Rick Whitbeck: More Arabella dark money slithers into Alaska with ‘New Energy Alaska’

By RICK WHITBECK | POWER THE FUTURE

The name seems innocent enough: New Energy Alaska.

Launching earlier this year, the group claims to exist to help Alaska benefit from the hundreds of billions of dollars doled out through the combination of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

They even tout a bipartisan group of former legislators as “senior advisors;” attempting to embrace a down-the-middle approach to energy solutions for the state.

But behind the innocuous name and glossed-over mission statement lurks a parent organization, funding and mission directly opposed to Alaska’s current resource-based economy.

Politically astute Alaskans know about Arabella Advisors, the organization that manages six nonprofits that serve as incubators and accelerators for a range of other left-of-center nonprofits: the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, the Windward Fund, the North Fund, and the Impetus Fund.  

Founded by a former staffer for the League of Conservation Voters, Arabella has become one of the Left’s financial behemoths. In 2020, Arabella’s nonprofit network boasted total revenues exceeding $1.67 billion and total expenditures of $1.26 billion, all while paying out $896 million in grants. The beneficiaries were largely other left-leaning and politically active nonprofits.  

Arabella, through its network of affiliates, funds efforts to pack the Supreme Court, replace the Electoral College with a popular vote, force national mail-in voting, nationalize healthcare (i.e., Medicaid-for-all), allow abortion-on-demand throughout a pregnancy and advance LGTBQ+ and transgender rights.

Alaskans have seen Arabella’s affiliates drive numerous anti-development missions over the past decade.  They supported ballot measures designed to harm Alaska’s oil, gas and mining sectors.  If there’s been a “stop-this-project” movement –- from Pebble Mine to the Ambler Road to drilling in ANWR or the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) –- chances are Arabella’s network of shadow organizations have been involved.

Arabella’s use of different names of organizations and people could make anyone dizzy, and perhaps that is the point. By playing constant shell games with their millions, these groups can dip in and out of the limelight to make us think their positions are grassroots. It is the very definition of political astroturf.

So, how is New Energy Alaska affiliated with Arabella?  Let’s follow a quick trail of websites, starting with New Energy Alaska’s.  It states, under the “About” tab, that it is “hosted by the Alaska Venture Fund.” Go to Alaska Venture Fund’s, and they don’t even try to hide the fact it is a “project of the New Venture Fund”, as it proudly displays that statement on its main webpage.  Of course, the New Venture Fund is one of Arabella’s holdings.

What should be most concerning to Alaskans who care about our energy and economic futures is that Arabella is overt when it comes to its support of net-zero politics, noting on its website: 

Arabella is working with several climate funders across the United States to advance ambitious clean energy policies at the state and municipal level. We currently manage grants to 100 percent clean energy campaigns in key states such as New York, California, Florida, and Washington. We also supported a post-Paris [Climate Accord] convening of global climate leaders in partnership with Climate Action Network International to craft country-level plans to meet the goals established in the agreement. We can tap into these relationships and initiatives to help the governors promote and grow the Initiative and advance ambitious new commitments to curb emissions.

Embracing net-zero policies in Alaska is ludicrous. Decarbonization would devastate our state’s job force and economy.  Reliance on intermittent energy sources like wind and solar, in a state that is dark nearly half of the year would threaten life and property. Simply stated, groups like New Energy Alaska are part of the left’s tactics to weaken Alaska’s economy, energy grid and employment opportunities for future generations.  

As Sun Tsu said, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”  I know rational Alaskans don’t believe in the need to decarbonize.  Too bad our enemies, including New Energy Alaska, won’t give up fighting us as we battle for Alaska’s future.

Rick Whitbeck is the Alaska State Director for Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs and fights back against economy-killing and family-destroying environmental extremism. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @PTFAlaska

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