Consumer Watchdog · Investigation
A Field Guide to Fossil-Fuel Front Groups
Dozens of “independent” groups filed briefs backing Big Oil at the Supreme Court. Half are tied to the very companies — and billionaires — they’re defending.
Scroll to follow the money↓
The pattern
They call themselves independent.
Roughly 50 groups filed briefs in Suncor v. Boulder. Of the 38 backing Exxon and Suncor, Consumer Watchdog found half are tied to the very interests they’re defending. Follow the money.
The defendant
First, ExxonMobil itself.
Exxon — a defendant in the case — has financial or governance ties to eight of the amici: funding, board seats, even awards.
The Kochs
Then the Koch network.
Charles Koch’s foundations and donor funds — Stand Together, DonorsTrust, Donors Capital — reach the largest share of the groups.
The 85 Fund
Then Leonard Leo.
Leo’s Concord Fund and 85 Fund bankroll another cluster of “independent” voices in the case.
Old money
And the industrial-era trusts.
The Scaife, Bradley and Searle fortunes — oil, manufacturing, chemicals — seeded these think tanks decades ago and still sustain them.
The feedback loop
One network, many masks.
Even coal billionaire Joe Craft and hedge-funder Paul Singer — whose fund held $3.4B of Suncor stock — turn up. A supposedly independent chorus, actually one coordinated network. Manufacturing Consent, but for the courts.
Now open the files.
Every organization behind the briefs, the money connecting them, and the arguments they’re making — documented below.
The case files↓
The case files
The Field Guide
The organizations behind the briefs, and the billionaire networks that fund them. Filter by backer to drill down, or open any file for its dossier.