Sure looks like it. But, don’t shed any tears for the Sierra Club!
Why do we care?
The story is that David Gelbaum, also a big donor to the ACLU, was the man behind the Sierra Club’s decision years ago to take no stand on illegal immigration when it is clear to anyone with half a brain that millions of immigrants flooding America will have a negative impact on air, water, open space and just the general quality of life American’s enjoy.
For those ambitious readers interested in the twists and turns of Leftwing environmentalist’s strategy and their leaders, including Van Jones and Carl Pope, the Apollo Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council,unions and big business funders such as Gelbaum and how they have teamed up to open America’s borders, see my earlier posts here, here(Gelbaum featured in this post), here and here.
From the Wall Street Journal today, hat tip Janet Levy.
David Gelbaum, a major donor to the Sierra Club Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and an organization that provides services to military personnel, said he would cut donations next year because investments in alternative-energy firms have “placed me in a highly illiquid position.”
Mr. Gelbaum said in a letter released Wednesday by the ACLU that he had donated about $389 million to the three groups from 2005 to 2009.
[….]
Mr. Gelbaum, a major donor to the Democratic Party, didn’t identify the clean-energy investments, but Quercus Trust, the fund that Mr. Gelbaum runs, was down almost 57% over the 18 months to late November, according to PlacementTracker.
The Sierra Club Foundation received $47.7 million from Mr. Gelbaum from 2005 through 2009, according to the letter. The ACLU received $94 million over the same period.
VDARE posted this yesterday and I expect Brenda Walker, an expert on the internal Sierra Club policy battles of the last decade, is working on something.
Classic case of schadenfreude for me!
Update: Brenda Walker sends us links to articles she wrote previously on Gelbaum. The article begins:
Just what is the cost to buy off the Sierra Club—once the most respected environmental organization in America?
A low nine figure sum does the job according to the Los Angeles Times in its story last fall about David Gelbaum, one of the key funders of the 112-year-old environmental organization. [ “The Man Behind the Land” by Kenneth R. Weiss, Oct. 17, 2004]