If you see a group that supports fossil fuels, odds are you’re looking at a group that’s supported by fossil fuels. As the Guardian revealed Friday, that’s exactly the case for Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions (C4Bes), which was created and paid for by SoCalGas, a subsidiary of natural gas provider Sempra Energy.
Documents prove that SoCalGas funded the launch of the organization, paid consultants to establish its messages and strategy, and recruited board members. But C4Bes refutes the Sierra Club’s Matt Vespa’s characterization of it as “an astroturf or utility front group,” even though “these terms refer to exactly what is at issue here: entities who hide their sponsorship to appear independent.”
That’s why the Sierra Club is asking the state to prevent C4Bes from pretending to be a consumer coalition instead of the utility’s lobby in state negotiations on decarbonization, because SoCalGas would be doubly represented.
But C4Bes says otherwise, pointing to the “simple fact” that SoCalGas is only one of 31 board members. That sounds fine--except for the fact that SoCalGas funded the recruitment of the other board members.
As to whether or not the two groups function independently, when the Guardian asked SoCalGas for comment about the situation, SoCalGas “appeared to have forwarded that request to C4Bes and a spokesperson for the group got in touch with a Guardian reporter.”
And in July, California’s Public Utilities Commission consumer advocate office claimed that not only did SoCalGas fund C4Bes’s creation, but it used ratepayer funds to do so. Meaning when Californians who are fighting near and far to replace fossil fuels with clean energy are paying their power bills, some of that money may be going to a group to arguing exactly the opposite.
But if you refuse to pay your bill, YOU’d be the one to get in trouble!