{"id":11107,"date":"2012-02-25T12:16:07","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T17:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=11107"},"modified":"2012-02-25T12:16:07","modified_gmt":"2012-02-25T17:16:07","slug":"the-sierra-club-took-millions-from-fracking-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2012\/02\/the-sierra-club-took-millions-from-fracking-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sierra Club Took Millions From Fracking Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When Will They Give It Back?<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

by RUSSELL MOKHIBER<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, I<\/span> wrote an article<\/span><\/a><\/span> about how Chesapeake Energy, through its fracking activity, was destroying the rural way of life in West Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the article ran, an insider called me with a tip \u2013 Sierra Club has taken money from Chesapeake Energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

I called Sierra Club on Monday and asked \u2013 Are you taking money from frackers \u2013 in particular Chesapeake Energy?<\/span><\/p>\n

Waiting for a response, I called Sierra Club activists in West Virginia to see if they know anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two of them \u2013 Jim Sconyers and Beth Little \u2013 e-mailed Michael Brune, the executive director of Sierra Club, and asked him whether the Club has taken money from Chesapeake Energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brune writes back to Little and Sconyers:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not and will not take any money from Chesapeake or any other gas company. Hope all\u2019s well with you both.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Simultaneously, I get an e-mail from Maggie Kao, the spokesperson for the Sierra Club.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Kao writes to me: \u201cWe do not and we will not take any money from any natural gas company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I write back \u2013 I understand you do not and will not.<\/span><\/p>\n

But have you taken money from Chesapeake?<\/span><\/p>\n

That was Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

All day Wednesday goes by.<\/span><\/p>\n

All day Thursday goes by.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I can\u2019t get an answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Thursday night, Kao writes says \u2013 okay, Brune can talk to you at 7:30 pm EST.<\/span><\/p>\n

And by the way, Kao says \u2013 check out this story just posted in Time magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

The headline:<\/span> How the Sierra Club Took Millions from the Natural Gas Industry \u2013 and Why They Stopped.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Turns out, Sierra Club didn\u2019t want the story to break in Corporate Crime Reporter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The millions from frackers.<\/span><\/p>\n

And how as late as Tuesday, Sierra Club tried to mislead it\u2019s own members about the money.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the Time report, between 2007 and 2010 the Sierra Club accepted over $25 million in donations from the gas industry, mostly from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy \u2013 one of the biggest gas drilling companies in the U.S. and a firm heavily involved in fracking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Time reported that the group ended its relationship with Chesapeake in 2010 \u2013 and the Club says it turned its back on an additional $30 million in promised donations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Waiting to speak with Brune.<\/span><\/p>\n

And ask him what he meant by:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not and will not take any money from Chesapeake or any other gas company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lisa Wright was on the executive committee of the Sierra Club\u2019s Finger Lakes chapter in upstate New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

But she soon got fed up with the national organization\u2019s coziness with the natural gas industry and Chesapeake Energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wright wanted Sierra Club to take a position against fracking \u2013 similar to a position the Club took on coalbed methane \u2013 it\u2019s too dangerous to regulate \u2013 you have to prohibit it.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Sierra Club wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sierra Club\u2019s position was to regulate, not prohibit.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, on May 3, 2011, in an e-mail to Sierra Club\u2019s executive director Michael Brune, Wright withdrew her membership.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNational Sierra Club has handled its affairs in regards to shale-gas in such an egregiously arrogant, ill-informed and out-of -touch manner that I simply cannot continue to pretend that my grassroots efforts in association with Sierra Club will in any way help the movement,\u201d Wright wrote to Brune. \u201cThe high level associations of the gas industry with NGOs \u2013 evident in the Aspen Energy Summit \u2013 is like an infection that cannot be cured with sophisticated PR campaigns that obfuscate the underlying problem of your corporate associations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my hope that you will reconsider your views on America\u2019s shale-gas future, and provide the forward-thinking leadership that the Sierra Club brand once promised.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On May 11, Brune wrote back, thanking Wright \u201cfor her thoughtful response.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But then he added:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I sign off, I do want to be clear about one thing: we do not receive any money from Aubrey McClendon, nor his company Chesapeake,\u201d Brune wrote. \u201cFor that matter, we do not receive any contributions from the natural gas industry. Hopefully this will alleviate some concerns. Thank you for all your work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So, when Wright heard yesterday that in fact Sierra Club had taken $25 million from Chesapeake Energy between 2007 and 2010, she went back and dug up her e-mail correspondence with Brune.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI took his response to mean that he had not taken any money from Chesapeake or the gas industry,\u201d Wright toldCorporate Crime Reporter. \u201cIt was misleading.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brune\u2019s position is that his \u201cdo not and will not\u201d position was not misleading \u2013 because he didn\u2019t address the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Brune is going to be facing an angry grassroots this weekend when he holds a conference call for members to address the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

He might want to consider a different answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

How Sierra Club Misled Its Members about the $25 Million from Chesapeake Energy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lisa Wright was on the executive committee of the Sierra Club\u2019s Finger Lakes chapter in upstate New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

But she soon got fed up with the national organization\u2019s coziness with the natural gas industry and Chesapeake Energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wright wanted Sierra Club to take a position against fracking \u2013 similar to a position the Club took on coalbed methane \u2013 it\u2019s too dangerous to regulate \u2013 you have to prohibit it.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Sierra Club wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sierra Club\u2019s position was to regulate, not prohibit.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, on May 3, 2011, in an e-mail to Sierra Club\u2019s executive director Michael Brune, Wright withdrew her membership.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNational Sierra Club has handled its affairs in regards to shale-gas in such an egregiously arrogant, ill-informed and out-of -touch manner that I simply cannot continue to pretend that my grassroots efforts in association with Sierra Club will in any way help the movement,\u201d Wright wrote to Brune. \u201cThe high level associations of the gas industry with NGOs \u2013 evident in the Aspen Energy Summit \u2013 is like an infection that cannot be cured with sophisticated PR campaigns that obfuscate the underlying problem of your corporate associations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my hope that you will reconsider your views on America\u2019s shale-gas future, and provide the forward-thinking leadership that the Sierra Club brand once promised.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On May 11, Brune wrote back, thanking Wright \u201cfor her thoughtful response.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But then he added:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I sign off, I do want to be clear about one thing: we do not receive any money from Aubrey McClendon, nor his company Chesapeake,\u201d Brune wrote. \u201cFor that matter, we do not receive any contributions from the natural gas industry. Hopefully this will alleviate some concerns. Thank you for all your work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So, when Wright heard yesterday that in fact Sierra Club had taken $25 million from Chesapeake Energy between 2007 and 2010, she went back and dug up her e-mail correspondence with Brune.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI took his response to mean that he had not taken any money from Chesapeake or the gas industry,\u201d Wright toldCorporate Crime Reporter. \u201cIt was misleading.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brune\u2019s position is that his \u201cdo not and will not\u201d position was not misleading \u2013 because he didn\u2019t address the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Brune is going to be facing an angry grassroots this weekend when he holds a conference call for members to address the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

He might want to consider a different answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Will They Give It Back? by RUSSELL MOKHIBER Last week, I wrote an article about how Chesapeake Energy, through its fracking activity, was destroying..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158,97],"tags":[229],"class_list":["post-11107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-us-news","tag-economic-exploitation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/sierra-club_11107_d6bae.jpg?fit=231%2C299&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}