid for a multitude of reasons, as it is overly broad in scope, and was drafted to in anticipation of open records requests instead of litigation. 

This oppressive infringement on constitutionally protected free speech is unprecedented, and demonstrates the lengths the climate change movement will go to force their narrative down the throats of the American people. When one follows the money, the major initiatives of the green 99 Valerie Richardson, “Democratic attorneys general to police climate dissent,” The Washington Times, Mar. 29, Accessed April 20, 2016. 24 movement always lead back to the usual suspects: activist billionaires such as the Rockefellers seeking control the energy industry. 

https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/rockefeller-way-report-climate-change.pdf

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-company-lawsuits-timeline-exxon-children-california-cities-attorney-general