After America First Energy Conference, Collegians ready to bring facts to campus

CFACT Collegians attendees meet with Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) after his address on energy production.

Less government, more freedom.

That was the message proclaimed at the Heartland Institute’s America First Energy Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. CFACT hosted an expert panel on radical greens’ funding, and also organized student attendees from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette (ULL), and Tulane University.

“I learned a lot about the benefits of fossil fuels in powering the country,” remarked Austin Lanclos, a junior at ULL. “I actually want to pursue a career in the energy industry, so this was an awesome opportunity to learn more and get engaged at a deeper level. I’m excited to take what I learned back to my campus.”

CFACT President Craig Rucker discusses the funding of the Green Left at a panel at Heartland’s America First Energy Conference.

The list of speakers and panelists consisted of an all-star cast of free market energy experts, elected representatives, and climate realists. Students heard from sitting congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana’s 3rd district, as well as California State Representative Melissa Melendez, Montana State Senator Jennifer Fielder, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. Dr. Roy Spencer, CFACT’s Marc Morano, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Myron Ebell also addressed the attendees. Finally, author and fossil fuels advocate Alex Epstein and Joe Balash, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management of the Department of the Interior gave the keynote addresses. A complete list of the speakers and videos of their speeches are available here.

Clear Energy Alliance’s Mark Mathis uses data from Marc Morano’s new book to expose the huge funding radical environmentalists receive.

CFACT’s panel, “Battling Russia and America’s ‘Big Green’ Machine” featured CFACT President Craig Rucker, policy adviser Bonner Cohen, Marc Morano, and Clear Energy Alliance’s Mark Mathis. Together, the group of experts unveiled a U.S. House Special Report that detailed how Russia had spent millions trying to generate opposition to fracking on social media, as well as fund radical environmentalists in the United States through shell companies. 

In addition, the panel showed the incredible funding that the Green Left receives not just from big business, but from big oil.

“Shell Oil gives over a billion to the Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund gets over $100 million from big business,” said CFACT President Craig Rucker.

Collegians talk about energy poverty with Derrick Hollie, president of Reaching America, an organization dedicated to discussing these issues with minority communities.

“Climate alarmists outspend skeptics 3,500 to 1,” explained Mark Mathis, using research from Marc Morano’s new book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change.

“The panel was really eye-opening,” said Adam Cannon, a grad student at ULL. “It showed the hypocrisy of a lot of these green groups out here, who bash capitalism and energy and then receive money from big business behind the scenes.”

The conference was an excellent opportunity for student leaders in Louisiana to arm themselves with facts prior to returning to campus for the 2018 fall semester. “From talking with the students, I can tell they learned a lot and are fired up,” said CFACT Associate Director of Collegians Graham Beduze. “They’re going to do some awesome things this semester.”