{"id":3867,"date":"2023-06-28T05:04:22","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T05:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3867"},"modified":"2023-06-28T10:05:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T10:05:35","slug":"report-wisconsin-governor-tony-evers-uses-third-party-funding-from-the-united-nations-foundation-to-pay-for-far-left-climate-change-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=3867","title":{"rendered":"Report: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Uses Third-Party Funding from the United Nations Foundation to Pay for Far-Left Climate Change Initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/report-wisconsin-governor-tony-evers-uses-third-party-funding-from-the-united-nations-foundation-to-pay-for-far-left-climate-change-initiatives\/mkittle\/2023\/06\/28\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature wouldn\u2019t go along with Governor Tony Evers\u2019 far-left climate change and \u201cenvironmental justice\u201d initiatives, so the Democrat went around the legislature.<\/p>\n

Evers took in hundreds of thousands of dollars in third-party funding from media tycoon Ted Turner\u2019s United Nations Foundation, according to a new report<\/a> from the Institute for Reforming Government\u2019s Center for Investigative Oversight.<\/a><\/p>\n

The governor is using nearly $400,000 in so-called Climate Leadership Grants from the multi-billion dollar United Nations Fund<\/a> to staff his Office of Sustainability & Clean Energy (OSCE). He created the big government entity not through legislation but via executive order. The agency has pushed far left climate priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning of his governorship, Tony Evers has sought to impose a drastic environmental agenda on Wisconsin. Describing climate change as a \u2018grave threat to the health, safety, and economic well-being of people and communities throughout Wisconsin\u2019 and accusing Wisconsinites of \u2018ignoring science,\u2019 Governor Evers has committed to making the state \u2018carbon-free by 2050,’\u201d the report asserts.<\/p>\n

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\"\ud83d\udea8\"\"\ud83d\udea8\"\"\ud83d\udea8\" BREAKING: the @unfoundation<\/a> is funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the @GovEvers<\/a> Administration to fund its radical climate agenda. Did executive branch bureaucrats intentionally mislead the Legislature about this scheme to cover it up?\"\ud83d\udd0e\"\"\ud83e\uddf5\"\"\ud83d\udc47\" pic.twitter.com\/trgrRZW1wD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 IRG Center for Investigative Oversight (@IRG_CIO) June 27, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A report<\/a> issued last fall found Evers Carbon Zero goal would cost Wisconsin energy consumers $250 billion.<\/p>\n

But the leftist governor has driven his climate agenda by executive fiat, not legislative authority, as the Center for Investigative Oversight notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvers doesn\u2019t set policy for the State of Wisconsin. That\u2019s the Legislature\u2019s job. And so far it has repeatedly denied Evers\u2019 requests for millions of dollars to staff and fund a new Office of Environmental Justice and Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

So Evers found a third-party source to fund his initiatives, in the same way Wisconsin\u2019s largest and Democrat-heavy cities leaned on millions of dollars in \u201csafe election\u201d grants<\/a> funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and distributed in advance of the 2020 presidential election by a liberal voting activist organization.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s team, however, has struggled with the truth in explaining third-party funding sources, according to the report.<\/p>\n

On March 30, State Representative Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam), co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, pointed out in a budget meeting that the Office of Sustainability & Clean Energy listed four employees on its website. Only one Department of Administration (DOA) employee had been allocated to the office.<\/p>\n

The Center for Investigative Oversight report includes the transcript of an exchange showing a DOA official providing answers that were \u201cat best highly misleading and at worst false.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born<\/strong>: . . . [H]ow many employees work in [OSCE and the Office of Environmental Justice]?<\/p>\n

DOA<\/strong>: There is one position allocated to [OSCE]\u2014one permanent position. And currently one position allocated to [OEJ] remaining unfilled at this point.<\/p>\n

Born:<\/strong> So there\u2019s only one in each office.<\/p>\n

DOA<\/strong>: At this point in time, yes.<\/p>\n

Born:<\/strong> Well then the website tells me that [OSCE] lists four names in that office.<\/p>\n

DOA<\/strong>: Yes, so I think that there\u2019s a variety of grants that the [OSCE] has received, so we\u2019re funding . . . there\u2019s one position that DOA has allocated to the office but then they have a variety of other funding that they have received through third-party sources that are funding those other positions that you\u2019ve identified on the website.<\/p>\n

Born<\/strong>: So these are federally-funded LTEs or something?<\/p>\n

DOA<\/strong>: Limited-term employees.<\/p>\n

IRG\u2019s Center for Investigative Center for Investigative Oversight filed an open records request and obtained information about the grants from \u201cthird-party sources.\u201d Evers\u2019 Department of Administration was forced to disclose that the Office of Sustainability & Clean Energy positions were funded by the private United Nations Foundation in partnership with its affiliated project, the U.S. Climate Alliance (USCA). It did not provide records of any supposed federal grants.<\/p>\n

The United States Climate Alliance (U.S. Climate Alliance) is a coalition of governors formed in 2017 who support greenhouse gas reduction policies in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, both in their states and at the federal level, according to nonprofit tracker Influence Watch. The group\u00a0is a project of the\u00a0United Nations Foundation<\/a>, a private nonprofit formed with a 10-year, $1 billion pledge by media mogul\u00a0Ted Turner<\/a>\u00a0in 1997 to support the activities of the\u00a0United Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the alliance is officially bipartisan, as of October 2022 only three of its 24 gubernatorial members were Republicans,\u201d Influencewatch.org notes.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe alliance started after the Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement in 2017. The founding members of the U.S. Climate Alliance were then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/a> (D), Washington Gov. Jay Inslee<\/a> (D), and then-California Gov. Jerry Brown<\/a> (D).\u201d<\/p>\n

The United Nations Foundation, started by Turner in 1998, has received more than $2 billion since its launch, according to IRG report. It bills itself as a \u201cstrategic partner to help the UN mobilize the ideas, people and resources it needs to deliver and grow a diverse and durable constituency for collective action.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNF\u2019s first grant of $298,000, was signed on June 1, 2020. It was later extended twice in January 2021 and May of 2023 to cover a period through April of 2025. The grant was originally intended to allow the Evers administration to hire a \u201csenior-level\u201d \u201cclimate fellow\u201d who would assist in the development of a state energy plan and a \u201cWisconsin Climate Action Plan.\u201d Said fellow also would \u201csupport the work of Governor Evers\u2019 Task Force on Climate Change,\u201d which critics say was inconsequentially led by former Lieutenant Governor and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second grant\u2014in the amount of $88,132, signed in June of 2021, and intended to cover a period through September of 2023\u2014funds a \u2018climate\/clean energy staff person\u2019 who is a \u2018senior-level program and policy analyst.\u2019 This person is intended to \u2018assist OSCE with their State as a Leader Initiative,\u2019 \u2018serv[ing] as the project lead to support the implementation [of] an internal tracking system that will help the state to track state agency data attributable to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals and provid[e] transparency on agency progress,\u2019\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

Evers\u2019 office did not return a call seeking comment.<\/p>\n

The oversight report asks two very important questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Did DOA staff intentionally mislead the Joint Committee on Finance?=<\/li>\n
  2. 2. Are the DOA\u2019s actions legal?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cWhatever the merits of Governor Evers\u2019 underlying environmental goals, his decision to sidestep the legislative process and instead rely on the UNF and unilateral action raises several fundamental questions about the legality and propriety of his administration\u2019s activities,\u201d the report asserts.<\/p>\n

    \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

    M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.<\/strong>
    \nPhoto \u201cTony Evers\u201d by     Campaign of Tony Evers for Governor<\/a>. CC BY 3.0. Background Photo \u201cWisconsin State Capitol\u201d by Teemu008<\/a>. CC BY-SA 2.0.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    The post Report: Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Uses Third-Party Funding from the United Nations Foundation to Pay for Far-Left Climate Change Initiatives<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/report-wisconsin-governor-tony-evers-uses-third-party-funding-from-the-united-nations-foundation-to-pay-for-far-left-climate-change-initiatives\/mkittle\/2023\/06\/28\/ The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature wouldn\u2019t go along with Governor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3868,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions\/3868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}