Public Citizen

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has an AI data center reporting website with 9,580 locations suitable for finding protest.

Left-wing organizations from Public Citizen to the Sierra Club helped fund these protests, often citing concerns about water usage.

I must have missed their protest against almonds and golf courses.

Plus, unlike oil refineries or aluminum smelters, I doubt many would know if they walked past a data center.

They include lowering environmental standards, eliminating protection for forests, and one that my next guest joins us to bring your attention to, which is especially vital in our system of elections.

He is a government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen.

Craig Holman, thanks for being here today, Craig.

Hi, glad to be here.

Thanks for inviting me.

And learn more about this issue and other points of focus of Public Citizen, their website, citizen.org. And we do have a link at our homepage as well.

This is concerning the Federal Election Commission, the FEC.

Just for a foundation for our listeners, Greg, talk about what the role of the FEC is and how it's constituted.

That's right.

Another question that we got, and I think this is common, you go to KnowKings.org and you see all these huge national partners, many and many, like not just Indivisible, there's 5051 and American Federation of Teachers and Public Citizen and MoveOn and you name it, there are all these groups.

And I think there's some sense among folks that somebody else is making this happen, that there's some organizational effort that's leading, there's a multimillion dollar ad budget and there are paid organizers on the ground.

Obviously, everybody is getting Soros checks.

So Michael Abrams co-authored the original prop petition this entire meeting was based on.

He's at an organization called Public Citizen.

They write citizens petitions and they co-submitted the prop petition in 2012.

Diana Zuckerman and Caleb Alexander, he signed the prop petition.

But there are certain names that jump out and you know if they write something you need to read it.

But one of the other things you can do if you don't follow things as closely as I do to know that, oh, like, you know, um Uh, one of the oth-- Zach Everson follows corruption really closely at Public Citizen.

Uh, yeah, uh, Public Citizen.

Um, who are some of the others? Um, Zach Beauchamp is a, a great writer on the law.

Many great writers on the law.

incredible this is incredible i have not how common is something like this you attended this press club event give us to the stage a little bit for it first what was it about why were you there

it was sponsored by a public citizen which is supposed to be anti-corruption and pro all kinds of good things group

a ralph nader organization

Ralph Nader founded it.

Robert Weissman has our analysis.

He's co-president of Public Citizen.

Also later in the hour, the Democrats are now favored to win not only the House, but also the Senate in November.

They need to flip four seats there, and their candidates are ahead in five.

The Supreme Court gave Trump a victory on Monday when they ruled five to four that he could keep going with construction of his ballroom.

For comment and analysis, we turn to Robert Weissman.

He's co-president of Public Citizen, the nonprofit group that defends democracy and resists corporate power.

They've sued Trump dozens of times.

But Andrew got in a little bit deeper.

Several left-wing organizations backing data center opposition have benefited from major progressive funding networks, including Public Citizen, which has listed George Soros' Open Society Foundations among foundations whose generous support makes its work possible, and the Sierra Club, which received $3.6 million from Arabella Advisors' 1630 Fund between 2014 and 2022.

These are names you've heard before.

These are the same sort of left-wing constellation organizations that fund so much of the left's political activity on just about anything.

So that's why it's not surprising to see them here organizing against American tech and innovation, a lot of the work they often do at the behest of foreign adversaries and foreign governments.

But it goes on.

In Texas, viewed by many as the front line of the data center fight, opposition has been fueled by a network of left-wing groups, including Public Citizen, the Sierra Club, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Public Citizen is a founding member of the Texas Data Center Rebellion, which brought activists from across the state together for a two-day convening in San Antonio.