Green group with ties to Chinese Communist Party part of network influencing U.S. policy

A national-security watchdog group is asking members of Congress to take a closer look at an energy transition advocacy nonprofit that has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). According to State Armor, the watchdog group, nonprofits are coordinating with U.S. climate groups to influence climate policy, advance the interests of the CCP and undermine U.S. national security.

A new report by State Armor argues that the CCP is co-opting the American progressive climate change lobby to advance a transition away from fossil fuels. The alternative technologies being pushed by this lobby, according to the report, create significant economic and geopolitical advantages by undermining U.S. energy dominance and leaving it dependent on Chinese supply chains for its energy production. 

“It creates a dependence on our side and deprives us of a natural strength, which is our energy independence that comes from other resources,” Michael Lucci, CEO of State Armor, told Just the News. State Armor is a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for state solutions to global security threats.

Broad approach to political warfare

Besides the dependency on China for energy supply chains, the U.S. may be vulnerable as a result of malicious actions. The State Armor report notes recent Reuters reports — based on anonymous sources — that rogue communication devices were installed in solar panels coming out of China. 

“So why would that be there? It's just there. So Beijing could shut things off over here,” Lucci said. 

The report focuses on Energy Foundation China (EFC) and documents the group’s ties to climate advocacy groups in the U.S. that are influencing climate policy. Energy China describes itself as a 501(3) non-profit which says its mission is "facilitating exchanges with and providing grants to policy research groups, industry associations, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations committed to sustainable energy development and the energy transition."

According to the report, Energy Foundation China has ties to the Chinese government and coordinates with the CCP. It purportedly embedded itself in American universities and supported an event in 2023 in which California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited China. Lucci said the group functions as a central node that’s part of a larger network. 

“A key concept with China is what’s called a united front. This is their broad approach to political warfare. It's Leninist. It's actually directly out of Lenin where they get it. It's a communist approach to political warfare. And they stand up central nodes or central institutions like EFC. And then, around that, they try to just build any allies they can that are aligned with a communist vision or China's vision, and to attack or to delegitimize those who stand against the party's interest — the party's interest on energy, in this case,” Lucci explained.

The Energy Foundation did not respond to requests for comment from Just the News about the report or its allegations. 

Building allies in the United States

Energy Foundation China is a non-profit headquartered in San Francisco. It was originally known as the Energy Foundation, but it spun off most of its U.S.-based operations in 2019 into a separate organization called the U.S. Energy Foundation. The State Armor report documents numerous examples in which The Energy Foundation provided financial support to U.S. climate groups advocating for climate policies. 

In 2023, Energy Foundation China reported $84 million in revenues. According to the nonprofit’s website, it’s funded by a number of U.S. anti-fossil fuel groups, including the ClimateWorks Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Climate Imperative Foundation. Hewlett and MacArthur are key contributors, according to the report, to the Collective Action Fund, which Fox News reported in 2022 was part of a dark money network supporting climate litigation against petroleum companies. 

In 2022, The Energy Foundation granted $350,000 to the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Throughout the years, according to Fox News, the foundation granted the RMI $900,000. 

The Rocky Mountain Institute produced a study in 2023 claiming to find a link between gas stoves and asthma, which was often cited by policymakers and activists seeking restrictions on natural gas use. The RMI researchers used data from past studies to estimate rates of childhood asthma linked to exposure to gas stoves. The study has been criticized for failing to factor into its data a more comprehensive global study published in 2013 by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, which utilized data from 512,000 children in 47 different countries and found no evidence of any association between the use of gas stoves and asthma.

Citing the Energy Foundation’s 2022 and 2023 tax documents, the report shows that the group also gave millions to the International Council on Clean Transportation, which was an active supporter of incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act to transition U.S. trucking from diesel-powered semi-trucks to electric ones. 

The Energy Foundation also provides large grants to support climate policy research at American universities, including the University of California-Berkley, University of California-Los Angeles, Harvard, and the University of Maryland. 

Ties to the Chinese Communist Party

Though organized as an American nonprofit, The Energy Foundation, according to the report, is led by individuals with direct ties to the CCP. The organization’s CEO, Zou Ji, previously served as the deputy director general of China’s National Center for Climate Change Strategy, an agency within the Chinese government’s National Development and Reform Commission. The Energy Foundation’s environmental program director, Xin Liu, served in a leadership role at the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

David Vance Wagner, vice president of strategic partnerships for The Energy Foundation, was the China counselor in the Office of the Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2014 to 2017. Wagner was also employed by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, according to his biography on the Energy Foundation website, where he was the “first and only foreigner at China’s national vehicle emission policy research center under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.” He received his master’s degree from China's state-run Tsinghua University in Beijing.

According to the State Armor report, the Energy Foundation has coordinated extensively with the CCP. The CCP’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) oversees the group’s operations in China. The NDRC enforces compliance with Chinese regulations and cracks down on foreign investments in Chinese sectors considered important for the country’s national security. 

Lucci said the Chinese government’s involvement in U.S. climate policy stems from a concern over China’s own energy supplies. Much of its oil and gas comes from the Middle East, which leaves the supply vulnerable to U.S. naval blockades. They are diversifying their energy portfolio to help address that risk with increased wind, solar, hydroelectric, nuclear and coal. 

Referring to the Chinese government, he continued, “They'll do anything to, just from a security perspective, remove the United States ability to intercept their energy resources, their energy supplies.” That would include getting the U.S. to be more dependent on Chinese green energy supply chains. 

Asking for Congressional investigation 

Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, said in a statement that the report lays bare how the CCP has co-opted climate activism to push for energy technologies that are manufactured, mined and controlled by China. 

"From solar panels to EV batteries and rare earth minerals, our supply chains are increasingly entangled with a foreign adversary that uses forced labor, ignores environmental safeguards, and openly aims to dominate the global energy future. This isn’t progress—it’s dependence," Isaac said. 

In a letter to the chairs of House and Senate committees — including Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight Committee and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee — Lucci explained that the group was formed to help the U.S. resist Chinese influence and maintain U.S. sovereignty. Lucci outlines the findings of the report and the risks it says Chinese influence poses to the U.S. The letter urges Congress to initiate investigations and provide oversight into what Lucci calls a “grave and ongoing threat to our national security.” 

Lucci said in an interview that the Department of Justice should be investigating The Energy Foundation as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registrations Act. The law would require the foundation to make disclosures of their relationship with China, as well as receipts and disbursements in support of activities in support of China.