Taxpayers subsidize progressive war on affordable energy

By Jon Caldara

“350 Colorado” is an anti-fossil fuels organization which lobbies to end the state’s oil and gas industry. They organize anti-energy zealots to march, protest and pressure lawmakers. Proud of their role in civil disobedience during Colorado Oil and Gas Commission hearings, they take credit for helping pass the “strictest anti-fracking regulations in the state.” Blah, blah, blah.

One tiny little thing here: you are coerced through your taxes to fund their lobbying to make your energy bills skyrocket.

In gambling there is a term, “playing with the house’s money.” In politics it’s “playing with your opponents’ money.” Your tax money is used to influence policy that hurts your own interests.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the push to all renewable energy is making your utility bills explode. New environmental building regulations are increasing home costs. And you’re paying more at the gas pump.

350 Colorado gets about $900,000 in tax-deductible donations, and their tax forms show a sizable percentage then goes to direct lobbying. Good to know they got $173,700 from the Environmental Justice Grant Program administered by your state Office of Environmental Justice.

In other news, Colorado has an Office of Environmental Justice, and they give away your money.

Their mission? To work with alt-left groups to lobby government to terminate energy choice and affordable energy in Colorado.

Now if you sympathize with the anti-energy crowd, then funding outside lobbying groups with tax money might sound dandy. For consistency’s sake I assume you are supportive of government giving lobbying money to fossil fuel groups when a different team is in charge.

Remember when we demanded ethics in government? Remember when the media would work to uncover behavior like this?

The Office of Environmental Justice also gave a $143,100 grant to Green House Connection Center, which pairs “the arts and activism with healing, connection, education and transformation” as they “develop climate solutions with lasting environmental and social benefits.”

Their founder also works for the alt-left extremist group Colorado Rising, which calls itself “Oil and gas’s chief adversary.”

Another grant of $217,193 went to Urban Symbiosis. They “are focused on building a fair ecosystem and food system.” Their latest tax filing showed they brought in only $118,000 of revenue, meaning your recent gift to them tripled the size of their budget. I’m sure you got a thank-you card.

You can be comforted knowing all your coerced funding of lobbying and community organizing is under the banner of “environmental justice,” if only that was definable. But like pornography, you’re supposed to know it when you see it.

The state goes to great lengths to describe this very sloppy term. Cutting through all the bureaucratic fluff and choruses of woke-speak, you’ll find “environmental justice” sits atop the pinnacle of identity politics. The goal? To split our communities into smaller and smaller boxes and organize them to work for socialistic causes.

Think of it as the Victim- Olympics. The more political identity boxes you can check, the more you’ve been oppressed, the more government you’re told you need.

You pay the Office of Environmental Justice to give aid to “disproportionately impacted communities,” which then requires even more definitions.

The office goes on to explain “disproportionately impacted communities” include (I can’t make up this wokespeak): low-income communities, communities of color, housing-burdened communities, linguistically isolated communities (love that one), historically marginalized communities, communities with environmental and socioeconomic impacts, tribal lands and mobile home communities.

Wouldn’t “poor people who have a hard time paying their energy bills,” be an easier definition without the blatant racism?

And if the crazy part isn’t obvious, under the disguise of trying to help the poor, via environmental justice, your government elitists are working to make energy prices explode, which disproportionately hurts (check notes)… the poor.

They exploit the financially vulnerable to lobby for unworkable renewable energy policies that will in turn devastate the financially vulnerable … all with your money.

Of course, using taxpayer money to promote one constituency’s political goal over others is unethical. But this is so much more.

This is beyond evil. Encouraging people to see themselves as victims and then use those newly identified victims to lobby for laws that will hurt those very same people, well, that is sick. Something so ugly only government could do it.