Attorney General Knudsen urges USDOJ to investigate 150 climate groups using foreign funding to influence U.S. energy policy

HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 19 attorneys general requesting the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) investigate over 150 U.S.-based climate activist groups taking money from foreign entities to influence energy policy in the United States. Their actions may be a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires any organization, political party, or individual who collects money in the interest of a foreign principal to register with the USDOJ.

Attorney General Knudsen is asking Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General for National Security Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg to investigate the matter because the 150 climate organizations have received nearly $2 billion in foreign funding from five foreign-based climate groups for political activities in the United States aimed at destroying the energy sector. While the US-based nonprofits are receiving foreign money to influence energy policy, they are not registered under FARA which could be a violation of the law.

“Foreign actors are attempting to sabotage our nation’s energy sector by funneling dark money to their climate activist cronies in the U.S. The law is clear – if U.S.-based nonprofits take money to lobby and influence policy on behalf of a foreign agent, they need to register under FARA,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “As Attorney General, I will not stand by while America’s energy dominance is threatened by foreign influence. I urge Attorney General Bondi to open an investigation into this matter immediately.” 

The five left-wing foreign organizations include Oak Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, KR Foundation, and Laudes Foundation. A 2025 Americans for Public Trust report, traces the foreign dark money from the five left-wing organizations to the over 150 U.S.-based nonprofit entities that Attorney General Knudsen is asking USDOJ to investigate.

Of those five entities, at least one, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), maintains ties to the Chinese Communist Party. CIFF has funded over $553 million to U.S. based organizations, such as The Energy Foundation China (EFC), to support its extreme climate agenda through litigation, lobbying, and public relations campaigns aimed at influencing U.S. energy policy and reducing reliance on oil and gas.

“We respectfully submit there is substantial evidence that many of the over 150 U.S.-based organizations that collectively have received nearly $2 billion from five foreign-registered charities are acting as unregistered agents of foreign principals by engaging in coordinated funding and advocacy efforts to influence U.S. energy policy and undermine American energy independence,” Attorney General Knudsen wrote. “Nor does it appear that the nonprofit organizations’ activities would be covered by any of FARA’s exemptions.”

Attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia also joined the letter.

Attorney General Knudsen also led a coalition of 26 attorneys general in December asking the USDOJ to investigate China-linked energy activist organizations for potential FARA violations.