R.I.P. AUBREY MCCLENDON: “McClendon may have had one other lasting legacy: he helped hasten the collapse of the coal industry in the United States. Between 2007 and 2012, McClendon and his associates contributed around $26 million to the Sierra Club to oppose the building of new coal-fired power plants. McClendon’s motivations were hardly pure; he knew that preventing new coal plants meant more demand for his company’s product, natural gas. And the contributions led to a scandal for the environmental group, whose well-funded ‘Beyond Coal’ campaign has been instrumental in not only preventing new plants, but also shutting down aging ones.”

Going all the way back to environmentalism’s Storm King beginnings, environmentalists have always been tools of the rich.