By: Thomas Catenacci
A little-known, Boston-based organization focused on sustainability and combating global warming and fueled by millions of dollars in dark money funding has quietly established itself in recent years as a key federal policymaking power player.
Ceres, a nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1989, in recent years has established elaborate networks of financial institutions, pension funds, labor unions and major multinational corporations, rallying those members to pursue shared left-wing climate policies. The group has simultaneously worked hand-in-hand with other environmental groups and federal and state policymakers to forward its agenda.
"Ceres is trying to drive the climate agenda through subterfuge and milking the power of wealthy investment firms and big corporations," Jason Isaac, the founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute, told Fox News Digital.
"They're getting rich while they believe that they're saving the world. I say they're destroying the planet to save the Earth in their minds, and that the scourge of the Earth is us humans. At the same time, they just happen to be profiting very handsomely from their advocacy, so they feel good about it. I call it a cult. It has become their religion."
Isaac's American Energy Institute recently assembled a report, shared exclusively with Fox News Digital, that outlines how Ceres has grown into one of the nation's most influential climate organizations affecting policy. According to the report, Ceres is composed of three main membership networks — the Investor Network, the BICEP Network and the Company Network.
The Ceres Investor Network includes more than 220 institutional investors, which manage a staggering $46 trillion in assets. That network, Ceres says, seeks to "accelerate the transition to a just, sustainable, net-zero emissions economy."
The Ceres BICEP and Company Networks include companies like Doordash, General Mills, HP, Ikea, Kaiser Permanente, McDonald's, Nestle, Netflix, Nike, PayPal, Salesforce, Starbucks and Unilever. They work to adopt uniform strategies to lower emissions. For example, the BICEP Network contains a Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance focused on "accelerating the transition to electric vehicles."
"They're using their influence and their power and their money to push these policies on Americans at the detriment of American energy producers and to the benefit of Chinese companies that now own or control more than 80% of the cobalt mines in Africa and the Congo to meet our green dream goals, if you will," Isaac told Fox News Digital, referencing critical mineral production vital to developing green energy technology.
"It's, again, to our incredible detriment, as we're seeing higher cost of electricity. We're seeing greater number of electricity disconnects and greater number of natural gas disconnects in American homes," he added. "Expensive energy hurts the poor, and I'm working against policies that make energy more expensive."
The American Energy Institute report also highlighted how Ceres has raised tens of millions of dollars to fund its operations. The majority of Ceres' funding has originated from left-wing grant-making foundations like the Rockefeller Family Fund, New Venture Fund, Climate Imperative Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, which aren't required to disclose individual donors, in addition to individual donors who have remained anonymous.
According to Ceres' most recent 990 tax filing, between the period from November 2021 through October 2022, it received $26.6 million in contributions and grants. The year prior, it raised nearly $40 million for its operations. Two anonymous grantors contributed 35% of the $26.6 million raised, while one grantor was responsible for 14% of the $40 million raised, further financial filings showed.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/meet-little-known-group-funded-left-wing-dark-money-shaping-federal-climate-policy