Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change [View all]

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Source: The Guardian

Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change

Analysis of Peabody Energy court documents show company backed
trade groups, lobbyists and thinktanks dubbed ‘heart and soul of
climate denial’

Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson
Monday 13 June 2016 11.00 BST

Peabody Energy, America’s biggest coalmining company, has funded at least two dozen groups that cast doubt on manmade climate change and oppose environment regulations, analysis by the Guardian reveals.

The funding spanned trade associations, corporate lobby groups, and industry front groups as well as conservative thinktanks and was exposed in court filings last month.

The coal company also gave to political organisations, funding twice as many Republican groups as Democratic ones.

Peabody, the world’s biggest private sector publicly traded coal company, was long known as an outlier even among fossil fuel companies for its public rejection of climate science and action. But its funding of climate denial groups was only exposed in disclosures after the coal titan was forced to seek bankruptcy protection in April, under competition from cheap natural gas.

Environmental campaigners said they had not known for certain that the company was funding an array of climate denial groups – and that the breadth of that funding took them by surprise.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding