|
Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) "Collective leverage to destroy fossil fuel companies" OGAP was the only group specifically named in the "No Dirty Oil and Gas Memo" (The NoDOG Memo) that revealed a complex and highly orchestrated multi-year plan to destroy the fossil fuel industry in America. The Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) is a non-profit corporation founded in 1999 as a project of San Juan Citizens Alliance in Durango, Colorado. OGAP received its own separate IRS ruling as a tax exempt organization in 2001. OGAP claims to be "the only organization in the United States with the sole mission of working with tribal, urban and rural communities to protect their homes and the environment from the devastating impacts of oil and gas development." OGAP is actually a consortium of 7 groups; its board consists only of leaders from other anti-oil and gas organizations: (Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2004) Gwen Lachelt, former executive director, San Juan Citizens Alliance and Western Colorado Congress Executive Director/ CEO, Salary: $42,000 Karin Sheldon, Vermont Law School professor, Board Member Dan Heilig, Wyoming Outdoor Council, Executive Director, Board Member Gloria Flora, Sustainable Obtainable Solutions Director, Board Member Dan Randolph, Great Basin Mine Watch Director, Chairman Jill Morrison, Powder River Basin Resource Council Director, Secretary Jack Scott, Citizens Coal Council, Treasurer, Treasurer P.O. Box 1102 863 1/2 Main Avenue Durango, CO 81302 Phone: 970-259-3353 Fax: 970-259-7514 Montana office P.O. Box 7193 Bozeman, MT 59771 Phone: 406-587-4473 Fax: 406-587-3385 In plain language, their goal is to destroy oil and gas production in the United States. OGAP was merged in early 2004 with the anti-mining "No Dirty Gold" activist group, Mineral Policy Center, at the urging of software millionaire Paul Brainerd and his Seattle-based Brainerd Foundation, building their capacity to attack the domestic oil and gas industry. The combined groups are now known as Earthworks. OGAP held an attack seminar in Denver in late 2004 that gathered activists from Canada and the US in a sophisticated plot to destroy the reputations of fossil fuel companies with risk-averse financial institutions, bragging, "we have strategies to enhance risk" and cut off vital sources of finance. OGAP has lobbied against oil and gas, throughout the Rocky Mountain West for many years, continuing in early 2007 in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah, trying to pass crippling legislation against local oil and gas producers. OGAP is following the exact plot and timeline of the NoDOG Memo in its actions. OGAP, in its original form (2001-2004) before merging into Earthworks, was funded by eleven wealthy foundations. Donors with total contributions: 1. BULLITT FOUNDATION Seattle, WA $9,000 2. EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION OF AMERICA Westport, CT $650,000 3. HARDER FOUNDATION Tacoma, WA $48,000 4. JESSIE SMITH NOYES FOUNDATION INC New York NY $114,000 5. LAZAR FOUNDation Portland, OR $5,000 6. MAKI FOUNDATION Aspen, CO $17,600 7. MARSHALL L AND PERRINE D MCCUNE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION Santa Fe, NM $23,000 8. NEW-LAND FOUNDATION INC New York NY $20,000 9. NORCROSS WILDLIFE FOUNDATION INC Patchogue, NY $21,000 10. NORMAN FOUNDATION New York, NY $20,000 11. PRENTICE FOUNDATION INC Westport, CT $11,700 Foundations obtain the money to pay grants from their investment portfolio enriched by the dividends and capital gains earned from shares in for-profit corporations. Educational Foundation of America in 2005 owned shares in energy companies PennVirginia, $16,200; ExxonMobil Corp., $1.6 million; It is shameful that this hypocritical foundation invested in these corporations and gave their oil and gas profits to OGAP to destroy the oil and gas industry. Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation in 2005 owned many energy company stocks: 340,000 shares of Arena Resources; 210,000 shares of Atlas America Inc; 170,000 shares of Berry Petroleum Co.; 670,000 shares of Brigham Exploration; 225,000 shares of Cabot Oil and Gas Corp.; 400,000 shares of Cimarex energy; 990,000 shares of Gasco Energy Inc.; 130,000 shares of Holly Corp.; 280,000 shares of KCS Energy Inc; 410,000 shares of St. Mary Land and Exploration; and 330,000 shares of Swift Energy Co.; It is shameful that this hypocritical foundation invests in these corporations and gives their oil and gas profits to OGAP to destroy the oil and gas industry. Earthworks has been funded by 36 foundations, many of which hold shares of oil and gas companies, and pay the profits to Earthworks to destroy the oil and gas industry. The Ford Foundation, for example, owns shares of ConocoPhillips and ChevronTexaco. Earthworks donors: 1. ALFRED JURZYKOWSKI FOUNDATION INC $20,000 2. ANNA B STEARNS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC $20,000 3. BULLITT FOUNDATION $93,000 4. CABOT FAMILY CHARITABLE TR $10,000 5. CHARLES STEWART MOTT FOUNDATION $40,000 6. COMPTON FOUNDATION INC $40,000 7. CONSERVATION FOOD AND HEALTH FOUNDATION INC $23,575 8. ECOTRUST $15,000 9. EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION OF AMERICA $578,340 10. FANWOOD FOUNDATION $5,000 11. FORD FOUNDATION $600,000 12. GENERAL SERVICE FOUNDATION $70,000 13. HARDER FOUNDATION $20,000 14. KONGSGAARD-GOLDMAN FOUNDATION $10,000 15. LAZAR FOUNDATION $10,000 16. LIZ CLAIBORNE & ART ORTENBERG FOUNDATION $10,000 17. MARSHALL L AND PERRINE D MCCUNE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION $27,500 18. NEW ENGLAND BIOLABS FOUNDATION $5,000 19. NEW-LAND FOUNDATION INC $80,000 20. NORTHWEST FUND FOR THE ENVIRONMENT $8,000 21. OVERBROOK FOUNDATION $25,000 22. PRENTICE FOUNDATION INC $20,000 23. RICHARD AND RHODA GOLDMAN FUND $210,000 24. SCHERMAN FOUNDATION INC $110,000 25. TEMPER OF THE TIMES FOUNDATION INC $8,000 26. THE BRAINERD FOUNDATION $616,500 27. THE HUGH AND JANE FERGUSON FOUNDATION $5,000 28. TORTUGA FOUNDATION $110,000 29. TOWN CREEK FOUNDATION INC $20,000 30. TRUE NORTH FOUNDATION $715,000 31. TURNER FOUNDATION, INC $395,000 32. WEGE FOUNDATION $20,000 33. WIANCKO CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC $25,000 34. WILBURFORCE FOUNDATION $800,000 35. WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION $60,000 36. WYSS FOUNDATION $215,000 This practice of foundations earning money from their oil and gas investments and giving it to organizations that use it to destroy the oil and gas industry is against the public interest and must be stopped. |