Enemies of Energy: League of Conservation Voters (LCV)

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Enemies of Energy, a research report created for the Capital Research Center. The page for the full report is here: Enemies of Energy.

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The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is a national network of nonprofits and political committees that collectively behave as the political enforcement arm of the anti-energy movement.

An OpenSecrets “Environment Summary” credits LCV-affiliated political groups with contributing $50.2 million during the 2024 federal election cycle, all of it going to “liberal groups” or Democrats. The LCV was by far the biggest political spender on this list, dwarfing committees affiliated with other anti-energy movements such as the Environmental Defense Fund ($17.3 million), the Natural Resources Defense Council ($7.1 million),  Tom Steyer’s NextGen network ($5.2 million), Environment America ($4.4 million), Greenpeace ($1.5 million) and the Al Gore-founded Climate Reality Project ($892,537). In a similar ranking for the “Energy/Natural Resources Sector,” OpenSecrets credited energy behemoth Koch Industries as the biggest spender for the 2024 election cycle, but with $47.8 million—or $2 million less than the LCV. [i] [ii]

Like the Sierra Club, the LCV’s corporate mothership is a 501(c)(4) advocacy nonprofit (though it is affiliated with a 501(c)(3) educational, tax-exempt nonprofit—the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund). But while the subject tabs across the Sierra website’s masthead are “About Us,” “Explore Issues,” “Get Involved,” “Get Outside,” and “Ways to Give,” the LCV masthead has these options: “Advancing Policy,” “Building Grassroots Power,” “Congressional Scorecard,” and … most revealing … “Winning Elections” [emphasis added]. [iii]

In March 2024, LCV announced it would spend $120 million influencing 2024 election outcomes. This is more than triple the total revenue for all projects reported by Greenpeace in 2024.[iv] [v]

In their 2024 IRS filing, the League of Conservation Voters reported revenue of $159.3 million and net assets of $29.7 million. This was LCV’s most successful financial year ever. In fact, for the two previous years combined LCV reported a cumulative revenue total of just $136.4 million. And as recently as 2011 LCV reported annual revenue of only $11.6 million.[vi]

There are also 30 state-level affiliate LCV groups, many of them 501(c)(3) tax exempt educational nonprofits that are funded (at least in part) by the LCV and the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund (LCVEF). As an example, in its 2024 IRS filing the LCVEF reported a grant of more than $2.8 million to the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters Foundation. [vii] [viii]

Taken as a whole, LCV’s dozens of political committees, nonprofits, and state affiliates are arguably America’s largest anti-energy political movement. The website for the LCV Victory Fund (a political committee) claims the following results from the 2024 election: 147 federal candidates elected, 819 state and local candidates elected, 2.2 million phone calls made, 6 million mail pieces shipped out, and 3.6 million doors knocked. [ix]

“Climate change is the greatest challenge of our generation,” claims the LCV website, without equivocation or mention of competing threats to human flourishing. The LCV agenda is so comprehensively opposed to hydrocarbon fuels that they list “job placements for displaced workers from the fossil fuel industry” as one of their policy objectives. [x]

Relatedly, with their “Clean Energy for All” program LCV promotes state-level ballot initiatives that impose weather-restricted power mandates and supports local candidates who agree. The NGO boasts that these efforts have led to 40 percent of the American population living under these anti-energy restrictions. ^[xi]

Finally, no opposition to energy would be complete without opposition to nuclear power, the only reliable, safe, clean, and limitlessly scalable source of emissions-free energy option we have. Not coincidentally, even after decades of taxpayer subsidies for the weather restricted energy options promoted by the LCV (wind and solar), nuclear power is still America’s largest source of emissions-free electricity. [xii]

In November 2020, the LCV’s legislative director co-signed a statement to the U.S. Senate opposing the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020. Signed by more than 100 other anti-energy activists, the letter disingenuously claimed that nuclear power “amplifies and expands the dangers of climate change” and creates “an immense environmental hazard for which there is no solution.” ^[xiii]

That message has since been amplified by the LCV’s state-level affiliates.

In April 2023 the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters denounced a proposal in the state legislature that would have permitted nuclear power to be added alongside solar and wind power as a source of “clean” energy within the state’s carbon reduction goals.  The statement characterized a “nuclear-powered future” as a “poisonous pipe dream.” [xiv]

And in July 2024, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) for supporting a plan to revive the recently closed Palisades nuclear power station. Michigan LCV claimed the money spent reopening the plant should have been used to subsidize wind and solar energy. [xv]

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Palisades nuclear facility alone provided more than 7 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity in 2021, the plant’s final full year of operation. For comparison, every wind turbine and solar panel in Michigan combined produced 8.3 million MWh in 2021. [xvi] [xvii]

PDF hyperlink to full report

Endnotes

[i] Environment Summary: 2024. OpenSecrets. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?cycle=2024&ind=Q11

[ii] Energy/Natural Resources Sector Summary: 2024. OpenSecrets. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?cycle=2024&ind=E

[iii] League of Conservation Voters. Home page. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.lcv.org/

Sierra Club. Home page.  Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.sierraclub.org/

[iv] Frazin, Rachel. “Climate organization puts $120M into 2024 election.” The Hill. March 19, 2024. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4542873-climate-org-puts-money-2024-election/

[v] Greenpeace Inc. (EIN: 52-1541501). 2024 IRS Form 990. Covering year ending December 2024. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521541501/202543179349305154/full

[vi] League Of Conservation Voters Inc. (EIN: 52-1733698). ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521733698

[vii] League Of Conservation Voters Education Fund. (EIN: 52-1379661). 2024 IRS Form 990. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/521379661/202523149349300537/full

[viii] Conservation Voters Movement: Building Power In The States. League of Conservation Voters. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.lcv.org/building-power-in-the-states/

[ix] “Who We Are.” LCV Victory Fund. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.lcvvictoryfund.org/our-impact/

[x] “Climate Change.” League of Conservation Voters. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.lcv.org/issues/climate-change/

[xi] Clean Energy for All. League of Conservation Voters. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.lcv.org/programs/clean-energy-for-all/

[xii] “Electricity explained.” Energy Information Administration | U.S. Department of Energy. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/

[xiii] “Dear Chairman Barrasso, Ranking Member Carper, and Members of the Committee.” November 30, 2020. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://foe.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sign-on_S4897_OPPOSE_119-orgs-3.pdf

[xiv] “A “Clean” Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.” North Carolina League of Conservation Voters. April 24, 2023. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://nclcv.org/cib0424-2023-nuclear/

[xv] “Approved $150 Million in Additional Funding for Palisades Nuclear Plant – Weight 3.” Michigan League of Conservation Voters. July 24, 2024. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.michiganlcv.org/decision/approved-150-million-in-additional-funding-for-palisades-nuclear-plant/

[xvi] Electricity Data Browser: Palisades, annual. U.S. Energy Information Administration | U.S. Department of Energy. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/plant/1715/?freq=A&pin=

[xvii] Electricity Data Browser: Net generation for all sectors, annual | Michigan. U.S. Energy Information Administration | U.S. Department of Energy. Accessed February 17, 2026. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/0?agg=2,0,1&fuel=08c7&geo=00004&sec=g&linechart=ELEC.GEN.NUC-MI-99.A&columnchart=ELEC.GEN.NUC-MI-99.A&map=ELEC.GEN.NUC-MI-99.A&freq=A&ctype=linechart&ltype=pin&rtype=s&pin=&rse=0&maptype=0

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/enemies-of-energy-league-of-conservation-voters-lcv/