‘Steyerville’: New Website Blames Tom Steyer for Killing Towns of American Heartland

Steyer

A new website aims to add "Steyerville" to the political lexicon as a term for once thriving communities that had their livelihoods stripped away thanks to efforts of environmentalist groups backed by liberal billionaire Tom Steyer. The website, Steyerville.com, was launched on Thursday by Power the Future, a nonprofit dedicated to giving a voice to men and women working in the energy industry who it says are often drowned out by loud activist voices backed by Steyer's billions. It labels places such as Boone County in West Virginia, where unemployment has doubled and 10 percent of the population moved away in just six years, as the home of Steyervilles. The story laid out by the group is that Boone County was thriving because of the coal industry, which in 2010 employed 3,894 of its residents. Then came the Sierra Club, an environmentalist group backed by Steyer's millions, which targeted the county's coalmines with environmental lawsuits and pushed them toward bankruptcy. Not only were coal jobs lost—by 2015 coal employment in the county was down from 3,894 to 1,492—but budget cuts were made because of lost revenue. In 2016, Boone County announced that three elementary schools were closing permanently and 60 teachers were being laid off. "What was once a thriving community became a Steyerville," the site explains. Daniel Turner, the group's executive director, says the goal of the site is to hold Steyer accountable for what he is doing to these towns...MORE

Steyer ups ante in fall elections

STEYER’S WAY TO (ELECTORAL) HEAVEN: Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is pledging an additional $15 million to a super PAC that he co-founded earlier this year with several unions, he tells Pro’s Andrew Restuccia in an interview. Steyer had previously promised to give $5 million to the For Our Future PAC, bringing his total contributions to the group to $20 million. "The measure of this will not be the dollars, the measure will be the impact, whether we change people’s thinking, people’s engagement and people’s participation," Steyer said. Feeling good about November: Steyer told Andrew he feels no obligation to compete with conservative donors like Sheldon Adelson, who is reportedly forking over $45 million for Republicans. Instead, his group, NextGen Climate, is working on a series of state-based ground operations focused on driving climate-minded voters to the polls. Steyer said that he last spoke with Hillary Clinton about two or three weeks ago, but avoids close contact with the campaign to avoid the perception of inappropriate collusion. He said he sees his friends in Clinton World "very, very occasionally and talk to them occasionally, but I don’t coordinate with them." Staying out of Exxon probe: Steyer also insisted he isn't playing a central role in the face-off against ExxonMobil over allegations that it misled the public and its investors about internal research detailing the threat of climate change. Despite a New York Post report that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's staff tried to reach out to Steyer over the AG's investigation into the company, Steyer said he's largely staying out of the Exxon fight. "We’re definitely not pushing this thing," he said, adding, "We are not part of this effort.” Any thoughts on 2018? And he brushed off questions about whether he'll run for governor of California in 2018, as many people suspect. "I don’t know what we’re going to do," he said, explaining that he won't make any decisions until he analyzes the outcome of this year's election...more

Is Billionaire Steyer Taking Aim at Obama’s Policy on Natural Gas?

Is San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer really about to declare war on natural gas? Rumors are swirling in Colorado and Washington, DC that Tom Steyer is ready to side with Democrat Congressman Jared Polis of Boulder and national ban-fracking activists who are working to shut down Colorado’s booming natural gas industry. The WSJ today reports: “Tom Steyer, a hedge fund billionaire turned environmental activist, is also likely to help financially support Mr. Polis’s effort, according to three people close to the situation.” Yet doing so puts him squarely at odds with a growing bipartisan coalition in the state that supports the jobs and economic opportunities that come from natural gas development in Colorado. This move would also have huge impacts on the energy debate across the country. The revelation made in the Wall Street Journal is stunning for several reasons. First, it shows that Tom Steyer is ready to bankroll groups opposed to all fossil fuel development – including natural gas. Additionally, this position would seemingly put him at odds with Senator Mark Udall, an incumbent Democrat who calls himself “a champion of Colorado’s natural gas industry.” Steyer and his team have repeatedly said their number one goal is to ensure Democrats retain the majority in the United States Senate...more