Attorney General Hilgers urges USDOJ to investigate 150 climate groups using foreign funding to influence U.S. energy policy

LINCOLN, Ne. -- Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers joined a coalition of 19 Attorneys General requesting that the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) investigate over 150 U.S.-based climate activist groups taking money from foreign entities to influence domestic energy policy.

Their actions may violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires any organization, political party, or individual who collects money in the interest of a foreign principal to register with the USDOJ.

The Attorneys General are asking Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg to investigate the matter because the 150 climate organizations have received nearly $2 billion in foreign funding from five foreign-based climate groups for political activities in the United States aimed at destroying the energy sector. While the U.S.-based nonprofits are receiving foreign money to influence energy policy, they are not registered under FARA. 

The five left-wing foreign organizations include Oak Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, KR Foundation, and Laudes Foundation. A 2025 Americans for Public Trust report traces the foreign dark money from the five left-wing organizations to the over 150 U.S.-based nonprofit entities that the Attorneys General are asking the USDOJ to investigate.

Of those five entities, at least one, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), maintains ties to the Chinese Communist Party. CIFF has funded over $553 million to U.S. based organizations, such as The Energy Foundation China (EFC), to support its extreme climate agenda through litigation, lobbying, and public relations campaigns aimed at influencing U.S. energy policy and reducing reliance on oil and gas.

“We respectfully submit there is substantial evidence that many of the over 150 U.S.-based organizations that collectively have received nearly $2 billion from five foreign-registered charities are acting as unregistered agents of foreign principals by engaging in coordinated funding and advocacy efforts to influence U.S. energy policy and undermine American energy independence,” the Attorneys General wrote. “Nor does it appear that the nonprofit organizations’ activities would be covered by any of FARA’s exemptions.”

Attorneys General from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia also joined the letter.

Attorney General Hilgers also joined a coalition of 26 Attorneys General in December, asking the USDOJ to investigate China-linked energy activist organizations for potential FARA violations.