by Craig Richardson, President

The Daily Caller published an article yesterday that covered a memo showing Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalists, had a deep involvement in the attacks on ExxonMobil, despite the billionaire’s assertions to the contrary.

The new memo indicates members of Fahr LLC, Next Gen, and TomKat Foundation met in November 2015 to discuss ways to “maintain pressure on the fossil fuel industry to accelerate transition to clean energy,” which Steyer is heavily invested in. In fact, Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, put up nearly $175 million to start TomKat in 2008. Since that initial cash infusion, most of TomKat’s revenue has been investment income—more than $72 million, compared with just $2 million in contributions to the group.

According to the memo, the individuals discussed tactics to “weaken the political influence of the oil industry by leveraging the ExxonMobil investigation.” On November 5, 2015, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman opened an investigation into ExxonMobil, claiming the company had created a decades-long campaign to obscure knowledge of climate change.

Specifically, the memo stated that a key result of the discussion was “engaging with city attorneys” about opening investigations into ExxonMobil and seeking the “funding needed to develop [the] case.” The meeting also discussed tactics to “target Exxon management.”

In November 9, 2015, Erin Suhr, Steyer’s scheduler who was in the meeting with Fahr LLC, Next Gen, and TomKat Foundation, is on email communications with Eric Schneiderman’s staff. The subject of the email is “Following up on conversation re: company specific climate change information.” This correspondence was obtained in a previous open records request by E&E Legal, a nonprofit focused on energy and environmental legal issues.

Tom Steyer has publicly distanced himself from the lawsuits against the energy companies, that his network of political and policy groups is not pressing for government investigations into oil company ExxonMobil. “We’re definitely not pushing this thing,” Steyer said, according to Politico, when asked about his communications with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has led efforts to bring fraud and racketeering charges against the company. “We are not part of this effort,” Steyer added.

It appears that Tom Steyer has been caught again.