A wealthy cryptocurrency founder, together with a former Sierra Club leader, are openly boasting about orchestrating a well-funded disinformation campaign designed to sway Republican voters and financially pressure conservatives who oppose climate policies.

According to The New York Times, after successfully unseating anti-renewable incumbent Chip Roy, a pro-renewable energy PAC is currently attempting to secure the re-election of a sympathetic Republican candidate in Iowa. However, The Times reveals, the candidate that replaced Rep. Roy is even more opposed to renewables than his predecessor. Despite this, the group is unfazed nor that the Iowa candidate their baking been inconsistent on renewables in which their strategy is to be pragmatic.

“We are not taking a strictly partisan view” when it comes to deciding whom to support, said Mr. Matzzie, who is the chief executive of CleanChoice Energy, a renewable energy company, and once was the Washington director of MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group.

That approach is a sign that the clean energy industry is “finally growing up and getting smart politically,” said Leah Stokes, a professor of environmental politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

She and others argued that the renewable industry should reward advocates of clean energy even if they aren’t die-hard allies.

“The fossil fuel industry has been doing this for decades: They do whatever it takes to make sure their industry is protected,” Ms. Stokes said, adding, “There is no fundamental reason solar has to be a left-right issue, and it’s way long past time that the clean energy industry got its act together politically.”

However, Chris Larsen and Michael Brune publicly detailed their Clean Break Fund’s strategy at the Prelude Climate Summit: abandon ESG tactics in favor of conservative-aligned messaging like religion-based appeals to win over skeptical Republicans. They openly credited crypto’s Fairshake PAC—which spent hundreds of millions to shift cryptocurrency from regulatory target to political kingmaker—as their model. Similar aggressive tactics are now employed by AI’s Leading the Future super PAC. Their approach includes massive Super PAC spending, attack ads, targeting opponents financially, and infiltrating opposition groups—even posing as MAGA supporters to reach conservative voters.

During the talk, Chris Larsen and Michael Brune also disclosed their plan to heavily interfere in Republican primaries, aiming to swap out conservative opponents who resist climate policies with more supportive candidates. Larsen linked this approach to gerrymandering, noting that since most Republican districts are drawn as safe seats, general elections lack real competition—making GOP primaries where the actual power struggle occurs.

These organizations pose as conservative advocates for energy and the environment but lack roots in traditional conservative ideology. Instead, they have spent years seeking entry into Republican and evangelical communities.

This tactic is not new; a 2021 Capital Research Center report on the Eco-Right warned of nonprofits claiming free-market or right-leaning identities while attempting to rebrand environmentalism as a conservative value.

The fact that these groups are engaging in deception isn’t just wrong, it’s evil. Their intention isn’t about clean air or water or address climate change but to keep their gravy trains going. A prime example is when scientists published a manuscript five years ago admitting renewable energy could not replace fossil fuels. If the people involved were honest they would take this kind of research to heart, admit their schemes didn’t work and move on.

Now bolstered by major funding from Chris Larsen’s Clean Break Fund and other prominent liberal foundations—including the Hewlett Foundation, Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, the Mott Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation—these groups possess expanded resources to further push climate agendas within conservative circles. They must be resisted and stopped at every opportunity.