Rolling Stone reports:

Leonard Leo, best known as the architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, is fueling an assault on efforts to preserve the environment and the planet. His dark money network has also been funding campaigns to dismantle the Endangered Species Act (ESA) — 50 years after it was established to protect plant and animal species at risk of extinction.

Since its passing, the ESA has been credited for saving 99 percent of its listed wildlife including bald eagles, peregrine falcons, grizzly bears, humpback whales, and numerous other species crucial to the U.S. and global ecosystem.

Despite the ESA’s success rate, Leo’s primary dark money hubs — the Concord Fund and the 85 Fund — funneled more than $2 million between 2020 to 2022 toward multiple climate denial groups that have targeted the ESA, arguing the protective act places unfair burdens on businesses, particularly in the logging, mining, and fossil fuel industries.

Of these groups, Americans for Limited Government (ALG), received $1.8 million from the Concord Fund. ALG has published countless articles slamming the scientific evidence educating the public on the causes of climate change. [Continue reading…]