(Try to) Follow the Money: Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate

Looking under the hood of a mysterious Fort Collins-based climate activism group

Last year one of the opposition comments to the 2024 version of a Colorado bill to add nuclear energy was from Jan Rose representing an organization called the Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate:

Please vote no on SB24-039. It's too expensive to put on the backs of ratepayers already paying more than they can afford. They take decades to build and always come in hundreds of millions over budget and we don't have the time.

Who is the Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate?

Is this an opportunity for a Robert Bryce style deep dive into another anti-industry grift group?

It sounds like a great name, after all, who is against a livable climate- especially an affordable one? It also sounds as if they’re stable earthers as Wes Flynn likes to call these types. Insert your favorite logical fallacy here if you’re against such an endeavor. Such a name is ripe for both the motte and bailey and the kafka trap if you’re to try to speak out against any of the organization’s activities.

A quick search on ProPublica’s non-profit explorer yields no results for that name and neither does one on the fashionable tool of the era, DataRepublican.

Perusing their website, there’s no donation page, no IRS EIN, and their latest post shows they are trying to “mobilize against” tomorrow’s nuclear bill hearing.

It’s only at the bottom of their about page we’re given this gem and a PO box based in Fort Collins, CO:

The CCLC is a project of the Northern Colorado Alliance for a Livable Future (NCALF), which is incorporated under section 501(c)3 of the IRS code. We adhere to all requirements applying to 501(c)3 organizations, including those related to political and commercial activity.

Well okay, so an organization that’s nominally supposed to represent the entire state of Colorado is actually a part of another organization that in-name represents just Northern Colorado?

Make it make sense.

Both organizations are anti-hydrocarbon, anti-nuclear, and pro ”clean energy.” They believe that if greenhouse gas emissions are cut, then Colorado’s climate will be “livable.” Ironic, of course, coming in the middle of winter after Colorado faced one of its coldest Januarys on record and the state is currently experiencing single digit temps during the day thanks to a cold front. People in fancy “all-electric” homes in the state are paying out the wazoo just to keep the pipes from freezing and the home temperatures at a modest 60 degrees. Or maybe that’s just me.

Colorado’s electric prices have been steadily rising, surpassing the regional average and contributing to the region’s affordability crisis. This surge is primarily attributed to the very policies that organizations like this (or these) support, which undermine their mission statements. While Colorado’s electric rates are still not comparable to those of California or Hawaii, they are sharply increasing. A significant portion of this rise can be linked to the state’s climate policies, which these organizations proudly endorse. Despite substantial investments in “clean energy” sources, coal and natural gas continue to be the primary sources of electricity in Colorado.

This is all, of course part of the plan as Colorado (and the greater Mountain West region) is ground zero for elite progressive and woke colonialism. The joke for decades is that the state is turning into the worst of California, and it’s no longer a joke.

Overthrown: How the West is being won (again)

Elections in the West are now entirely driven by transplants

But back to following the money on this organization, er, or these organizations.

Searching NCALF’s website sill reveals no IRS EIN but it does have a donation page which goes to a Paypal account. .

Legitimate charities these days provide an EIN number right on the website so that potential donors or sleuths such as myself can look up the organization on sites such as ProPublica or Guidestar.

The PO Box is also the same as the overall Colorado group.

A search for Northern Colorado Alliance for a Livable Future and the term “EIN” in a search engine yields nothing too.

But, they are listed on ProPublica’s Non-Profit Explorer with the EIN 85-2956873.

Searching the EIN on the IRS website too proves the existence of the organization.

However the links to the Pub 78 Data, the IRS Determination Letter, and no Form 990s are present but no documents exist on the IRS website.

This all implies either an error with the IRS website (which feeds Propublica’s site) or an organization that’s really not doing much and hasn’t filed yet despite being in operation for a few years.

“We adhere to all requirements applying to 501(c)3 organizations, including those related to political and commercial activity,” my ass.

They’ll still take your money and mobilize in support of or opposition to bills though.