A ballot committee garnering support from Northern Michigan residents is receiving criticism from clean energy advocates who say they’re raising money with little transparency.
The campaign, let by the Citizens for Local Choice committee, seeks to undo a key portion of Michigan’s recently passed climate change legislation that allows a state agency to override local authorities to approve large-scale solar and wind projects.
Citizens for Local Choice, or CLC, received $50,000 each from the Michigan Association of Counties and the Michigan Township Association, two state advocacy groups that operate 501(c)(4) nonprofits.
This type of nonprofit isn’t required to publicly report its donors and has come under scrutiny from state politicians who say the organizations leave political activity in the state rife for corruption.
Jonathan Kim, a researcher with the pro-environmental Energy and Policy Institute, said that he feels the donations undermine CLC’s portrayal as a grassroots movement.
“It’s not to say they don’t have grassroots support,” he said. “It’s to say that, at least financially, that’s not showing, and it’s not on par with some of the large ballot initiatives that we’ve seen in the past that have had grassroots support.”
Kim noted that the committee received only 63 donations under $200 in its most recent campaign finance period, with over 70% of funds coming from the two nonprofits. And due to the nonprofits’ leeway with reporting donors, Kim says that voters could be left in the dark about what interests are funding the campaign.
“With the 501(c)(4)s, we don’t know — perhaps there was money funneled through one of those with fossil fuel ties, there’s no way to tell,” he said. “That’s part of where the transparency and opacity becomes an issue.”
Roger Johnson, treasurer for CLC, declined to provide comment on the contributions.
Spokespeople for the Michigan Association of Counties and Michigan Township Association said that their organizations support CLC’s efforts to repeal the clean energy siting law and that each board of directors approved the contributions — but they did not detail where the funds originated from.
The MTA’s executive director Neil Sheridan said in a statement that the organization brings in revenue from membership dues, event registrations, sponsorship, advertising and publications sales.
CLC was recently the subject of a complaint accusing a separate nonprofit of illegally transferring over $50,000 to the committee to effectively conceal the identities of donors.
