Tag: mike bloomberg

Bloomberg-Backed Green Group Places Officials in State Agencies Tasked With Regulating Utilities, Permitting Pipelines

A Michael Bloomberg-backed fellowship program known for placing attorneys in state attorney general offices to spearhead climate litigation has quietly broadened its scope, sending staffers to work in state agencies that regulate the energy sector, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

The New York University State Energy & Environmental Impact Center’s fellowship—which Bloomberg’s eponymous philanthropic nonprofit provided two seed grants worth $5.6 million in 2017—has long placed and paid the salaries of officials in at least 10 state attorney general offices nationwide. Over the past two years, internal emails obtained by the Free Beacon show, the program has expanded to state-level public service commissions, often-overlooked agencies that regulate utility companies and permit energy infrastructure like pipelines and power plants. The commissions also implement state renewable energy standards that force power providers to generate electricity through pricier green sources.

The center’s work in attorney general offices, where Bloomberg-funded fellows have participated in litigation accusing the fossil fuel industry of causing global warming, has prompted conflict-of-interest concerns over the use of private funding to drive public lawsuits. Its work in state regulatory agencies, on the other hand, is a new development—one that suggests the center and its funders seek to play a more active role pushing green energy development at the local level.

One other key function of the commissions that has emerged in recent years is their oversight and implementation of state renewable energy standards, which are mandates that force power companies to ensure green energy sources produce a set share of local electric generation. Climate activists have lobbied for such mandates, but in places like Delaware those policies have caused dramatic consumer price hikes.

The NYU impact center’s work in attorney general offices has been reported on and has faced criticism for blurring ethical lines—experts have warned the arrangement presents a conflict of interest since it involves the use of private funding to support government positions. Its work in state regulatory agencies, on the other hand, is a new development and suggests the center and its funders seek to play a more active role pushing green energy development at the local level.

“That presents fundamental conflicts of interest,” American Tort Reform Association president Sherman Joyce told the Free Beacon in an interview. “The notion of looking to outside entities to fund the structure and activities of the government is just wrong. These types of arrangements, I think, offend basic notions of the independence of government.”

The NYU impact center and Advanced Energy United, a green energy industry coalition cofounded by left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer, began recruiting state commissions to participate in the initiative in mid-2023, according to emails reviewed by the Free Beacon. The groups gauged the interest of New York’s Department of Public Service in July 2023, the Michigan Public Service Commission in August 2023, and Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities in September 2023.

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Bloomberg pours more cash into Cuomo super PAC, bringing his total contribution to $8.3M

Mike Bloomberg’s vast wealth is continuing to power Andrew Cuomo’s front-running mayoral bid.

The billionaire former mayor contributed $3.3 million to a super PAC supporting Cuomo’s attempted comeback in the nation’s largest city — a donation made public on Wednesday that comes just days after Bloomberg gave $5 million to the group.

With the latest gift, Bloomberg is now single-handedly responsible for one-third of the PAC’s total haul of $24 million since it launched in March, according to a POLITICO analysis. Other real estate and finance executives who make up New York’s monied elite, including billionaire Donald Trump supporter Bill Ackman, have poured cash into the group.

A spokesperson for the super PAC, which is called Fix the City, did not comment on Bloomberg’s latest contribution.

The money — and the flood of mailers and TV ads funded by it — indicate Cuomo supporters are nervous about the rise of his principal opponent, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. The state lawmaker has been running a strong second to the ex-governor in most polls; a Marist College survey on Wednesday found Cuomo would defeat Mamdani after seven rounds of ranked-choice voting, 55 percent to 45 percent. But early voting is high in some neighborhoods that would appear to benefit Mamdani, and temperatures are expected to hit 100 degrees next Tuesday, which could suppress turnout among older New Yorkers Cuomo is counting on.

Likely motivating Bloomberg, who had a rivalry with the former governor during their overlapping tenures, are Mamdani’s far-left politics and criticism of Israel. He wants to raise taxes on the rich to pay for services like free bus fare and as recently as this week, refused to criticize the phrase “globalize the Intifada,” calling it an expression of Palestinian rights.

The former mayor endorsed Cuomo last week, and called him the “one candidate whose management experience and government know-how stand above the others.” Cuomo is 67 and worked in and around government and politics his entire career; Mamdani is 33 and counters criticisms of his thin résumé with reminders of the scandals that drove Cuomo from office.

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IRS Data: Democrat Billionaire Mike Bloomberg Pays Less than Half the Tax Rate Paid by Average American

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the failed Democrat presidential primary candidate and former New York City mayor, is paying less than half the federal income tax rate the average American taxpayer pays, newly published Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data reveals.

The revelation is part of a broad investigation by ProPublica that gives a glimpse into the tax loopholes that the richest 400 Americans utilize every year to dodge billions in federal income taxes that most Americans are required to pay.

“To make it into the top 400, each person on this list had to make an average of at least $110 million each year,” the investigation states. “A typical American making $40,000 would have to work for 2,750 years to make what the lowest-earning person in this group made in one.”

Bloomberg, ProPublica reports, “achieved one of the lowest tax rates in the top 400” richest Americans from 2013 to 2018 “partly by taking annual deductions of more than $1 billion, mostly through charitable contributions.”

During that time frame, Bloomberg paid an average federal income tax rate of just four percent — less than half the rate that the average American taxpayer, at 13.3 percent, pays every year. In fact, Bloomberg’s average rate is just 0.5 percent more than what the bottom 50 percent of income earners pay on average.

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Biden admin names Mike Bloomberg to lead military board

On Wednesday the Pentagon announced billionaire former Republican New York City Mayor and 2020 Democrat Presidential Candidate Mike Bloomberg will lead the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board.

In a press briefing, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby announced Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had nominated Bloomberg to serve as the chair of the Defense Innovation Board.

“Mr. Bloomberg, as you all know, an entrepreneur and a leader who served three terms as the mayor of New York City, will bring a wealth of experience in technology, innovation, business and government to the Defense Innovation Board,” Kirby said.

“His leadership will be critical to ensuring the department has access to the best and brightest minds in science, technology and innovation through the team of diverse experts that he will lead as chair of that board,” Kirby added.

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