Frontier Institute
State Policy Network affiliate — Koch-funded.
§ 1 · Background & fossil-fuel ties
“Founded in 2020, The Frontier Institute’s mission is to keep the spirit of the Western frontier alive with sound public policy and educational programs that ensure today’s pioneers are free to build, create, and innovate for years to come…To preserve our independence, the Frontier Institute does not accept any state or federal funding, nor do we perform contract research.”
However, what the nonprofit think tank does not mention is that it receives financial support from fossil fuel billionaires. According to InfluenceWatch, Frontier Institute has received almost half a million dollars from the Stand Together Fellowships, the incognito “philanthropic” arm of energy oligarch Charles Koch. Put another way, Frontier Institute is the same billionaire-funded network, just on different letterhead.
§ 2 · Record of fronting
In its short existence, the nonprofit pushed an energy-abundance message in favor of coal and gas. In the legal and legislative realm, it sought to discredit greenhouse gas regulations, working in tandem with utility, coal, oil and gas interests to achieve its aims.
For example, Frontier, which is based in Montana, published an energy strategy in 2022 that emphasized addressing “environmental litigation” and to “prioritize the most affordable and reliable energy for the state's businesses and consumers.”
The following year, a judge halted construction of a Montana gas plant, and the group spoke out against the ruling., while simultaneously backing a state law that would get rid of the very legal review that applied to the gas plant closure.
In a letter to the state of Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality, Frontier argued the department should streamline the review process for natural gas energy projects because, in their words, they “aid the rapid transition to clean energy.” An argument that burning fossil fuels will ultimately help the rollout of clean energy rather than actually harm the environment because of combustion and methane is a creative one, but also false.
In 2024, Frontier Institute, in alignment with oil and gas interests, filed an amicus brief opposing changes to Montana environmental law that would allow entities to bring climate liability suits against the state of Montana. The group filed a similar amicus brief in 2026 regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s case in Suncor v. Boulder.
§ 3 · The cover story, debunked
“The global energy crisis in 2022 has proven that wind and solar are not ready to replace more reliable energy sources.”
False. The International Energy Agency (IEA) found that Europe’s 2022 electricity-price surge was driven mostly by collapsing Russian gas supplies, soaring gas and coal prices, and unusually weak hydro and nuclear generation. It was not simply because of the expansion of renewable energy. Because gas-fired plants often set Europe’s wholesale electricity price, the tenfold rise in gas prices sharply increased power costs. The IEA estimated that recently added wind and solar capacity actually softened the crisis: without renewable capacity added since 2021, average EU wholesale electricity prices would have been about 8 percent higher in 2022. Frontier’s account is therefore selective. It treats a fossil-gas supply and price shock as evidence against clean energy, even though additional wind and solar reduced Europe’s exposure and lowered the resulting electricity costs.
“Reliable energy sources that aid the rapid transition to clean energy.”
False. By “reliable,” Frontier means “natural gas.” That is only defensible if one omits methane leakage and downstream CO2 emissions. The EPA says methane accounted for 12% of U.S. GHG emissions in 2022, and that leaks from natural gas systems are a human source of methane; EPA also describes the oil and gas sector as one of the largest methane-emitting sectors in the United States. EIA likewise notes that natural gas is mainly methane, that leaks occur across wells, storage, pipelines, and processing, and that these emissions matter in terms of the climate. So Frontier’s claim that natural gas is a climate solution is incomplete and misleading.