By Audrey Streb – DCNF Energy Reporter
A nonprofit organization bankrolled by numerous Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked entities advocated for a New York law that authorizes the state to charge energy companies billions for their roles in climate change.
The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) is a New York nonprofit that has received over $1.4 million in taxpayer funds since 2022, in addition to significant funding from Chinese government-linked sources in recent years, as the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported. The CPC supports New York’s climate superfund law, which would require energy companies to cough up $75 billion combined over time to fund green initiatives, in addition to a number of other bills and programs favored by Democrats, according to its website.
“The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) is not just another advocacy group, it’s a conduit for CCP-linked money and influence in the heart of our country. When you read ‘CPC,’ you should think ‘CCP,’” founder and CEO of State Armor Michael Lucci told the DCNF. “CPC has a long record of supporting malicious policies that run contrary to our interests. It should come as no surprise that the CPC supports New York’s massive climate slush fund, which would jack up energy costs while weakening America’s energy security.” (RELATED: New York Rolls Out ‘Shakedown’ Law Forcing Companies To Atone For Climate Change With Cash)
“This isn’t just bad policy — it’s Beijing’s playbook, operating through a range of front groups, proxies, and influence operations to undermine our sovereignty,” Lucci continued. “Every lawmaker who backs this scheme is playing into the hands of the CCP’s geopolitical strategy. If we’re serious about protecting national security and energy independence, we must treat CPC–backed initiatives as CCP-backed initiatives, which are always malicious influence operations against America.”
The CPC submitted written testimony for a January 2024 joint legislative public hearing on New York’s budget proposal advocating for the superfund law, and the group also characterized the bill’s failure to make it into the budget in April 2024 as a “shortcoming.”
Since 2018, the CPC has received up to $445,969 in donations from sources linked to the Chinese government, according to financial records previously reviewed by the DCNF. State-run corporations — including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Bank of China — have financially supported the CPC in recent years, records show.
The ICBC donated almost $20,000 to the nonprofit across 2018, 2019 and 2023, according to the CPC’s annual reports, and the Beijing-based and state-owned Bank of China gave as much as $9,999 in 2020 and up to that same amount in 2024 to the CPC, the nonprofit’s annual reports show.
The CPC has accepted funds from multiple other organizations that have ties to the CCP, the DCNF previously reported.
