Left-wing eco group receives massive funding boost from billion-dollar dark money network

In 2021, the League of Conservation Voters, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, received a 48% increase in financial contributions, in large part from Arabella Advisors, a left-wing dark money network based in Washington, D.C., Fox News Digital reported.

According to tax returns obtained by Americans for Public Trust, a nonprofit watchdog group, LCV received $114.7 million in donations in 2021, compared to $77.7 million in 2020. The organization, which is dedicated to promoting green policies and eliminating fossil fuels, has received annual contributions as low as $11 million but never more than $66 million since 2011, APT revealed.

Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director for APT, told Fox News Digital, "These newest tax records show just how much dark money the largest, extremist eco group spent on radical energy policies and influencing jet-setting officials like Pete Buttigieg."

"And a massive, single contribution from Arabella's Sixteen Thirty Fund helped their revenues soar as they spent tens of millions to prop up Biden's failing agenda on climate and jobs," she added.

Arabella Advisors is a for-profit company committed to partnering with "people and groups working to achieve philanthropic goals," according to its website. The company, which received $1.6 billion in anonymous contributions in 2021, manages five nonprofit groups, including the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, the Windward Fund, and the North Fund.

Arabella's Sixteen Thirty Fund donated $18.9 million to LCV last year. Those contributions cannot be traced back to the donors.

According to LCV, over the past 50 years, the group has repeatedly influenced environmental policy.

"We influence policy, hold politicians accountable, and win elections," the LCV website states. "This is how we fight to build a world with clean air, clean water, public lands, and a safe climate that are protected by a just and equitable democracy."

The organization privately consulted with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, Fox News Digital previously reported. LCV's president, Gene Karpinski, also made at least eight trips to the White House between August and June of last year.

Apart from the millions contributed to LCV by Arabella, the group also received over $10.7 million from dark money networks overseen by Hansjörg Wyss, a liberal Swiss businessman.

Molly McUsic, who sits on the LCV's board of directors, is also the president of the Wyss Foundation and a board director for Berger Action Fund, another Wyss group.

"2022 was the best year ever in the U.S. for action on climate, jobs, and justice, and a historic year for our democracy," Emily Samsel, a spokesperson for the LCV, told Fox News Digital. "LCV is extraordinarily proud of our advocacy work over the years to make this possible, including working in partnership with many other effective groups that advocate for climate action and protecting our democracy."