(Exempt Mary) Landrieu eyed in anti-Keystone campaign

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is launching a new campaign against proponents of Keystone XL, and one possible target is Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (La.).

Steyer's green group NextGen Climate Action posted a list of candidates who are strong advocates of the controversial TransCanada oil pipeline on its website, asking people to pick which one it should target for its Keystone XL television ad.

NextGen Climate Action is lining up Landrieu, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Paul Broun (R-Ga.) as potential targets. Also on the list is former South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, who is running for Senate this year. Rounds is hoping to replace retiring Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.).

One of the five lawmakers will be the focus of Steyer's next Keystone XL ad. If it's Landrieu, it might not bode well for the vulnerable Democrat.

"These are a sample of lawmakers misled by tar sands lobbyists about "energy from a trusted ally," said Mike Casey, a consultant for NextGen Climate Action, in a statement on Wednesday.

"We assume they don't want to be taken for a bunch of suckers, and they will want not just the facts about Chinese government investment, but an opportunity to ask the important questions of the State Department and TransCanada that have yet to be asked and that are vital for the public to know," Casey said.

Casey said NextGen Climate Action is leaving it up to its online community of several hundred thousand to select the candidate. The ad will then run in the lawmaker's home state.

The likelihood of Democrats keeping a majority in the Senate is already in question. Were Steyer's action group to target Landrieu and fellow vulnerable Democrats like Sen. Mark Begich (Alaska) and Mark Pryor (Ark.) — who both support building Keystone XL — Republicans could take control of the Senate come November.

In an interview with Steyer late last year, The Hill asked him if NextGen planned to throw its growing political muscle into 2014 races.

"We will be working on a bunch of races in 2014," Steyer said, but wouldn't say which races.

Screw Steyer. He just socked several million into a Western Washington Senate race last year and his “boy” was sent back to the hospital where he works.

Steyer is a cheap shot artist who went as far as hiring thugs to put on their opponents Tee Shirts and gear and started doorbelling Republican’s who stayed home during the 2012 presidential elections, (you know who you are and why you sat on your hands giving us 4 more years of Obamamunism), late at night, after 8-9 PM just to engage Republican’s hoping they’d not be voting again. He spent $250,000.00 on that little adventure that failed too.

So perhaps, it is time for us to tell Steyer...bring it on, lets see how long you can afford to lose!

Steyer is the founder and former Co-Senior Managing Partner of Farallon Capital Management, LLC and the co-founder of the OneCalifornia Bank, an Oakland-based community development bank.

Steyer is responsible for funding the creation of the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy at Stanford University, part of the Precourt Institute of Energy.

Since 1986, Steyer has been a partner and member of the Executive Committee at Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco-based $8 billion private equity firm. Farallon Capital Management, LLC, manages $20 billion in capital for institutions and high net worth individuals. The firm’s institutional investors are primarily college endowments and foundations.

Prior to joining Hellman & Friedman, Steyer worked at Goldman Sachs from 1983-1985 as an associate in the risk arbitrage department under Robert Rubin. He began his professional career at Morgan Stanley in 1979.

It was reported in January 2013 that Steyer might be named as a replacement for Energy Secretary Steven Chu or that he might run for Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat in 2018. Asked whether he would accept an appointment to be Energy Secretary, Steyer said yes.

Steyer is a leading Democratic activist and fundraiser. In 1983, he worked on the Walter Mondale for President campaign. He raised money for Bill Bradley in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. An early supporter of Hillary Clinton for President, Steyer became one of Barack Obama’s most prolific fundraisers. Steyer served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 2004 and 2008, and has been a member of the Hamilton Project since 2005.

Steyer gave a speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. He commented that the election was “a choice about whether to go backward or forward. And that choice is especially stark when it comes to energy.” Steyer said that Romney would take no action to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels; rather, he said he would increase it. Steyer went on to support Obama’s policies, which he described as investments to “make us energy independent and create thousands of jobs.”

But Steyer — who hosted President Obama at a fundraiser in his San Francisco home last year — has taken a lead in opposing the pipeline, stressing long term effects on Americans’ health and the environment.

And he has backed his views with millions of dollars in ads and educational efforts through his San Francisco-based advocacy group, NextGen Climate Action.

Steyer, considered a potential future Democratic California gubernatorial candidate, issued his statement stressing his resolve to continue fighting the plan.

Steyer was joined by National Nurses United, the nation’s largest organization of nurses, which also blasted the new State Department report, saying that it glosses over the project’s “serious consequences” regarding public health.

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/01/31/billionaire-dem-environmental-activist-tom-steyer-vows-efforts-to-defeat-keystone-will-continue/

Billionaire has unique role in official Washington: climate change radical

When Thomas Steyer — a San Francisco billionaire and major Democratic donor — discusses climate change, he feels as if one of two things is true: What he’s saying is blindingly obvious, or insane.

“I feel like the guy in the movie who goes into the diner and says, ‘There are zombies in the woods and they’re eating our children,’ ” Steyer said during a recent breakfast at the Georgetown Four Seasons, his first appointment in a day that included meetings with a senator, a White House confidant and other D.C. luminaries.

It’s a somewhat shocking statement for someone who’s in the running to succeed the cerebral Steven Chu as energy secretary. Granted, he’s a long shot — the leading contender is MIT professor Ernest Moniz, who served as the department’s undersecretary during the Clinton administration — but his backers say his strength lies in combining business savvy with an activist’s passion.

John Podesta, who chairs the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, said Steyer has “got the right skill set, the understanding and attitude to lead an energy transformation in this country.”

“I think he would be a fabulous choice for energy secretary,” Podesta added, “and I’ve let my friends in the administration know that.”

But it’s not as if Steyer, 55, needs an official government perch to make an impact. Armed with his wealth and his political connections, Steyer has played a critical behind-the-scenes role in helping shape the country’s national energy policy. He has helped bankroll two successful ballot initiative campaigns in California since 2010, including one last fall that closes a corporate tax loophole and steers $500 million toward energy-efficiency projects for each of the next five years. He has funded initiatives at the Brookings Institution and the Center for American Progress, along with major research centers at Yale and Stanford. And he has spoken with President Obama about how to pursue climate and energy policy in a second term.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/billionaire-has-unique-role-in-official-washington-climate-change-radical/2013/02/17/23cdcf4c-6b26-11e2-95b3-272d604a10a3_story.html

Activist Tom Steyer launches California oil tax campaign

December 16, 2013

http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Activist-Tom-Steyer-launches-California-oil-tax-5069277.php

Environmental activist Tom Steyer, the billionaire Democrat who poured millions of dollars into 2013 campaigns around the country, launched a political drive Monday in his home state to call for an oil extraction tax that he argues will raise billions in revenue for California.

Steyer, in an opinion piece published Monday in The Chronicle, outlined what he said will be an aggressive effort by NextGenClimate Action, his political action committee, to “shine a very bright spotlight on an indefensible corporate tax giveaway that is costing California and its future.”

Compared with Texas
Tupper Hull, vice president of communications for the Western States Petroleum Association, disputed Steyer’s arguments, saying it’s “a myth” that oil companies do not pay their fair share to the state.

Hull said oil companies provide California with a half-billion dollars in tax revenue a year, including property taxes. He added that an analysis of taxes and fees paid by oil companies across the U.S. shows that California ranks “near the top” in its collection of such fees from energy firms.

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