EPA Requests DOJ Investigate Foreign Funding of Environmental Groups

The Environmental Protection Agency has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that U.S. environmental groups have received covert funding from China and Russia.

EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler made the request after Rep. Lance Gooden (R., Texas) alleged that left-wing environmental groups—including the Sea Change Foundation, Sunrise Movement, and Sierra Club—have functioned as conduits for "foreign influence, financial involvement, and election interference." Wheeler noted that it is not against the law for a nonprofit to take contributions from foreign entities but nonetheless asked the DOJ to look into whether the groups should register as foreign agents.

"Given heightened concerns that foreign countries, primarily China and Russia, are potentially funding U.S.-based ‘green' groups to undermine American energy independence and to help maintain the integrity of the EPA's decision-making, EPA will refer this matter to the DOJ [Foreign Agents Registration Act] Unit," Wheeler said. "The DOJ can then determine what appropriate steps to take, if any, including whether those entities should be registered as foreign agents."

Gooden's allegations follow calls from other Republican lawmakers to investigate the anonymous funding of green groups for potential foreign influence. In September, Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) asked the DOJ to investigate whether Russia and China are working to infiltrate environmental groups as a way of influencing U.S. policy.

Erin Bridges, the fundraising director of the Sunrise Movement, told the Washington Free Beacon that such accusations were baseless, describing them as "another exhausted attempt from fossil fuel cronies to conjure up some vast conspiracy theory that's been debunked again and again."