Nathaniel Simons: Advocates Environmental Austerity While Living A Lavish Lifestyle
Nathaniel Simons might not be as well known as Tom Steyer, but they are both listed among a handful of billionaires that have made major financial donations to environmental groups and organizations promoting “green” energy sources, Fortune magazine reported recently in an article titled “Billionaires versus big oil.” They believe investing significant money in green energy now will be profitable tomorrow. But some of them, such as Simons, advocate environmental austerity while living a lavish lifestyle themselves.
Simons leads a hedge fund management company, the Meritage Group, located one block from the Port of San Francisco. He commutes to that office every morning from Berkeley, California, on a 54-foot yacht called the Elan that is equipped with two 775-horsepower engines, the Washington Free Beacon reports. The Elan is featured in the photo above. The article even shows a map depicting Simons’ daily commute from Berkeley to the Port of San Francisco and back, which he takes via the Elan.
Simons donated more than $300,000 to political campaigns during the 2014 election cycle, and other than $2,600 given each to Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the rest of the money was donated to Democrats. He has also donated large sums of money to organizations supporting environmental issues and other progressive left-leaning causes.
“He and his wife Laura run the Sea Change Foundation, which used its $134 million in assets last year to bankroll groups including the Center for American Progress, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resource Defense Council, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Energy Foundation,” the Washington Free Beacon reports.
As Ryan Houck said in his video that was seen by millions on YouTube, titled ““If I Wanted America to Fail,” about environmentalist activists like Simons and Tom Steyer, “I would celebrate those who preach environmental austerity in public while indulging a lavish lifestyle in private.”
As Simons advocate green energy investment and development, through the political agenda he supports and donates substantially to, his hedge fund company invests money in the very same companies developing green energy.
“As Simons’ firm has invested in cleantech firms, he has promoted increased federal involvement in the energy sector. Policies advanced by Simons and the Sea Change Foundation, which he runs with his wife Laura, would benefit green energy companies such as those backed by Prelude,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. “The firm’s website lists 12 companies in its portfolio. Seven of them have received federal grants, loans, contracts, or other government assistance since 2009, when Prelude was founded. Prelude-backed solar cell manufacturing firm Suniva was awarded a $141 million stimulus-funded Department of Energy loan guarantee in 2010.”
Simons also supported Barack Obama for president, donating the maximum allowed in both campaigns and making additional donations to Democratic Party groups.
“Simons has worked through political channels to raise the price of American energy. He was heavily active in promoting a cap and trade scheme when it was under consideration in Congress in 2009,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. “Simons’ Sea Change Foundation was one of five left-wing foundations that ‘invested substantially in pursuing a cap-and-trade policy,’ according to a report on environmental advocacy commissioned by the liberal Rockefeller Family Fund.”
On top of that, as the Washington Free Beacon reports in another article, a company based in Bermuda that has in the past donated large sums of money to environmental groups associated with Simons is run by executives who have “ties to Russian oil interests and offshore money laundering schemes involving members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.”
One of the major players in financing many of the leading environmental groups is the Sea Change Foundation, which is run by Simons, who is the president of the group. Sea Change is the sixth largest donor to environmental causes, and it has given more than $43 million in grants to green organizations.
A Senate report noted that Sea Change’s opposition to fossil fuels is aligned with Simons’ business interests in green energy, adding, “In 2010, Sea Change contributed $10,933,332 in grants to environmental organizations to “reduce reliance on high carbon energy.” The next year, 2011, Sea Change allocated nearly $10 million in grants for the same purpose. Thus, in 2010-2011, this one private foundation, which receives over 30% of its funding from a foreign overseas company, actively seeking to hide the source of its funding, contributed over $20 million dollars to fight domestic fossil energy production.”
Simons commuting to the office via his “gas guzzling yacht,” as they call the Elan, is reported by Jewish Business News, who also noted that “Simons has a net worth of $12.5 billion, and it seems that someone who donates as much as he does to green causes would find a more environmentally friendly way to get to work.”
Maybe he has recently seen fit to do just that — the Washington Free Beacon reports the Elan is currently for sale, and he’s asking $850,000 for it. Does anyone want to bet that Simons is going to get a bicycle to commute to his office?
