Free Republic

EXCLUSIVE: The head of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) has called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to launch an investigation into whether Russia secretly funded U.S. green groups that advocate against domestic oil and gas production. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., led a letter to Yellen Friday that cites a 2015 Washington Free Beacon report that suggested the California-based Sea Change Foundation may allegedly be a conduit for Russian oil interests in funneling money to groups like the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sierra Club and the Center for American Progress.

As an American 501(c)(3) foundation, Sea Change must disclose what funds it received from the Bahamas, but a Bahamian company or trust is not required to disclose the source of its funds. The Banks and Johnson letter states that: “According to Sea Change’s tax filings, in 2010 the group received $23 million, half of its annual contributions, from a Bahamian shell corporation linked to the Russian government. Sea Change then passed that money on to groups like the Sierra Club and the Center for American Progress that lobbied politically against fracking (…) In 2020, the Center for American Progress donated...