Washington, D.C. – Jason Isaac, founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute, recently published an opinion piece in The Dallas Express blasting critics of Texas’ anti-ESG laws and doubling down on misinformation around responsible investing.
“The American Energy Institute is actively spreading misinformation about responsible investing,” said Kyle Herrig, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future. “This latest effort puts on display their willingness to distort reality. Texas anti-ESG laws SB13 and SB19 are in fact a testament to the lengths greedy politicians will go to, including imposing fossil fuel mandates on taxpayers and threatening their pension funds.”
Isaac presented an assortment of dubious facts in the piece, but failed to mention his years-long ties to the billionaires at the helm of the oil and gas industry.
Jason Isaac, CEO of The American Energy Institute, is a self-identified “Carbon King” and has a long history of climate denial.
- Isaac previously founded the Texas Natural Gas Foundation in 2015 where he worked with oil and gas companies to create a school curriculum that spread climate misinformation.
- The curriculum described moving to renewable energy as “devastating to us socially as well as economically” and falsely claimed there was “debate” about whether renewable energy sources were better for the environment.
- Working with Isaac at the Texas Natural Gas Foundation to develop and disseminate this climate misinformation to teachers and schoolchildren were Ken Morgan, Mary Bell, and Heather Ball—each of whom are also board members or employees of the American Energy Institute.
Steve Milloy, who sits on the Board of Directors of the American Energy Institute, is a former coal executive and a notorious climate contrarian.
- Milloy is the former Director of External Policy & Strategy at coal production giant Murray Energy Corporation.
- Milloy has also been described as “the nation’s most influential climate science contrarian” who “has a long history of working on behalf of industry-led scientific misinformation campaigns.”
- Milloy was also part of a team of representatives from the fossil fuel industry and conservative think tanks who secretly crafted a communications plan to try and convince “a majority of the American Public” that “significant uncertainties exist in climate science.”
Major oil magnate and right-wing activist Tim Dunn has financial ties to the American Energy Institute.
- Tim Dunn is the CEO of oil and gas exploration company Crownquest, which was a founding member of the American Energy Institute.
- Dunn is an extreme conservative who has been one of the largest funders of political campaigns for right-wing politicians in Texas and has a long history of anti-climate science activism.
- Dunn is also the Vice-Chairman of the Texas Public Policy Institute, an organization that has been accused of spreading misinformation about climate science and also wrote the Texas anti-responsible investment law that the Oklahoma boycott law was based on.
