front groups

December 6, 2019 - An industry lobby fronting as a pro-consumer group is undertaking a public advocacy campaign for a proposed pipeline stretching from West Virginia to Virginia and North Carolina. The Consumer Energy Alliance was created by an oil industry lobbyist who now chairs the N.C. Republican Party — and its members include major gas companies as well as Dominion Energy, the pipeline's lead partner.

April 30, 2015 - Five years after the BP disaster, a group of governors led by North Carolina's Pat McCrory is pushing for drilling in the Atlantic. The group has close ties to a secret-money nonprofit and energy lobbyists, a relationship that raises questions about transparency, ethics and the blurring of public and private interests.

September 18, 2014 - Homeless men were bused to a public hearing on fracking in western North Carolina to boost the appearance of support for the controversial drilling technique. The men were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the name of the N.C. Energy Coalition, a front for big oil and gas interests.

August 14, 2014 - The 60 Plus Association shelled out $11 million in independent expenditures in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles but didn't account for the spending in reports to the IRS. The nonprofit, funded by the billionaire Koch brothers and the oil and gas industry, is spending heavily to defeat Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina in her race against Republican state House Speaker Thom Tillis.

July 2, 2012 - An analysis of Chinese names on a petition urging the Obama administration to oppose strict regulations for toxic coal ash reveals hundreds of bogus monikers including "Big Steamed Bun" and "Come to China Donkey." Who's behind the petition, and what big energy interests are they fronting for?